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Nowadays, mobile internet (via GPRS, 3G or HSDPA) is pretty common,
widely available and reasonably affordable. Most of the cellphone
companies (Smart 3G, Globe Visibility, Sun Cellular 3G) have been
offering them for several years now. Likewise, there have been a number
of cheap 3G-capable phones in the market ranging from LG to Nokia. More
and more people are also starting to access and consume web content
thru their mobile phones.

Let me share top 5 apps that you can use to bring the web to your mobile phone:

Yahoo! Go (mobile.yahoo.com/go). Yahoo! Go puts the
power of the internet into your pocket. It has gone a long way since
the first version and it integrates your favorite Yahoo! destinations
into a single central access — Flickr for Mobile, Yahoo! Mail, Maps,
Search, Weather and News feeds.

Fring (fring.com). Fring is basically a VOIP and IM
client which allows you to make calls using your cellphone’s internet
connection. That way, you don’t need to make expensive international
long distance calls to your relatives and love ones abroad. This is
bets for OFWs who want to save on their phone bills. Your phone’s net
connection could be via 3G or WiFi. Fring also allows you to chat with
friends or contacts on Skype, MSN, YM, Google Talk, AIM and ICQ.
There’s also Gizmo and Skype on the same category.

Mobile GMail (www.google.com/mobile/gmail). If you’re
using GMail, you will also love using GMail for Mobile and access your
emails right in your phone. If you have multiple email accounts, you
can even use GMail to manage all of them into one account. Click here on a tutorial on how to consolidate all your email accounts into GMail.

Opera Mobile (operamini.com). If you don’t like the
browser that came built-in with your mobile phone, you’ll love Opera
Mini. It’s fast, it’s light and works just fine. The best (free) mobile
browser out there. If you ahve some money to spend ($25), you can also
get its big brother - Opera Mobile.

YouTube Mobile (m.youtube.com). Watch your favorite
YouTube videos in your phone. It provides mobile-friendly streaming of
videos (so it streams faster) and allows you to upload your own
recorded videos directly from your phone to your YouTube account.

There are many other free mobile apps/services you can download or use
with your phone (Google Maps for Mobile, MSN Live Mobile, Skype Mobile,
Netvibes Mobile, etc.). It depends which web versions of these services
you frequently use and more often, they have mobile versions as well.

1. A leader plans.

The core of leadership is being proactive rather than reactive.
Sure, leaders are good in crises – but that doesn’t mean they sit
around letting crises develop. Leadership involves identifying
potential problems and solving them before they reach crisis
proportions – and the ability to identify and reap potential windfalls.
So good leaders analyze and plan and adapt their plans to new
circumstances and opportunities.

2. A leader has a vision.

Vision is essential to good leadership. Vision provides direction
and without direction, there’s not much point to all that planning;
your small business will still flail about. So if you don’t have one
already, take your first step towards leadership by creating a Vision Statement
for your business. Because it embodies your dreams and your passions, a
vision statement will also serve as a leadership vision.

3. A leader shares her vision.

Sharing your leadership vision helps your vision grow and your
leadership develop. As you tell your leadership vision to others, you
will strengthen your own belief in your vision and strengthen your
determination to make your leadership vision become reality. And other
people will start to see you as a person who’s “going places”. Your
leadership skills will grow as you and other people recognize you as a
person with leadership potential.

4. A leader takes charge.

At this stage of leadership, you put together your planning and your
leadership vision and take action. Whether it’s implementing a specific
plan to improve your business’s bottom line or responding to a crisis,
you, as the leader, are the one who makes the decisions and sees that
the appropriate actions are carried out. You can’t just “talk a good
game” to be a leader; you need to act and to be seen as taking
effective action for the good of your small business.

5. A leader inspires through example.

If I asked you, you could easily name three people whose leadership
qualities inspire you. If I asked you why, you’d tell me about the
things these inspiring people did or are doing. Leadership is defined
through action. Therefore, in developing your own leadership skills,
you have to act in ways that are fitting to your leadership vision and
your self – all the time. We can all name many actions of other people
whom we admire, but what inspires us is the integrity that gives these
actions meaning.

Becoming a leader isn’t easy because it takes a conscious commitment
and consistent effort to develop one’s leadership skills. But on the
positive side, anyone who is willing to make the effort can become a
good leader.

And as good leadership is critical to business success, your efforts
to improve your leadership skills will be amply rewarded. By working on
these five keys of leadership, you can become the leader your small
business needs.