How personality, motivation, company culture can fuel your small business success
It’s in style now to talk about company culture. Honestly, the general topic has long been discussed, but in previous days it was referred to as the “work environment.” I do think that the term “company culture” captures the bigger picture and gives us a handle to grab on to as we discuss and try to understand a range of issues that are critical to success in business. The downside is that when we talk about company culture, the focus is often on mission statements, managerial styles, and employee empowerment. Without a doubt, those are very important elements, yet I’ve always felt that the discussion was missing something. When I got my hands on a recent paper from MetLife, I saw what that missing element is: personality. And, as I read the paper, I realized that the “personalities” MetLife identified matched up with the different leadership styles of entrepreneurs and small business owners I’ve experienced over the years. Men and women get the entrepreneurial urge to start their own business most often for these reasons: They come up with what they believe is a good idea with commercial potential. They get fed up with working for others and want the independence of owning their own company. They like the challenge of starting new ventures. They believe that there is a better way to “do work.” Digging more deeply, MetLife was able to connect the motivations (listed above) to some distinct personality traits that entrepreneurs bring to the job. Here are MetLife’s labels and short descriptions of their leadership styles or philosophies: The visionary. They have a sense of purpose that guides their actions and decision making. The problem solver. They see their business strategies as a series of challenges to overcome. The director. They typically run companies that require specialized skills and they empower their skilled employees to deal with day-to-day details. The hands-free owner. They take employee empowerment to an even higher level than “directors” and after setting the general course, leave decisions to trusted top-level managers. You might be wondering why this is important. It’s important because to achieve the success you desire for your small business, you need to understand your natural tendencies as a leader and entrepreneur. You may discover that you have strengths in some areas and weaknesses in others. You can bring people on board who complement your strengths with strengths of their own or work with a good business coach to improve in the areas where you’re lacking. One type of business owner can often learn from another. As the MetLife paper puts it: “No leadership approach is static. What works today may need to change as the business grows. Changes to the size, scope and nature of the small business may call on their owners to adopt new approaches to meet resulting challenges.” For example, individuals with the problem solver personality often enter into the entrepreneurial world because they have had a good idea with commercial potential. Their idea solves a real-world problem. However, not every situation in business can be attacked as if it is a problem with a specific solution, especially when you get beyond the first challenges of getting a startup on the right track. These leaders can be well served by taking a few lessons from the...
read moreThis week in small business: More than enough inspiration to keep you motivated!
Need a little inspiration? There’s enough to go around this week: A small business owner who has given more than $2 million to charity, a woman of influence who looks back at the last seven years, and an entrepreneur who’s been hard at work since he was 12 years old. Leadership, management, and productivity Millennials are now the largest, most educated, and most diverse generation in the United States and this article says that they are more prepared for the future. Do you need an office to run your business? This article by Katherine Purvis says no. Have you considered digital and interactive sign guides to improve your customer experience? Maine’s Laura Benedict sets the bar high. This small business owner has donated more than $2 million to charity. Maria Coppola was named a 2009 Woman of Influence. This article catches up with what has happened with her over the last seven years. Marketing and sales Sometimes we get carried away with the technology and forget the psychology of pitching – the business kind, not the MLB kind. This article will help you weave a story of your vision and journey. Here are five questions to ask to help you determine if it’s the right time to scale your B2B sales team. Want to connect with perhaps the 50 top content marketing influencers? You’ll find this list handy. If you’ve been letting your commitment to online marketing slide. You need to read this. And, if you’re ready to recommit, check out this article on how to use social media to market your business. Rejoice! As a small business, you have six SEO advantages over major firms! Just be sure you’re using them. Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation Stress comes with the job of being an entrepreneur, so most of us need these five ways entrepreneurial business pros can manage stress. Need a little inspiration? Check out this young entrepreneur who has been working hard since the age of 12. A new study says that women entrepreneurs ask for less financing and when they do get loans, they pay higher interest rates. In this piece, entrepreneurs tell other entrepreneurs what they need to know when they’re about to launch their startup. Politics, government and the economy Small and medium-sized businesses in the global economy will go from strength to strength if they collaborate, leverage digital solutions, and lobby for less restricted trade, says Gianfranco...
read moreTake 10 minutes and build your small business website
I’m not exaggerating when I say that you can build a small business website in 10 minutes today. In fact, you can even build a nice looking site that quickly. Of course, it won’t be a site with every bell and whistle you might eventually want, but with today’s crop of drag-and-drop online website building services and available templates, you can present a professional image on the Internet without too much time, trouble, or expense. I’m going to give you a quick introduction to the sites that I think are the best – and by best I really mean easiest – for you to use if you need to launch a website or revamp your current site. The first question you need to ask yourself is how you will be using your website and the main point here is whether or not you’ll be using your small business website for e-commerce. If you’re going to be getting serious about e-commerce, I’m going to direct you to Shopify. (I’ll say more about Shopify when we get into site specifics below.) All of the following online small business website building services have e-commerce options as well; it’s just that they don’t solely focus on e-commerce and that, I believe, makes them slight underdogs if you know at the onset that your goal is to sell online. These services typically have a free account or free trial period option. I strongly encourage you to do as much free “testing” on each site as you can before you settle on one. This will accomplish three very important things: It will reveal which site is easiest for you to use. It will give you a critical overview of the available templates, and It will give you time to practice with the various drag-and-drop elements so you’ll be able to “hit the ground running” when you finally settle on which service to use. Here are the ones I consider the best with some GetApp user ratings (when available) and a few notes on my experience with each site. GetApp uses a five-point rating system. It also tries to establish the legitimacy of the reviewer, although sometimes I suppose this is impossible. Shopify Shopify seems to be the most user-friendly online platform for building your own e-commerce site. This is in large part due to the fact that all they do is e-commerce. They offer a free 14-day trial and their basic rate beyond the trial is $29 per month. They also have credit card services built into their system. You’ll appreciate Shopify’s big catalog of free and premium templates…and please make good use of them. Unless you’re a professional designer with a very good eye for style, don’t try to hack something together yourself. Shopify makes you input the most information when you create an account. But this is understandable because you only use Shopify if you plan on selling items. This means there are tax implications when you create your account and website. GetApp users rate Shopify at 4.22. Weebly If you’re okay with your business being a subdomain of Weebly (yourbusinessname.weebly.com) you can get going for free at Weebly. Paid plans range from $8 to $25 per month. GetApp users rate Weebly at 4.6. You get a good choice of templates with Weebly...
read moreHow to stay on top of marketing and sales news and tips
We complain a lot about information overload today, but when you make your living selling, you need all the high-quality marketing and sales news and tips you can get. Am I right? Fortunately, with easy access to the Internet via high-speed connections, we have a huge pipeline full of sales news and marketing advice. But, you need to point your browser in the right direction and employ a few tactics to get the information that best suits you. Let’s start getting your pipeline of golden sales news and tips primed. RSS feeds for capturing sales news I’m mentioning this first because understanding how RSS feeds work, and the best way to use them, will be important for some of the advice and information I give you a little later in this article. Many websites – and especially blogs – have an RSS feed that “broadcasts” new posts automatically to RSS “readers.” Look for the RSS icon. Sometimes these readers are built right into web browsers, some of them are browser extensions, and others are stand-alone software. Here’s what you need to do: Decide which device or devices you want to read your marketing and sales news on. Go to Google and enter something like “best RSS reader for Chrome,” or “best RSS reader for iPhone” – whatever device or operating system you want to use. Download and install the RSS reader to your device or computer. With that accomplished, you’re ready to “subscribe” to some RSS feeds. Visit some of the sites I mention below and look for the RSS icon. Click it and subscribe to the RSS feed or follow the specific instructions for the reader you’ve installed. Done! Hashtags One way to find articles that you might otherwise miss, is to follow the hashtag #sales (you might also follow #marketing) on Twitter. There will be a lot of Tweets that you won’t care about, but you may find some writers, interviews, or information that is good, yet more obscure than some other news and information. I like to log onto the Twazzup site (it uses your Twitter information) and enter a hashtag. On the screen shot below, you’ll see that I’ve entered the hashtag #sales. There might be a couple of articles I’d like to check out. But also notice that it tells me who some of the “influencers” are in the #sales Twittersphere. You might find people to follow this way, and also people you would want to get to know personally. Categories Almost every website that posts articles has them organized by categories and/or tags. Often, there is a way to search by category or tag. Two major sites that are always worth checking out this way are Forbes and Entrepreneur. To see the latest marketing and sales news at Forbes, enter this in your browser: http://www.forbes.com/sales-marketing/ To accomplish the same thing at Entrepreneur, enter this in your browser: https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/marketing Now that you’ve done that, bookmark those pages and check them each week for updates. Also, be on alert for other websites where you can search by category or tag. Perform the search once, bookmark it, and come back to it on a regular basis. Google alerts Here’s a quickie. Set up a Google alert on the topic of sales or sales tips. You can tweak...
read moreEncourage your employees to drink on the job. (Really.)
Of course, I don’t want you to encourage your small business employees to drink alcoholic beverages on the job, but I do want you to encourage them to stay hydrated while they’re at work…and hopefully, this habit will carry over to when they’re away from their jobs as well. For the sake of your small business productivity, maintaining the health of your team should be one of your highest priorities. When employees are healthy, they show up every day ready, willing, and able to do their jobs. And while the discussion of employee health issues has been dominated in recent years by the debate over Obamacare and rising insurance premiums, keeping your employees hydrated is an important – and non-controversial – part of the equation. In the short term, when your employees get dehydrated they tire more easily, lose their energy, and may develop either high or low blood pressure. In the longer term, we know that failing to drink enough water often leads to obesity and all the health problems that accompany being overweight. Add it all up and you see that getting your employees to drink on the job regularly will have a positive impact on your small business. Here are some ideas: Stock the ’fridge with water Provide free water for your team. Keep some in the refrigerator and some at room temperature, if you have employees who would prefer it that way. Also, stock some “bubbly” while you’re at it – Perrier, San Pellegrino, or a generic club soda. Also, consider some of the vitamin-laced water drinks that are on the market. But, let’s add an element to this strategy. Instead of merely making water available, encourage your employees to drink it. Carry a spare bottle with you when you’re making the rounds at your business, and when you find employees without a bottle of water, give one to them. This “light touch” of pressure from the boss can help them adopt new – and healthier – habits. Follow up by including the topic in meetings. Let your team know that you want them to have water handy while they’re working and that they need to make hydration central to their breaks. Tip: You and your employees can meet some of your hydration needs by snacking on fruits and vegetables. Consider providing these in your break room for healthy snacks. Stock up on logo water bottles Even if you decide to provide a supply of commercial water for your team, consider ordering a quantity of water bottles with your small business name and logo imprinted on them. Doing this gives you a “twofer.” You encourage your employees to stay hydrated and you help your small business branding. Order enough so you can give them away to customers and clients. This is an especially smart move for small businesses that are in a service industry. It you run a house cleaning service, for example, the first time you send out a team, include one of your water bottles in a welcoming package. Tip: Suggest that employees use a lot of ice in their water bottles. Not only does it increase the “refreshing factor,” people will continue to sip the water as the ice melts, even after the main beverage has been consumed. Hydration? There’s an app...
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