The Case for Hiring an Outside Manager in Small Business

October 6, 2012


My previous post on the biggest mistake of hiring a manager from outside generated considerable interest and feedback. The feedback covered both pros and cons of hiring a manager from outside for small businesses. While many agreed with my assessment that hiring an outside manager is a big mistake, several others raised valid points on the flip side. Those points do have merit and worth mentioning here to be fair.
The drawbacks of hiring an internal candidate has mostly to do with the internal competition / conflict between the manager who gets promoted and others that are not, along with the fact that internal candidate is not likely to bring fresh perspective. In this post I will attempt to summarize the pitfalls that arise when your business does not bring an outsider for the manager job, but instead chooses to promote an internal candidate.
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Filed Under: Employees, Management Tagged With:

7 Qualities of a Good Small Business Manager

September 21, 2012


One of the most important decisions you will make as a small business owner is hiring a manager to take care of day-to-day operations of your business. This is the person who will be running the show for better or worse. Hiring a bad manager can hurt your business in a number of ways. The customers will walk away. The employees will complain and leave. The reputation of your business will decline beyond repair. In the end, the business will become a mess that can take long time to recover, if at all.
That is why it is imperative to pay careful attention and take time in hiring manager. I discussed best practices in hiring a manager in earlier post. I mentioned that you need to consider personal qualities of the potential hire – even more than the skills. So what are those qualities you need to look for when hiring a manager?
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Filed Under: Employees, Management Tagged With: ,

7 Best Practices in Hiring a Small Business Manager

September 8, 2012


Manager is probably the most important person for small businesses, after you. He is the one who manages day-to-day operations when you are not around, ensures that employees perform their job and is responsible for customer satisfaction. Yet many small business owners rush to hire managers without doing sufficient due diligence and end up regretting their decision afterwards and paying price in terms of business decline.
It is true that not every business needs a full-time manager, however in many situations it is a necessity for various reasons. For example, if you are running an absentee business manager is the one who will run the show. In some cases, business operating hours are more than you can provide yourself. Or you may just want to focus on high-priority strategic items and let the manager take care of operations. No matter what your reason is for hiring a manager the best practices described here will help you hire a manager who will help you grow your business.
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Sell your Business Fast by Following these Best Practices

August 28, 2012


In my non-scientific estimate every one month delay after you have put the business up for sale reduces the price you will get by about 0.5%. For a business worth $100,000 this translates to a loss of approx $500 every month! In addition, the delay in completing the sale can not only result in deterioration of the business, but you can start losing important employees and customers if they get a hint that you are planning to sell the business. That’s why it is imperative for the business owners to complete the sale as quickly as possible after you have decided to sell it.
Now, selling the business is an inherently complex and time consuming process. It is not uncommon to find businesses that have been on the market for 6 months before the sale is complete. However, with little planning and preparation it is possible to reduce this time. Read on to find out how.
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Filed Under: Management, Sellers Tagged With: ,

How to Manage Franchise Relationship to your Benefit

August 25, 2012


Franchisee and franchisor have long held love-hate relationship. They know that they both need each other to be successful, but at the same time, they are constantly disagreeing and fighting over number of issues. While healthy debate and disagreements are beneficial, constant fighting over trivial issues can sap energy out of both franchisee and the franchisor.
For this reason many franchisees feel they should just venture on their own rather than dealing with the tyranny of franchisor. This could be a mistake, however. There are number of benefits of owning a franchise as opposed to running an independent business. As a franchisee, you need to develop a symbiotic relationship with the franchisor and focus on what you want to get out of it. The key is to understand and follow the rules of the game and develop a playbook that will make you a winner. Follow these guidelines when developing the playbook.
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Filed Under: Buyers, Management, Strategy Tagged With: , ,

The many benefits to your business of attending marketing conferences

August 3, 2012

A guest post by Melissa
Whether your primary business is public relations, search engine optimization, or advertising, your company’s attendance at marketing-oriented conferences can be extremely beneficial to your business. Why have other business owners in your field made the decision to attend marketing industry conferences? Although staying up-to-date on industry dynamics and networking are two of the obvious answers, there are plenty of other benefits. These include gaining competitive intelligence, having the opportunity to publicly speak, having the opportunity to exhibit or even sponsor the event, seek out affiliates, having the opportunity to meet your clients face-to-face, recruit new employees, and even party with like-minded people.
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Filed Under: Management Tagged With:

Smart International Trading for Small and Medium Sized Businesses

July 30, 2012


If you run a small to medium sized business (SME) you probably already feel like you’re trying to keep a million plates spinning at once – add international trading in to this and ensuring none of them fall can seem like impossibility. When you take the step to begin trading across borders, it’s understandable to feel like you’re exposing your business to a lot of risk: what the laws of your country may protect your business against, the laws in the company you are trading with may not. Thankfully, banks such as HSBC offer a number of services, from business credit cards to important export services, designed to support SMEs as they grow their business abroad. Let’s look at those services and how they could benefit your business.
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Filed Under: Finance, Management Tagged With: , ,

Why a solid Network is a Key to Small Business Success

July 22, 2012


Building and running a successful small business is a team sport. You, as an owner, will probably play the role of a coach or a quarterback; but you are going to need more players with variety of skills to build a winning team. If someone tells you he single handedly built the successful small business, he is lying.
While it is true that you are the Chief Everything Officer (CEO) of the business responsible for taking care of all aspects it doesn’t mean that you have to do all the work yourself or that you are even capable of knowing it all. The key to success is to build a solid network of people with diverse skills who complement the skills you possess. This network acts an advisory board that you can go to for advice, concerns or to simply bounce off any ideas you might have before implementing them. This board needs to be chosen carefully so that you can get the right advice even if you may not like it or agree with it. So what types of skills should you look for when building an advisory board or a network of supporters?
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Filed Under: Customers, Management, Strategy Tagged With: , , ,

A Great Employee is 10X as Valuable as Good – How to Find One

July 18, 2012


A great employee can contribute to your business that 10 good employees combined cannot do. Behind a successful business owner there is a strong lieutenant who stands by him every step of the way and is not afraid to give right advice even if it means disagreeing with the owner. If there is one thing you must do to succeed in your business it is to hire great employees, even if it means paying more, and give them freedom to do the best. The return you get from them makes it more than worth.
Of course, hiring great employees is easier said than done. But it is possible to do it and it starts with spotting the right person. You first need to understand what sets great employees apart from the mediocre ones. One hint – it all starts with attitude. I mentioned in earlier post that when hiring employees you should first look for attitude, not the skills. You can teach old dog new tricks, but you will not be able to straighten its tail, as the saying goes in India. So what skills do great employees have that are not easily found in others?
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Filed Under: Employees, Management Tagged With: ,

Can’t Keep Up? How to Delegate to Succeed in Small Business

July 11, 2012


“No person will make a great business who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit” – Andrew Carnegie. Show me a small business owner who doesn’t like to delegate, and I will show you someone who will not be able to grow beyond a certain point. Small business owners are called Chief Everything Officers (CEO) who are required to take care of all aspects of running a business. If you do not have good time management skills you are going to run out of steam at some point.
A big part of time management skills is learning to delegate tasks to others. The problem is, not everyone feels comfortable with delegation for the fear that if they do not take care of tasks themselves they will not be completed to their satisfaction. This is a myth! From my own experience I can tell you that with proper planning it is possible to successfully delegate tasks and get them completed to your satisfaction. After all, there are only 24 hours in a day, and you have to go to sleep at some point! So what is the secret to successful delegation? Read on…
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