The key to starting a business is staying focused.

Know what you want to do, know why you want to do it, and have a plan for doing it very well. These three deceivingly simple concepts will unlock barriers to funding, infrastructure and - most importantly - customers.

So let’s say you get it right, right? You do your homework, line up the partners and get things off the ground. Your find a market niche, and it responds favorably. Profits! Growth! Success!

Now comes the hardest part: sustaining your good fortune. Also known as growing your business. Focus is critical to getting things off the ground, but it is absolutely essential to keeping them there. Without focus, there can be no growth.

Perhaps the best, recent real world example? Italy’s World Cup win. Italy and France were evenly matched, but the French team leader’s unsportsmanlike conduct was a shocking example of how quickly a moment’s lack of focus and loss of perspective can destroy years and years of hard work.

Curious also that Google, of all businesses, should be taking heat for its perceived lack of focus. Just goes to show that even vaunted and seemingly faultless Google is not immune to potential consequences of taking an eye off the prize. Still, Google is amazing at what it does, and better than many others at their core businesses. Case in point, “google” is officially a verb.

Not long ago Google was on no one’s radar screen, but the internet economy has hyper-accelerated business evolution. Remember when eBay was the poster child of business success, and the media darling of all? Things change quickly at the speed of broadband - suddenly eBay is pulling down some seriously negative publicity. Some of the reasons why? Executive shakeups, and the $2+billion purchase of Skype.

Of course, being focused isn’t the same as putting on blinders. Amazon has held on to its decade-old model of subscription based email for, oh, about 5-years too long, meaning tough times lie ahead for the seminal web company and smart decisions need to be made, and quickly.

The moral of the blog? Staying focused doesn’t mean getting lazy. It means doing what you do better than anyone else, and making sure you stay that way. The iPod® wasn’t the first MP3 player, but it is now 75% of all MP3 players.

That kind of success doesn’t happen without vigilant focus, and lots of it.

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iPod® is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc.

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Running a business can be like riding a roller coaster. By yourself. At night. With no lights.

On the one hand, exhilarating. On the other, terrifying.

The point being that while often a thrill-a-minute, succeeding at business means thinking ahead of the curve, and being able to handle the peaks and valleys that get thrown you way just to make things interesting and help ensure that you haven’t stopped hyerpventilating.

Which is almost certainly how the top brass at Coke reacted this week when they found out that their secret formula was not only stolen, but offered to arch-competitor Pepsi.

But what did Pepsi do? Why, what any self-respecting business would do…the honorable thing. They refused to traffic in stolen goods, and notified their #1 rival Coke about the security breach.

And perhaps the best business-related quote of the week - maybe the year? - came from Pepsi Spokesman Dave DeCecco: “We just did what any responsible company would do. Competition can be fierce, but it also needs to be fair.”

Which brings us back to the exhilirating part of the Free Market roller coaster ride. Few things are more satisfying in business - and in life - than healthy competition. Measuring oneself against others, certainly, is the truest test of the power of one’s ideas, and one of the most rewarding activities known.

It’s when the business landscape reveals itself as unfairly tilted in someone else’s favor - and it effects your bottom line - that the valley turns to peak and exhiliration turns to terror. Because when others cheat, everyone loses.

Take the Tour de France, for instance. Just last week, some of the top competitors in the sport were kicked out of this year’s Tour after it was discovered that they may have used illegal, performance-enhancing drugs. Fortunately, the business of sport recognizes the importance of preserving healthy, fair competition.

Which, by contrast, is exactly what it seems like we had on July 4th for the International Hot Dog Eating Contest on Coney Island in New York. Many entered, but only one could win. And 53 3/4 hot dogs later, he did – for the 6th time in a row!

Not sure if the sponsoring hot dog company is offering any kind of reward for their champ, but I can imagine sales are way up for hot dogs as a result of the competition. So there has to be an angle here for Frequent Flier Miles/rewards, right? Turns out they are giving away everything else for miles programs these days - all part of being creative in business.

But hot dogs might very well be the only product not yet included in the airline rewards program.

I said “might.”

Hot dogs and airplanes…starting to remind me of that exhilarating/terrifying roller coaster ride again.

Back to work!

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GrowMyBusiness: THE #1 destination for starting, managing and growing your business. Visit www.GrowMyBusiness.com.

This is the week we celebrate America’s Independence! Of course, that means traditions of fireworks, hot dogs, baseball, apple pie…in other words, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

The Fourth is also an excellent reminder to take stock of what it truly means to be a small business owner in America. After all, independence is a big reason many small business owners do what they do.

There’s something to be said for being one’s own boss, and getting the job done the right way the first time. But, when you’re your own boss, that often times means you’re someone else’s boss, too. Are you the kind of boss you’d want to work for?

For instance, how would you react if one of your staff showed up wearing flip-flops tomorrow? Come on, don’t come down too hard. It’s a short week.

Something else to celebrate this Fourth, and a rare occurence at that: the Space Shuttle is rescheduled for an Independence Day launch.

The shuttle program has not been without its share of major challenges, yet this massive test of innovative and collaborative genius remains an inspiration to all. (On that note, so does anything that figures out how to make a better cubicle.) 1776 wasn’t all that long ago, but I can’t imagine the Founding Fathers could ever fathom that we’d be jetting off into space just a few generations later.

Also hard to believe that they could anticipate the global phenomenon of World Cup Soccer! I know a local fishmonger - a Frenchman - who is particularly ecstatic that France is still in the running. It is with no small amount of selfishness that I hope they can clinch victory again as they first did in 1998 - mainly because I recall the week-long celebration sale he held last time.

And, actually, it is somewhat fitting that France gets a nod at July 4th. After all, the French played no small part in helping us acheive Independence in the first place.

So, here’s to being independent, celebrating that Independence, and to the defenders of truth, justice and the American Way that got as all here in the first place.

Have a Happy Fourth, and keep up the Good Business.

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For insider tips and tricks on starting, managing and growing a small business, check out GrowMyBusiness: THE home for Small Business.

Small business costs are no laughing matter. And when Big Business threatens to push them even higher, humor is definitely the last thing on anyone’s mind.

For instance, gas prices are up…way up! Aside from the blatant, this is creating some less obvious costs for businesses, too. But when disasters strike, what can you do? The infrastructure takes a hit, supply is reduced, and even if demand stays flat, costs increase.

It’s simple economics, but that’s cold comfort when you’re a small business trying to make a go of it.

Still, there’s only so much that can be done to prepare for natural disasters, and topping no one’s priority list is “saving money for gas in case pump prices go up.”

A potential disaster that everyone can anticipate – and hopefully prevent – is the scary reality that “Net Neutrality” might come to pass. Let’s hope not.

Want to talk about business costs going up, up, up?? If the cable/telecom companies get their way on Capitol Hill, it’s going to get a lot more expensive for everyone – including small business owners – to do business online.

Which is directly counter to what makes doing business online so attractive in the first place. The web drives down overhead costs, drives down inefficiencies, drives up marketability, drives up sales.

Oh, and, this just in…it’s still not free.

The upsetting part of the debate, seeming to get lost, is that technology already comes with a price, and it’s not a small one. The businesses that grant us access to all of the online tools we rely upon so much are getting paid for this service.

Want to do good business? Keep your customers happy. Make sure you are getting paid, obviously. But if you have any kind of long range plan in mind at all, make sure that you balance your profits with your customers, not at their expense.

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Let’s face it: Business is tough.

But it’s supposed to be. Sure, figuring out your business plan, determining whether or not to hire an accountant or PR firm, sourcing suppliers and vendors, remodeling (online and off), managing staff and figuring out some way to afford advertising - all while creating a work-life balance – are difficult things to do.

And Grow My Business offers ideas and advice on how to master this process.

Still…there’s tough, and then there’s tough.

The truly tough part of business, and business success, is knowing when to do the “right” thing. And not just knowing when to do it, but doing it, despite the risk or costs.

Exhibit A: Google China, anyone?

In exchange for the ability to offer its service in China, Google infamously agreed to the Chinese Government’s demands that Google self censor its content. Which is, of course, pretty much counter to the entire point of Google’s service in the first place, right?

But they went ahead with it, much controversy ensued, as did lots and lots of public disfavor, and…Senate hearings!

And now, after all the headaches, all the hassles and all the bad PR, Google cofounder Sergey Brin stated that complying with China’s censorship demands for Google China may not have been such a great idea after all.

So how did Google – whose rally cry is “Do no evil,” – ever decide that compromising its service was OK in the first place? It’s not like Google needed the money, or the exposure. How about justifying it on the basis of needing to be forward-thinking? After all, every business needs to be forward thinking, right?

Not at the expense of core values. Not at the expense of mission. Not at the expense of inspiration.

It’s not hard to make the right decision when there’s nothing to lose, but compromise can look more palatable with a little extra sugar.

The trick to really, truly truly succeeding in small business is doing it on your own terms, and making sure that you can live with the tough decisions in the long term.

Why would you want to do it any other way? After all, it’s your small business, right?

Actually, maybe doing the right thing isn’t so tough after all.

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