Small Business News

May 14, 2015 by

62227730To start a business, regardless of where you live, you have to considered the many advantages a particular state or city has on the success of your business. Paperwork and taxes are too cumbersome for many small business owners to consider, so the less they have to deal with those issues the better. The attraction of many cities for the small business owner is the possibility to finding funding, less taxes and paperwork.

To read more about this topic follow the links below.

Small-Business Owners Gained Confidence in April

WASHINGTON — Small-business owners in the United States gained confidence in April and were surprisingly bullish about capital expenditure plans, further supporting views that economic growth is rebounding after a dismal first quarter.

The Labor Department also reported on Tuesday that job openings fell in March. The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday that its Small Business Optimism Index rose 1.7 points to 96.9 last month. It was the largest gain since December.

Small businesses historically have accounted for half of private gross domestic product. The economy is clawing back after being hit by a mix of bad weather, disruptions at ports, a strong dollar and deep spending cuts by energy companies.Data on employment and consumer sentiment have suggested a pickup in growth momentum at the start of the second quarter, but the dollar and lower oil prices continue to weigh on manufacturing.

San Francisco Chamber CEO Applauds Small-Business Rebels

Small businesses take center stage in San Francisco next week, with an emphasis on disruptive technology and businesses that have butted heads with the status quo.

Uber and Airbnb sprang up in this city, beginning as startups testing new, even quirky business models. They quickly transformed into global companies.

Chamber of Commerce President Bob Linscheid says there are lessons to be learned from businesses — startups or established companies — that challenge the norm.

“That lesson is that you must constantly innovate,” he says. “Our city is a haven for innovation and entrepreneurship.”

The Best And Worst Cities For Small Business Employees

Last month, Forbes reported on the best cities for starting a business this year, and much attention is frequently given to the locations working the hardest to attract founders who’ll create coveted jobs. But which cities are the most hospitable to those who hold those positions?

To determine the best and worst cities for small business employees, personal finance site WalletHub looked at 100 of the country’s largest metro areas, evaluating each against 11 metrics that examine the small business climate as well as the larger economic environment.

As a means of measuring the health of the small business scene in each city, WalletHub considered the number of business with less than 250 employees per every 1,000 residents, small business job growth, diversity of industries, percentage of small businesses offering health insurance to employees and employee earnings adjusted for cost of living.

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Emphasize Your Strengths by Understanding Your Weaknesses

March 19, 2015 by

Our country was founded on many strong principles.  One of these principles is that we are a society of people who are self-sufficient.  Our national culture upholds and supports the idea that anyone can achieve success – all a person needs to do is pick themselves up by their bootstraps and get on with it.

This is a good concept, which has built, developed and invented wo64521313rld changing ideas, machines and technologies.  But, when taken too literally, it has also created failures, calamities and disasters.  The paradox of self-sufficiency is to know when you cannot and should not depend only on yourself, to understand when you should ask for help. 

One of the characteristics of highly independent and successful people is the ability to identify the proper time to get help.  The “secret” to being constructively independent, rather than destructively, is to understand your knowledge gaps and then seek out assistance to fill them.  It is not important to know the answers to all the questions, it is important to know where and how to find the people who know the answers.

In our culture’s bootstrap mentality there is a false belief that gaps in knowledge, skill or understanding equal weakness and that this weakness is a character flaw or a moral failing.  Unfortunately, because of this, for thousands of years people have been unsuccessful because – often due to pride, ignorance, ego or misguided notions of independence – they did not get help for these gaps.

Everyone has strengths and weaknesses; it is part of being human to be good at some things, average at most and poor at others.  You can learn to make one of your strengths the ability to recognize your weaknesses or gaps.  Once they are identified, you can ask for help to change or minimize them.  Truly self-reliant people understand their success is enhanced by other’s knowledge and that they can “…stand on the shoulders of giants.”(Sir Isaac Newton).

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Achievers Understand the Lessons of Failure

March 4, 2015 by

64002400The fear of failure, some experts have called it a fundamental or primal fear found in all humans. Whether or not it’s a primary fear, it’s so common that it’s the basis of or inherent in all motivational or inspirational seminars, as well as being the topic of thousands of books. Much has been said and written about the fear of failure, for good reason.

It holds many people back from achieving their goals and dreams. The average person avoids success because they’re afraid they’re going to fail at the things required to achieve it. There are several reasons why the fear of failure is debilitating. One of the reasons, of why people pass up success, is that they don’t understand the lessons of failure.

The process of failing is often misunderstood. Achievers understand failure, they don’t like it, but they’ve learned to value it. One of the key characteristics of successful people is that they have the desire and ability to learn. They view a setback as an opportunity to gain knowledge and grow.

They ask themselves productive questions. What did I do correctly and how can I make it better in the future? What did I do incorrectly and how can I make it better in the future?  Successful people look for logical answers that produce useful insights, both positive and negative, which then lead to an action plan. Here’s an example.

Joe made a client presentation and was surprised when it didn’t result in a sale. He reviewed the presentation and determined that his information was solid and easy to understand. However, he’d been overconfident and failed to connect the benefits of the product to the client’s needs – a fundamental error. Joe created an action plan to meet with the client again and created a pre-sales checklist to avoid making the same mistake in the future.

Unsuccessful people ask non-productive questions. The answers to these questions are emotionally based, instead of logically based. Often, no useful information can be obtained from these answers. This blocks the person’s ability to learn a lesson from the experience, making forward momentum difficult, usually impossible. Here’s another example.

Steve made a client presentation and was surprised when it didn’t result in a sale. He asked himself unproductive questions (Why can’t I do anything right? Why do these things always happen to me?). He got answers he wasn’t able to use (I’ll never get this. The client is out to get me.).   The plan formulated from these answers is – There’s no use in trying. The opportunity to learn from the lesson of failure is lost.

Success, in spite of the fear of failure, is a hallmark of achievers. They don’t seek it out, but they don’t avoid it either. C. S. Lewis said it well, “Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.”

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Goal-Setting is a Way to Success

February 9, 2015 by

64510516The way to achieve success is an age old mystery. Why do some people attain it and others don’t? Researchers, professors, psychologists and motivational speakers have spent lifetimes attempting to quantify and answer that question. They’ve discovered that, while there are many ways people can attain their dreams, goal-setting is still the gold standard. Here are 3 of the proven methods successful people use to achieve their goals.

Make a plan – A new study (soon to be published in “Behavioral Science and Policy”) has found that many people sabotage themselves at the very beginning of their quest for success. The more they want something the less likely they are to develop a plan and set goals to reach it. Its basic human behavior that most people think good intentions are enough and positive thinking will carry them through.

However, thinking isn’t action, doing is action – good intentions and positive thinking aren’t nearly enough. Overwhelmingly, empirical data and antidotal information shows that people with written plans are much more likely to complete their goals than those who don’t have a written plan.

Break it down – Break the components of the plan down into manageable pieces. A goal that’s not parsed into smaller, practical actions is too uncontrollable and complex. When people don’t have control they feel frustrated, confused, incompetent and inadequate to the task, which leads to abandonment of the objective.

For example, Joe set the goal of “Being a Better Manager”. It was a good goal, but impossible to achieve without being defined and broken down. What did it really mean? How was he to know when he reached it? What did he have to “do” to be successful? He worked with a coach to define, quantify and sort out the components into manageable daily tasks.

Build in consequences and rewards – After the plan is made and broken down into controllable tasks it’s important to benchmark them, and then attach rewards and consequences to each benchmark. If the mark is hit then the reward is given, if it isn’t hit the consequence is triggered. People are much more likely to meet their goals when this happens.

Involving others is intrinsic to this process. People are more successful in reaching their goals when others know about them. Joe and his coach created a system – when he reached a goal he took the afternoon off to golf and when he didn’t reach a goal he spent Saturday mornings cleaning up the break room. Both the carrot and the stick helped him stay on track.

Goal setting and monitoring can be rewarding and worthwhile. Other times it’s tedious and time consuming. That’s why successful people do it and unsuccessful people don’t. Successful people do the things that unsuccessful people aren’t willing to do.

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Gov. Kasich’s Budget Proposal

February 3, 2015 by

business (6)Many of the states that are considered “small business friendly” are those states that do not have income tax. Gov. John Kasich tax reforms for Ohio and the proposed elimination on income tax from small business owners, is an attempt to help Ohioans share the wealth of the state. Among other proposed tax initiatives is increasing personal exemption for Ohioans earning less than $40,000. For more news about Gov. Kasich tax plans follow the links below.

John Kasich to propose eliminating income tax on most small businesses, boost exemptions for low-, middle-income Ohioans

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The budget proposal Gov. John Kasich will unveil Monday will include reforms that would eliminate state income tax on nearly all small businesses in Ohio and increase exemption levels for lower- and middle-income Ohioans.

Kasich revealed his plan in an appearance Thursday before a conference of the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies. He also used the event to highlight initiatives in his budget that will help to lift the poor out of poverty and make Ohio’s welfare programs operate more effectively.

His tax plans, touted as “a comprehensive plan for helping all Ohioans share in our state’s prosperity, call for:

  • Elimination of income tax from small businesses — pass through entities such as sole proprietorships and S-corp. companies that report income on the owners’ individual tax returns.
  • Increasing the personal exemption for Ohioans earning less than $40,000 a year from $2,200 to $4,000 in 2015.
  • Increasing the personal exemption for Ohioans earning $40,000 to $80,000 a year from $1,950 to $2,850.

Governor’s new budget to include the elimination of the state’s income tax for many small businesses

CLEVELAND – Cleveland’s West 25th Street is a large part of the city, no doubt, but it is a large part made up of small parts.

“Half of Cleveland’s jobs are in small businesses,” said Sam McNulty. The Market Garden Brewery founder should know—as a small business owner he is an employer and one who could benefit by Governor John Kasich’s budget proposal to be unveiled Monday.

The plan would eliminate the state income tax on small businesses with annual gross receipts of $2 million or less.

“It’s significant and instead of just sending this off to the state… we’ll be able to efficiently deliver those same dollars to the business, reinvest and again creating jobs,” said McNulty. “What this does is this gives all of us the ability to grow the city even more and really supercharge the renaissance we’re seeing.”

The tax cut would cost the state about $700 million over two years and the income tax exemption another $372 million, a fraction of Ohio’s current $60 billion-plus budget.

Big Tax Cuts For Small Businesses

CINCINNATI (Paula Toti) — Governor John Kasich officially released his new budget proposal on Monday. He says the state is doing better financially and it’s time for income tax cuts for everyone. Under the plan if you make less than $80,000 a year, you would see an increase in the personal exemption you can claim. Tax rates would also be cut under the Governor’s plan, with the top income tax rate under five percent (verses eight and a half). The part of the plan getting the most buzz is to eliminate state income taxes on small business. The tax break on small businesses would be big. However, what a lot of people don’t realize is there is currently a big break. In the 2014 tax year, 75 percent of the first 250 thousand in income is state income tax exempt. Kasich would increase that to 100 percent, and the bigger part may be that it would expand to any company with less than two million in gross receipts. The Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber says that’s 85 percent of its members. While it might not mean every small shop will lower prices, the chamber says it likely means more jobs and investing in the local economy.

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3 Reasons Why People Succeed

January 21, 2015 by

54642287There is an old saying; “Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it” (Mark Twain). The same can be said about success – everybody talks about it, but very few people do anything about it. They rarely do anything about it because everybody has faults that keep them from achieving their goals, dreams and desires.
But, successful people persevere in spite of their faults, while others fail because of them. There are many reasons why some people succeed when others, who’re just as smart and talented, don’t. Below are 3 of the reasons why people succeed.
They take personal responsibility – Two of the most common defense mechanisms are rationalization and denial. Successful people work to minimize both behaviors; they don’t make or accept excuses from themselves. They take responsibility for and are always learning from their constructive and unconstructive actions.
They’ve learned that when they’re accountable they’re also in control. When they’re in control they can keep their attention on what’s really important – spending resources on finding solutions. People who expend their limited resources (time, money and energy) on making excuses and justifying their behavior aren’t people who look for solutions.
They don’t blame outside circumstances – The lack of time and money is a universal issue for individuals when they’re trying to achieve their goals, as is the drain of energy due to too many outside demands. These situations are nothing new or unique for anyone.
The difference between successful people and everyone else is that they don’t blame these circumstances for their difficulties. Their answer to these problems is a resounding – “so what”. They understand that adversity is a given in trying to get ahead and never a good reason to give up.
They have high standards – Unsuccessful people accept mediocre behavior from themselves. They cut corners, take shortcuts and are believers in “good enough”, which produces work that has to be apologized for, redone or fixed and compensation made.

In addition, the successful know mediocre behavior is short-sighted and it leads to distrust and broken relationships. They hold themselves to a higher standard where exceptional work is the only acceptable way. They understand that focus, dedication and hard work are the only things that lead to their dreams.
The definition of success is a very personal one. It’s unique to each individual and only they can know if they’ve reached it. Unfortunately, most people say they haven’t attained it. A final word from Mr. Twain, “There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.”

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Time Management For Your Business and Personal Life

January 7, 2015 by

business (5)Almost half of Americans make a New Year’s resolution, and a very small percentage of those people are successful.  But one of the most frequent New Year’s resolutions is the wish to spend more time with their family or loved ones. If your business is taking too much time away from the things you wish to do, isn’t this a year to fix it?  Efficiency in the workplace can be accomplished, thus giving you more time to take care of other issues that will enable you to have more time to enjoy life.   For more about time management and efficiency in the workplace, follow the links below.

5 Fundamental Ways To Save Time And Increase Personal Efficiency In 2015

One constant in my management career – and I strongly suspect in many, many others – was that with challenging projects, challenging people, and a host of intractable business problems, there were never enough hours in the day to do what, in a perfect world, needed to be done.  Simply put, in management you never have enough time.  Accordingly, here are 5 fundamental ways to save time and increase personal efficiency in 2015.

Letting go – Are you delegating all you should be?  Are you holding on to things that others on your staff could be doing just as effectively as you?  Do you tend to bottleneck projects, with others waiting for your decisions and being delayed in the process?  The fact is, all really effective executives are also highly efficient delegators.  There’s no choice.  With multiple projects and priorities swirling around, they have to be… or they wouldn’t be effective for long.

Keep at bay the Great Devourer of Time – I’m speaking of course of meetings, which have a vast appetite for corporate time… and, as everyone in business knows, are too often inefficient.  Time wasted in meetings when other projects needed doing was a constant pet peeve of mine in the business world.  To the extent you can save time both in those meetings you attend (Do I really need to go? Can I send someone else in my place? Can I find out what I need to in a quick phone call instead?) and those you set up (Do I really need to schedule an hour? Might a half hour do? Or even 15 minutes?), your schedule will thank you for it.  Naturally some meetings are valuable and essential, no doubt about it.  But if you approach them all from a certain skeptical standpoint of operational efficiency, you’ll likely find yourself returning useful time to your calendar on a regular basis.

5 Secrets to Managing Your Business While Traveling

Traveling the world and running a business at the same time seems like a glamorous lifestyle: You can work from anywhere you want, make your own schedule and be your own boss.

But the characteristics that make it desirable also turn it terrible.

After all, with complete freedom to choose between exploring far-off lands (and people) and sitting in an Internet cafe doing SEO chores, participating in conference calls and writing emails, who would choose to do the latter tasks? Not many people.

Given the option, you would probably close your computers and go exploring with those beautiful Scandinavians who just invited you to the beach.

The digital-nomad lifestyle may seem appealing, but there’s nothing glamorous about freaking out because your Internet connection in a small town suddenly went out two minutes before an important conference call or product launch.

Yet it’s possible to find a balance and successfully run a business from the road, relying on time management and careful planning.

Build Your Business For Lasting Success With This Tip From The Grateful Dead

Whether you’re into hippy jam bands or not, you have to admit: The Grateful Dead were masters of their business. Sure, they only had one Top 10 song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. They didn’t win a Grammy during three decades of active music production (though they did finally receive a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007).

But they found a niche and they dominated it — and their strategy is one that businesses of all kinds can learn from.

You’ve heard about the fox and the hedgehog: the ancient Greek poet Archilochus penned the oft-repeated phrase “… the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” The poem is a philosophical touch point for business theory, personality testing, and more. The Hedgehog’s one big thing — curling into a ball to protect himself from attack — helped him fend off the more cunning fox, whose every creative effort to eat the hedgehog is foiled.

The hedgehog approach is key to starting a successful business. A successful startup knows its one big thing and does it better — or cheaper, or faster — than anyone else.

It’s exactly what the Grateful Dead did in developing and marketing their music. Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, the founders of Hubspot, argue in their book Inbound Marketing that the Grateful Dead found extraordinary success by doing three simple things: they created a niche market, they upended traditional marketing strategies to build an audience, and they focused like a laser on the one thing they could do best.

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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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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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