Welcome to this week’s Wednesday Wisdom, back after a short break due to the site re-design.  This is where we share great articles, from around the web, you can action right now to grow your business.

In just over a week’s time another year will end. For many business the ending of this year won’t be mourned thanks to the difficult economic conditions we are facing.  Having said that, there’s opportunities everywhere, but they are just harder to find.

Which is why it is important as an entrepreneur, to educate yourself as much as possible, so that you are best placed to take advantage of opportunities when they present themselves.

So, sit back, grab a coffee, paper and pen, take lots of notes and get ready to grow your business.

Here’s what we’ve found this week:

1.  A short article by Rachel Hartman explain how you can Grow Your Business While on the Road by making and building  relationships.

2. Johnny B. Truant in his usual hilarious and entertaining style tells it like it is on CopyBlogger telling us
How to Find the Gold in Your Business by focusing on ‘small and engaged’ readers rather than ‘big and vaguely interested’. Absolutely right. Its not visitors that are the important to your website or store, it’s the number of people who convert to buy something or sign up. You want as many of those interested people as possible.

3. Most businesses worry about getting new customers. But getting  new customers is expensive – costing 6-7 times more to acquire a new customer than to service an existing one.  Which is why Nic Windley’s article How To Sell More Without New Customers, has some really useful advice. Nic explains some useful tactics for growing your business through multi-buys and up-sells.

4. The Importance of Staying Power  by Ryan M. Healy, talks about persistence as the key to business success rather than simply being the best or the brightest. 

5. Dave Siteman Garland from Risetothetop.com, a site with interviews with some of the biggest thought leaders on the planet,  shares his secrets on connecting with and building relationships with the most influential people in the world . His tactics have helped him connect with and build relationships with over 275 people including Tim Ferriss, Seth Godin and Tony Hsieh (Zappos.com). Whilst you’re on the site, you might want to share spend some time and listen to the really interesting video interviews he has there too.

6. Yes I know I said 5 articles to Grow Your Business in the Title, but I wanted to give you something a ‘little extra’ – after all it’s Christmas this week!  The ‘bonus extra’ is Adrian Swinscoe’s thoughts on a webinar hosted by the institute of customer service titled Why Cruise Holidays and Social Media are Made for each other. In case you’re thinking that running a cruise business has nothing to do with your business, you’re wrong. Adrian shares some top tips for interacting with social media and dealing with complains. Well worth checking out.

Thank you for reading, commenting and subscribing to The Big Red Tomato Company each week and sharing your thoughts and ideas. I hope you’re getting a lot out of it and that the tips are really helping grow your business.

So, what about you? What have you found this week which has helped you with your business?