Posted by admin on March 1, 2010 under Small Business | 
By : Victoria K. Munro
Before you set goals and move forward in 2010, pause and look back. If you’ve been beating yourself up over mistakes you made last year (or before), stop! They could be your best friends-teaching you priceless lessons for future success. Top athletes spend hours after games poring over film replays, examining every move, analyzing each mistake to learn and improve every nuance of their play.
In his fascinating new book How We Decide, author Jonah Lehrer explains the neuroscience behind decision-making. He describes how world-class chess master, Bill Robertie, winner of the U.S. speed chess championship and winner of the World Champion of Backgammon, hones his skills by studying his past plays. “He knows that self-criticism is the secret to self-improvement; negative feedback is the best kind.”
Mistakes are an essential part of healthy growth and self-improvement. Studies show that children excel when not chided for mistakes, but encouraged to find solutions and praised for their ingenuity in putting them right.
Mistakes are inevitable if you’re growing a business. If you’re going to accomplish anything great, you’ll have to take risks and will inevitably make mistakes. Albert Einstein was right when be said, “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
Beware
In order to learn from and avoid repeating mistakes, don’t:
# Refuse to admit your mistakes.
# Allow perfectionism to stop you from taking risks.
# Get upset with yourself and others when you discover mistakes. This makes it worse, and could prevent you from learning valuable lessons.
# Waste mistakes. Determine to learn all you can from them.
Stop and Learn from Past Mistakes
We all make mistakes, but the very act of stopping to look at past mistakes can help avoid repeating them. Think about what caused the mistake: were you in a hurry, perhaps multitasking at the time and not focused on the task at hand? Did you fail to stop, look over and double check your work, or have someone else check it for you? Reflecting on how you plan to handle similar situations next time can minimize future mistakes.
Reframe How You View Mistakes
Thomas Edison failed 10,000 times to create the light bulb, but he viewed these ‘mistakes’ as eliminating ways that didn’t work. He saw each ‘mistake’ as a step closer to the winning solution.
So before you look forward and plan for the year ahead, take some time to look back and learn from past mistakes. It may put you light years ahead.
Fear putting yourself in positions where you’re likely to make mistakes.
Posted by admin on October 27, 2009 under Small Business |
by : Trinity.services015
We consistently face new and ever growing challenges in the workplace such as reorganizing, downsizing, and “left out sizing.” We are faced with the question, “How do we lead in this storm of change?” It may seem difficult at times and the decisions we make define our short-term and long-term outcomes. I will share with you five leadership techniques guaranteed to keep you on track during these difficult times.
1 Integrity.
I put this first because the lack of integrity will make or break you as a professional, as a leader, as a person in the long run. The lack of this will turn yesterday’s heroes in today’s villains. For example, “MCI was the apple of the business community’s eye. High revenues, high profits, and high growth; MCI was beating the competition hands down.
Then it was discovered that there were gross accounting irregularities that accounted for the astounding profits. You see, management made a decision, “Do I continue to sustain good growth and be able to look at myself in the mirror or do I cook the accounting books and spend the rest of my time covering up this integrity deficiency? The real shame of the MCI situation was that AT&T, Sprint, and others in the industry had to cut costs and lay off thousands of employees to compete with MCI’s false numbers. The lack of integrity at MCI not only affected the company but also the livelihood of thousands and the industry as a whole.
I was recently speaking with a recently retired City Council member who is well respected in the community. I asked her what the secret was to her success while on the council? She mentioned that one of her political adversaries said to her, “While you were on the council, I didn’t like the way you voted, but I respected the way you voted because you were consistent with your votes and had the city’s best interest in mind.”
Ask yourself what decisions that you make are right for the long term? Be consistent in your actions, whether it is with management, your team, or your family.
2. Knowledge.
With change happening faster and faster every moment, it is extremely important that you gain the knowledge to master these changes. You owe it not only to yourself, but to your team and management. As I always say, “It’s not having the right answer, it’s that you have the right answer faster than before.” Many times during my teambuilding programs a student will say, “I didn’t know where to find the answer.” Then I will say, “That is an unacceptable answer.” Because part of being a leader is acquiring the skills to find the right answers. With the Internet, classroom and online training, mentors, etc., the knowledge is at your fingertips.
Challenge your team members to use the same resources to acquire the knowledge to master their challenges. By acquiring this knowledge, you will be able to navigate your team through the ocean of change and achieve your goals.
3. Decisiveness.
You have seen them. They wait for information, then more information before making a decision. Then they need more information to support the information they already have.Then they need a committee to analyze the information. Then they wait for the perfect time to make the decision.
Well, you know what I mean. Anyone you know? Make the decision! Good things happen when you take action; you grow, you adapt, and your team grows. There is no perfect time to make a decision. Leaders make decisions based on past experience, putting into action the decision, and staying and adapting the decision if needed. But make the decision. The worst quality you can show your team is indecision. What do you think your team sees when you can’t make a decision? Make the decision and go for it.
4. Vision.
This is the ability not only to see what is the present – anyone can do that – it’s the ability to see the future. Outstanding leaders can not only see their team for what they can do now, but what they can become, and paint the picture for them. These leaders are consistently communicating and coaching their team members to that vision. One of the best ways, and least used methods, to convey your vision is the team meeting.
Every meeting should start out with the team vision, mission, and goals; and the rest of the meeting should tie into the vision. For example, the motivation portion of the meeting should tie into the vision, the information portion of the meeting should tie into the vision, the training portion of the meeting should tie into the vision, etc. Also, invest time to develop your team members’ personal visions and show them how they can accomplish their personal goals by tying into the overall vision. By consistently communicating the vision, your team will move with purpose, feel they are personally making a difference, and achieve their goals sooner.
5. Unselfishness
Stephen Covey, in his successful book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, wrote that a true leader must be a servant to the ones he or she leads. The leader must be able to “give of oneself for the good of the team.” In other words, be unselfish in words and action. Be unselfish in praise of others, in public, especially in front of management.
Be unselfish in the ability to take time to listen, really listen to your team’s concerns. A recent management survey said that the average time management invests doing “pure listening” to employees during the year is a mere two hours- just two hours! What was meant by “pure listening” time was listening with eye contact, acknowledgement, and not answering the phone while listening, not speaking with another person while listening, etc. Be unselfish in the ability to help your team. Whether it’s the ability to readily assist with a difficult telephone call, jump in and remove road blocks for team members, or “be there” for a team member during challenging moments. Believe me, your team will remember those moments and excel for you.
Now I challenge you to put into action just one of the leadership techniques I mentioned above to achieve your vision, your mission, and your goals in the future.
Posted by admin on October 9, 2009 under Small Business |
By Peter Gitundu
Management for small businesses calls for proper training. With this realization in mind, there are many business management schools and colleges that have been set up all around the United States. A close analysis in the entrepreneurship world shows the majority of the ventures in the market are small and medium sized enterprises. Most of them have survived on the strength of proper knowledge of management.
Training on management requires to capture the sociological, psychological, management and economic factors. Learners need to be encouraged to be broad minded if the enterprises they are to set up are to survive competition and constantly changing market trends. The notion that highly paying jobs are only available in big corporations should be scraped off from the mind of up coming and potential business people. In any case, the economy of America is greatly dependent on the upcoming small and medium enterprises. The government has even gone out of the way to boost these ventures.
Management courses should explore the nature of small enterprises, their scope or boundary, the skills they require as well as technology and the knowledge required therein. Management of finances should form the core of these courses. Research shows that many small enterprises are driven out of operation due to poor balance between inflows and out flows.
Other management skills that need to be taught in colleges include accounting and book-keeping, time management, human resource management which is also key in handling the personnel employed in these enterprises. Project management, retail management, data management, office management among others should also be emphasized.
Peter Gitundu Creates Interesting And Thought Provoking Content on Small Business. For More Information, Read More Of His Articles Here SMALL BUSINESS MANAGEMENT If You Enjoyed This Article, Make Sure You Read My Most Recent Posts Here WHAT DEFINES OUR LIFE
Posted by admin on September 15, 2009 under Small Business |
By Steve Boston
If you are thinking of starting a small business or expanding the one you already have you should seriously consider gaining exposure for your business and products just like the big boys do–advertise! But you can do it on a massive scale now for free! Nearly every business has an online presence these days but few of them know how to drive traffic to their sites. Instead, they rely on luck, chance or some other kind of wishful thinking that new customers will find them even if no one knows that they exist outside of their local areas.
Driving traffic to a website simply means that you advertise in such a way that people will know how to find you. The internet is a vast and crowded highway with millions of people coming on and off the exit ramps every minute. The potential customers are out there but it is your job to let them know what you are offering. Television commercials blanket the airways and gain massive exposure for their products. This form of advertising obviously works but who has millions of dollars to spend on that kind of promotion? There is an answer for the small businessman or woman, however. You must educate yourself on the ways of social media and online social networking techniques. It isn’t hard–it just takes some time.
There are all kinds of lists for small business ideas on the web. Many of them are valid but even the best ideas will come up stillborn without a social media advertising campaign. YouTube, ezine article marketing, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace are some of the ways you can promote your business. These should be high on your small business list of ideas.
Steve Boston is an author and television producer living in New York. He offers advice and free tutorials on how to begin using social media techniques to grow a business. You can visit his site at http://www.opportunityworldwide.net
Posted by admin on September 9, 2009 under Small Business |
By Michael Borowiecki
Make no mistake about it. A website is an explosive tool for marketing your business! But beyond the marketing benefits of a website, a small business website can help you make more money and save more money by slashing expenses, improving efficiency and communications, and increasing your availability to customers and staff.
A lot of business owners just starting out have a laundry list of website questions related to the advantages of a website. Many business owners fail to realize that a website can do more for their bottom line than marketing.
Below are just four of many advantages of a website often overlooked when answering small business website questions.
1. Increase Your Availability
A lot of website questions revolve around marketing. But beyond marketing, your website can function as an “always on” receptionist and customer service representative — enabling customers to make purchases, ask questions, research your products and services, send you e-mail and download important documents, whether you’re at work or home. Business no longer fits neatly into a 9 to 5 box, so let people find you when they need you!
2. Put An Axe To Expenses
Printing can get expensive! And sadly, a lot of website questions don’t address the money wasted each year on outdated printed materials. Think about how much money you can save by eliminating the need to print new brochures and other materials caused by a move, loss of employee, or changes to your contact information. Websites are less costly to update than reprinting-and the results are immediate! Some of the biggest advantages of a website are due to cost savings created by converting printed materials for use on your small business website.
3. Improve Your Efficiency
You can’t pack more hours into a day, but you can shift redundant work onto your small business website — saving you hours every month! Make a list of all of the tasks, questions and documents prospects and customers routinely ask for and post that information on your small business website. Simply forward customers to your small business website for such things as: hours of operations, directions to your business, to schedule a meeting and to download forms and documents.
4. Streamline Communications And Collaboration
Another website question often overlooked by small business owners creating their first website is, “what advantages of a website are there for improving communications and collaboration with staff, vendors and customers?” By adding an intranet or extranet to your small business website, even greater benefits of a website can be realized by you and your customers.
An intranet, or secure section of your small business website, is a place where employees can manage projects, share documents and files with each other and collaborate online. Intranets make collaboration a breeze — whether you’re onsite at a client’s location, on vacation in Europe, or working with a distributed workforce across the country!
Similar to an intranet, an extranet can provide better communication and collaboration between you and your customers and vendors. Streamline interactions by providing a secure section of your small business website for customers and vendors to track order status and shipping, manage projects and upload documents and files to you and your staff quickly and easily.
Posted by admin on September 3, 2009 under Small Business |
By Hassan J Sheikh
Once upon a time, companies battle heated battles against each other for the most prominent advertisement spot in the local newspaper. Oftentimes in these battles, the company with the most amount of money won, essentially squeezing the smaller business out of the competition altogether.
Intelligent small business owners have been turning their attention into another direction, the internet.
The internet has become a new medium for small business to head towards. This article will discuss the increased level of exposure a business will experience when it is put online, the entirely new audience that will be tapped, and new business opportunities and partners that may stem from utilizing to Internet.
When a business is put online (whether the entire business, or simply a business website), you are exposing your business to an entirely new audience, people that didn’t read the newspapers you advertised in, or the radio stations your business was publicized in. This increases awareness, allowing more people to know about your goods and services. The option for inexpensive advertising (such as pay-per-click advertising) will further increase your exposure. When Utilizing a pay-per-click program such as Google AdWords, you can bring visitors to your website for as low as $0.10 per click!
Not everyone reads newspapers, or magazines, and not everyone who bought that magazine will turn to page 27 where your ad is, and most who do will not even look at your ad!
Additionally, the internet allows for new business opportunities. Cross-promotion of websites, and affiliate marketing, where you allow others to sell your produce in exchange for a portion of the profits, may help tip the profit scales in your direction.
For every 10 small business that starts, 9 of these fail within the first five years. Do you want to simply roll that ten-sided dice and trust chance that it lands in your favor? Embrace what so many profitable small business owners before you have already done – hire someone to do a web design for you, and get your small business headed in the profitable direction!
