Motivating Your Workforce

November 11, 2015 by

62227730When you are a small business owner, you concentrate in making sure the success of the company is possible by working hard and having employees that can help you achieve your goals.  Your goal is to optimize employees work to reach the success you envisioned.  Dedicated employees that can help you achieve your goals are an important part of having a business, and many employers fail to engage or value key employees that are an integral part to the success of their business.

For more small business news, follow the links below.

How Business Owners Can Stay Motivated Every Day

One of the biggest challenge that business owners face is motivation. Yes, they are motivated enough to start their business but there is no one really on top of them telling them what to do, how to do it, why to do it. They need to figure it out on their own. Entrepreneurs need to motivate themselves each day to get out of bed and create the perfect business.

That takes emotional fuel and it sometimes runs out. Wouldn’t it be great to figure out a strategy to load up on the emotional fuel needed to stay motivated? Imagine you can drink some kool aid that was legal and you can feel motivated with no low after. Sugar can get you hyper but it will also get you down right after it runs out. Real motivation comes from within. Here are a few strategies that have worked for me.

Create Clarity – The most important thing that you can do to feel great about yourself and your business is to have a clear strategy, purpose and vision. You need to be clear on why you are doing what you are doing. Once you know exactly how you will be spending your time and why you will be doing each thing that you are doing you will have two decisions to make.

Working hard to feel better: The importance of corporate wellness

Your shoulders ache, your head pounds and crashing on the sofa after a long day in the office is the only thing for which you can muster any enthusiasm.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Work-related stress — compounded by poor eating habits and lack of exercise — affects most of us at some stage, leading to low energy levels and, in extreme cases, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers.

While many strive to lead a healthy life, working for more than 40 hours a week inevitably takes its toll, and with the results of a recent IPSOS survey showing that 42 per cent of UAE employees find the workplace stressful, is there more employers can do to improve employee wellness?

“Absolutely,” says Andrew Picken, managing partner at Bespoke Wellness in Dubai, which offers corporate wellness programmes throughout the country.

Going Millennial: The Perks of Hiring Generation Y

Millennials: The Benefits, the Challenges and Why You Should Hire Them.

America’s population statistics are changing, and so is the workforce. Millennials now officially outnumber Baby Boomers 83.1 million to 75.4 million, according to themost recent US Census.

This means the workplace will soon undergo a transformative change—if it hasn’t already.

As more Baby Boomers reach retirement age, more millennials join the workforce. With this  drastic change in maturity comes a dramatic change in style—and we’re not just talking fashion!

Millennials have different takes on life, different motivations and vastly different expectations of the world compared to the generations before them. Businesses that want to remain successful would be wise to keep up with the times and find new ways to appeal to these burgeoning masses.

 

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Entrepreneurial Stubbornness – the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

November 4, 2015 by

59948705Persistence, not listening to the nay-sayers, determination, following your dream: All things which contribute to starting and building a thriving business. All things which are fueled by good old-fashioned stubbornness.  I have yet to meet a successful small business owner who doesn’t have a very large streak of it.  Unfortunately, that’s not always a positive.

The Good

Stubbornness is a positive quality when it’s driving you to create, build and sustain a business.  The desire to “do things my way”  is a powerful motivator.  It’s what keeps you on track to work the long hours and make the hard decisions.  It has built multi-national Fortune 100 companies, as well as the local machine shop.

The Bad

As the saying goes, “There are 2 sides to every coin.”  There’s a bad side to entrepreneurial stubbornness.  It’s human nature to become attached to our own viewpoint – not only do we get stuck in ruts, we furnish them for additional comfort.  This makes it difficult to see other’s (accountants, consultants, employees, managers) points of view and listen to their ideas. 

Ideas which are good for you and your company.  When a company is growing there’s a juncture when the owner should shift from “a one-man show” style of management to a team approach.  Many don’t make that change, they stubbornly hang on to old ideas and ways of doing things, which often leads to the ugly.

The Ugly

There comes a time when an owners’ refusal to modify his inflexibility crosses the line from poor management skills to self destructive behavior-“the old way is good enough, no  one is going to tell me what to do”.  Resulting in — due to the owner’s unwillingness to recognize and adapt to changing ideas, technologies, employee’s needs and market requirements — a bankrupt company. 

Good entrepreneurial stubbornness often turns bad and ugly over time.  Owners fail to understand that we all need to evolve if we are to thrive in an ever changing world, and we have to be willing to listen to others to do so.  As Benjamin Franklin said, “We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid.”

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Is SEO For The Small Business Owner?

October 29, 2015 by

Customer Relationship Management business chart on a digital tabFor some businesses SEO sometimes does not make sense.  It is no wonder then that many of the small businesses in the United States are not engage in trying or using SEO for their business. If you are a small business owner you may not have the budget or the incentive to undertake SEO as well. And although many businesses struggle to measure the ROI when hiring a company to do they search engine optimization, it is important to be aware of the benefits SEO brings to businesses when they do it well.

7 Credit Card Perks for Small Business Owners

You won’t get these sign-up bonuses and introductory APRs with consumer cards.

Owners of both new and established small businesses can benefit from a broad range of valuable perks offered with credit cards. Business credit cards not only provide a means for building and establishing business credit, but they can assist in record-keeping, preserving cash flow and separating business and personal finances. Much like consumer credit cards, the right business card can offer a plethora of rewards that you can redeem for flights, hotel stays and cash back on purchases.

Here are seven significant credit card perks for small business owners.

1. Valuable sign-up bonuses. Many credit cards offer a range of one-time promotions designed to attract new cardholders and business owners. These promotions might include sign-up bonuses allowing you to earn hundreds of dollars if you meet a specific spending requirement within a few months of opening the account. Sign-up bonuses may also award enough miles and points that you start out with free airline flights or hotel stays, simply for using your credit card.

Why Aren’t More Small Businesses Using SEO?

For more than a decade, thousands of businesses have enjoyed the benefits of high rankings in Google searches (and searches on competing engines) thanks to their SEO efforts. Larger corporations pour hundreds of thousands of dollars and allocate entire departments to gaining more online visibility, but even small- to mid-sized businesses can use a fraction of that budget to get more traffic and sales.

However, according to a recent survey by the Small Business Authority (SBA), less than 50 percent of small business owners in the United States think of inbound traffic from search engines as an “important” source of future business. Another 14 percent declared themselves unsure.

It’s also worth noting that only 17 percent of surveyed small business owners are actively investing in SEO. However, a startling 39 percent of business owners aren’t investing in any marketing strategies whatsoever, indicating that SEO alone may not be the problem.

How will the candidates help small business?

​All politicians express support for small business. These enterprises are the engines of our economy and represent the entrepreneurial grit that has made this country great. Unfortunately, these rhetorical commitments to Main Street have not always been accompanied by meaningful actions. As a result many small businesses are finding it difficult to launch or grow, while others are failing altogether.

Since the misdeeds that led to the financial crisis of 2008, the federal government has adopted a myriad of regulations and requirements designed to reduce risk-taking by Wall Street. The quest for safer banks and greater financial stability is a good thing. However, we must be careful of what we wish for. The most stable financial system is one with no lending at all and many small businesses today are struggling to find credit.

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The U.S and Ohio Economies

October 14, 2015 by

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The Ohio unemployment rate has slowly but surely being decreasing over the last few months.  Back in March the unemployment rate was at 5.1%, and in August it was 4.7%. Compared to the U.S as a whole, Ohio is just a bit better than the national average and the small business confidence seems to have increased for a couple months now. For more about this and other topics, follow the links below.

US small business confidence edges up, sales a worry

U.S. small business confidence rose marginally in September as stock market volatility raised concerns about sales growth, suggesting the economy was expanding at a moderate pace.

The National Federation of Independent Business said on Tuesday its Small Business Optimism Index gained 0.2 point to 96.1 last month. It said that level was consistent with a 2.5 percent annualized growth rate.

“Financial markets did not provide any encouragement to owners, instead providing volatility that only a trader could like. This produces uncertainty,” the NFIB said.

Seven of the index’s 10 components eked out small gains last month, while the share of small business owners expecting stronger sales volumes in the next few months fell six points.

Why Small Businesses Are Feeling An Economic Crunch

ATTN: Baby Boomer-Aged Small Business Owners

Congratulations, you’re one of the 4 million Baby Boomers who currently own and operate American companies. You deserve credit for building strong brands and reputations, for employing countless others, for providing for your families and communities, and for effectively living out the American Dream. But as strategic as you’ve been in business, you’ve likely kicked the succession-planning can down the road and continue to do so. That’s a mistake, and hopefully this gets your attention.

Basic Facts

You and your peers represent roughly 66% of all domestic businesses with employees.

You, being a member of the generation born between 1946 and 1964, began turning 65 years old in 2011 at a rate of about 10,000 people per day and will continue passing that age milestone through 2029.

In Business, Does Size Matter?

Conventional wisdom says that startups and closely held companies should be far more nimble, less bureaucratic, and less political than large corporations. But that’s more myth than reality. In the real world, small businesses are just as likely to be poorly run and dysfunctional as big enterprises. Perhaps more so.

I was just commiserating with a friend about the company where she works. “It’s hard to believe such a small firm can be so screwed up,” she said. “You’ve heard of silo mentality between departments and divisions? We have silos of like one or two people. It’s nuts.”

“Size doesn’t matter, at least not when it comes to organizational dysfunction,” I said. “There are great leaders, lousy leaders, and everything in between. Big or small, they determine how their companies function … or don’t.”

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It’s Time to Get Serious About Strategic Planning

October 6, 2015 by

business (11)It’s that time of year again. The time of year when companies are — or should be — developing their strategic plans for 2016. Compared to larger companies small business owners are in an enviable position. They have more control over the development and execution of their plans. They can have a greater impact on the profitability and success of their business, with significantly less hassles and politics.
But, the downside is they have fewer resources (people, experience and knowledge) to draw from while formulating their plans. Often, in a small business, owners don’t know where to start or what’s needed to put one together and they need to figure it out for themselves. Here are 3 things they can do to fill in these gaps.
Combine data with intuition
Successful planners strike a balance between relying on just their gut or just the numbers. Usually, an owner falls into 1 of 2 camps — the “I don’t even look at the numbers, I go with my gut” guy and the “I’m a by-the-numbers, they don’t lie” guy. Neither is productive for the long term health of the company, good strategic thinkers use both to counterbalance each other.
Develop a trusted group
The most effective planners solicit information from others (i.e., peers, experts, employees, managers, vendors, customers) who’re successful. Because no one can know everything they seek out knowledge they don’t have. They cobble together their own panel of specialists. However, this isn’t group decision making — it’s about owners gathering data and opinions, and then reaching their own conclusions.
Be willing to learn
Questioning and listening aren’t the same thing. We all know people who ask questions, then don’t pay attention to the answer. The best strategic thinkers are open to what others have to say. They don’t substitute someone else’s judgment for their own, but they’re willing to learn from others.

In addition, not only do they seek knowledge, they look for insight from others. Businesses fail everyday because the person(s) in charge made mistakes based on uniformed, misguided assumptions, ideas and biases. Effective planners learn from mistakes and don’t do them again; ineffective planners make the same ones over and over expecting different results.
Successful, well thought out strategic planning relies on good critical thinking skills, which leads to good decisions. As one of our greatest generals Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”.

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Ohio Business Registrations Now Easier Than Ever

October 5, 2015 by

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Paperwork is always considered when rating the best states to start a business.  With the new filing fees in Ohio-$99-it is easier now  to file and pay your fees on line and have your business registration done the same day. If you were dreading the filing and the time it took the government to complete the paperwork, dread no more.  Ohio is making the start of your small business easier than ever before.

For more about this and other news follow the links below.

More Ohio business owners to hire, boost paychecks

By Staff Staff

Staff report

More small- and medium-sized business owners in Ohio and nationwide expect to increase hiring and wages for their employees over the next six months, and they also are increasingly optimistic about the prospects for their own businesses, according to the most recent PNC Economic Outlook Survey findings released today, Oct. 1.

The fall findings of PNC’s bi-annual telephone survey, which began in 2003, show that about 36 percent of Ohio business owners said they expect to boost employees’ pay in the next six months, up from 26 percent last spring. And 59 percent of those business owners that do plan raises say the amount will be 3 percent or more. Nationally, the prospect of salary increases is even more promising: 42 percent intend to give raises, which is the highest percentage since 2007.

Ohio’s small, mid-sized firms report worker shortageOhio’s small and midsized businesses say they are having a harder time finding workers.

PNC Bank’s fall survey of business owners and executives released on Thursday found that 4 in 10 businesses say it is more difficult to find qualified employees than it was six months ago. Eleven percent of businesses that aren’t hiring say it is because they can’t find the right skilled workers.

Ohio’s jobless rate dropped to a 14-year low of 4.7 percent in August, and the number of unemployed workers has tumbled in recent months. In central Ohio, the rate is even lower: 3.6 percent.

Some industries are being hurt by a lack of skilled workers. For example, construction workers might have moved on to other industries during the recession, said PNC Bank economist Mekael Teshome.

Teshome said he also has heard of manufacturers struggling to find workers with the technical skills and experience needed for some openings.

In other instances, it is a case where employers aren’t quite ready to raise pay, he said.

Ohio cuts price of new business paperwork to $99

Last week, Ohio became the least costly state in the region to start and maintain a new business. On Thursday, joined by leaders from around our state, I was pleased to announce we’ve cut the cost of registering a new business in Ohio to just $99. We also launched a partnership with Google to help connect new entrepreneurs with resources to get their businesses online, registered with Google Maps and Search tools and other important marketing resources.

Elected officials and candidates talk every day about creating jobs and making it easier to do business, but what exactly does that mean? I suspect even some of the people who say these things don’t really know.

The Secretary of State’s office is the first stop for anyone wanting to do business in Ohio.

We’re working every day to try to make this first interaction positive by implementing more services to help you get your business idea off the ground. Now, we’re taking it to the next level: We’re cutting the cost of starting a business in Ohio.

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Habits of Successful People You Should Emulate

September 24, 2015 by

59948705Emulating successful entrepreneurs’ habits to achieve success  does not necessarily mean we will achieve it, it just means that we may in the process acquire certain habits that will be beneficial for our business. Every entrepreneur is different, and their businesses and processes are widely diverse as well. By acquiring and fostering better habits and applying them in our business will help us achieve the success we are looking for.

12 Habits That Set Ultra Successful People Apart

Ultra successful people delight themselves by blowing their personal goals out of the water. They succeed along many different dimensions of life—their friendships, their physical and mental health, their families, and their jobs (which they are not only good at but also enjoy).

TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that ultra successful people have a lot in common. In particular, 90% of them are skilled at managing their emotions in order to stay focused, calm, and productive.

These super successful folks have high emotional intelligence (EQ), a quality that’s critical to achieving your dreams.

5 Skills That Are the Foundation of Entrepreneurial Success

Entrepreneurship requires many skills, from financial planning to human resource management, and it’s at times both intimidating and frustrating. Fortunately, if you’ve got a good idea and the commitment to making it work, most of these skills can be picked up along the way. Throughout the course of your business ownership, you’ll make mistakes, learn valuable lessons, and gain experience that teaches you these skills over time.

Unfortunately, this style of learning can sometimes come too late. Some skills need to be learned early on, or else their absence could spell a tragic fate for your business.

If you’re planning on becoming an entrepreneur, or if you’ve just entered the world of business ownership, learn these five skills as early as possible:

7 Successful Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter (Plus Their Best Tweets)

Total madness.

Five-hundred million daily jolts of information, reshuffled every second, weighed up for what value they hold. Each with an average lifetime of 18 minutes.

But let me tell you a secret: virtually all of Twitter just equals noise. Smoke. Stuff you don’t want and can’t use. So why bother?

Because every now and then, it works. You discover an invaluable piece of advice, a powerful insight or a link to an incredible resource.

How? Simple: when you select people to follow and pay attention to, do extra diligence. Take discernment to an extreme.

Yes — you can (and should) follow the Richard Bransons and the Bill Gateses. No doubt they have plenty to offer.

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Ohio Small Business News

September 16, 2015 by

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The small business sector has long been considered a big job creator for the United States economy. Small businesses have a long history of creating jobs and employing over half the workforce in the United States. It is no wonder then that the federal government has disburse millions of dollars to support the small business sector in Ohio. For more about this and other topics, follow the links below.

U.S. small businesses feel mixed impact from China’s economy

NEW YORK: China’s economic problems have been a windfall for some U.S. small businesses — and pose a threat to others.

A nearly 40 percent plunge in the Shanghai stock market since mid-June, a response to the country’s weakening economy, has sent Chinese investors looking for safer investments. Some are focusing on U.S. real estate, including the condos Peggy Fucci’s real estate brokerage sells in Miami. She’s sold six condos to Chinese buyers in the past month, twice what she’s typically sold in that amount of time.

“It’s the insecurity of continuing to lose your [stock market] investment,” said Fucci, CEO of OneWorld Properties.

Chinese buyers, who pay an average $1.2 million for the condos in a downtown Miami development where she’s sold some homes, want them as an investment rather than a place to live, she said. Fucci is heading to China this weekend on a sales trip, optimistic that she’ll find more buyers.

Feds give Ohio over $18 million for small businesses

Ohio has received more than $18.7 million in State Small Business Credit Initiative funds to help small businesses access capital to grow and create jobs, the U.S. Treasury Department announced recently.

To date, more than $55 million in initiative funds have been disbursed to the Ohio Development Services Agency to support small businesses and the local economy.

“Small businesses are the nation’s leading job creators, and the State Small Business Credit Initiative connects sources of capital to the small businesses that need it,” said Jeffrey Stout, director of the initiative, in a statement.

“The funds announced … will continue to support loans and investments in Ohio’s small businesses,” Stout said.

TAX TIPS: Ohio budget bill provides considerable tax savings for local business activity

Ohio’s operating budget for 2016 and 2017 calls for reductions in tax rates that could prove important to small business owners in the Buckeye State.

This summer, Gov. John Kasich signed into law the two-year Ohio budget bill that expands deductions for small businesses and reduces tax rates on business income and individuals. Kasich originally called it his “Blueprint for Ohio.”

Perhaps most significant is an exemption on a certain portion of business income for Ohio small business owners that do business as an S corporation, limited liability company or sole proprietorship.

The provision does not apply to C corporations, but any business that is structured as a pass-through entity so that its income flows directly from the business to individual shareholders for tax purposes.

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Stay Competitive by Revising Your On-the-job Training

September 16, 2015 by

64735957On-the-job training — we’ve all experienced it and have the horror stories to prove it, particularly those of us who’ve worked in small businesses.  Small businesses are notorious for believing they provide training, but we know differently.  The in-depth, educational program most provide is somewhere along the lines of “go over there and watch what Steve is doing”.

In the past companies had the luxury of time — employees, competitors, processes, customers and especially technology moved slower.  People had time on the job to increase their skill level by learning from Steve and others like him.  But, more is expected out of systems, businesses and people now. 

Employees and managers are required to know more, do better and keep up at a faster rate.  They have skills and knowledge that’s likely to become outdated in years rather than decades.  Small businesses are struggling to keep up — let alone stay competitive — and many are falling dangerously behind. 

This is partly because of outdated or non-existent training programs.  The old way of doing, or not even doing, on-the-job training doesn’t work anymore.  The needed skills and knowledge increasingly has to come from outside the company.  The “old-timers” need to be “schooled” by new hires or consultants, who have the expertise no-one in the company has.

There’s a shortage of skilled workers in many industries and it’s not going to get better any time soon.  One of the ways a small business owner can combat this scarcity is to take control of the problem by developing, and following through with, a compressive training program.  A program focused on building an up-to-date, efficient workforce.

Ideas like selling globally, social media marketing, lean manufacturing and supply change management, create opportunities to increase market share and profit.  However, with these opportunities come challenges.  The small business owner who’s willing to take responsibility and create the employees he needs will meet these challenges and grow.

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Starting A Small Business and Succeeding

September 10, 2015 by

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Many small business owners enjoy the fact that they are in control of their business and their future.  At the beginning of their endeavors, willing to take the many responsibilities that a small business entails, it is not only smart but cost effective.  As the business grows, the ability to delegate and give responsibilities and control over various aspects of the business become more of a difficulty for many small business owners, and some of them do not welcome the change. Follow the links below to read more about this topic.

9 Steps That Will Help Your Chances of Starting a Successful Business

If you are unemployed, underemployed or unhappily employed, the idea of taking control and becoming your own boss might be sounding pretty sexy right about now. Plus, the past decade has shown us that jobs aren’t quite as dependable as perhaps we previously thought.

However, the success rates for new business are quite scary too, with the majority of all new businesses failing in just a few years’ time. While there is never going to be a “sure thing,” if you are thinking of leaving your job to hang out your own shingle, there are significant benefits to preparing before you take the leap.

Here are nine ways to make sure that you are prepared before you start your own business, so that you can give yourself the best chances to succeed. These are adapted from my bestselling book, The Entrepreneur Equation.

Maybe It’s Time to Let Go of Control in Your Business

How much control do you really have in your business? Do you know what to do with it? Does having it help you or hold you back in your business? What about when you want to change something? Does control help you then? 

Growing a business is one of the most life changing experiences on which you will embark. It’s challenging, exhilarating, exhausting, scary, fun and my goodness, some days it can be downright hard.

Why is it hard?

Because it involves change, trust and letting go of control.

Surrendering to change means letting go of being in control. Yet, as much as we want our lives to be different the truth is, we don’t like it much when our illusion of being in control is challenged. The feeling that we are in charge of our lives gives us leverage in our attempts to avoid the experience of loss. Yet, these efforts to circumvent loss are the very foundation of our excessive anxiety and worry. – Katherine Woodward Thomas (Calling In The One).

Instead of Flexing Authority, Leaders Should Influence Employees

When it comes to managing employees, most employers tend to take one of two key leadership approaches. There’s the “power/authority” approach, where it’s their way or the highway, or the “influence” approach, where the goal is to get employees on the same page and empower them to make decisions that will have a positive impact on the organization.

In today’s work world, employees want to feel like they are a part of the decision-making process. Millennials, especially, want managers who give them the freedom to do their jobs and trust they will deliver.

In fact, in a 2014 survey of 16,637 millennials worldwide titled Millennials: Understanding a Misunderstood Generation, nearly half of people in this age group from North America want a manager who “empowers their employees” above all else.

Clearly, for those who manage the fastest growing part of today’s workforce, it’s time to take the focus off of the power/authority approach and on to the influence approach. Here are three areas where the influence approach is especially useful in the office:

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