Insights, Ideas, Results
“It is time for a business-related meeting.” How do those words make you feel? Do you feel like something productive will come out of the congregation, or think that it is going to be waste of time and productivity at hand?
So, how can you ensure you always host the former feeling? Consider ways to host productive meetings at your place of business.
When it comes to dealing with lawyers, small business owners have love-hate feeling. They understand the importance and need for legal services. At the same time, they also get frustrated by the amount of time they have to spend on it as well as dealing with fine nuances of legal process. For many, the cost of legal services is just too high. No wonder many small business owners like to avoid the subject of legal services altogether.
Charitable foundations such as the one started by Joelle Wyser-Pratte are helping address the challenge of educating world’s poor. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” This powerful proverb that has taught generations the power of education is still true – probably more so today when the world economy is moving from labor oriented tasks to cerebral tasks. Millions of people in developing nations, such as India and China, have come out of poverty by educating themselves and moving up the rungs of economic ladder. Not only can education help you realize personal dreams, but it can also solve many of the world’s pressing problems such as terrorism, war and other social malice.
Small business owners can benefit by getting involved in the community in which they operate. Giving back to the community is not only the right thing to do, but it also pays you back in terms of brand recognition and higher sales. The community involvement can happen in various forms. You can sponsor the Little League softball team in your city or participate in fund raising for the high school football team. The community involvement doesn’t have to be limited to local community. With the rise of globalization the world has become smaller and as a result the community you participate in has become global. Joelle O’Reilly-Hyland has started one such global foundation to help educate the girls.
In May 2011, then Congressman Anthony Weiner announced that he was resigning from the New York City Council. The congressman was an intense individual to work for. He kept long hours, worked staff hard, and was accused of being verbally abusive. Weiner made a mistake, something that we’ve all done at some point or another. He sent a public tweet that he meant to keep private. What was bothersome about that tweet was its sexually explicit content.
The congressman resigned and sought counseling on the matter. In May of 2013, he revealed via YouTube that he was looking to run a seat of New York City’s mayor. Barely two months had gone by when old habits crept back into the public eye. Congressman Weiner was at it again. The scandal has not caused the former congressman to drop out, yet. As we wait for word on his efforts to continue, a reflective look at his legacy can shed some valuable light on businesses under pressure.
When you’re running a small business, you’re so busy with managing employees and meeting payroll that the last thing on your mind is a lawsuit. Of course, when that happens it can bring everything to a grinding halt. Handling legal entanglements can drag on for years and can put you in lot of financial trouble. It is in your best interest to know beforehand what you can and cannot do when you are faced with lawsuits. Here are some suggestions to help you calm your nerves in that situation and deal with the issue at hand.
“You cannot improve something that you don’t measure.” This is the mantra many leadership coaches have preached for number of years, and for the right reason. If you do not know how your business is performing you are practically driving the car without a dashboard. Anything can go wrong along the way and you wouldn’t come to know about it before it’s too late. That is why performance monitoring should be integral to running a business for any leader.
When it comes to starting small business location is everything. Where you locate your business can eventually decide whether the business will survive in the long run or will encounter headwinds forcing you to shut it down or relocate it. This is especially true of retail businesses that largely rely on customer foot traffic. I have seen number of promising business that had to close down because they chose the wrong location.
Large retail businesses have dedicated real estate departments whose job it is to scout locations for expansion. Now, small businesses cannot afford to have a department to focus on real estate, but that doesn’t diminish the attention you have to give in choosing a location for your business.
Whether you’re a small business owner, aspiring entrepreneur or hard-working professional, the battle to constantly produce good work is ongoing. Maybe it’s the monotony of workloads or effort we put forth to get better, but seasons of high productivity seem to come and go. If you’re stuck in a slump, you’re not alone. Millions of professionals struggle to meet expectations every day. Luckily, the parade of employees and entrepreneurs hoping to boost their output has led to helpful tools and strategies.
Every business undergoes a lull at some point. Even the most trailblazing, rip-roaring successes either see a period of plateau in the sales figures, a drop off in engagement online, an unexpected downtime or a hush in the office.
But don’t panic.
Quite periods can be caused by a variety of factors – seasonality, block holiday periods, geo-political changes, strikes, illness, market uncertainty, recessions – you name it.
The fact is – it happens; it’s part of the cycle.
It can be incredibly frustrating, primed as you are with all that energy ready to channel into your business, only to be denied when you try and side-step the inevitable.
But, knowing their inevitability, you can prepare for these periods with a strategy of how to use them productively and constructively.
Here are some little nuggets to think about when that next low wave rolls in.
