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Small business doesn’t equate to small problems. Fact is, it could be extremely difficult being in a small business. Due to limited resources smaller business owners can feel very vulnerable to larger competitors, who have the power to crush them at any time with their greater manpower and inflated marketing budgets.
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Archive for the ‘Tips from the Business Coach’ Category
Top 4 Tips For Small Business – Surviving Being Small With Small Business CRM
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New Generation Of Integrated Customer Relationship Management Software Saves Time And Unprecedented Marketing Power
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Every business should keep a detailed record of contacts, yet a lot don’t. And without a proven efficient system in place, this could be tedious, time-wasting and very costly. Hence, we can conclude that the need for a Customer Relationship Management Software is therefore universal. Sadly, if your CRM system is outdated, definitely you can’t expect it to remove your record-keeping problems.
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Should you Sack the Offline Yellow Pages? What they don’t want you to know!
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If you are guilty of not measuring your offline marketing campaigns you are not alone. In tough time’s business owners wind down their marketing budgets not knowing what impact it will have on the business. Often the reality is zero impact because the marketing was not effective. Read More >>
Basic Premise
Many of us drive within the legal speed limit (or just slightly above it) only because we fear being caught and punished. Without that downside risk many would establish a habitual cruising speed above the current legal limit, with potentially catastrophic consequences for all parties. So strong detection systems, rules and their enforcement are a natural part of enjoying the benefits of a law-abiding society.
In the same vein, employers have a moral responsibility to put in place “strong detection systems, rules and enforcement” when placing assets (whether cash, stock or services) within reach of their employees – some of whom may live in a state of continual financial challenge.
I hesitated before I went ahead with this month’s lead article on employee theft because I know that many of my readers are employees who, like 97% of the general population, have chosen to be honest people.
We had some impassioned debate, here in the office, about the sensitivities of those honest people and the potential for offending the innocent, but in the end my take was that if you are a law-abiding motorist, then discussions about the dangers of speeding, and the deployment of patrol cars and speed cameras to trap and punish speeders will simply reinforce the wisdom of your good judgement in choosing to obey the law.
The following piece can be used as a great stimulus to team-building in any organisation of any size (including families).
Lessons from the Geese, was written in 1972 by Dr Robert McNeish of Baltimore, a science teacher who was intrigued by the behaviour of geese and first wrote a piece consisting of five facts about geese behaviour followed by five lessons that could be drawn from that behaviour, for a sermon he delivered in his church.
If you employ people then give thanks to Abraham Maslow for a simple and useful insight into why they might work for you. Maslow postulated a “hierarchy of human needs” which when interpreted into the context of employment ran something like this:
- First come “essentials”. We need to pay our staff sufficient money to enable them to purchase food, shelter, clothing, education for their kids, some leisure, and the other things that enable them to feel that they are doing at least as well as their community of peers.
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Every square in your Organisational Chart should have a Job Description that describes the tasks and results that its incumbent must perform and deliver, if the enterprise is to move forward, and the top square – whether it carries the title of Managing Director, President, CEO, Supreme Commander (my personal favourite) or Grand Poobah – is no exception.
So what should the Leader’s Job Description contain?
- Ensure that candidates are professionally greeted. After all you want to walk your talk, and you’re under assessment here, too.
- Start the interview before the interview! Consider having an apparently junior team member tell the candidate that the person who will do the interview is running late, apologise, and invite them to a cup of coffee and a chat. Let the conversation flow to personal aspirations, activities, experience, etc. The interview has begun!
Great businesses, great staff and great teams don’t just “happen” any more than an 80-storey sky-scraper just “happens” – there is vision, planning and skill in achieving either.
Here’s a little help on the planning side: