Did you know that a survey of small business owners found that about 50% only take major holidays off—or that many take NO DAYS OFF AT ALL? Here are 6 great reasons that you should take at least one vacation each year:

1. Relieve stress. Studies show that you can feel the effects of lower stress up to five weeks later.
2. Improve productivity. You'll come back feeling relaxed and rejuvenated, with renewed energy and creativity.

In addition to being one of America’s founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin was also an inventor, scientist, author, printer and a diplomat. He is well-known for having created libraries, fire departments, and the postal service. If that weren’t enough, he invented bifocals, the Franklin stove, and the lightning rod. He was involved in politics, wrote a newspaper, traveled, had an active social life and was a single father.

Franklin was also a man who made to-do lists. Mr. Franklin's lists included things like housecleaning and reading, as well as reminders to bathe and be frugal. No doubt someone as busy as Ben needed to be reminded of those things!

Many Americans are making big Memorial Day weekend plans—visiting family, having a backyard cookout, or checking out the big sales at their local car dealership. But don't forget to take some time out to remember what Memorial Day is all about, and find some way you can pay your respects.

The first specific “Memorial Day” observance was held after the American Civil War, to honor the 600,000 soldiers from both sides who died during that conflict. While Veteran's Day is a day to celebrate those in the armed forces who have served, Memorial Day is set aside to remember all the men and women who never returned home.

Well since Jordan* (www.jordanhatch.com) is still on the email kick, I thought I'd stick with it as well. Again just like Jordan*, I often get asked, "How does email actually work?" or "How come my email is not being delivered when Infusionsoft says it is?", or "How do I measure my email deliverability rates?". Or many variations on these themes.

Well ,as Jordan points out in his excellent blog post (http://www.jordanhatch.com/email-deliverability-i-dont-think-that-word-means-what-you-think-it-means/) how email actually gets out of your system (your Outlook, Gmail, Infusionsoft, Mail Chimp, whatever) and into your recipient's email server is pretty complicated....and it hasn't even gotten to your recipient's inbox yet.

It’s worth poking around in now and not waiting till you're up against a deadline and desperate for an answer. Some of the familiar links you’ve been using have changed, so beware.

It’s all good though! Infusionsoft took the various help platforms that they provided and created a whole new integrated, easy to use Help Center which they launched in April.

To make it easier for you to get familiar with where to find what you want in the Help Center, we put together a list:

If you’ve ever talked to a web-site designer, you’ve heard about ‘making your website search-friendly’or heard the term ‘SEO’thrown around. The purpose of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is to ‘get them in the door.’These days, that’s likely to be with Google. Creating content for the right keywords will help your business appear in the search results that your customers use.

But what words to use? That’s where the fun starts.

You check the forms one last time, wipe the sweat from your brow and hit the ‘submit’ button. If all goes well, the Internal Revenue Service will only take a cursory glance at your return before processing it. You’ve taken care of your taxes for one more year. 

“Glad that’s over with,” you say to yourself. 

The next tax year will be here sooner than you think. In many cases, by the time you’ve filed one year, you’re already nearly a third of the way into the next one. It doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom though. With a little proper planning, you can make filing your taxes next year a smooth and simple process. Here are some tips to help you get started:

Spring is here, and no doubt you are itching to get out and enjoy those nice warm days. Whether you want to catch a baseball game, work in the garden, or visit a local festival, it can be hard to justify taking some time off when you know you haven’t done your marketing.

Lucky for you, Infusionsoft has you covered with some simple campaigns, designed especially for small businesses.

Infusionsoft’s Campaigns of the Month posts feature great, easy-to-use campaigns (and some have video instructions as well), so you can launch these marketing campaigns and boost your business with a minimal amount of time and effort.

In A. E. Hotchner's 1966 book Papa Hemingway, the author relates a conversation between Marlene Dietrich and Ernest Hemingway. When Dietrich told him that she couldn't decide about accepting a job offer, Hemingway told her: "Don't do what you sincerely don't want to do. Never confuse movement with action"—meaning she shouldn't accept the job if it wouldn't put her closer to her ultimate goals in life.

When we set goals for ourselves, particularly when we're enthusiastic about them—losing weight, for example—we may give it our all only to find we've accomplished nothing. There are usually two reasons we fail at achieving our goals: not being clear about what the goal is, and not having a way to measure success at reaching the goal.

We come across these headlines all the time: “How Your Desk Job is Killing You,” “10 Easy Exercises You Can Do at Your Desk” or “Boost Your Energy at Work with Three Simple Stretches”. And then we make a mental note that we really should do something about them and we file them away in the back of our minds. Meanwhile, we continue to suffer from poor posture, low energy and a myriad of other complaints.

Today is the day to change it up! I started a few weeks ago and I’m loving the difference.

One issue some have with working out at our desks is how to fit exercise into our workday, when it seems there isn't enough time to get our work done as it is. Phone reminders are easily set, as are discreet reminders on your computer. (And just as easily ignored!)

As a small business owner, there are bound to be times when you have questions and aren't exactly sure where to find the answers. There's also bound to be times when you aren't certain what the right questions even are. What is a business plan, and why might you need one? What kind of security measures do you need to take for your business? How should you set your prices? Is it better to lease or buy your equipment for your office? How can you get financing?

Who can help you answer your questions??!?

Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) are organizations set up around the US to provide assistance to small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. Hosted by universities and state economic development agencies, there are over 1800 SBDCs which are funded in part through the Small Business Administration.

Are you thinking of opening a larger office? Perhaps you’ve been contemplating expanding your inventory or trying a new product or service. Starting or expanding a business requires time, planning, and money. A small business loan or line of credit might be the answer; community banks and credit unions can frequently offer lower interest rates to small business owners. 

But what about "free money", or a small business grant?

What kind of grants?

It may take a bit of research, but there are grants available to anyone who is interested in building their business. Many grants are out there for minorities, women, the disabled, military members, or those businesses located in rural areas. If your business is trying to recover after a natural or economic disaster, there may be special opportunities for you as well.

For years now, anyone of my marketing coaching or Infusionsoft clients who asked me about open rates of their Infusionsoft emails (or emails in general), I have said something along the lines of: "Open rates are very unreliable....if it says that the email was opened, then it was, but if it says it was unopened, you have no idea if it was opened or not."

On top of that, many email clients (Outlook and Apple Mail for example) are configured to have a preview list on one side of the window and the email itself on the other. If you use your arrow keys to move up and down the preview list, then as you pass emails, they become "read"....you know that you haven't read them....you are passing them so you can get to the latest comment on your cat video Facebook post. But all the ones you scrolled through will be reported back as read.

Your back hurts and your wrists feel like someone’s tried to twist them off. Your neck and shoulders are so stiff you’re convinced they’ll crumble to dust if you try to move too suddenly. Was it playing basketball the day before? Or maybe that large rock you tried to shift when you set in to do some yard work over the weekend? Maybe the culprit is closer than you think. 

How you sit and move at your desk, also known as desk ergonomics, is serious business. Every year thousands of work hours are lost because of repetitive-motion injuries. Productivity suffers because of tendon or joint pain caused by of all things: just sitting at your desk. Here are some ways to optimize your workspace and to save both money and your joints:

Google’s Mobile Update is Looming! Are You Ready for April 21st?

On April 21st, Google is planning to rock its mobile search results with an algorithmic update that will change everything. This update is expected to affect more sites than Penguin and Panda combined because searches from mobile devices are estimated to make up more than 50% of all Google searches. To be clear - there is no site that is safe so do NOT pass over this update thinking it isn't relevant to you.