05.11.07

How to Save After the Postal Rate Hike

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:58 pm by Diana Heeb Bivona

Come Monday morning, we will find ourselves dealing with yet another postage increase.  For businesses that depend heavily on the mail service, it will definitely bite into their profit margins.  Some may find that they can no longer ship lower-cost inventory items and turn a profit.  They may find themselves reevaluating their inventory and discarding lower-priced items that are no longer profitable to ship.  Others may decide to completely revamp their product offerings and specialize or cater to a particular niche.

Businesses who depend upon the postal service will need to again find creative ways to offset the additional costs.  A few things that may make a difference and save you a few pennies:

  1. Use e-mail and the Web to send and receive documents, bills and letters whenever possible.
  2. Pay attention to the size and thickness of your mailings - you can now expect to pay significantly more for larger or bulkier packages.  Do smaller mailings and use smaller size envelopes when possible.
  3. If your marketing efforts depend heavily upon mailing, mail smarter.  Cull mailing lists to target the best sales prospects.

05.09.07

Leave No Stone Unturned

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:02 pm by Diana Heeb Bivona

When formulating your business strategy, you can never neglect to understand what your competition is doing.  It’s an important piece of the equation that many small business owners often neglect to explore indepth.  True, it is sometimes difficult to find out what the competition is up to short of diving through their dumpster or staking out their location, but there are ways that you can find the information you need to make an accurate comparison of services and/or products.

Start by:

  1. Asking the right questions.  Start out by identifying the information you want to gather about the competition.  Are you wanting to know what products and services they offer in comparison to yours?  Do they offer products/services similiar to yours?  What are their benefits?  What’s their target audience?  What’s their sales mix?  Asking the right questions will make all the difference in not just what information you gather, but how you will go about obtaining it.
  2. Look inward.  If you want to do an apples to apples comparison between your own company and the competition, you will need to get a solid handle on your own company first.  Review (if applicable) your financial data, marketing plans,  product plans, distribution processes, supplier relationships, productivity figures, etc. so that you will be able to see the differences and similiarities between your competitors and yourself.
  3. Leave no stone unturned.  Did you know that probably three-quarters of the information you’ll need in order to research a U.S.-based company is available publicly, in the form of regulatory filings or legal documents?  It may involve a lot of leg work, but the answers you are seeking are most likely  lurking out there.  Public companies have SEC filings and other legal filing requirements.  Private companies are a little more difficult to research, but try Hoover’s and Dun & Bradstreet for starters. Another great avenue to pursue is legal public records.  If the company has been involved in a lawsuit, they may have revealed company information in the pleadings that are now public record.  Also, check out the appropriate local government offices.  They often contain a jackpot of public documents, such as building blueprints from the planning department or staffing details from the tax assessor.

05.08.07

Are your employees really working from home?

Posted in Uncategorized at 8:16 pm by Diana Heeb Bivona

Given the current gas prices, congested roads, and ever increasing commute times, many business are advocating programs that allow employees to work from home on occassion.  However, a recent survey suggestions, that some managers remain skeptical when employees say, “I’m working from home today”.  In fact, 21% of managers translate that to mean, “I’m taking it easy today.”

An annual survey by Mitel found that 37% of managers fear that if staff were allowed to work from home, they would use their time for their own personal activities and 30% believe employees would use the time to plan their social life.

Now, employees surveyed see things a little differently.  Sixty-eight percent believe that working from home would allow them to take a more flexible approach to work, 41% would be more productive, and 28% would work longer hours. 

Allowing employees to work from home does require that a manager place a high level of trust in their employee, and that doesn’t work in every case.  However, the underlying message here is that everyone works differently, and to sometime achieve the most results, you have to explore alternative work settings (when feasible).   As a business owner and manager, finding what works best for everyone ultimately improves employee well-being, productivity, and your bottom line. 

05.07.07

Turn Away Business? Are You Crazy?!

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:27 pm by Diana Heeb Bivona

As a small business owner, the loss of business can oftentimes be felt more dramatically than by that of a larger company.  And, if you are a relatively new business, chances are that you are working aggressively to build your client base.  However, I pose the question is it ever okay to turn away business?  In some situations, the answer would be “yes”, particularly if securing that client or account has the potential of damaging your business over the long run.

Not all business relationships make sense and sometimes you need to be able to step back and ask yourself some tough questions.  Here are a few examples when you may need to consider either passing on a new client’s project or telling an existing client you just can’t work with them any longer:

  1. Abusive behavior toward you or your staff.
  2. Distracts you from developing other business or serving other customers.
  3. It simply doesn’t make economic sense.
  4. You just can’t do the work the client needs done.

Bottom lines is you want to develop a client base that best fits your business and that will grow with you.  You don’t want to deliver unsatisfactory service or products, and your clientele will appreciate that you focused on making sure your company could deliver what it promised and that you were a good fit.  To achieve that, you need to know your strengths as well as your limitations.  Saying “no” to a new client or getting rid of an existing client is never easy, but sometimes necessary.  Don’t stress about it if you have to.  After all, they aren’t the last client out there.  The next one is probably waiting…just around the corner.

05.04.07

Small Biz Owners Have Better Work Life Balance

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:33 pm by Diana Heeb Bivona

A healthy work-life balance is an important goal for many individuals in the working world. For small business owners, 96% believe that is important to them. That’s according to a new MasterCard Worldwide survey which also found that more than half of small business owners believe that being a small business owner enables greater work-life balance compared to other workers. It must be true because an amazing 83% say that they rarely or never miss important personal events due to work.

Top factors which contributed to small business owners being able to achieve that work-life balanced included their ability to make enough money to meet or exceed business and personal needs (30%) and having flexible working hours (28%).

When asked what work-related factors best help them to achieve work-life balance, better organizing business and personal priorities (29%); and hiring and retaining competent employees that could assume some responsibilities (21%) were among the top factors cited.

05.03.07

Your Fired

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:58 pm by Diana Heeb Bivona

Donald Trump makes it look easy. Yeah, sure, its just a “reality” show seeking ratings, but every once and a while, I wish having to terminate an employee was that easy. Who hasn’t had to deal with an employee that had to be fired? In most cases, even when they deserve it, its still a difficult task to do. Probably because, like most people, we would prefer to avoid conflict and tension. Yet, if you’ve done everything you can to retain or possibly retrain a problem employee, and you’ve given them ample opportunity to succeed, it’s time to take a deep breath and do the deed.

Here are a few steps you can take toward terminating an employee:

  1. Leave the blarney at home. In reviews, employers like to look to the positive and flatter their employees. They often forget to bring the negative items to the table to discuss. This leaves the employee thinking everything is just fine, when the exact opposite is true. If you have problems with an employee, be up front with them. Do no sugar coat it or leave them suffering under the illusion that they are doing a great job when they aren’t. Without some prior indication that there are issues, that employee is going to be completely blind-sided when pulled in to be fired. This only increases their anger and animosity levels toward you and the company.
  2. Don’t procrastinate. Once you know you have to terminate an employee, don’t put it off. The longer you put off having that discussion, the greater your chances of loosing customers, money, or productivity. Can you afford that?
  3. Be conscious of the where and when. Take control of the situation by setting the where and the when. While you may think that Fridays at 4:00 p.m. in your office work best, think again. A better time would be on a Monday morning in a neutral location like a conference room. Waiting until Friday may anger the employee thinking they’ve wasted a whole week at their job when they could have been looking for another job. Conduct the interview in your office and you may never get the meeting to end. In a conference room or other neutral location, you can get up and walk out when you need to and still allow that employee a few minutes to regroup and collect themselves before leaving.
  4. Get to the point. Do not beat round the bush. The words are often harsh to hear, but they leave little ambiguity. Words like “fired”, “terminated” or “let go” leave no misunderstanding to their meaning. Be concise and let them know exactly why they are being terminated.

05.02.07

What Makes a Good Manager?

Posted in Uncategorized at 7:33 pm by Diana Heeb Bivona

Belgium-based training company Krauthammer International performed a survey in October 2006 regarding manager behavior perceived and actual. The survey reviewed 30 core management practices and the modes of behavior most employees look for in a manager. In most cases, managers appear to be failling short of employee expectations, and therefore the needs of the company.

Here are just three potential problems that some managers appear to be having:

  1. Lack of self discipline. In handling objections, only half have the habit of acknowledging an objection, using questions to frame an answer. The rest prefer to kick back with the facts.
  2. Ethical concerns. 17% of managers only consider results in forming a judgement about success – regardless of illegal or unethical conduct in achieving that success.
  3. Finding the right words. Explaining announcements and upcoming changes are not a strong point of managers. Approximately half of managers tend to take the time to get the true commitment and understanding of their employees.

According to the survey, here are the top behaviors employees want to see from their managers:

  • Ability to analyze problem or task together  - 95%
  • Admit mistakes spontaneously - 94%
  • Use 360 degree feedback to assess my talents - 91%
  • Involve me in defining my development objectives - 90%
  • Praise my good results and efforts, close the gaps -  90%

05.01.07

Small Biz Training Resource

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:59 pm by Diana Heeb Bivona

The SBA recently introduced a new online training resource for aspiring entrepreneurs to provide the fundamentals of starting a small business. The Small Business Primer Strategies for Success online training is a free course designed to assist individuals who are thinking about starting a small business or who are in the early stages of running a business.

The Small Business Primer is a self-paced assessment tool that focuses on three key areas to help small business owners (1) determine their business readiness, (2) provide an overview of basic small business principles, and (3) introduce them to key SBA resources for small business counseling and training.

The Small Business Primer is available through the SBA’s Small Business Training Network, a virtual campus of business courses, trainings, education resources, learning tools and information assistance at www.sba.gov/training. It is a unique training that features an interactive assessment tool to help evaluate readiness for starting a business. It also walks participants through the key steps of business start-up.

The business topics reviewed include business planning, legal aspects, financing and marketing. In addition, the course provides links to more than 40 targeted resources and small business tools, such as a business plan template, and an automated balance sheet guide.

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