Contributed by Carolyn Acker, Infusion Marketing Supervisor

Look, no matter how long you’ve been a small business owner–there is always something you can be doing better. Too often small business owners get caught up in running the daily gauntlet. They forget to invest in growing and improving their businesses. That’s why conferences, like the Small Business Summit 2008 which I attended last weekend, are such powerful tools for breaking out of the same old rut.

As I left the conference Monday night my mind was spinning. What an amazing opportunity to be part of the true small business community! I don’t see how anybody can walk away from a conference like that uninspired. I left my hotel anxious to start incorporating the dozens of tips “successful” small business owners were more than happy to dish out to their peers.

Here are just a few of the ideas I left the conference with:

Ramon Ray, editor of Smallbiztechnology.com and author of Technology Solutions for Growing Businesses, spoke about:

- Email is not CRM
- TECHNOLOGY IS AN INVESTMENT not a cost
- Web 2.0 is no joke
- Outsource if you don’t know how to do it
- Don’t Technologize a Bad Business Process
- Mobility is Critical

Anita Campbell CEO of Small Business Trends, LLC, ran a panel discussion that included tips on:

- How to grow your business
- Choosing the right employee
- What to do after you get funding
- Creating a positive business culture

Brent Leary of CRM Essentials LLC had insightful tips on the growth of small business.

The real excitement of entrepreneurship is not in the daily grind of managing a business. It is the potential of the business, waiting to be unleashed. It is in realizing possibilities and incorporating them. The real excitement comes from watching a simple idea transform into greater profits. It is in feeling that YOU can take on the world and conquer it. And, if you no longer feel that way…it’s time to attend the next small business conference. (There’s nothing quite like 400 small business owners in one little room to bring out the entrepreneur in you!)

I’ve talked with thousands of entrepreneurs. Some very successful and some not-so-successful. This morning I was thinking about the not-so-successfuls and I realized they could be bucketed into two groups: those with the Big Idea Syndrome and those with Analysis Paralysis.

With all due respect to Donny Deutsch’s The Big Idea (love his show), the big idea isn’t worth jack. It’s all about the execution. But those who suffer from the Big Idea Syndrome jump into idea after idea, full of excitement and ambition, only to fall flat because they fail to realize success comes from execution, not the idea.

On the other end of the spectrum are the entrepreneurs who are too afraid to act. They think, analyze and talk till they’re blue in the face, but they don’t take action. Their paralysis keeps them in their cushy corporate job or in the comfort zone of their modest small business. They’re paralyzed and unable to jump in and act.

I think the key for successful entrepreneurship is to be in the middle of the spectrum: act on the idea (almost any idea will do), but realize that execution is the key.