Imagine the number of people who have put “lose weight” on their personal resolution list to do this year, last year or the year before. Now imagine, the number of business owners who have put “grow my business” on that same type of list. Both business and personal resolutions fail because they are not focused or are too broad. Here are 5 specific and measurable ways you can use free tools today to grow your business:

1. Increase your website traffic – use RSS Feeds

Keep your customers coming to your website with fresh content. RSS Feeds solves a problem for people who want to keep their website fresh with out the maintenance issues of spending hours updating the site or contracting a webmaster to complete routine updates.

2. Become the expert – start blogging

Establish your credibility in your market. Blogging will make it easier for your business to be found by your customers as well as others in the industry. High quality content will cause newspapers, magazines, and other websites to link to your blog. As an expert you may be invited to speak at conferences, workshops and seminars.

3. Track your customers – use Google Analytics

Know who your customers are, where they are visiting from and what pages they view on your website. Google Analytics makes it easy to improve your results online. With this information you will write better content, strengthen your marketing initiatives, and turn visitors into customers.

4. Save money on conference calls – use FreeConference.com

Reduce or eliminate the expensive of hosting conference calls. When using toll-free numbers the conference organizer will (usually) pay a per minute rate for each participant in the conference. With Free Conference long distance rates are charged to each individual conference participant’s by their long distance carrier. Conference calls take place on regular telephone lines and no computer or Internet access is required.

5. Sell your products or services online – use Paypal

Increase your revenue while you sleep. Let your customers pay for your products or services online, anytime, anywhere. According to Paypal small-to-medium-sized businesses that use their service get an average sales lift of 14%. There are no monthly fees, set-up fees or cancellation fees; however there are (small) per transaction fees.

By creating specific and measurable goals for your business this year doesn’t have to be like previous years. Implementing these free tools today will make 2008 the year you succeed in accomplishing your business resolution.

Copyright © 2010 Rising Star Ideas, LLC. All Rights Reserved

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Emerging business tools resource Tonya R. Taylor helps small business owners save time and money with social media and other FREE or low cost online tools. If you liked today's issue, you'll love Tonya's workshops, seminars and training products that BOOST profits and productivity. Click here to learn more about what's in Tonya's toolbox.

Feel free to reprint this article on your website, blog or in newsletter, just include all information including the About The Author and copyright.

If you liked today's article check out these related articles:

1. Entrepreneurs: Why use FREE tools to grow your business? (Hint: Its not what you think)
2. 2010 Business Resolution: Save money – use free tools
3. 3 tools to help your small business get paid faster