"If the pilot of the plane runs down the aisle holding a parachute - what do you do? You panic. If the leadership falls apart, what does everyone else in the organization do? They panic." Charlie from Florida.

In a business, when the entrepreneur captaining the ship panics, it causes everyone in the entire organization to do exactly the same. How often as an entrepreneur have you panicked or become stressed out, only to find your entire organization crumble, mistakes being made and people living in fear for their job or ability to fulfil your requirements? Unless subordinates have complete trust in leadership, it is impossible for a leader to be truly effective.

This is a common problem, particularly given the abundance of Type A personalities at the helm of businesses and in leadership in organizations of all sizes.

A good leader possesses a number of key features like a positive attitude, determination, honesty, integrity, fairness, humility, courage, creativity, discipline, vision and emotional intelligence to name a few. Combined, these features underpin a good leader - yet the after-effects of an anxious leader, or one suffering from stress, can undermined all the hard work that any leader may have put in to their business.

One of the key issues pertaining to leadership is their ability to effectively manage this anxiety at all levels not just from a entrepreneur but also manage how all managerial react to stressful situations. Being able to emerge from a situation of crisis or challenge, with a clear and concise communications strategy that is executed in a calm manner.

Atlanta entrepreneurs stand to gain additional insights on business growth and small business marketing through Marketing Eye’s new recruit, Lisa Homa.

The experienced marketing consultant has joined the Atlanta team, bringing to the role extensive knowledge in the advertising, finance, IT, human resources and research industries.

She previously held roles at global advertising giant Clemenger Group and also gained international exposure through her previous corporate and boutique work in Australia and the UK.

As Marketing Eye’s dynamic consultant, Lisa will work with small business owners and entrepreneurs to help Atlanta’s small- and medium-sized businesses boost their success and experience exponential growth.

With 2013 fast on approach, we have been spending hours upon hours researching the latest sales and marketing techniques, opinions, case studies and brands.

It's a great time of year because through this research we are exposed to other companies successes and at times failures - all while thinking about what more we can do for our clients.

"Blame the fact that you have attention deficit disorder (A.D.D.) or that you are an A-Type Personality - or just blame the fact that you have never been able to concentrate," said a man sitting on the plane next to me as I moved from reading a book, to reading board papers to stretching - all within 10 minutes.

"But if you keep doing that, you will achieve nothing."

I have neither A.D.D. nor do I have a strong A-Type personality (although some people may challenge that), but I do have problems from time to time focusing and for that matter being able to sleep through the night because I am thinking of a hundred things at once.

The Rich 200 list is littered with entrepeneurs who have sold their businesses. 

Someone once said to me that they never wanted to be on that list because there are only two outcomes that derive from being placed on this list: 1. Telemarketers will harrass you for the rest of your life. 2. You will go broke.

Jan Cameron, the founder of successful retail chain Kathmandu knows this only too well. She built her business over 20 years to be the most successful retail business in the outdoor adventure space, selling for a reported $247 million and being placed on the Rich 200 list only to be in BRW today with the journalist reporting that she almost certainly won't be there this year. Why? She sold her business and then after a break decided to get back into the game and invested $80 million into Retail Adventures discount group. Not long after, she had to double her investment to keep the chain alive. Plagued with poor management and a bad company culture, the chain was put in Voluntary Administration in October. 

About 18 month's ago, I realized that I had a few unfulfilled dreams. A milestone in age was coming up, albeit a few years away, and all of a sudden I couldn't think of anything other than what I had achieved and what I wanted to achieve, which were becoming two very different things.

What I had achieved was for all to see. I was comfortable with my place in the world. In many people's terms, I had achieved a lot and for me, I didn't really have any major aspirations to achieve more than what I had. Well, at least that was what I kept telling myself. 

Then I received an email. It was from a friend in Dubai and they were touching base with me after a few years of no communication. We hadn't talked for no other reason other than the tyranny of distance and the lack of urgency in making contact. He asked "have you done all the things we had talked about that time we sat up until 3am in the morning, talking about our dreams". I thought back. It dawned on me that I had not. Sure it was 3am in the morning and I may have had one or two glasses of red too much, so my "dreams" were probably more outlandish than what I really wanted to do in life, but the answer still was the same. No I hadn't. And there was a few things that I said that night that I wouldn't mind crossing off my checklist.

Happy people are more successful, just ask Shawn Achor, the author of The Happiness Advantage.

"People who cultivate a positive mind-set perform better in the face of a challenge and in every area of your business, you will show improvement if your brain is positive" said Achor at a recent speech to 800 global entrepreneurs.

In fact, sales people who were happy outsell their less positive colleagues by more than 37 per cent and positive people in organisations are not only happier, they perform better and live longer, healthier lives.

In the past week I have sat in a room with 799 other entrepreneurs listening to 5 or more speakers per day on topics ranging from entrepreneurship, happiness and charity through to tackling depression and finding out to spot a liar a mile away.

The speakers were all inspiring and all brought something to the table but no-one more so than the people sitting next to me. Each and every person in the room has a story to tell. They have built businesses through adversity, a shaky economic climate, prejudice, their own demons and because someone somewhere said they couldn't do it.

It's time. We are ready. The curtains have been drawn. In 3 weeks, I will be living in America to follow my dream of building a global small business marketing firm.

It's summer over there and winter here in Australia, so the weather is definately a big plus. Cost of living is significantly less which means I can buy more shoes. There is a god after all ;-)

And... the business is ready. Most importantly, we have dotted all of our 'i's' and crossed all of our 't's'.

So, what's next?