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Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

5 Keys to Improving Employee Morale (without spending a penny)

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

Corporations spend a lot of money on employee morale and retention…celebrations, trinkets, new benefits, pay increases, etc. Unfortunately, these measures often fail to have a lasting effect. Once the “good feelings” wear off, morale falls again, creating an endless spending cycle a small business can’t afford.

You can have a permanent and positive impact AND it won’t cost you anything except a little time and effort to master the language of acknowledgment. After years of working on employee retention issues, Scott Degraffenreid distilled his insights into a new book, Blazing a TRAIL to Success: The New Art & Science of Acknowledgment. Scott observes that acknowledgment is not “saying something to make people feel good” or giving them a token of appreciation. It is the voice of gratitude and expresses the abundance in our lives.

I decided to consciously put TRAIL into action while working with a team of volunteers. Watching that team respond and the relationships grow was truly rewarding. Here are the five keys:

Trust: Trust without proof of someone’s capability to do the work is a very powerful acknowledgment. Given the space to do so, they step up and perform. Trust also means being willing to be disappointed without anticipating failure. When they fail ask how do we do it differently and move on.

Respect: Respect means to take into consideration the feelings, thoughts and input of another in such a way that they recognize you have done so. Respect is so subtle that we don’t realize when we disrespect someone. Little things mean a lot: timely response voice mail and email, being on-time to a meeting, turning off the cell phone, deferring to another’s expertise. Leaders, you get what you give. Do your employees feel respected? BTW…if your suppliers and customers are complaining about service, look to yourself and your management team. Your employees will treat your customers/suppliers only as well as you are treating them.

Appreciation: Appreciation is a sincere compliment…but you have to know what the recipient wants you to notice. If you compliment their organized office and they want you to notice their project management prowess…you blew it! How do you know what to compliment? ASK them! They’ll be blown away that you asked and impressed when you follow-up.

Interest: Interest “consists of being open to another person’s life and thoughts beyond the immediate context of the relationship”. As a leader, what do you know about their life away from work? What do they do for fun? Birthday? Anniversary? Kids’ names? Favorite food/dessert? Take the time to get to know them. If you need to, get an index card for each one with the pertinent information and act on it!

Listening: Listening isn’t just paying attention to what someone says; it also entails being aware of how you hear them. What are you thinking about while you are listening? “Oh no, another whiner” or “I’m glad Henry is so concerned…” Do you ask for input and then ignore it?

Acknowledgment is a skill that takes time and conscious effort to master. Yet this one skill, when used properly, can strengthen and deepen every relationship. I highly recommend Blazing a TRAIL to Success: The New Art & Science of Acknowledgement. You may purchase a copy at http://bit.ly/LyJxJ.

Tags: employee morale, employee retention, small business
Posted in Business | 3 Comments »

How Important is I.T. in Your Business?

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Just 25 years ago the most important business tool was the telephone…not the sophisticated iPhone™ or Blackberry™, but POTS, the plain old telephone system. Combined with the Rolodex, it was a powerful tool that linked the business to the customer. Twenty-five years ago, and even today, AT&T and the “baby bells” were known for their reliability. The chance of the phone system going down was very slim. You definitely were not going to close the doors to your business for good if the phones were down for a period of time.

Today, the indispensible tool is the computer and the network to which it is connected. Together they facilitate communication with clients, manage complex business processes and maintain financial and client information. Unfortunately, an outage with computer systems or the network could easily force you to close your business for good. What would happen to your business if either one was unavailable for an extended period of time? Would you lose money? Would your company’s reputation suffer? Would your inability to supply your product or service damage another company’s reputation? Could you recover?

While all businesses need some level of disaster recovery planning, most small business owners have not given much thought to the possibility of a disaster! Wake up, small business owners! A disaster could be as small as spilling a drink on a critical server or your laptop or something as spectacular as Hurricane Katrina or a security attack. If the event keeps you from conducting business for an extended period of time, then you need a backup plan that answers the question: How do we conduct business if a critical resource is unavailable?

Think for a few moments about your business and consider these 3 questions:

1) Which processes are critical to your business? If these processes are unable to function, your business doesn’t function.

2) What are the technology components upon which these processes depend? Do you have a critical file, server, or other piece of hardware?

3) How long can your I.T. environment be unavailable to you or your customers before the business begins to suffer?

Answers to these three questions are the beginning of disaster planning. The next step is to begin to reduce or eliminate the risks that impact your business (the subject of another post).

Best wishes for your success!

Leslie Knight is a small business consultant with over 20 years of experience in Information Technology management in Fortune 500 companies. She applies her experience in Corporate America saving them millions to smaller entrepreneurial enterprises. She is also the author of Navigating the I.T. Minefield.

To download “When Disaster Strikes” from Navigating the I.T. Minefield: Straight Talk for the Small Enterprise, go to http://bit.ly/zAcdl. Yes, I require your email address…but that’s to keep the spam bots from taking over. Good people won’t abuse the content J

Posted in Business, Information Technology | 1 Comment »

Rant on Computer Hardware Manufacturers

Saturday, September 12th, 2009

Twenty-five years ago (yes I’ve been in the business that long…ouch) IBM, Dell and HP were the major players in desktop/laptop hardware. Dell was the young upstart. They made a name for themselves by producing a high quality, customized product in less time than their competitors. IBM and HP were overtaken. All of the manufacturers were trying to outdo each others. When the dust settled, Dell stayed on top (with a brief loss of share to HP).

Today, the major players have changed a little bit. But if you’ll notice their ads, they are all competing on price. A computer is for the most part a commodity. The insides are very similar, but the external case has a different name stamped on it. There is very little differentiation between Dell, HP, Lenovo, Gateway (Acer) and the other players. Computer quality is about the same with each major vendor. Customer service is dependably mediocre (at least I have not heard any rave reviews in a while). Small businesses are the fastest growing segment, yet they have not figured out that they key to winning the entrepreneur is the experience they create for us, not their old brand image.

Ask anyone who has had a laptop stolen or otherwise destroyed and they’ll probably tell you they bought the replacement at a big box retailer because it would take too long to order what they really wanted from the manufacturer. No begging, pleading, calls to sales or letters to the CEO would cause the manufacturer to move any quicker on their order (14 to 30 days to receive a new one). The message “As an entrepreneur or small business (20 or fewer computers), you are not that important.” Unfortunately for us, our computers are our lifeline. They are as important to our business as they are in a large company. Since we are small, we don’t always have the option of stowing duplicate hardware for later use. So, we’re stuck.

I wonder if there is an up-and-coming manufacturer out there who will actually carve out their niche in the small business or entrepreneur segment…and treat us like we are as important as those business that buy a few hundred computers at a time. IF they do it right, word of mouth referrals could easily suck business away from the established manufacturers.

Tags: Information Technology, IT, small business
Posted in Business, Information Technology | 3 Comments »

Are Small Businesses Repeating I.T. History?

Friday, September 11th, 2009

George Santayana is credited with the quote, “Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them” (the original is quite different). After 20+ years working in Corporate America for Fortune 500 companies, it pains me greatly to walk into a small business and see that even the most basic of the lessons learned by the large companies have generally not been implemented in smaller businesses. The IT environment and work processes remain undocumented. Many still don’t have an effective data backup scheme…definitely no business continuity plan. I believe this is happening for three reasons:

Small requires less mentality. The term “small business” now suggests a home office or small office, something substantially less than the government definition of 500 or fewer employees. In some local economies, small businesses represent more than 50% of the area businesses. Of those 75% or more have fewer than 10 employees, and most have only one or two employees. These businesses drive the economy and employ more than 50% of the workforce. Service providers and business owners alike seem to think that small means less is required to manage and maintain them from an I.T. perspective. In reality, these businesses require processes and protection that are as robust as those of the Fortune companies. How do you view your small enterprise? Do you see it as a long-term, growing business concern?

Lack of awareness. Part of the problem stems from the plug-n-play simplicity with which most computers and applications integrate into daily operations. This often hides the complexity and criticality of the operations they support. Consequently, most small business owners are simply unaware of the risks I.T. poses to their business. What are your business critical processes? How dependent are these processes on I.T.? Can your business survive if the computers and network are not available?

Conscious decision. In some cases, no matter how important it might be to take action, the business owner simply does not have the financial wherewithal to implement a suggestion from the I.T. service provider. It might be less expensive to allow the business to close after a significant I.T. failure than it is to protect against the problem. That’s a decision you, the business owner, will have to make. Are you armed with enough information to make an informed decision?

How do you view your business? Are you aware of the risks I.T. poses to your business? Have you done what you can to reduce or eliminate those risks? This is the first post in a series. I hope you will return as we explore the risks for startups and established businesses, possible solutions and then share your experiences.

Best wishes for your success!

Leslie

To download “When Disaster Strikes” from Navigating the I.T. Minefield: Straight Talk for the Small Enterprise, go to http://bit.ly/zAcdl.

Tags: Information Technology, IT, small business, startup
Posted in Business, Information Technology | No Comments »

Brag on Your I.T. Service Provider

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

I see and hear about a lot of the I.T. horror stories from clients, friends and other consultants.

I would like to hear a few people brag on their I.T. service provider. What stories do you have to share about how they helped your business?

Tags: Information Technology, IT, small business
Posted in Business, Information Technology | No Comments »

Turn Every Client into a Referral Source

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

Every once in a while, I find a good book that will help a small business owner and I’ll use my blog to share. I first read this book five years ago and it is still relevant today. I hope you find it useful. ≈ Leslie

In today’s economy, we are all looking for ways to increase business without increasing our expenses. Yet we all overlook the one free resource available to us: our clients. How would your business look if every client became a referral source? What would it take to turn every client into a referral source?

I highly recommend for your reading The New Art & Science of Referral Marketing. Scott Degraffenreid has a 100% success rate of increasing the referral business of his clients without incurring ongoing out-of-pocket expenses. In this book, Scott reveals why referrals work better than all of the traditional advertising media and then explains how to build your message to drive referrals.

So, what are those elements of a business that make it easy for someone to refer a product or service? It’s the N.U.D.E. model – Novelty, Utility, Dependability, Economy. While I won’t go into great detail about each one, suffice it to say that all four elements must be present and their perceptions managed to drive your business based on referrals. A N.U.D.E score of 315% can result in at least one referral from each of your customers. The good news is that if often doesn’t take much to reach 315%. At that level, the referrals alone can sustain a business. Who doesn’t want that?

Viral Referral Marketing in action: I have had the pleasure of listening to Scott teach and getting to know him over the years. I also know that most businesses struggle with marketing and generating referrals. So here we have an example of NUDE: Novelty…the NUDE method itself (even established businesses can develop a perception of novelty); Utility…knowing people who have a need; Dependability…Scott’s reputation as I perceive it. Economy…I fully expect a favorable return on my investment and effort. I probably know 100 new people that can benefit from Scott’s expertise within my Twitter following and elsewhere. Considering the people I know and they know, at the first two levels alone, 10,000 people will hear about Scott and his book in a very short period of time. That’s the power of Viral Referral Marketing and the N.U.D.E model.

Reader Comment: In The New Art & Science of Referral Marketing, Degraffenreid “quantifies the power of word of mouth and lays out the main characteristics of a word-of-mouth message needs in order to reach runaway levels. It shows how to change your product and message to something people will want to talk about. This is priceless. At $1000 it would be a bargain.” – George Silverman, author, “The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing”

To purchase a copy of The New Art & Science of Referral Marketing please visit http://bit.ly/JrWBq.

Best wishes for your success!

Leslie

Tags: marketing, referral marketing, small business
Posted in Business | 1 Comment »

Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

5 Keys to Improving Employee Morale (without spending a penny)

How Important is I.T. in Your Business?

Rant on Computer Hardware Manufacturers

Are Small Businesses Repeating I.T. History?

Brag on Your I.T. Service Provider

Turn Every Client into a Referral Source

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