Now is a Good Time to Reflect and Direct

January 7, 2015 by

business (10) The company party was a success, clients were feted, venders gave you more liquor than you will drink in all of 2015, vacations are over and people are settling back into their work routines.  If you have not already done so, now is an excellent time to think about and set your company goals for the coming year.  In addition, this is a good point in time to get input and by-in from your advisors, key people and employees.

This time of year is a window of opportunity, because, it is human nature to use milestones (i.e. the New Year, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays) as an occasion for people to look at themselves.  They reflect on where they have been and set goals for where they want to go.  They see these recognized, fixed points in time as a place to start anew, wipe the slate clean or correct past mistakes.

An effective manager will utilize this knowledge of their employee’s behavior and mindset.  He will use this insight to create focal points and manage the employees towards the company’s goals.  He takes advantage of people’s natural inclination to use a milestone as a starting place and rallying point.

Concerned that you missed the 1st?   Don’t be, it doesn’t matter; there are other milestones to use instead.  While the focus is usually on the New Year it does not have to be then – people can and do reflect, start fresh and commit to a goal at any time.  What matters is that it has a defining starting point.

Therefore, launching a new set of goals can be at the beginning of the fiscal year, the company’s anniversary, the July 4th picnic or Labor Day.  Monday is the most popular day of the week for people starting new goals and is shown to be the best day for kick-off, and benchmarking, meetings.

A successful manger will learn about and use his knowledge of human nature to reflect and direct.  He will use people’s natural proclivities for milestones (and benchmarks) to set and meet goals for the business.  As Warren Bennis (a pioneer in the field of leadership) once said, “Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality”.

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Is Ohio Good For Your Business?

December 30, 2014 by

business (3)The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council has released the 19th. Annual “Small Business Policy Index 201 4.”  The SBE Council rates the states on policy measures and costs Impacting the small Business community and entrepreneurship.  Ohio according to the SBE Council is the number 11th. State to be the most entrepreneur- friendly.  South Dakota, Nevada, Texas, Wyoming, and Florida the most entrepreneur-friendly states do not impose an income tax.  For more about this and other news follow the links below.  Have a Happy and Safe 2015!

Gov. Kasich shares his vision of what Ohio can become

COLUMBUS — Attend one of Gov. John Kasich’s speeches and you’ll likely get a history lesson on Ohio’s economy in the past, present and future.

Kasich has a vision of what Ohio can become — a place where the tax and regulatory environment help support and encourage new energy, biotechnology, information technology and other emerging industries alongside the state’s mainstay manufacturing and agricultural base.

It’s the innovation, Kasich told an audience of business people recently, that’s going to help to drive young people to stay or relocate to Ohio.

“These are the things that will keep young people here,” he said. “… What really gets young people pumped up is the ability to see the future through the jobs that they do. That’s what we have to drive in Ohio. And that means we must have an environment in Ohio that attracts that. We have to have an environment in Ohio that really encourages entrepreneurship and small businesses, because small businesses drive change.”

Feds’ push for better foods, more neighborhood stores is slow-going

WASHINGTON, D.C. – First Lady Michelle Obama took center stage as a cluster of cabinet secretaries and nutrition experts gathered in the Old Executive Office Building, next to the White House, to applaud her “action plan.”

Her plan was to use government influence to purge the United States of “food deserts,” or neighborhoods where poverty-stricken residents have lousy or no access to healthy groceries, fruits and vegetables. Everybody – even the poor – deserves proper nutrition, officials said that day.

Yet four and a half years after the White House made that announcement, committing $400 million in federal loans, grants and tax credits to spur grocers to action, the goal is far from being reached, if Ohio is any measure. Mrs. Obama set 2017 as the year in which the last food deserts would disappear. But that almost certainly won’t happen.

Advocates for the poor insist that the market exists for many more stores to sell broccoli and carrots rather than pushing chips, candy and processed foods that are high in sugar and fat. Poor diet is linked to obesity, type-2 diabetes, heart disease and other chronic health problems, and health researchers say the grocery industry can play

Ohio ranks warmly for its small business policies

Ohio is a good place for small businesses to operate. That’s the word from the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, which has released it Small Business Policy Index 2014, which ranks the 50 states based on policy measures and costs for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

As for Ohio, it ranks No. 11 on the list. The ranking may help spread the word on how Ohio has become proactive in working with small businesses.

The index examines 42 different policy measures, including an array of tax, regulatory and government spending measurements.

The top-ranked state was North Dakota, while the bottom spot belonged to California.

a role in reducing the number of people at risk for these diseases. A study by the Columbus-based Finance Fund and a Philadelphia-based partner, the Food Trust, found that more than 2 million Ohio residents, including 500,000 children, live in neighborhoods underserved by supermarkets. They may have access to food at corner stores, but it is unlikely to be fresh or healthy.

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Health Coverage For 2015

December 18, 2014 by

business (7)Many small businesses look into their health care plans at the end of the year to look for a new insurance carrier, coverage for new employees, or new health coverage plans for the entire business.  Rising prices in health coverage are making small business look at other alternatives, and although reports suggest that the number of insured American is increasing, businesses still need to look into the different health coverage options they have. To read more about this and other news follow the links below.

Small businesses dropping insurance coverage due to Obamacare

Another unintended – but not unexpected – consequence of Obamacare is being felt as the program enters its second year.

More than 20 million Americans who work for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees are covered by employer insurance.  The 50-employee number is significant because if you work for a small business with more than 50 workers, your employer is mandated to cover your health insurance.

But with insurance rates rising, many small businesses of fewer than 50 employees are opting to drop their coverage and have workers purchase their insurance through the Obamacare website.

If employees qualify for government subsidies, like the managers who switched from Italian Oven’s corporate insurance to individual Obamacare coverage, everybody can win.

Owners don’t have to pay premiums, meaning they can give workers raises, invest in equipment or add to profits instead. And employee take-home pay can rise if subsidies — available even to families with middle-class incomes — are worth more than what a company was contributing.

Will You Finally Start Your Own Business? The 3 Stages Of Choice

It could be argued that our lives are nothing more than a series of decisions strung together by contemplation, emotion and sweat. When your decisions involve others – especially those close to you – choosing a path can be mind-bending.

Entrepreneurs face tough calls every day, says Sebastian Bailey: psychologist, author, Forbes contributor and co-founder of consulting firm Mind Gym. “(Entrepreneurs) are faced with decisions around how they assess opportunities, how they make entry decisions, how they’re going to exploit opportunities, how they make exits.”

Each new business owner must search within him or herself to make the tough calls and some entrepreneurs might find that their own spirits stand between them and the right decision in an important moment.

Being Vulnerable in Business Can Be a Good Thing

When it comes to business we have been led to believe we can’t be vulnerable, show our weaknesses or discuss our challenges. Most of us fundamentally believe if we show this side of ourselves, our clients, employees and partners won’t want to work with us and our business will be seen as a failure.

This is completely and utterly untrue.

We live in a world where bravery is often only seen as a physical thing, such as jumping out of a plane or saving an injured wild animal. We forget that being vulnerable, where you are prepared to discuss your weaknesses and failure, is intensely brave and powerful.

Most successful entrepreneurs will tell you relationships are essential to business success and the strongest relationships are made when there is an emotional connection. This emotional connection can only be built with honesty, where two people are brave enough to share their stories of failure and success.

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Success Isn’t a Solo Act

December 17, 2014 by

 business (11)No matter how you feel about how he left, it’s good for Akron and Cleveland to have him back – he, of course, is LeBron.  And no matter how you feel about who’s the greatest basketball player of all time, there’s no denying he’s one of the elite.  It’s his emphasis on teamwork, among other things, that’ll get him into the Hall of Fame and maybe help him reach his vision of being the first billionaire athlete.

LeBron knows his goal of winning another championship will be achieved with teamwork, “I just bring the determination to win.  Me being an unselfish player, I think that can carry on to my teammates.  When you have one of the best players on the court being unselfish, I think that transfers to the other players.”

Great leaders understand their success is the result of other’s dedication, inventiveness and enthusiasm, as well as their own efforts.  But, in the United States we tend to downplay the concept of joint effort.  We put a lot of importance on the ideas of individualism and self-determination, concepts which have served us well.

However, these ideals can create problems when ineffective people become too enamored with their own achievements and take too much credit for their successes.  We all know people who were born on third base and go through life thinking they hit a triple (Barry Switzer).   Effective leaders know they deserve some of the praise, but definitely not all or even most of it.

They know their success comes from people showing up for work day after day and efficiently going about the business of doing business – even when their kids are sick or they had to get up early to shovel out the driveway.  A smart manager knows the employees should get credit for the company’s accomplishments; they’re the ones doing the work of making his vision a reality.

The true genius of effective leadership is to recognize implementing his vision isn’t just his responsibility.  He knows that achieving his goals rests on his ability to seek out and listen to ideas from everyone in the company, it’s a group effort.  A person’s success isn’t a solo act, except in the minds of narcissists.  It’s the result of good fortune, hard work, talent and a host of other people.

 

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Workplace Stress and its Ramifications

December 10, 2014 by

business (9)According to a Center for Disease Control and Prevention article and a survey done by Northwestern National Life, 40% of workers today report that they consider their job as being “very or extremely stressful.” And according to Northwestern National Life, one-fourth of employees view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives.  Job stress has become a very common and costly problem that affects the United States workforce, and a problem that needs to be addressed by organizations and individuals as well. For more about this topic follow the links below.

What you need to know about workplace stress

TORONTO – John Tory was officially presented as mayor of Toronto Tuesday during an afternoon ceremony at city hall.

The job is no doubt stressful:  it’s at least four years long, 24 hours a day, includes no scheduled vacation time and puts every decision into the media spotlight.

So what is stress? Physiologically, we think of stress as the brain’s response to any demand.  And different types of stress have different effects – you can have stress from a sudden event like losing a job, or a traumatic event like an accident, or just routine stress related to the everyday pressures of life – which politicians feel a lot of because of the scrutiny they’re under.

The commonly referred to fight or flight response is the body’s response to stress. It is a mechanism that evolved thousands of years ago to respond to situations like being attacked by an animal.

‘Medicalising’ workplace stress could worsen staff morale, psychologists warn 

Low morale is too often treated as an “adjustment disorder”, which risks worsening the worker’s condition. Photo: Gabrielle Charotte

At least one third of workplace stress claims are due to “low morale” but are regularly being treated as clinical disorders, Australian psychologists have warned.

With workplace mental health problems costing businesses $10 billion a year, an Australian Psychological Society conference this week heard that more than 30 per cent of compensation claims were morale-related and therefore preventable.

Clinical and organisational psychologist Peter Cotton told the conference low morale was too often treated as an “adjustment disorder”, which risked worsening the worker’s condition.

“‘Medicalising’ this issue could be counter-productive and make the employee worse,” he said.

Workplace Stress Can Boil Over Months Later

New research suggests workplace stress can lead to counterproductive workplace behaviors that may not surface until weeks or months afterward.

It is common knowledge that a variety of workplace issues ranging from a seasonal surge in business, or a new manager, can lead to stress that results in immediate problems.

However, the impact of the stress may be underestimated as problems may surface down the road.

San Francisco State University organizational psychologist Dr. Kevin Eschleman determined many employees wait weeks or months before engaging in “counterproductive work behaviors,” like taking a longer lunch or stealing office supplies.

As a result, this behavior, which by some estimates costs businesses billions of dollars annually, may actually be far more expensive.

“People don’t just respond immediately with these deviant behaviors. They may also have a delayed response that isn’t caught by the organization,” said Eschleman.

“That means the organization is not taking into account long-term costs associated with these delayed behaviors.”

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Workplace Stress – Now is a Good Time to Pay Attention

December 9, 2014 by

business (1) The holidays are here and most likely your employee’s stress levels, which were high to begin with, have increased to ultimate, super high.  So why, as their manager, should you care?  Stress is a part of life and isn’t it the employees private concern on how they take care of it? The answer to that question is a resounding “no”.  An effective manager is aware of workplace stress and takes steps to deal with it.

People’s jobs typically require 40 to 50 hours a week – both at a worksite and, with the advent of personal electronic devises, at home during unofficial work time.  Their employment is a big part of most people’s lives, as is the stress which comes from it.  Personal stress and professional stress are linked and they influence each other more than ever.

A successful boss is aware of how workplace stress is an important part of an employee’s life and takes steps to relieve it.  Because, not only is it good stewardship, it’s important for the company’s bottom line.  A conservative estimate is that job stress costs businesses more than $300 billion a year (American Psychological Association, 2013).  Stress leads to absenteeism, diminished productivity, higher health care costs, and theft of property, time and money.

It also causes employees to quit their jobs; turnover is directly affected by stress.  Almost 1 in 4 people (24%) gave “too much stress” as a reason they would quit their job (Randstad, 2014).  Inadequate pay and limited opportunity for advancement were the only reasons that scored higher.  Unfortunately, pay and advancement are often something a supervisor can’t do anything about, particularly in a small business.

But, stress on the job is something she has power over, it can be controlled in many ways.  There are some fundamental time tested techniques, and some innovative ones which are geared to a particular worksite or type of employee.  Skilled mangers will learn and apply these ideas, because healthy stress reduction starts at the top and works its way down.

A supervisor’s negative viewpoint filters down and impacts the whole team.  Workers often identify their boss’s behaviors and attitudes as the primary stressors.  Now is a good time for managers to take an inventory of their own attitudes, as well as the employees.  Going into next year with the idea to increase the company’s bottom line through reducing workplace stress is a worthy personal and professional goal that everybody benefits from.

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Tips To Grow Your Business for 2015 and Other News

December 4, 2014 by

business (5)As 2014 comes to an end, small business owners and organizations start thinking and strategizing for the coming year. Many companies begin the year with new budgets for different departments, and strategies for their marketing campaigns are reevaluated again if they are not working, or if they need to take a different direction. Healthcare packages and other financial incentives for their employees can be evaluated to compare prices and offer them better choices than the previous year.  Follow the links below to read more about small business news, and ways to promote your business for the coming year.

11 Foolproof Ways to Grow Your Small-Business Facebook Following

Your business may have a solid marketing strategy, but are you an effective Facebook marketer?

Facebook estimates that it is home to more than 30 million active small-business pages. How will yours get noticed? How do you turn one fan into 1,000? Here are 11 creative (and perfectly legal!) methods to generate a Facebook following that convert likes to sales fluidly:

1. Make your Facebook page home.
Once you have set up a comprehensive business page, request a personalized web address, such as www.facebook.com/ENTMagazine. Promote your new hub of business across your other social media profiles (LinkedIn, Twitter etc.) and on printed marketing collateral including business cards, highlighting: We’re on Facebook!

2. Analyze your advertising efforts.
Through the admin panel of your page, or the Adverts Create Tool, you can orchestrate simultaneous marketing campaigns on your budget. The benefit of Facebook advertising initiatives is that it tracks your customers’ responses in real figures. Examine what works and engineer your efforts according to that response.

 Can small business help Russia bear West’s sanctions? Putin hopes so

 Moscow — Admitting that Russia has suffered a “difficult” year and faces what now looks to be permanent ostracism from the West, Vladimir Putin on Thursday argued that the current economic malaise is a matter of national security that will determine the country’s ability to survive.

That appears to make it official: the Kremlin now believes that it’s locked into a replay of the cold war, which it does not intend to lose this time. “We are ready to meet any challenge of the times and win,” Putin said.

But in a startlingly new appeal, Putin said in his annual state-of-the-nation address that the way forward is to liberalize the economy and let small business flourish in Russia.
The Russian president rolled out a series of liberal economic reforms in his state-of-the-nation speech today, saying that clearing away bureaucratic red tape and offering tax breaks to small business would soften sanctions’ bite.

Top Retirement Strategies: Small Business Owners

As a small business owner, you are completely responsible for your own retirement planning. Unless your small business is just a side job, you don’t have an employer to set up a retirement plan or choose a set of possible investments for you, and you’re definitely not getting a pension. Further, if you have employees, you may feel responsible for helping them plan for a successful retirement.

This article will discuss the considerations and retirement savings plans that you, as a small business owner, should consider when planning for both your own retirement and that of your employees.

Develop an Exit Strategy

It might seem strange that developing a business exit strategy should be one of your first considerations when planning for retirement. But consider this: The small business you spend your life building might become your largest asset. If you want it to fund your retirement – and if you want to actually stop working – you’ll have to liquidate your investment.

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Financial Decisions For You and Your Business

November 25, 2014 by

business (7)The 2012 statistic for non employer firms in the United States was close to 23 million.  Non employers are those individuals that are known as self-employed and their businesses are what we called sole proprietorships.  They have no paid employees and the business income is not the sole source of income for most of those individuals. To read more about business news follow the links below.

The 3 Decisions That Will Change Your Financial Life

There’s nothing worse than a rich person who’s chronically angry or unhappy. There’s really no excuse for it, yet I see this phenomenon every day. It results from an extremely unbalanced life, one with too much expectation and not enough appreciation for what’s there.

Without gratitude and appreciation for what you already have, you’ll never know true fulfillment. But how do you cultivate balance in life? What’s the point of achievement if your life has no balance?

For nearly four decades, I’ve had the privilege of coaching people from every walk of life, including some of the most powerful men and women on the planet. I’ve worked with presidents of the United States as well as owners of small businesses.

Across the board, I’ve found that virtually every moment people make three key decisions that dictate the quality of their lives.

If you make these decisions unconsciously, you’ll end up like majority of people who tend to be out of shape physically, exhausted emotionally and often financially stressed. But if you make these decisions consciously, you can literally change the course of your life today.

How Much Time Do Your Employees Spend Doing Real Work? The Answer May Surprise You. (Infographic)

Your employees are at work. Sure. But there’s a better than 50 percent chance that they aren’t getting real work done.

Employees say that they only spend 45 percent of their time at work actually completing their primary job duties, according to a survey of 2,000 office workers conducted by management software developer AtTask and market research firm Harris Interactive. That means more than half of their hours at the office are spent doing other things. Have a look at your latest payroll statement: that’s expensive lost productivity.

Wasted time at the office goes toward taming the ever-spawning inbox, handling administrative tasks, going to meetings and dealing with miscellaneous interruptions, according to the survey.

For more data on the culture of the current office community, including how business employees prefer to communicate and what causes most workplace conflicts, have a looksee at the infographic embedded below.

Oh, and then get back to work.

Holidays vital for small business survival

ZANESVILLE –

When Tami Neff flips the closed sign in Tami Loves’ front door to open during the holiday season, she holds with her hope for her store.

During November and December, her small retail business will make about 75 percent of its annual profit.

According to the National Retail Foundation, sales in those two months account for about as much as 30 percent of annual sales for individual retailers and 20 percent of the industry’s $3.2 trillion in annual sales.

Forecasts for this year’s holiday spending anticipate a 4.1 percent increase of $617 billion from last year when spending was up 3.1 percent over 2012. However, an analysis by international financial consulting and advisory firm Deloitte suggests the increase could be as much as 4.5 percent.

Ohio retail estimates will not be available until Monday, but Tom Poorman, president of the Zanesville-Muskingum County Chamber of Commerce, said he expects Zanesville’s numbers to be similar to the national numbers. That is good news for the 670 members of the chamber, he said, about 90 percent of which are run by small-business owners.

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Can Lousy Managers be Changed?

November 18, 2014 by

business (10) There are a lot of lousy managers, everyone has met them, worked with them and worked for them.  They can create havoc in a workplace, particularly in a small business where their impact is profound.   Many businesses have closed due to incompetent managers.  Because of their influence it’s vital for their supervisors to take responsibility and evaluate the situation – can they be turned into good managers?  The answer is yes, maybe and no.

Yes – some lousy managers can be turned into good ones.  Their poor management skills are usually not their fault.  They were never taught how to be effective and are doing the best they can.   They’re eager to learn, motivated to grow and respond to training and mentoring.  They can be good managers, they can be changed.

Maybe – some lousy managers can be turned around.  These managers know that they’re not doing the best they can.  But, they don’t change because they haven’t been told directly and honestly that they’re doing a poor job, subtle hints don’t work.  Nor, have they had to suffer the penalties of being a lousy manger.

Unfortunately, human nature is such that many people give the least amount of effort until they are forced to do otherwise.  The longer they’re allowed to get away with harmful behavior the more they’ll do it.  When appropriately confronted with facts and consequences, they’ll respond and change with direct supervision, training and an action plan.

No – some lousy managers can’t be saved.  They were unsuited to or ambivalent about being a supervisor from the start and never committed to the position.  Or they may have been adequate at one time, but now don’t care.

No matter the reason, no amount of supervision, training or disciplinary action will help them be a good manager.  No one can make them care about themselves, the company or the employees.  They’re either unwilling or unable to change and have to be let go.

Lousy managers will always be around and some will change, others might change and a few won’t change.  It’s up to their supervisors to recognize which type they’re dealing with and take the appropriate action.  After all, it may save the company.

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Ohio News And Other topics

November 13, 2014 by

business (3)The high cost of insurance has been the reason why 41 million Americans were uninsured in 2013. Most recent numbers suggest that the Affordable Care Act has reduced the number of uninsured people in this country. Businesses across the nation were not only apprehensive about the costs, but were hesitant to make changes before they absolutely had to. News about this and other topics happening in Ohio are below. Read more by following the links.

Less angst over health care at small businesses

NEW YORK (AP) — Small business owners are less angst-ridden about health care than you might think.

Health care costs are in second place among owners’ major concerns in a survey released Thursday by Bank of America. Seventy-two percent cited health care costs as a big concern, down from 74 percent in a similar survey in the spring. The No. 1 concern was the effectiveness of government leaders, cited by 74 percent versus 75 percent in the spring.

Owners are less worried about health care now that they’ve seen what insurance under the health care law looks like and costs. Uncertainty about the law had intensified owners’ concerns. And surveys taken before the new insurance began selling last year showed owners were extremely anxious about whether the law would continue to drive premiums higher.

EPA Announces Support For Small Businesses To Bring Green Technology, Innovative Research To Marketplace

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy announced recently nine awards in eight states for small businesses to help them bring innovative green technologies to the marketplace. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy held a press call to announce the awards and reiterate the agency’s commitment to strengthening economic growth, supporting sustainable businesses, and combating the impacts of climate change.

“The small businesses receiving awards today are innovating affordable, energy efficient technologies that are strengthening our economy and building a low-carbon future while bringing a unique vision for addressing complex environmental issues like reducing harmful emissions to create a cleaner environment and enhancing recycling processes,” said EPA Administrator McCarthy. “When we invest in research and innovation, that return on investment builds a healthy economy and a healthy environment for all of us.”

Administrator McCarthy announced almost $3M in funding to nine small businesses through the agency’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. She was joined on a press call by David Levine of the American Sustainable Business Council and two SBIR awardees, John Rich of Nashville-based National Recovery Technologies, LLC., a small business that produced a low cost technology to recycle electronics; and Carol Ann Wedding, president of Imaging Systems Technology, a small business that developed a highly efficient, versatile water purification system, based in Toledo, Ohio.

Hispanic biz summit highlights Ohio’s growing minority business sphere

About 180 people converged on Wright State University’s Nutter Center on Monday for the Amigos Latinos Business Summit, a push to promote the local Latino business community as young minority entrepreneurs look to grow their businesses in Dayton — and local and state agencies look for more such businesses to work with.

The event featured classes on starting and growing a business and working with local and state agencies, as well as an expo to give local Hispanic companies a chance to connect with students and job seekers, as well as each other.

Tony Ortiz, Wright State’s associate vice president for Latino Affairs, hopes to make the event a yearly gathering.

“A lot of the Latino population is headed to places like Florida, but they still have family in Ohio,” Ortiz said, “We hope that in building some opportunities and promoting the business here, we can bring some of that workforce back.”

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