Tag: small business organizational tips

Personal productivity tips for the entrepreneur

If your small business is like many others, you’re the sole employee. You’re the one responsible for every aspect of operations management – from answering phones, taking and returning messages, giving estimates, following-up with customers, selling the product or service, and managing customer satisfaction. And that’s only the operations of your small business. Don’t forget managing accounting, marketing, innovation, and competition!

Over half of Canada’s small businesses have fewer than five employees. Resources are tight, and time is precious. As the owner or manager of a small business, your own personal productivity is very important to the success and longevity of the business. Out of the small businesses that close every year, one-third of them do so because of the owner’s personal reasons for the closure. Being able to juggle several tasks for many hours a day requires a commitment by youto invest in products and systems that will enhance their own productivity.

Some tools to enhance your small business’ productivity

  • If you don’t have one already, consider an office-on-the-go phone such as a Blackberry™ so you can send and receive email, view websites, calendar schedule activities and keep track of customer information wherever you are.
  • Investigate collaborative technology that lets you work seamlessly with clients or other service providers in a virtual environment, sharing content and ideas in real-time, like Google Docs or Microsoft SharePoint.
  • For personal productivity, there are many products and services available that claim to make our lives easier and more efficient, such as Skype, FreshBooks and Microsoft OneNote. Do some research to decide what’s right for you and your business.

Also consider investing in the following:

  • Proper office furniture with file drawers to accommodate well-organized and labelled information
  • A separate business telephone line for your office if you work from home
  • A good everyday document scanner
  • A printer and fax machine (yes, people still use fax machines!)
  • A label maker printer and document shredder

If you’re the chief cook and bottle washer of your business (so to speak) make sure your work environment is set up in a way that maximizes your personal productivity. Your goal is to never, ever lose a customer’s name or contact information and to never miss an appointment. Never, ever. Promise? Good.

For more reading on managing productivity in a small business, check out these past blog posts:

 

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The characteristics of effective small business managers

Your small business is booming, and before you know it, you’re at the head of a small team of eager employees. How do you manage your employees effectively? Here are some top tips for effective small business management.

Planning and organization

Planning and organization are two very important traits that small business managers possess. Set both short term and long term goals for the company and plan how your company will achieve them. As well, punctuality and time management skills are a must.

If you were told to set an example for siblings as a child, business is no different! Model to your employees the characteristics that you’d like them to have. For instance, showing up late for a board meeting and not remembering the topics to be discussed can set an unwanted tone, and can cause your employees to lose respect for you. Demonstrate superior planning skills not only to your staff and team, but also to clients and suppliers by always being properly prepared and up to date.

Controlling and monitoring

Controlling and monitoring the processes within your organization are very important. If you’re not overseeing company activities and making sure that they’re done properly and effectively, who is? Be sure to monitor results and compare alternatives constantly. You should always be looking for areas of improvement and finding ways to make that improvement happen. Compare performance with your previous predictions and with competitors and industry standards. Revise goals and objectives and measure how well they’re being accomplished.

Controlling is an ongoing process that’s closely linked with the planning process. You should not only control and monitor your business’ processes, but also the people that it involves – staff, suppliers and customers. Collect feedback on your company’s performance from these people so you can identify areas where control should be improved.  If you’re unable to monitor daily activities yourself, consider hiring an additional supervisor whenever possible to assist with the controlling responsibilities.

Leadership

Successful leaders are teachers, learners and visionaries. Your employees will look up to you for motivation, guidance and also as a model for their own performance.

Effective leaders have strong ethical standards and emotional stability. Stress and frustration are just part of the entrepreneurial life, so it’s important to be able to deal with issues effectively – without flying off the handle or taking things personally. Leaders are practical and logical even in stressful situations, so decisions are made rationally. These decisions must also be made in confidence, with little need for approval from others.

As a leader in your company, you must have high standards for yourself and for others and recognize the potential of your team. You should always strive to do your best, and should encourage your team members to do the same. You want your employees to be satisfied with the jobs and their workplace – try to make them feel good about themselves and their work. Enthusiasm is contagious – be energetic and passionate about your work  and you’ll encourage staff to be the same way.

Being thick-skinned and confident are other important characteristics. Learn to take criticism well, and show assertiveness in your attitudes on the job to help you gain respect and motivate others. However, don’t hog all of the leadership – delegate tasks and responsibilities when required. This proves you recognize the value of your team and the superior results that teamwork can often produce. Show maturity in your daily activities by putting your own recognition secondary to that of your employees and company. We know this business is your baby, but without happy and productive employees, you might find you won’t have any business at all.

Think strategically and always consider what’s best for your company as a whole, instead of your own personal preferences. Your colleagues should be able to rely on your planning skills and trust that arrangements and preparations will be performed effectively. You should be able to put yourself in the other person’s shoes and view situations from multiple viewpoints to gain a clear understanding. Sound like a superhero yet? You can definitely get close to being one. In order to be the best leader you can be, work hard to improve and strengthen these skills so that you can effectively motivate and lead your team.

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A closer look at female entrepreneurship and success

Female entrepreneurs make an outstanding contribution to the Canadian economy, their local communities and their families. It takes a special combination of skill and ability to manage the demands of entrepreneurship or self-employment while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Women seem to be masters of multi-tasking – running a small business, many from home, while juggling the demands of young families and aging parents. Many men have these abilities too, but the success rate of female-run micro-businesses is higher than that of men – making us want to investigate the characteristics of female business owners more closely. Let’s look at some recent research on female entrepreneurship and success rates from Dr. Robert Hisrich’s The Female Entrepreneur:

  1. Female entrepreneurs as a whole undertake more research and planning in the pre-start-up stage of their businesses. Women are generally willing to spend more time to lower the risk of an action than are men. This is one of the reasons for the higher level of success of female-run businesses – we know that planning, research and preparation is associated with higher levels of success in small business.
  2. Women are in general well organized and good time managers – additional demands placed on women due to multiple and overlapping roles they may fill in their lives, particularly if they have a family. Small business success requires development of exceptional organizational and planning skills, and women who hone these skills in their daily lives seem to transfer them naturally to business.
  3. Women tend to be more conservative and manage cashflow and budgets well, particularly in the early stages of business development. This bodes well for the bumpy ride of early-stage entrepreneurship, when making do with what you have or stretching your dollars can mean the difference between success and closing up shop.
  4. Women, in general, are more likely to seek advice and counselling in business sooner and more often than are men. The propensity for men to try and figure it out on their own in business is one of the factors that lead to higher levels of business failure for men.
  5. Women’s communication styles are more likely to be collaborative than competitive. Women emphasize relationship-building, team-building, collaboration and co-operation more often than men in business.

Of course, Dr. Hisrich points to areas of weakness for most female entrepreneurs as well. Things we need to work on are: negotiation skills, developing stronger business networks, taking more calculated risks (like obtaining a loan to grow a company’s product line or marketing strategy), and becoming more comfortable with the financial and accounting functions of our companies. In 2010, we compiled a list of challenges faced by female entrepreneurs, and we think many of them are still prevalent today.

Do you have any female entrepreneurship success stories? Are you, or do you know, a female entrepreneur who’s got a great small business? Sound off in the comments!

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Small business blog posts we liked this week

We love reading business blogs, and also love sharing great small business facts and advice with our fellow entrepreneurs. Here are some business blog posts we liked this week. We hope you enjoy them, and let us know what you think!

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