When seeking the best practices to grow your business you will mostly see advise about provide great customer service, playing fair and dealing with integrity. All of which are true. You do need to earn your customers admiration or you'll never succeed.

But, think about this for a moment... If you are an exceptional baker and your customers keep coming back and back and back, and you meet all of the above advice.

Then take this test... Search online for bakers in your local area using Google. Look over all of the bakers listed. How many Google reviews does your business have compared to your competitors?

Unless you have a large amount of 4 and 5 star reviews... no one will visit your web site, your establishment or take the time to check you out. No matter how good you, your business or your website is, unless a searcher can instantly see the quality of your business reflected in the quality of your Google review score, you will be perceived as a failure and ignored.

Google reviews mirror sites like Amazon... where 1,2,3 star or negative reviews are universally frowned upon by the general public. People who instantly make snap decisions can make or break your company.

So the one skill you absolutely must master is getting your satisfied clients, customers or patients to leave you a 4 or 5 star Google review -- or hire a reputation management service to help you.

Think about this balance: perhaps a reputation management service charges $1000 a month ($50 per working day) but poor quality reviews cost you $200 in lost revenue (or much more) every day... Is it really better to save money on a needed business expense or sit around wishing for more work?