News To Help You Make Your Small Business Stronger

September 27, 2016 by

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Small businesses, many economists believe are the driving force of the US economy.  From the business owner with no employees, to the companies that have 500 hundred, it is certain the United States economy benefits from the entrepreneurship of the 27 millions of Americans that start a business, or are running one. 

For more information about small business, follow the links below.

 Better Serving Small Business

Small businesses have to go through too many regulatory obstacles to fund themselves.

While it’s new firms that tend to drive job creation, small businesses overall play an important role in the economy. In 2013, roughly half of all jobs and wages earned were through small businesses. And as Goldman Sachs’ Head of Global Investment ResearchSteve Strongin pointed out earlier this year, as of 2013 there may be more than 600,000 fewer small businesses than if we’d not had the 2007-2009 crisis. Since politicians often blame others for economic woes or claim responsibility for economic successes, it’s no surprise that small businesses serve as a talking point this election season.

For instance, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pledged to “break down barriers so that starting a business can be as easy as setting up a lemonade stand in the front yard,” though regulations even seem to be getting in the way of that these days. Nevertheless, the objective of making it easier for small businesses to fund themselves has broad appeal with Americans of all political stripes. Figuring out how businesses fund themselves and what obstacles they face is the first step toward thinking about effective solutions to address the constraints on access to capital for small businesses.

How to maximize your tax deduction for business use of a car

Anyone who uses a car for business should know the costs associated with the miles you drive for your business are tax-deductible. Most years, when the IRS publishes its deductible cost-per-mile rates, the figure rises as the cost of owning and operating a motor vehicle rises.

But not for 2016. For this tax year, the IRS has dropped the standard mileage rateto 54 cents per mile from 57.5 cents in 2015, thanks to sustained low gas prices.

However, you may find that your actual operating costs are higher than the deduction the IRS allows in its standard mileage rate.

So why do so many taxpayers use the standard mileage rate to figure their deduction for business use of a vehicle? Well, for starters, most people think it’s easier, requires less documentation and has less chance of an IRS audit. But none of that is true.

You might think the standard rate overcomes a lack of keeping detailed expense records. But it doesn’t. In fact, most people who use a car for business purposes probably have most of the expense records they need to use the actual-expense method.

Your Small Business Should Have a Board of Directors

You may have the best small business ideas in the world, but succeeding in business requires you to understand the business of running a business. Operating a business of any size is not like mixing together the right ingredients for a casserole and then letting it cook in the oven. It’s a continual, evolving process, and you have to develop and tweak your processes and systems to make it work. One of the best ways to learn to run your business better is to pull together a board of advisors.

It’s important to be honest with yourself about what you don’t know. Once you identify learning gaps, it’s best to pull together five or so people who know more about business than you. When you start thinking about who might be the best suited for your advisory board. Start with an existing entrepreneur, an existing or potential customer, a mentor who may not be in your industry, a lawyer and an accountant to recruit to your board.

You can always realize a strong return on investment by allowing specialists to advise you in areas in which you are not trained. As the business owner, you always need to be focused on your most valuable tasks. In addition to specific skills and processes, your business can benefit from small business advice on a broader, more holistic level. Using a board of advisors is invaluable guidance for your business.

 

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Productivity In The Workplace

September 22, 2016 by

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There are many factors that affect the profitability of a firm.  For managers and directors of firms, one of the most important factors is to increase profitability for their stakeholders.  The income a company earns over a fiscal year must exceed the expenses they incurred.  Profitability is then one of the many reasons management tries to increase the productivity of their workforce.  Productivity in the workplace is a major challenge for many companies, and research over the years have shown that happy employees are more productive than non happy or stressed employees. But how about working remotely? How is the productivity level compared to those working at the office?  For more about this, follow the links below.

Study: Whopping 93% Say They’re More Productive Working Remotely

Catherine Conlan’s spent her fair share of time in offices. These days, though, the rural Minnesota writer clocks in from home to a content marketing agency in Baton Rouge, La. Still, many of the work-life balance challenges are the same.

“There are days where I’m still rushing around to pick up the kids or the laundry just doesn’t get done, because I’ve put a priority on my work productivity,” Conlan says. “But working remotely, especially with an employer who embraces a project- or results-based approach to work and is dedicated to supporting employees’ lives away from work, can make finding a sense balance a lot easier.”

Boosting America’s Workplace Productivity

Here’s the plain truth: whether at home or at work, productivity tends to suffer under stress. And while stress triggers are highly personal, one thing many workers seem to have in common is uncertainty around how to handle personal finances. In fact, according to a recent study commissioned by MassMutuali, while most Americans say they prioritize understanding the importance of their personal finances, many admit they actually know little or nothing about them, and half say they don’t know how much to spend on benefits. Worse, 37 percent of those surveyed find managing their personal finances “somewhat” or “very difficult” and 40 percent say personal financial problems are a distraction at workii.

It’s clear from the research that personal finances bedevil many Americans, especially when it comes to understanding and making the most of their employee benefits. And employee stress doesn’t just affect employees – the prevalence of distracted employees in the workplace poses a huge productivity issue for employers that, if left untreated, will likely become worse.

Productive mobility is poised to give business a virtual boost

Throughout history, new technologies have constantly changed the way we’ve worked. They’ve been responsible for full-scale revolutions. And continued investments have come as corporate demand for worker productivity drives tech spending.

We should expect augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to eventually attract increased spending in the enterprise as they combine with new mobile network advancements to make an emerging trend called “productive mobility” a reality.

Productive mobility is about being as productive out of the office as inside, and as productive in a virtual instance as a physical one.

Consider Boeing’s use of augmented reality glasses to streamline plane assembly workflows, decreasing assembly time and reducing errors by 25 percent. This is amazing. It’s also just the beginning of this reality-transforming workplace future.

That’s where critical mobile network developments come in. Many of the most exciting AR applications require instant environmental interpretation, and rapid delivery of contextually relevant information and functionality. VR, in particular 360 stereoscopic video, greatly raises the payload overhead of rich media.

Fixed and mobile broadband network advancements like fiber and 5G, along with service provider-centric content delivery topologies, deliver higher throughput with lower latencies. New convolutional network designs find patterns among previously insurmountable massive data sets, enabling rapid, intelligent predictions about the network, the things connected to it and the users engaging with it.

 

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Branding Your BusinessThe Right Way

September 14, 2016 by

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As a small business owner, the branding of your business may not seem important enough for you to worry about it just yet.  Getting the business off  the ground seems to take all the time you have to worry about branding your business, or the social media aspect of it.  But, remember that having a brand that customers identify quickly, can be a great boost to your business.  Having your business logo, colors and fonts form a cohesive image that translates to social media can help customers identify your business online, and perhaps begin a relationship that can last for many years.

For more about branding, follow the links below.

Despite being a branding company, how we failed and sailed with our internal branding

We all know that a brand is an intangible asset. It’s a heavy word though. Branding is what makes or breaks a brand, isn’t it? Well, it’s certainly an exercise that can help you differentiate yourself from your competitors. For instance, with consistent advertising, and a decent product, you can create a brand image that is way above your competitors. It can help you make your brand aspirational. What’s more? It can influence people to associate with your brand. Even if that means they have to pay a premium to associate with your brand. So, the power of branding cannot be ignored.

Unfortunately, more often than not, we think that branding is all about external communication only. But to cut a good picture externally, companies tend to forget that branding is a lot about what’s done internally too. It’s only after burning our hands that we tend to really understand the power of internal branding.

Branding feelings: Why marketing leaders do it

A name. So you think that a brand is about remembering a name. A company, product, or service. True, but there is more. When you hear a name, how do you feel? Strong brands evoke strong feelings. Including the “I gotta have it” urge that propels buyers to the checkout counter. What about other feelings?

Trust. Trust is the foundation feeling. We bond with businesses, products, people, and places we trust.

“Great companies that build an enduring brand have an emotional relationship with customers that has no barrier. And that emotional relationship is the most important characteristic, which is trust.” – Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO

Feeling dominoes

One good feeling leads to another. When we trust a brand, other feelings are added. Positive feelings about quality, special features, usability, service, and overall value.

Loyalty. That is the sticky feeling that keeps us coming back for more. The stronger our composite feelings about a brand, the more we are inclined to continue buying from that company and their products. Even when a competitor has strong offerings.

6 Ways Personal Branding Is Your SEO Secret Weapon

Search engine optimization (SEO) has a lot of potential angles and strategies associated with it. Though there are some universal best practices you’ll need if you want to rank higher (such as cleaning up your technical on-site SEO and building natural inbound links), there are variable approaches you can take to find success in your own niche.

For example, you may adopt a local SEO strategy to gain more traction against your larger competitors, or you could opt for niche, long-tail keyword targeting to get a faster rise for lower-volume queries.

But there’s one angle—my personal favorite—that can propel almost any SEO strategy forward, and I don’t see nearly enough companies and organizations using it to fuel their ongoing efforts. Personal branding is your secret weapon, and it’s time you integrated it into your campaign.

 

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It’s Time to Get Serious About Your Brand (Part 1)

September 13, 2016 by

business (2)It used to be small business owners could avoid all the talk about brands and branding.  No one knew if the concept was just hype that would eventually fade – like many business ideas – or if it was going to be around for a while.  Well, it’s here to stay and you can’t ignore it any longer.

In fact, if you’re like most owners, you’ve ignored it for too long all ready.  It’s time to get serious about developing your brand.  The more mainstream the concept is the more your customers expect it.  More and more often how you create and manage your brand will be directly linked with your sales.

The idea of creating a brand for their business is confusing to a lot of owners, mainly because they think of branding as an “it”.  They believe a thing (i.e. website, logo, catch phrase, product, service) is the brand.  But, it isn’t a thing.  Your brand is how the customer perceives and experiences your company.

The experience is composted of and produced by several different components, which make up the whole.  These parts, when put all together, create an image or idea about the business in general and its products specifically.  Let’s look at an example of how the parts of a brand contribute to how it’s perceived by its target audience. 

What do you think when you see the word Nike – the Wimbledon short dresses controversy, funny/inspiring/stupid commercials, football, shoes, a surprise announcement to discontinue its golf equipment, swopes, Olympics, Iron Nun, how hard it is to navigate the web site on your phone?  Each piece contributes to Nike’s general brand, both the good and bad.

The need to create a brand can seem overwhelming.  If you’re like most owners, you’re probably having trouble keeping up with all the other things a business needs (production, regulation, finances, quality, personal).  But, it doesn’t have to be difficult or mystifying.

It’s nothing more than a comprehensive, “whole package” way of selling.  The way to create a brand is to break the process down into small manageable pieces that you, your employees or other professionals can do over time.  Part 2 of this series will look at the specific components you’ll need to put this package together.

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Small Business Challenges Facing the Small Business Owner

September 7, 2016 by

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Data security for the small business owner that deals with merchant accounts or other type of high sensitive information, is a very serious business.  Keeping the information secure is for many small and big businesses nothing short of miraculous.  Target, a big retail store had a security breach not long ago, and following that, had to settle a law suit because  of it.  For many small business owners, the idea of being in charge of their own data security is daunting.  The need to have a data security expert in your payroll may not be possible, but the need is real and many small business owners need to address the issue right away.

For more news about this, follow the links below.

5 Data Management Challenges Facing Small Business Owners

Small business owners must now where an additional hat – the data scientist hat.

As small business owners, we generally wear all the hats. And if we’ve grown to where we aren’t wearing all the hats at the same time, we at least rotate through them a few times a month.

One hat that is becoming increasingly important – and scary — to wear is the data scientist hat.

Although data scientists come in many forms, with varied skills, a small business data scientist is mostly responsible for parsing through and analyzing data to present key findings about a business. The goal is to use data and the findings to address challenges, find opportunities, and ultimately, help a business save time and money.

While most of us don’t have the luxury of hiring a bona fide data scientist to handle these figures, there are a few things you should know and consider as you run your business and aim to become as efficient as possible in your business functions.

7 ways to make your small business attractive to venture capital funding

In 2015, venture capitalists invested over $58.8 billion in businesses, yet African-Americans only received one percent of venture capital funding. While opportunities to grow small businesses have been scarce in the past, large investors are beginning to dedicate more attention and inclusion to minority commerce that fosters growth and success. This leaves new opportunities for African-Americans to obtain the money they need to reach more customers.

Before jumping into the big leagues of expanding your business and making a global impact, here are seven ways to attract the right venture capital players and stand out from the competition.

  1. Know Your Business

Investors are looking for companies who have studied their market, discovered loopholes and are creating a valuable solution to a problem. When presenting your plans,you must be very knowledgeable of your project and of the venture capitalist industry. Useful websites like A VCand Both Sides of the Table offer practical advice through the lense of very successful startup founders and investors. From the materials used to where investors distribute their money, build your confidence so that no investor will doubt the future of your company.

The SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard®: Most Still Struggle to Offer, See Value in 401(k)s

Less than a third of small business owners offer the retirement saving vehicle.

GLENVIEW, Ill., Sept. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — The majority of small business owners (66%) do not offer a 401(k) plan and 42% of those not offering it don’t see the value in it, according to the August 2016 SurePayroll Small Business Scorecard®.

Thirty-five percent of those not offering a plan said the fees are too expensive, and 23% said they don’t know how to manage a 401(k).

The small business owners that do offer a 401(k) said they do so to build retirement savings for themselves and their employees, with just 5% saying they offer it to attract new employees and 6% saying they offer it for tax breaks.

In total, 28% are offering a plan and another 6% plan to add one soon, the Scorecard survey found.

 

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Small Business Hiring And News

September 1, 2016 by

64002400Small business owners across the United States are being careful after the dismal reports of hiring across the country.  They are holding off any hiring they may do, and are still reticent to make any moves that will put their financials in jeopardy.  Economic growth seems to be inching forward a bit slowly, and some small business owners are still holding off till elections are over.

To read more about this and other stories follow the links below.

Dear Donald Trump: I’m a Small Business Owner, and I Want More Regulation

We love the election-year attention but the presidential candidates are focusing on the wrong things

In election years, I love calling myself a “small business owner.” It’s the one time when the act of selling falafel, building a website or otherwise trying to make a buck comes off as heroic. We’re the “backbone” of the economy, you know, and the “heart and soul of equal opportunity,” as Fran Tarkenton told the Republican convention.

It’s the season when politicians shower us with love and policy papers. Both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have put forward proposals to make our businesses great again, together. I prefer Clinton’s, but mostly I think the election-year pandering to small businesses misses what really matters.

 Trump, like most Republicans, focuses on tax relief. He proposes lowering the top rate for pass-through business income to 15%. This doesn’t move me. Why? My company doesn’t earn enough for the proposal to make much of a difference, as is true for most small business owners. The lion’s share of pass-through income is earned by a small percentage of businesses, which means wealthy individuals would catch a giant tax break while the majority of small business owners are unaffected.

Columbus, Ohio: A growing mecca for small business

In a prior life, Joe DeLoss worked as a banking analyst, but today, his day job couldn’t be more different. DeLoss owns the wildly popular Hot Chicken Takeover in Columbus, Ohio, serving up Nashville Hot Chicken, a spicy style of fried chicken.

 But it’s not the leap from banking to fast food that makes his story so interesting. It’s the fact that his two-year-old restaurant is staffed by a nearly 50-person workforce that has largely experienced incarceration. Some employees have criminal arrest records, while others have served time for everything from misdemeanors to felonies. DeLoss admits they might be overlooked by other employers, but he’s a firm believer in second chances. Make no mistake, though; it’s no charity.

“We created Hot Chicken Takeover to be a fair chance employer. A large part of our workforce has been affected by incarceration in the past, but it’s not what defines our future. We have a team that works harder, is more productive and more motivated than most people in our industry,” DeLoss said.

 State lawmakers OK parental leave for small-business workers

SACRAMENTO — California parents who work for small businesses would be eligible for six weeks of job-protected leave under a bill heading to Gov.Jerry Brown.

The bill was among the myriad of proposed laws sent Wednesday to Brown on the final day of the two-year legislative session. Brown has until Sept. 30 to act on the hundreds of bills on his desk.

With Wednesday’s adjournment, lawmakers concluded a year in which they raised the minimum wage, extended greenhouse gas reduction targets to 2030, added gun control measures and approved $2 billion in bond money for housing and treating mentally ill Californians who are homeless.

On a lighter note, lawmakers approved a bill Wednesday declaring denim as the state’s official fabric under AB501 by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael.

 

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Small Business Health Coverage And Retirement Plans

August 23, 2016 by

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Saving for retirement as a small business owner is hard.  The extra cash is immediately invested in the business, and retirement plans are always for tomorrow.  According to  the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), many Americans are falling short when it comes to retirement. In 2015, 28% of Americans had less than $1,000 dollars saved, and a whooping 64% had less than $50,000.  While retirement plans are not always available through their employers, many workers should be happy to know that the ease to open a retirement account through other mediums is fairly easy and pain free.

To read more about this topic, follow the links below.

Some Small Businesses Restore Group Health Coverage

Backtracking reflects tighter labor market and pricier individual plans.

Some small companies that dropped group health insurance for their employees are reversing course, driven by a tightening labor market and rising costs and fewer choices for individual coverage.

Laura Cottrell, owner of a seven-person home-furnishings and home-improvement products business in St. Louis, dropped group coverage in 2014, not only because of the cost but also the complexities of picking the right plan within a short deadline. Instead, she gave her employees a raise that they could use to buy their own health plans, sparing her from choosing for them.

Now Ms. Cottrell is looking at adding health benefits to make a cabinetry business she launched this year more attractive to potential employees. If she makes the change, she says she would offer coverage to employees of both of her businesses.

“People are looking for health care,” said Ms. Cottrell, who said she was recently turned down by one job candidate because she doesn’t offer health benefits. Adding to her pain: UnitedHealth Group Inc., her personal carrier, won’t offer individual coverage in Missouri next year.

When can you quit your day job when starting a small business?

Q: When you’re starting a small business, when is the right time to quit your day job — financially speaking? If you’re starting your own business and you plan to take out a loan, should you factor in your own living expenses?

Anonymous business owner.

A: When you are starting a business, your personal finances are inseparable from the business. So you need to factor your living expenses into all your financial calculations.

An exercise I use with my students is to have them calculate their “runway.” It is a simple calculation to determine how long they have before they and the business run out of money. How long before the business has to take off. How do you calculate your runway?

 You begin by estimating the cash needs of the business. This includes investments in property, plant and equipment, lease improvements, inventory and all the other outflows of cash required to get a business off the ground. Don’t underestimate your monthly outflows.

California set to join states offering retirement plans

Workers without a workplace option can now open accounts.

More than half of American workers — roughly 55 million — don’t have access to a retirement savings plan on the job.

While those people can open an individual retirement account with an investment company, less than 1 in 3 American households has an IRAand even then most of those people have access to an employer-sponsored plan such as a 401(k).

This week California lawmakers are expected to vote on a bill that would enroll employees who are not covered by an employer-sponsored retirement plan at work into a state-run one.

Lawmakers in California, the nation’s most populous state, are not alone. Since 2012, more than half of state legislatures have considered bills that would create government-run retirement plans for private-sector workers. (See map below.)

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Business News For The Small Business Owner

August 17, 2016 by

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It is perhaps the ability of a small business owner to keep optimism at high levels to be able to do what they do every single day.  There is no other people telling you what to do, or what jobs require top priority.    As a small business owner, the credit and blame stop with them.  There is no employee that works in a small business, that is not the responsibility of the owner.  The successes and the failures mean something else for them as well.  To be a small business owner is to be different.  To have the courage to do what many others wish to do, but are afraid to take the first step.  Read more about business news by following the links below.

Abrams: Small businesses have already won the gold

Small-business owners: If you’ve been watching the Olympics, you may be getting the wrong message. I’m here to tell you that you’re winners, even if you never get the business equivalent of an Olympic gold medal.

For the past week, I’ve been mesmerized watching swimmer Katie Ledecky breaking world records with ease. Usain Bolt running faster than any man on Earth, and smiling as he does it. Those amazing, fearless gymnasts, led by Simone Biles, risking life and limb.

But one aspect of Olympic coverage that frustrates me is when someone asks a silver- or bronze-medal winner if they’re disappointed because they didn’t win the gold.

Most of these fantastic athletes react the way American swimmer Nathan Adrian did when asked whether he was upset that he “only” got a bronze. He looked surprised, then, with an endearing grin, he reminded the correspondent that hey, he was at the Olympics and he won a medal. How great is that?

The Truth About Hiring Friends in Your Small Business

Hiring friends must be done with care to be successful.

Small business ideas are often mulled over by friends long before you take the plunge and say, “I’ve made the decision. I’m starting my own business.” Friends’ reactions may range from encouragement to total negativity, but there’s a good chance at least one friend might be interested in working for you or with you.

While mixing business with friendship can work out, many people choose to keep business separate from friendships. Business relationships gone sour can ruin relationships, and some people avoid this risk by starting out with a “no hiring friends” policy. Most people fall between the two extremes of wanting to hire friends and refusing to do so. With strict boundaries, it’s possible to successfully hire friends for your business.

Hiring a Friend Will Be Fine, Right?

Maybe? After deciding to start your own business, it’s intuitive that many people want friends on board to help build the business. And since close friends tend to be vocal supporters of your ideas, and may be willing to work long hours with little or no pay it makes the choice a quick solution.

Aetna ditching 70% of its ObamaCare business

Insurance giant Aetna won’t be offering coverage under ObamaCare next year in 11 of the 15 states it now serves — an announcement that instantly became an issue in the presidential race.

Aetna’s decision led Donald Trump to charge that President Obama’s health care reform was “imploding.”

“Aetna’s decision to leave the Affordable Care Act’s public marketplaces is the latest blow to this broken law that is slowly imploding under its regulatory red tape,” said Trump campaign deputy national policy director Dan Kowalski.

“Millions of Americans have lost their health coverage under this disastrous policy, eliminating their ability to choose their doctors. Thousands of businesses have been forced to cut employment or shutter their doors in response to Obama’s signature achievement,” he added.

The company had previously warned that it expected to lose more than $300 million this year on the 900,000 patients it covers under the Affordable Care Act.

Aetna said it is pulling out of ObamaCare markets in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas.

 

 

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Is Your Company Culture Positive?

August 9, 2016 by

54640451Although a company’s culture is not a visual entity, it is a palpable entity that most employees can tell you exist in their place of work without pinpointing the exactness of it.  For a large company to succeed or a small business to be able to generate the sales they need, a positive, transparent working environment is always a positive asset to have, without investing too much in other training programs elsewhere.  Lines of communication between departments and employees should be an important asset owners and managers alike should strive to exploit for the benefit of the business.

Tax-Free Weekend Lifts Sales for Small Businesses

STATEWIDE — Shoppers across Texas enjoyed a tax-free weekend on clothing and school supplies. While many flocked to large chain stores, some small businesses also saw a boost.

“Definitely it’s working,” said  David Marrs, owner of Vagabond Vintage Clothing in San Marcos. “I don’t think it can compare to the outlet mall, but I think I saw my sales double yesterday.”

While the San Marcos outlets are always a big draw, shoppers saved 8.25 cents on every dollars of eligible purchases during the weekend no matter where they shopped. For some, it was the reason for a shopping spree. For others, a pleasant coincidence.

“I forgot that it was tax-free weekend,” said Matt Counts, a shopper at Vagabond.

“Until we didn’t pay tax!” laughed his wife Mandy Counts.

Business leaders say shopping at locally-owned stores is a move consumers can feel good about.

Highlight Company Culture to Attract Candidates with Passion

Recruiting motivated, purpose-driven candidates and matching them up to a job and company culture that matters to them will improve employee engagement and retention, according to recent research from LinkedIn.

The global network’s 2016 Global Talent Trends survey of over 33,000 professionals on LinkedIn revealed that those who see themselves staying at their current company for three or more years were more likely than others to be primarily motivated by a sense of purpose.

Forty-one percent of respondents said they couldn’t imagine being at their current company two years in the future, while 37 percent see themselves staying for three or more years. Of those who envision a longer future at their current organization, the largest percentage (39 percent) said they are motivated most by personal fulfillment and purpose and that they tend to accept a job because of a company’s culture, vision and products.

“Their primary motivation is using their work to advance a greater good, a higher cause, a mission they deem worthy of working toward,” said Esther Lee Cruz, global marketing manager at LinkedIn and a co-author of the survey’s report. Of the remaining 61 percent of respondents who intend to stay for three or more years at their current job, 35 percent indicated they are primarily driven by career status and compensation. Twenty-six percent did not indicate a primary motivator.

3 Telltale Signs of Toxic Company Culture – and What to Do About It

What is company culture? Look around you – company culture encompasses everything from your office layout, to the way you collaborate with peers and managers, to the costume contest held every Halloween. In today’s workplace landscape, culture has quickly moved from a “nice-to-have” to a “must have”. However, a recent study by Deloitte University Press reported that HR leaders consider culture and engagement their number one challenge.

So, how can your organizations create a strong company culture and avoid toxicity? It starts at the top. Leadership must vigilantly watch for warning signs and take proactive measures to ensure culture is protected.

Here are three warning signs of toxic company culture:

1. Knowledge Hoarding

Shared knowledge increases efficiency, improves employee performance, and fosters innovation. However, some individuals develop a “figure it out yourself” attitude instead of sharing tacit knowledge openly and willingly. They become territorial and lack the willingness to share their hard-earned skills and experience with colleagues. Some hoard information because they feed off of power and control. Others hoard knowledge because they believe sharing their knowledge with others will only make them disposable.

 

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Don’t Let Passive-Aggressive Employees Harm Your Business

August 8, 2016 by

64735957Passive-aggressive is a word you hear people use a lot.  But, many of them use it to describe someone’s actions when it doesn’t actually apply.  They don’t seem to understand what it really means; it’s just a buzz word.

Small business owners are some of the people who don’t understand it.  Overall, they rarely recognize the behavior and don’t see how it’s negatively affecting their company.  That’s a problem, because odds are they’ve had in the past, currently have or will in the future have passive-aggressive employees.

The smart owner will learn what passive-aggressive behavior is, be able to recognize it and know how to manage it.  If it’s not managed it can and will: undermine authority, damage morale, lower productivity and quality, harm customer/vendor relationships, create a hostile work environment and increase staff turnover. 

It has turned functional operations into nonfunctional ones, without the owner knowing how it happened.  The behavior is hard to identify if you don’t know what you’re looking for.  It’s a sneaky, deliberate, sabotaging, underground way for an employee to express anger at his boss, managers, co-workers and the company, without getting caught doing it.

He wants to avoid direct, face-to face communication (passive), while still being able to act on his anger (aggressive).  He thinks his anger is justified, but won’t state his concerns or dissatisfaction directly.  Passive-aggressive people believe others “must pay” for their unhappiness, and they “get back” at them in indirect ways. 

Some of these ways include:

  • Always having excuses (“good reasons”) for not doing tasks they’ve agreed to do, have been assigned to do or are their regular job duties.
  • Regularly missing clear deadlines, with excuses for why they couldn’t meet them.
  • Withholding information, sometimes critical, from others while feigning ignorance — “All they needed to do was ask me for it.”
  • “Stirring things up,” then standing in the background to watch the fireworks.
  • Going over someone’s head or behind their back to make them appear incompetent.
  • Using innuendo and rumor to sabotage others and their work. 
  • Not taking responsibility for their actions/words, while repeatedly blaming others.
  • Giving others vague, incomplete instructions and blaming them when the job goes wrong.
  • Claiming information has been sent when it hasn’t — “The text, email, fax, phone message must have gotten lost.”
  • Appearing busy (texting, emailing, walking around) without doing any identifiable work.
  • Taking credit for others’ work.

Doing some of these things doesn’t make a person passive-aggressive, it makes them human.  Instead, look for someone who has a pattern of consistently deflecting fault by having an excuse — which includes blaming someone or something else — for doing poor or incomplete work.  He believes he’s a victim, but it’s really the business that’s a victim of his behavior.

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