How Can Someone Screwup a Salad?

This evening for dinner I decided to have a salad.

So, I cut up several vegetables, added some cooked pasta that I had in the fridge, and added a hard-boiled egg. For my usual spices, I added some garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and some black pepper. I mixed everything up and then went to add my final 2 ingredients: balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil.

Everything was going smoothly until I took the olive oil out of the refrigerator. Even though the bottle was about 80% full, absolutely nothing came out of the bottle. Yup, not a drop. What? I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing. Talk about a big yikes moment!

Google to the Rescue

So, I went to Google and did a search for “what happens to olive oil that is refrigerated.” I quickly found an article that stated the following: when olive oil is exposed to cold temperatures, it will form crystals which cause it to solidify. That’s the bad news. However, once the olive oil is taken out of the cold and allowed to reach room temperature, it will return to its liquid state. Now, that’s some good news.

Newsflash: Olive Oil and the Fridge Don’t Mix

Armed with all of this info, I wondered how I screwed things up. I then remember putting the olive oil into the refrigerator a few days ago. Even though I had never done this in the past, at the time, refrigerating the olive oil seemed to make sense. Why? By putting the olive oil in the fridge, it was right next to the balsamic vinegar and so easy to reach. Plus, I didn’t have to walk across the kitchen to get it as I had done since I moved into my house 3 years ago.

All I can say is that I messed up but didn’t know this at the time.

Why am I telling my readers this story? My intent is to talk about a few unintentional screw-ups, mine, and something I may have discovered about new small business owners. In short, I think that many new small business owners are messing up similar to the way that I did in my olive oil story.

A Boatload of Local Domains For Sale

What do I mean? I have approximately 800 local domain names for sale. These domain names are in the following format: city + profession or profession + city.

The following examples will help clarify what I mean by local domain names:

• AshlandRehab.com
• DoverAccountants.com
• GaryHVAC.com
• LawyersInMobile.com
• NorthportRoofers.com
• RochesterPhysicians.com
• YonkersAccountants.com

Are Many New Small Business Owners Messing Up?

The fact that I have around 800 local domain names for sale tells me a few things about many small business owners, especial those who are just starting their entrepreneurial venture.

• First, they are apparently unaware of the significance of local search in the current search engine climate. Why is this meaningful? Mainly because close to half of all of the searches on Google are for local products and services.
• Second, they are seemingly uninformed about the importance of having a website. Again, if almost half of all the searches on Google are for products and services by local businesses, how do these new business owners expect to get leads, inquiries, and customers if they don’t have an online presence?
• Third, evidently these new business owners are unenlightened about this fact: that in order to build a website, they first need a domain name. Stated another way, without a domain name, an individual, a company, or an organization cannot have an active and functioning website.
• And fourth, from a local search and from a business perspective, apparently, they are unaware of the importance of registering or buying a local domain name for their business and for their website.

The Bottom Line

If new small business owners are to be successful in today’s business world, I assert that they need to know about the importance of the following:

• Local search
• Having a website
• Getting a domain name
• Registering or buying a local domain name