Many small-business owners want to grow their companies, and they want to do it fast. But if you rush into expandsion without a plan, you risk losing everything you’ve worked so hard to build. Take Wise Acre Frozen Treats, which hired too many employees and bought too much equipment before they had the revenue or startup capital they needed; the company went bankrupt in just a few years. 

In this video, Entrepreneur Network partner Eric Siu offers a few tips on how to make your website rank on Google. Focus on both the design aspect of your site and the power of your company's brand.

From productivity to company morale, here are the many benefits of delegating responsibility.

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: You need to delegate if you want to be a more effective leader.

As a digital marketer, I often rub shoulders with e-commerce tacticians lining up the next growth hack designed to undercut the competition and win the customer’s sale. Indeed, e-commerce is an intensely competitive space, where online advertising is auctioned to the highest bidder and conversion optimization is studied strenuously. As a consumer, we have unprecedented access to a global catalogue, complemented by powerful algorithms guaranteeing we only pay the cheapest price. With cut-throat competition and acute price sensitivity, a race to the bottom is in full swing, and I couldn't help but consider the effect on brick-and-mortar businesses. Consequently, I decided to investigate how entrepreneurs running physical stores are staying in the fight. 

How’s this for mad science: Within the next 15 years, people could elect to have their brains “zapped” to boost creativity in the workplace or classroom.

The process -- based on functional MRI studies -- is headed up by Adam Green, director of the Georgetown Laboratory for Relational Cognition and president-elect of the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity. Green’s team looked at blood flow as a measure of brain cell activity when people were doing creative tasks. The process pointed them to one region of the brain in particular (the frontopolar cortex), so they decided to test whether stimulating the area could make creative thinking easier.

Promotional-only social media, paper-based marketing and poorly produced videos are on the "no-no" list. And who can forget that "Domino's Forever" campaign?

Marketing is complex. With seemingly endless techniques, how do you reach and resonate with your audience? First things first: You need to know what you shouldn’t do. Last year, “Domino’s Forever” was a campaign created by a Russian Domino’s franchise.

Meetings are indispensable, except when they are a complete waste of everyone's time.

Last September, more than 70 employees from Honey Stinger – a sports nutrition brand that makes honey-based products – and its sister companies finished a 740-mile trek.

The simple answer is, we don’t trust salespeople. We love buying things, but we hate being sold to!  When was the last time you met a salesperson who you truly believed was putting your needs ahead of his or her own financial interest?  

As an entrepreneur, you may see a serious dilemma here. To be successful, you have to constantly sell: to customers, investors, strategic partners, employees and new hires. En route, you must figure out how to help each of these constituents embrace your vision, products and business model -- but not come across as “sales-y” in the process.

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We all know the importance of setting goals -- they hold you accountable, tell you what you truly want and help propel you forward. Whether we strive to get started on that new project, spend more time at home, launch a new product or want to lose weight, many of us simply state our goals but fail to set deadlines and track our progress toward achieving them.

You'd be astounded at the number of clients I meet with who literally know nothing about their partner’s background, their approach to business, and their vision for the partnership. They rush into the relationship so quickly that they don’t even gather this fundamental knowledge about their partner.

Here are some issues to consider before you ink any partnership deal:

Money, market, speed and fatigue are all factors that can undo the best business idea.

I love first-time founders. They’re true believers focused on creating a better future powered by better ideas. They're ready to start a business, possessed with the passion and the grit to enter the arena and do battle with the specters of failure and loss.

Most Gen Zers have never known life without the internet; they can smell inauthenticity a mile away. So polish up your customer relationships.

Relationship marketing marks the re-emergence of human friendliness in our sometimes-cold, digital world. As it turns out, robots are not the ones buying products and services from us … it’s still people!

Naming your business is one of the most important decisions you will make on your road to success.

Here are three common missteps entrepreneurs make when naming their business. Too many cooks. Do not let too many people weigh in. It can become overwhelming and not productive. Choose a select group to help you brainstorm and bounce around ideas. Make sure it is a diversified group so you don't have too many of the same ideas.

There are many aspects to founding a successful business, and a foundation based on “business” (which is highly subjective) is just one of them.  Think you need an MBA in order to be a successful entrepreneur? Think again.

Founders share their tips and tricks for staying sane (and productive).

“Google calendars truly are amazing -- we block out hours on them to create the free time and head space we need as cofounders. From ‘No-Plans Wednesday’ nights to daily lunch and work blocks, we use organization to create balance. Also, did you know that Slack has a snooze feature?

You have to start with being brutally honest with yourself. It’s important that you make a brutally honest and thorough assessment of yourself -- you need to see your talents and shortcomings as clearly as possible and understand what works best for you in reaching your goals.

Next, commit to a schedule. Set a schedule you can commit to. This will give you a game plan you can follow and a way to evaluate if you’re consistently and persistently working toward your goals.

Most small business owners today know that they need a website. But what many fail to realize is that their websites need to be more effective.  So, you've managed to attract potential customers to your website. Now, what do you want them to do?

For smaller businesses facing off with larger rivals, your counter strategies spring from your value proposition and company culture.

Setting boundaries is the key to keeping your calendar under control.

You may not realize it, but your calendar habits can make or break your success and your productivity. That’s because without proper calendar management you aren’t able to be as focused and productive as you should be.

With that in mind, here are eight ways that you can own your calendar like a boss.

Here are seven characteristics of a great networker.

Networking is about building mutually beneficial business relationships. So what makes someone a great networker?

Being a good listener, having a positive attitude, helping others, being sincere, following up, being trustworthy and being approachable are the seven characteristics of a great networker.

Each of these characteristics tie into the notion of farming not hunting.

Don't do these 5 things if you want to run a smooth, successful, profitable small business.  Lessons from those who have been there and surprisingly made it out alive.

Facebook, it's been a rough week for this one time TOP social company.  From top executives leaving, network outages and the tragic LIVE broadcast of the New Zealand terrorist attacks, it's no wonder this media giant is floundering.