In business, we often focus most of our attentions on "the big issues." Our next big ad campaign or our new product development project loom large and capture a significant portion of our mindshare. These big issues, because of their size and scope, seem to be our path to exponential success and here is where we focus our efforts.

But sometimes, it's the little things that have the largest positive impacts on our business. These things often seem minor compared to our big issues. They are often difficult to recognize at the time, and we might even pass them by as we focus on what we perceive to be more important. How many tremendous opportunities do we pass by because we have "bigger fish to fry?"

For example, a free case study offered by AvidSurfer details how one large e-commerce company made relatively minor improvements to a single page of their site. These improvements took only a few hours to execute and didn't cost any money. Their efforts would certainly not be considered to be "big issues" to most folks. Yet, the impacts of this small effort were tremendous. This site was able to generate $13,500 in additional sales per day as a result.

Had this company only focused on major issues, they may have missed out on nearly $5 million in additional sales per year!

These small opportunities for major impact present themselves all the time. How about that single, seemingly unimportant e-mail, requesting additional information about your products? You could easily set it aside for a few hours, or even a few days, right? After all, a single inquiry is hardly very important in the big picture - you have much bigger fish to fry.

But what if this e-mail was from the purchasing agent at a major, multi-national corporation? What if this purchasing agent was trying to get more information so that your company might be included on their approved vendor list? This could be an opportunity to begin a business relationship worth millions of dollars in sales.

Oh, but wait...it's just a single e-mail...no big deal.

The point is, you never really know when something very small is just the tip of the iceberg. Something that takes a just few minutes may be worth millions. How do you make sure you don't miss out? Start with attention to detail, flawless execution of the "little things," and a commitment to continuous improvement. It's a tall order, but well worth it.

Contrary to popular belief, opportunity knocks quite frequently - but it doesn't always knock very loud.