This Week in Small Business: Are your sleeping and waking habits killing your chance at success?
Leadership, management and productivity Are you getting fewer than six hours of sleep per night? It could be killing your chance at small business success. And when you get up, why not try doing these four things that successful small business owners do each morning? Small business wants to hire, but many owners are having a hard time recruiting the talent they need. Here are four ways to level the playing field in the hiring game. And when you do find candidates, be sure you’re making the best decisions. Management secrets from Winston Churchill (maybe), mom, and “Red” Smith. Eternal truths in these three pearls of wisdom. If you have a to-do list, double check it and see if these three things are on it for today. When you’re able to see rejection as a gift, you can dramatically improve your odds for success, says Ron Karr. Likeable people have a far better chance at becoming successful people. Here are 10 behaviors of incredibly likeable people. Marketing and sales Creating long-form content that is also “evergreen” helps solve a lot of problems in your content marketing program. And, of course, you’ll want to measure the real impact of your content marketing on your small business. If you want to know how your small business brothers and sisters are marketing this year, check out the results of this thorough survey. Images can turbo-charge your content marketing program. Here are image rules for the top seven social networks. Clip ’n Save! Marketing a small business with multiple locations complicates the picture a bit. Here’s the right way to get it done. Personalized marketing is essential, but sometimes expensive for small businesses. Here are six low-cost ways to personalize. Are you beginning to think that this whole social media marketing thing is a hoax? Here are four reasons your efforts may be failing. It’s trade show season and your small business really needs to get heard and seen above all the noise and distractions. John Ruhlin gives us five tricks. The more you know about your customers, the better able you are to sell. Rachel Krug, senior researcher at Constant Contact, offers a simple approach to conducting customer research. Entrepreneurship, startups and innovation Are you trying to raise capital? Here are four steps required for success. Before you get too far into marketing your startup, look over this startup marketing strategy guide. The people at QuickBooks know something about managing money. In this article, they discuss funding your new business without using your savings. Keeping the main thing the main thing is not always easy. Don’t let these three entrepreneurship essentials slip off your radar screen. Are Lyft and Uber drivers the new face of entrepreneurship? Before you dive into your startup, here are five things every potential small business owner needs to know…and understand. Leaders differ. Read this article on the Personal Branding Blog and see if you fall into either of these three leadership styles. Are you mistaking patience for persistence in your startup. Don’t. I always prefer learning from someone else’s failure. Here’s a post-mortem on the venture-backed startup, Sonar. Politics, government and the economy Los Angeles recently passed a law to raise the minimum wage there to $15 an hour over the next few years. It looks like...
read moreTwo Ways Your Small Business Can Benefit From the Sharing Economy
If this short conversation hasn’t happened already, it will happen soon: Mary: I like your new dress. Margaret: Thanks. Want to rent it? Average people today are empowered to rent the shirt off their backs – or in my example, the dress. They’re calling it the sharing economy, but that’s really a misnomer. Sharing is when you break off half your candy bar and give it away to your friend. This is really grass roots, peer-to-peer renting or trading, for the most part. An infinite variety of rental connections are possible today because it is so easy to communicate with virtually anyone over the Internet. If Jacques has a garret to rent in Paris, Jack can reserve it from his brownstone in Philadelphia. The impact of this on small business owners will be huge. Some will find ways to benefit and others will have to modify their business plans to cope with the market changes. Let me give you a few examples of the potential, both positive and negative. Find what you can ‘share’ You should look around your small business to spot excess capacity. Do you have equipment or even space that isn’t being utilized to its fullest capacity? You might be able to find others who would want to “buy” your excess capacity from you. If your offices are too large, rent out your spare space. If you have a widget folder that sits idle except for that one big widget order you get from a long-time customer twice a year, find someone who may be able to use it. Or if someone else needs it more than you do, sell it with the agreement that you can rent it back twice a year. Further, consider some of the popular peer-to-peer options for business travel. Would you like to take the whole team on a retreat? Instead of a hotel, find a nice house through Airbnb or some other vacation rental site. If your reps do business in cities with Zipcar service, you might be able to lower your rental car costs. Of course, Uber and Lyft are also options. Fewer non-necessity purchases On the downside of the sharing economy, consumer demand may decrease for some items. When convenient short-term use can be arranged, there will be some things that people no longer need to buy. Have there been occasions when you bought something for a special event or occasion and afterwards it got relegated to the attic, basement or dark corner of a closet? There will be fewer purchases like this going forward. This impact will increase in the coming decades. Millennials and the generations that follow them will be very accustomed to working the levers of the sharing economy and it will feel natural to them. Baby Boomers are used to accustomed to buying everything they need. They will not drop that habit overnight. So enjoy the sharing economy. Leverage it as both a consumer and as a supplier. For the small business owner looking for additional incremental income as well as cost-saving measures, it should prove...
read moreWhen your small business goes to the dogs…in a very good way!
I love the tag line for PSI’s Take Your Dog To Work Day®: “Because who ever heard of working like a cat?!” PSI is Pet Sitters International and June 26 this year marks the 17th annual Take Your Dog to Work Day. The event celebrates dogs and promotes pet adoption. When you head over to the website you’ll find a downloadable action pack that gives you a ton of background, great ways to convince people of the event’s worthiness and planning tips. If you’ve been around nursing homes, hospitals or rehab centers, you know that visits by friendly dogs is extremely therapeutic. I have to believe that the same kind of good vibes that dogs bring to folks recovering from or battling against illness would be a wonderful tonic for stressed-out small business employees. And spending break times and lunches walking your dog around the block a few times would certainly be a lot better for your health than eating that extra bag of potato chips. It’s funny, but when we carve out time in our busy schedules to get some exercise for our dogs, we end up getting great exercise for ourselves. If you allow your team to bring their dogs into work, you might also find that walls come down between people. Individuals who don’t get along very well often find that they share a love of their dogs. Dogs can be extremely effective ambassadors of good will in your small business. I wouldn’t be surprised if Maxwell, my little Shih Tzu, could bring peace to the Middle East, if given the chance. I know that he brings a major dose of peace to my hectic life. I often take Maxwell – my chairman of the bone – with me in my travels and I couldn’t ask for a better companion (with apologies to my husband, George!) As long as your small business isn’t something like a restaurant or outpatient surgical center, I urge you to participate in this year’s Take Your Dog to Work Day. Not only will the dog owners on your staff appreciate the gesture, other employees and your customers will enjoy the wagging tails and enthusiastic greetings these canine companions will bring to your workplace. And before I leave the topic, I should mention that pet sitting and dog walking can be great businesses, especially for people who want to start a business but don’t have deep pockets for the initial...
read moreHow Innovative Does Innovation Need To Be For Great Small Business Success?
When we think of innovation, our minds usually wander back to the great inventions that we believe changed the course of history, or at least the course of commerce. The automobile, the iPhone, the polio vaccine, the atomic bomb and a long list of other innovations fall into this category. But can we talk? Few of us in small business are going to cure cancer or come up with an entirely new product category that will put us in the running for Time Magazine’s “person of the year” award. However, many of the innovations I’ve referenced here aren’t ideas that came “out of the blue” and this is true for most of the innovations and discoveries whose importance we now recognize. Even Columbus’ discovery of the New World was just a guy going further in one direction than European sailors had gone before – with apologies to the Nordic explorers who may have beaten Columbus to the punch. In any case, Columbus had a better PR firm and social media marketing team behind his (ad)venture. We aren’t all Edisons For the small business owner, the lesson to learn is this: You don’t have to invent something brand new out of whole cloth – simply innovating in one area can lead to outrageous success. Further, the “innovation” can be rather pedestrian. For example, what can be more simple than renting camera equipment? It’s a business that has been around probably almost as long as the invention of the camera. But when Max Shevyakov and Mark Gurevich accidently discovered what a mess the online camera lens rental scene was, they realized that if they did it right, it could be successful. Shevyakov and Gurevich founded Borrowlenses.com which was eventually purchased by Shutterfly. They funded their small business by using their meager life savings and a pile of maxed-out credit cards. But, they understood what the pain points were for their customers and they innovated in ways that eliminated the problems other wannabe lens renters were experiencing. In an interview with Andrew Warner on Mixergy, Shevyakov explains that one of the innovations they made was to only hire people who were themselves photographers – down to the folks who packed the boxes! Every single employee understood the needs of photographers. Innovate for improvement In other words, innovation can be as basic as doing something better in your small business. And if we take that concept further, it usually applies to even the biggest, most forward-thinking, groundbreaking innovations. The automobile was a better way to get to the next town than the horse and buggy. Even the vaunted iPhone was preceded by a number of “smart-ish” phones, including the Palm Pilot and Blackberry products. These innovations lead to a noticeable difference. The difference may be noticed by your customers, it may be noticed by your employees, it may be noticed in your financial records, and ultimately it will be noticed in all of these areas of your small business. A commitment to continual improvement is a commitment to continual innovation. If you make that commitment, you greatly increase your probability of success – even when the innovations seem small. Identifying the innovation that makes that all-important “noticeable difference” in your small business is an area that we discuss at THE Small Business Expert Academy. By...
read moreFive Secrets of Employee Retention: How small businesses can ensure they keep
This post brought to you by MetLife Small Business. The content and opinions expressed below are that of Susan Solovic. This is a white-paper snippet is from MetLife “Great employees are the lifeblood of any small business. However, as the job market accelerates, even happy workers may be tempted to explore whether the grass is greener at another company. Losing employees is a concern for most small businesses, not least because of the cost: a study from the Center for American Progress estimated that replacing an employee costs, on average, 20 percent of the employee’s annual salary. So if a worker making $50,000 a year quits, you’ll pay roughly $10,000 to cover the lost productivity costs and then recruit and train someone new. “At a small business, everyone is that much more important; you’re a bigger piece of the pie,” says Dawn Fay, New York-based district president for staffing firm Robert Half. “There’s the cost of losing someone, but you also run the risk of losing other employees or burning people out as they carry a larger workload, which can affect your client service and product and ultimately impact your revenue.” For small companies, keeping the right people in the right seats is paramount. Here are five ways to improve your employee retention and ensure your best and brightest stick around.” 1. Hire well Small business owners often have little background in staffing an operation, then one day they find themselves overwhelmed with work. They feel as if they are on a sinking ship and they’re ready to grab for any flotation device thrown their way. Why not hire smart instead of fast? Start thinking early about writing job descriptions for your first hires. What kind of people would you be looking for? What would they do? Armed with that information, you’ll be able to make smart decisions and avoid costly and painful hiring mistakes. Maintain that same approach as you continue to add people to your team. 2. Stay competitive and get creative Small business owners can’t toss money at candidates like a Google or Apple, however they can offer other incentives. By virtue of your smaller size you can be more flexible. You can adjust hours and allow for telecommuting to fit your employees’ lifestyle and family requirements. Leveraging non-medical benefits such as dental, vision and life insurance can also make you an employer known for your ability to retain top talent. This kind of reputation, by the way, is extremely valuable when you need to recruit for key positions. Word will get around in your industry and community that you’re a great small business to work for. 3. Acknowledge achievements Let’s be honest with each other, many of us aren’t the best at expressing our gratitude or acknowledging the contributions our employees make, and a once-a-year employee recognition dinner doesn’t cut it. If you need to put “express gratitude” on your daily “to-do” list – do it! It will make a big difference in your team. You can turn good employees into brand evangelists. And here’s a little secret: you’ll feel better about yourself as well. Studies show that having a thankful attitude is one of the biggest contributors to a sense of well being. 4. Create connections The days of faceless employees toiling on an unrelenting assembly...
read moreThis Week in Small Business: Overlooked marketing opportunities, living RICH, and much more
This weeks tips will steer you toward finding new marketing opportunities, make you a happier person and help you find out exactly what kind of entrepreneur you are. Dig in! Marketing and sales Hyperlocal media planning, digging deeper than sites like Facebook and Yelp, is one of the most often missed opportunities when it comes to local marketing. Anthony Iannarino explains why you need to take notes in sales meetings. It may seem like a simple thing, but the reasons are really fairly profound. Carlos Alber is the content marketing guru at 3M. When he talks, people listen. He talks in this article. Can you apply Amazon and Apple’s marketing strategies in your small business? Some smaller brands are doing it with great success. Do you know the social media marketing tools Canva, Post Planner and Shortstack? If not, get to know them here. If you care at all about search engine optimization (SEO) you should be redoubling your content creation efforts. It’s the most effective way to boost your visibility. More on the subject: 10 #SEO Tips For Marketing Your #Startup in 2015. Make a checklist from these items so you can “hit the ground running” with your startup. In case you don’t already have a social media image size guide on your refrigerator door, here it is again. And for image inspiration, check out this slideshare that illustrates how 10 brands used visuals. Leadership, management and productivity You need to communicate effectively and professionally. Here are some simple grammar tips to help keep your written communication looking its best. Shep Hyken interviews Dina Dwyer-Owens, co-chair of the Dwyer Group. She explains how to “Live R.I.C.H.” – which entails respect, integrity, customer focus and having fun while you’re doing it! Sujan Patel, VP of marketing at When I Work, gives us 15 ways to be a happier person. (Can we adapt this article for Grumpy Cat?) Have you ever been haunted by a bad hiring mistake? Not fun. Here are seven missteps you must avoid. Much has been written about big data. This article is good because it gives real examples of how companies have used big data to improve the customer experience. And while we’re on the topic of customer service, this slideshare by Shep Hyken gives a good introduction to customer service on social media. Need summer reading? Here’s a list of eight business books that you might enjoy. An Oct. 1 deadline looms for implementing credit card readers that can handle cards with embedded chips. Are you ready? The seven quick tips for starting your small business strong are all right on the money. And please don’t ignore number four! Entrepreneurship, startups and innovation Silicon Valley giant Intel is setting aside $125 million to grow tech startups that are being fun by women and minorities. If that includes your company, it’s worth checking out. If you have time to listen to podcasts, here’s a good one on alternative financing. Do you have to set out to be a “social entrepreneur” to do good? Ray Hennessey says that all entrepreneurship is “social” entrepreneurship. Scroll through this list of six different kinds of entrepreneurs and see where you fit in. Politics, government and the economy Los Angeles recently passed a law to raise the minimum wage there to...
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