October 2019

Essential Networking Tips for Small Business Owners

7 Networking Tips for Small Business Owners

You’re going to a networking event this month, and if you’re being honest with yourself, you’re feeling a bit anxious. It’s not like anyone ever taught you how to connect with others and promote yourself in school or when starting your business. You don’t want to mess this opportunity up.

Here’s the good news: there’s no need to stress. With a little pre-planning, a positive attitude, and a motivation to build new relationships, you’ll be a professional networker in no time. To start, here are 7 networking tips for small business owners.

Be Strategic

“Developing a strategy and plan for networking is vital to get the most out of your networking efforts,” says Carrie Sharpe, communications consultant and speaker, in an interview for this article. She continues, “It’s helpful to know in advance if there’s a particular person you’d like to meet, or if you’d like to connect with someone in a specific field.

Utilize the Buddy System

Are you feeling anxious about attending on your own? Don’t! Invite someone to come with you if being solo is affecting your decision to attend.

Sharpe says, “Sometimes it helps to go to networking events with a friend, coworker, or spouse. That way you have someone to sit with, encourage you, and help keep conversations going. Working as a team like that can alleviate some anxiety.”

If you don’t have anyone to connect with, use social media to find someone else who will be attending the event and plan with them to meet up.

Craft & Practice Your Elevator Pitch

How do you feel talking about yourself and your business? Usually, one of the hardest aspects to networking for small business owners is answering the question “what do you do?” After that, conversation flows a bit easier.

The best way to manage this is to come up with an “elevator pitch” that you can share when meeting new business. Keep it short, you basically want to sum up what your job title is, and who you help in a couple sentences. Bonus points if you can share a highlight or recent win in your introduction.

If you met me at an event you might hear, “I’m a content strategist who helps businesses use SEO and storytelling to attract the perfect-for-them customers. Just this week one of my client’s articles moved to the first page of search results.”

Ask Questions

Now that you know how to introduce yourself, it’s important to learn how to connect with others. The easiest way to do that is to ask questions about the person you’re speaking with.

“If you have the goal of building relationships, asking questions to get to know the other person is key,” says Sharpe. “There is no pressure on you to do all the talking. Be a good listener, and ask open-ended questions. Learn about other people, and allow them to shine.”

Not sure what to ask? Here are a few suggestions from Sharpe:

“Who is your favorite kind of person to work with?”
“What do you have going on in your business right now that really excites you?”
“Oh, really? Why is that?”

Photo by HIVAN ARVIZU @soyhivan on Unsplash

Walk the Walls

One of the easiest to implement networking tips for small business owners is to introduce yourself to the people on the outskirts instead of walking straight into the crowd.

Sharpe agrees and says, “Instead of looking to the mob of people congregating in the center of the room, find a person or two along the edge of the room and focus on them. A few strong connections trumps several surface-level ones.”

End the Conversation

Sometimes leaving the conversation to meet someone new can be awkward. However, you can say goodbye in a way that’s beneficial to you both. First, make sure to ask for the individual’s contact information if you’d like to connect after the event. Then, ask your new connection how you can be of service to them best.

Sharpe suggests saying something to the effect of, “I know time is limited and you need to talk to other people here, too, so in our last couple minutes tell me how I can best support you and your business.”

Follow Up

It’s important to follow up, and right away! If you wait too long, you’re risking that your new connection may forget you or mistake you for someone else they’ve met.

Main photo: Photo by CoWomen on Unsplash

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Best Books for Small Business Owners – Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

October 28, 2019/in Featured Stories, Living Your Best SBO Life, Sales and Marketing /by Anne Shaw

October Monthly Must-Reads: Best Books for Small Business Owners

As a business owner, you likely wear many hats, from human resources to operations and from sales to fulfillment. So, where do you fit in time for learning and professional development?

Keep up with innovation, business and leadership trends by reading the right business books for your small business.

In our Monthly Must-Reads series, we share a featured business book’s main focus and key take-aways, so you can determine within a minute if it’s relevant to you and your small business—really, whether it’s worth your valuable time. This month, we’re covering Dr. Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, which seeks to teach you how to use six universal principles of persuasion as well as how to be aware of when others use them on you.

Business Book:

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert Cialdini

Focus:

Understanding the psychology and main principles behind effective persuasion

Main Idea:

There is useful science behind how people are persuaded

Great for Small Business Owners Who:

Want to improve their sales conversations

Synopsis:

Dr. Cialdini identifies and explains six principles of persuasion. He argues that utilizing them ethically will help readers more successfully win people over to their way of thinking. In fact, he says, employing tactics related to each principle to make small, free and practical changes can often improve your results.

While exploring each principle, Cialdini shares research and past studies that illustrate each principle in action. He then uses real-life examples to help readers understand each one in ways that will help them apply these principles to their own efforts.

The six principles are:

Reciprocity – The inclination to return favors
Scarcity – When people perceive a scarcity, demand tends to go up
Authority – People want to believe they’re working with someone who’s credible
Consistency – If someone has previously said or done something, they’re more likely to take a similar or related action than those who have not
Liking – People are more likely to go along with someone they like
Consensus – People are more likely to go along with your points if you can show that others agree with you

Key Take-Aways:

Understanding and using these principles empowers you to grow more persuasive—in an entirely ethical way.
When trying to persuade people:
- Build the beginning of a positive relationship by looking for similarities between yourselves and consider genuine compliments you can offer.
- Always be the first to give. Something unexpected and even personalized works best.
- Share not only what is unique about your offering or argument, but also what they stand to lose if they don’t consider your ideas.
- Find ways to present or display proofs of your credibility.
- Look for ways to tie your ideas to something that they have said or done in the past.
- Show them that others—especially people similar to themselves—already agree with and/or have acted on your ideas.

Reviewers Say:

“I own perhaps 2,000 books on the subject of selling. This is certainly in the top 5.”

“This book is dated and largely appears to pre-date what we consider the modern internet/TV phenomenon, and that’s obvious in reading it. That’s its only real flaw… and, to be fair, this wouldn’t likely receive much improvement from an updated revision. [The] lessons inside about how we are susceptible to persuasion don’t really need updating… they are solid enough, outlined well enough, and supported with facts and data enough that they withstand the obvious test of time.”

“I read this book when it first came out 25 years ago. It had an enormous impact on my thinking and behavior. Since then, I have recommended it to thousands of people…In return, I have had hundreds of people thank me for recommending it. I recently decided to reread the updated version. It does not disappoint. I will still be recommending it. I would say that this is a book you need to read in self-defense, if for no other reason. You have no idea how many times a day people try to influence you using the techniques described in this book. If you like to think that you are an autonomous person who thinks for yourself, you would be wrong. This book shows just how much you respond to influence cues in your environment without any thought at all. Unfortunately, we all function on autopilot far more often than we realize. This book will help you get off of autopilot, at least some of the time.”

Kapitus Monthly Must-Read Business Books:

August – Blitzscaling

September – The E-Myth Revisited

October – Influence

Cloud Based Collaboration tools for your small business

How to Create More Personal Digital Experiences Using Cloud Based Collaboration Tools

October 23, 2019/in Technology /by Dawn Reiss

Increasingly, technology-based experiences are shaping how small businesses interact with their customers. It can be difficult to create a personalized experience, especially if you’re trying to create engaging online and digital conversations.

Cloud based collaboration tools can help to make the life of the small business owner easier, especially when you have employees who work remotely or across different time zones.

Here are some tips to find the best cloud-based collaboration tools for your team.

Understand the basics

When you store something in “the cloud,” it means your data and information, the software and services is being stored somewhere else instead of locally onsite.

Using cloud based collaboration tools means you can remotely connect with your employees no matter where they are located for real time collaboration.

Why should you consider using cloud-based collaboration tools

Having a digital hub to facilitate online collaboration creates more transparency, which can help create better accountability, improve team productivity by problem-solving more quickly and ensure the security of a project by allowing team members to house sensitive data in a password protected management system. A McKinsey Global Institute report found business owners can raise the productivity of their knowledge workers by 20 to 25 percent by using social technologies and 61% of the workweek is spent on three tasks: communicating and collaborating internally, reading and answering emails, and searching or gathering information.

How to choose a collaboration tool

Before choosing a type of cloud based collaboration software, think about what features you want and who you want to use it.

Do you want software that will…

Manage tasks and projects
Offer private communication
Manage documents and content
Take notes
Offer video conferencing

Most collaboration tools offer multiple features, so request a demo or a free trial to compare how easy the software is to use for you and your team.

Video Conferencing

Traveling is expensive. That’s why many companies have gone to virtual meetings with some of these collaboration tools.

WebEx. Need to video conference in a team and do screen shares? Host online meetings quickly with this program.

GoToMeeting. Get HD video via multiple feeds and webcams. One of the best features is its ability to allow a presenter to opt into a participants machine and take over if they are having trouble.

Zoom. Another option to video conference or host webinars. Unlike GoToMeeting, there’s also a softening filter to “touch up my appearance” in real time, a green screen option to change your background and the ability to annotate via its whiteboard option.

G suite. Use Google Hangouts to combine voice or video meetings and schedule calendar invites.

Skype for Business. Connect up to 250 people via Skype’s video conference tool.

Chat Function

We’re all drowning in emails and text messages. An easier way to cut through the clutter is offering a private or customized messaging system.

Slack. This communication channel is used by a lot of business owners. Instead of emailing or texting you can share messages by focusing discussions based on the topic and purpose. Create tailored and targeted discussions via various channels. Use hashtags to search topics.

Flowdock. Offer your team real-time chat capabilities by organizing conversations via different threads. There’s also a video chat option.

Yammer. Create internal communication chains and share documents with this Microsoft-based social tool that is tied to Office 365.

Zoho. Track tickets with real-time notifications, assist customers via email, phone, chat and social media.

HappyFox Help Desk. Many startups look for an alternative to Zendesk. Like Zoho, this is another help desk collaboration tool that PC magazine has rated an editor’s choice for its ability to handle multi-channel ticketing from various emails and social media accounts.

Project Management

Besides tracking tasks, most project management software offers a way to create a knowledge base for your company.

Milanote. If you’re a visual thinker, milanote helps organize ideas and projects into visual boards, like “the Evernote for Creative” says Bryan Clark, US editor of The Next Web. Write notes and to-do lists, upload images and files, save

Trello. Create boards on here to visually manage teams, tasks and deadlines. Each board can be easily moved as the task is moved toward completion. Employees can be added or removed as the project transitions.

Basecamp. Create to-do lists with notes, files and comment on tasks while storing documents and scheduling due dates.

Asana. Structure your team’s priorities and deadlines and then get a snapshot of tasks, details and who is in charge during each stage of a project.

Monday.com (formerly Dapulse). Track projects, manage work flows and team communication in this highly customizable management platform that more than 70,000 organizations use. “We see the future of software in the workplace as a seamless connection of cloud-based tools,” says Monday.com cofounder and CEO Roy Mann.

Uncover and Promote Employee Leadership in Your Business

October 21, 2019/in Human Resources /by Albert McKeon

Employee leadership is considered one of the most promising aspects of human resources and training within organizations. After all, leaders have to come from somewhere!

There are obvious benefits to building up leaders from within:

They have a deeper understanding of the company’s mission than a new hire from “outside.”
They will work hard to justify the company’s faith in promoting them to leadership positions.
Workforce morale overall rises when employees see “one of their own” moving ahead. (It could happen to them, too.)
The organization itself benefits from promoting a motivated, talented, and experienced employee.

Given these favorable outcomes, what can you do to recognize, encourage, and reward employee leadership?

Learn to identify potential leaders.

Part of the leadership cultivation process is keeping an eye out for the most promising candidates within the organization. Generally speaking, such individuals won’t be hard to miss. They display genuine enthusiasm for their job responsibilities, frequently go above and beyond, and are more than willing to assist co-workers with important tasks.

But it’s important to watch for other key signs. At company meetings, for example, see which employees contribute the most and come up with the most striking, out-of-the-box ideas. Consider inviting these individuals to sit in on a higher-level meeting. Encourage them to take part, contributing ideas and insights based on their professional experience.

Ask the right questions.

Savvy business owners also take time to identify a potential leader’s ambitions and needs. They ask probing, foward-looking questions like:

Are there other positions in the organization you’d like to explore?
What skills do you possess that you feel aren’t being utilized by our company?
Which current skill would you like to improve?
Are there new skills you’d like to develop?

The answers you receive will prove to be a helpful guide as you oversee the individual’s progress towards leadership.

Look for alignment with your company’s vision.

Employees who “get” the organization’s vision and mission statement are often the most promising leadership candidates. It’s up to you and your executive team to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to understand this vision (and feels comfortable asking questions to gain a deeper understanding).

This alignment “gives [employees] ownership of what they create and helps them support organizational causes with more purpose,” notes Inc.

Offer training opportunities and mentorship.

Budding leaders often learn most when they have access to training and development opportunities (classes, webinars, conferences, etc.). Since the cost and time-commitment of formal training can be daunting, offer to foot the bill for work-related development opportunities and invite employees to take part.

Employees can benefit hugely from working with mentors, too. LMBC, a professional services solutions provider, suggests enlisting “older generation leaders” to act as mentors and role models to employees. This experience “will help future leaders learn the ropes more quickly and form good habits from leading others.”

Give potential leaders challenging assignments.

Ambitious employees often want to test themselves and build their portfolio of talents. However, this is only possible if the organization enables them to tackle a challenging project or initiative–even if the end-result isn’t “perfect.”

One option is appointing them to manage a small group of fellow employees on a special project. In addition, you can invite them to appoint a team of their own to brainstorm solutions to nagging organizational and/or customer service issues.

The key, says Forbes, is letting the potential leader struggle, if necessary. No one is saying you must “force prospective leaders to swim or die,” and you or a manager should pitch in if things get too difficult. Most important, you should be sure to refrain from rushing “to their aid at the first sign of danger,” because it’s more desirable that they “make their own decisions and find their own solutions.”

Reward performance and initiative.

As you work to promote employee leadership, always remember to provide tangible rewards. For example, don’t hesitate to praise the employee in public or through company-wide communications. In addition, you should include performance objectives and achievements in the employee’s annual or semi-annual evaluations and congratulate them for their efforts. Offer personalized guidance or advice, when necessary, and always in an upbeat fashion.

With the right level of support and training, you can develop the next generation of leaders within your organization. Think of the time and resources you’ll save by not having to look beyond your company walls and not having to rely upon “outside” candidates to fill leadership positions.

How to Build a Brand Through Emotional Connection: Interview with Kerri Konik

October 17, 2019/in Sales and Marketing /by Liz Alton

The secret to how to build a brand is forging strong emotional connections with your customers. This theory is at the heart of brand expert Kerri Konik’s work with luxury, professional services and experience brands through her innovative agency, Inspire Fire.

Konik started her careers as a brand designer and strategist with top global agencies after graduating from Parsons School of Design. After cutting her teeth working with iconic brands from CPG to luxury retailers, she brought her expertise to small-to-midsize companies developing unforgettable brands.

“We spend a lot of time in helping grow companies by looking at the emotional connection in the customer experience, in the marketing and in the sales closing process, as well as the delivery, the fulfillment of their services or the experience with their brand. From there, we focus on customer retention and how to expand and grow the size of that relationship,” says Konik.

How to Build a Brand through Customer Connection

To build a brand, you must begin with clearly understanding who you are as a company and what impact you want to have on customers and the world. “It’s the heart of the brand and the relationship between the brand and the customer. What problem do they solve for their clients? Who are their clients, and what are the emotional motivators of those customers? It’s also important to understand the ‘why’ for the owner and the management team, and to look at the emotional solution they truly provide.”

Through a proprietary process, Konik’s team works all levels from discovery to messaging and, finally, experience design.

Start by understanding what kind of connections customers want from you. “What does the brand stand for? How do you communicate it in a way that your audience understands it, feels it and wants to be part of it? Focus on customer connection. Why do people love your brand and really want to be part of that community as a brand member?”

The Power of Customer-Focused Solutions

Konik notes that solidifying those emotional connections starts from the very first touch point and requires relentless customer focus. Yet all too often, brands are talking about themselves most of the time. “Customer centricity today is all about the customer. We spend a lot of time in our services flipping the messaging of what our customers are saying.”

From a messaging perspective, this means focusing on the solutions you offer to problems your customers are trying to solve. Stop talking about the product or service you sell. Instead, focus on how your solutions help customers achieve their goals.

“Take braces. It’s painful. And they’re not necessarily attractive for a long period of time, right? Three, four years. But what we want is a beautiful smile, and to feel confident and attractive. That’s an emotional want.”

Bringing In The Emotional Connection

he advises remembering your customers desires and goals as you shape your messaging across customer touch points. “We’ll get you to your goal. We won’t talk about the procedure. We’re not going to talk about the pain. We’re not going to talk about adjustments or wearing retainers for the rest of your life. If we all knew what went into the how of what we buy, we wouldn’t buy half of what we do. They sell you on the outcome. That’s what we buy: the solution. I know you’ve heard that a million times, but people still don’t message that way, and there’s an emotional solution.”

The emotional focus needs to be strategically baked into each touch point throughout the customer experience. “What we solve for is defining the emotional goal for every touch point, right? Every interaction with you, every engagement, should have a different emotional goal. It might be the same emotional goal, but it needs to have an emotional connection goal.”

Konik notes that there are a wide range of emotional experiences you can focus on delivering at each touch point. “In CX, the emotional goals can be things like trust, credibility, moving out of formality, being more casual, being more intimate, being more personal. Inspiring people, educational, driving excitement or even helping people feel relaxed.”

The Latest Trends on How to Build a Brand

At a higher level, Konik notes that the focus on emotional connections is reshaping the full brand and customer spectrum. One trend that’s coming to the forefront is the different emotional connection needs of varied generations of customers.

“To use some demographics here, but it’s really psychographic, a 20-year-old thinks very differently about value systems and what they expect from their corporate dollar investment. You have to have a social cause, and they want to be part of that. They can buy any brand of sneaker, right? But they want to align with something they believe in, and they’re not going to patronize your brand or work for you, in the workforce, if they don’t like what you stand for,” says Konik.

Tie your customer segmentation strategy to the larger emotional context. “Segmentation and micro-segmentation, emotionally tethered on the strategic view of values, is a trend that is absolutely not going away. These times are polarizing. Especially in America, these times are really volatile and vocal, right? Social media users are very loud and proud to talk about what they stand for. They vote with their wallet.”

There’s an increasing focus on diversity, equity and inclusion in marketing and customer relationships. “In the customer experience in external marketing, in a retail advertising campaign, if people don’t feel represented, if they don’t feel included — there’s nothing more emotional than belonging,” says Konik. She continues, “We’re seeing a trend that is much more layered visual marketing, photography that’s much more inclusive, not just of race and gender, but also in sexual orientation or sexual identity.”

CX and Brand: The Key to Longevity

Forging those emotional connections doesn’t just build your brand today, notes Konik. It’s also the key to customer loyalty in competitive markets where industry experts talk about declining customer loyalty. “In emotional connection, the studies have shown that an emotionally connected customer is worth two times more than a non-emotional or just a satisfied customer. This means three things: They spend more when they spend with you. They spend more frequently, so their frequency is increased, and they stay longer.”

Konik says that now is the time to be thinking about the long-term power of an emotionally connected brand. “Going into 2020, if we are facing a recession, customers are going to be much more discerning about where they place their investments, what they buy and who they buy from.”

Ultimately, bringing the power of an emotionally connected brand to small and mid-size brands that are making a difference keeps Konik inspired. She notes, “Inspire Fire was born to level the playing field between us and use something as sophisticated as emotional connection that only the big dogs got to use. Now, we can use them as small business owners. We can use them at a price point that we can employ strategies, and we can grow our companies and make a bigger difference in the world. That obviously just lights me up.”

All photographs provided courtesy of Kerri Konik/Inspire Fire.

How Kaitlyn Pierce Transitioned from a High School Dropout to Biz Owner and Product Inventor

October 14, 2019/in Featured Stories, Making Her Mark - Influential Women Business Owners /by Erin Ollila

Entrepreneurs are a hearty bunch. They need drive, determination, and moxie to handle the learning curves and setbacks most business owners deal with. But does that mean that entrepreneurs need not worry about their mental health? Far from it! According to a recent study done at the Universities of California (Berkeley and San Francisco), 72% of the entrepreneur respondents self-reported concerns with their own mental health.

Should these mental health issues hold individuals back from building a business or inventing a product? Absolutely not.

Meet Kaitlyn Pierce, mom of two, founder of Pierce Social, a social media agency, and inventor of Binka Bear, a toy which helps toddlers and young children wean from their pacifiers. When Pierce was 16 years old, dropped out of school to ease the extreme anxiety she was experiencing.

The Decision to Quit School

“At the time, I didn’t totally understand what I was feeling or why, I just knew I did not want to be in rooms full of people, no matter what,” says Pierce. “To this day the sound of an alarm clock triggers severe panic in me because to me it was the beginning of my struggle to get through the day.”

As a high school student, Kaitlyn Pierce missed over 100 days of school in only two years. She says, “I was non-functional in school and basically in life. I couldn’t go to class or participate.”

And on the days she did attend, she spent most of her time crying in her guidance counselor’s office. Obvious that the traditional educational system wasn’t working, her guidance counselors and her mother urged Pierce to quit school, obtain a General Education Diploma (GED), and attend college, if possible. While her struggles with anxiety didn’t immediately disappear, a huge weight was lifted off her shoulders. Pierce was now better able to take care of her mental health.

Of the decision, Pierce says, “I could have more freedom to make choices for myself. It should have been my first clue I would need to be my own boss one day.”

In fact, she was able to obtain her GED within a month or two after quitting school. She then began taking courses at her local community college.

Pierce says, “I really enjoyed learning. That was never my problem. I just needed to have more control over how and when it happened so I could learn the coping skills I needed to deal with the anxiety I had.” But attending school was still no easy feat for Pierce, and she needed to put in a lot of effort to manage her anxiety so she could move into this new chapter of her life.

She says, “I had no help getting to school. If I wanted to go to college, work, and start my life, I had to find a way to get there. I took the bus to campus every day for over a year before getting my first car at 18. I had to work to pay for it while I went to school and tried to figure out what I was even doing. Dropping out set me up to be the person I am now, the person who will find a way to make anything happen!” It also helped her understand how working through the anxiety offered greater rewards than simply letting it hold her back.

“My anxiety made it feel impossible at first to get on the phone with anyone, especially potential clients,” says Pierce. “I hated phone calls and without them I wouldn’t have the business I do now. I had to learn to have confidence in myself and how to move on when I am triggered.”

Educating Herself

Kaitlyn Pierce chose tenacity over anxiety. She still struggled with feelings of panic and overwhelm, but she worked through and didn’t allow the feelings to stand in her way. One thing that helped her was her self-taught interest in building websites and blogging.

She says, “I used to sit at my neighbor’s house and build websites on their computer until we got one of our own at home. My blog was focused on our community at the time, and I was using the new social media tools showing up to promote it. Because of that, I was approached by a local branding company and hired on the spot to help with social media and web development. I never finished my degree, but gained more experience doing the work than I could have dreamed of.”

After having her second child, Pierce was looking for more freedom and flexibility to be home with her children. She returned from maternity leave determined to make some life changes. Says Pierce, “I launched Pierce Social in July of 2016 and worked on it after bedtime and in the evenings until I was able to replace my income.”

Only four months after starting the company, she was able to give her notice. And Pierce, officially, became a self-employed business owner.

Inventing a Product

Launching a business is a monumental feat, but Kaitlyn Pierce didn’t stop there. Just shortly after starting her social media agency, Pierce set the ball rolling to invent a product that she’s moved all the way through the manufacturing process. But, how does an individual take that large a leap? There’s a massive jump from owning your own business to also being a product inventor.

Pierce says, “Binka Bear is one of those things that I think I was just meant to do. The idea came to me when I was trying to wean my oldest from the pacifier. I had no idea how to get the pacifiers she loved so much away from her at almost 3 years old. We found a fun idea of putting them in a stuffed toy and the wheels began turning. It worked so well for us I knew if I could make it a process and a product it could help so many other families. ”

Though, while Kaitlyn Pierce knew how life changing Binka Bear could be for other families, she had absolutely no clue how to move from idea into manufacturing a real product.

She says, “I had no idea how to even begin so I didn’t. Not for another 18 months.” Then, on Thanksgiving night of 2017, she couldn’t keep the idea to rest any longer. Pierce says, “From there it never stopped growing and developing!” Now, Pierce has living proof of her idea. Boxes of bears are sitting in her home, waiting to be matched with their future children. Her dream became a reality. Now, one small idea that helped her child is able to help children all over the country.

Regardless of the bumps in the road Pierce has faced, she’s still confident that dropping out of school to manage her anxiety was the best decision for her. “I’m grateful to not have the student debt so many of my friends have. Not having a degree has made certain things more challenging. But, it’s been the path that was best for me. And, I’ve spent a lot of time educating myself in other ways.”

The importance of a business action plan

How to Construct a Business Action Plan to Get Things Done

October 10, 2019/in Operations, Raising Capital /by Wil Rivera

You’ve probably heard about the importance of creating a business plan to plot the growth and development of your business. So you outline your goals to increase sales, reduce costs and improve profits. But then what happens? Setting goals is fine, but they need something that brings them to life. Something that makes everything happen. That something is a business action plan.

Here’s how to construct an action plan for your business that brings your goals to life.

What is a Business Action Plan?

While a strategic business plan outlines the overall growth, direction and development of the company, an action plan converts those objectives to identifiable tasks.

Quite simply, an action plan is a carefully thought-out listing of all the things that have to be done to turn your goals into reality. Let’s take an example.

Suppose one of your goals is to increase sales by 10% by hiring an additional salesperson to make more outside calls to potential new customers. The steps to achieve this objective might be as follows:

Write up a job description
Post your the postion on jobboards
Review the resumes that you receive and select 10 candidates to interview.
Schedule in-office interviews over the next three weeks.
Take one week to go over interviews to choose a candidate and make a job offer.

Each objective in your strategic plan needs a detailed list, like the one above, of the tasks needed to accomplish the goal.

What are the Components of Action Tasks?

Effective action-oriented tasks follow the SMART outline. They are:

Specific – Setting a goal to increase sales is too general. But saying you want to increase sales by 10% is specific. This way, you take last year’s figure, suppose it was $850,000, add 10% or $85,000 and you have a new specific target of $935,000.

Measurable – Progress towards achieving a goal must be measurable. Weekly sales reports, for example, will track the movement along the path to a revenue goal.

Attainable- Employees must genuinely believe that it is possible for them to reach the objectives. If they don’t feel the objective is realistic and reasonable, they won’t even try.

Relevant – Goals must conform to the company’s business model and customer demographics. The goal should be worthwhile, match other company efforts and applicable in the current economic conditions.

Timely – Set a target date. Establish a deadline to keep the focus on tasks leading to long-term goals.

Which Resources are Needed?

Identify the resources needed to carry out each action task. How much will it cost? How many people will be needed? Will you need to purchase any additional physical assets?

In our example, someone has to write the job description, place the ad and make sure the ad is paid for. How many hours of an employee’s time will this take, and how much will the ad cost?

Communicate the Plan to Your Employees

Get your employees involved. Let them know what your plans are and explain how these actions fit into the company’s business strategy.

Ask for their input and solicit suggestions. Employees are much more likely to support your plan and participate in its implementation if they are part of its creation.

Designate a person to be in charge of each task. Someone has to accept responsibility for the execution of the assignment.

Set Timelines for Each Task

Each task must have a specific time to complete and a deadline. Without timelines, work will expand to fit the time allowed.

Monitor the Progress

Create procedures to receive regular progress reports for each action task. The responsible employees must be aware that they will be monitored, weekly if necessary, to make sure things are moving along. If obstacles appear or deviations from the expected timelines occur, adjustments can be made to get back on track.

Business action plans are the means to convert strategic ideas into reality. Tasks that are created with action plans using the SMART method with employe participation will have the highest likelihood of success.

Help your employees withhold the right amount of taxes.

Employee Taxes: Are Your Employees Withholding Enough Income Tax?

October 8, 2019/in Accounting & Taxes, Human Resources /by Wil Rivera

In 2019, many Americans had a rude awakening: their tax refunds weren’t as big as they’d expected. Many people owed instead of getting a refund. Employee taxes, such as federal income tax withholding, seemed to have been under-withheld.

Changes to the tax code left employers and employees alike wondering what steps they could take to avoid tax surprises in future years.

The key to helping employees avoid under-withholding is taking a proactive stance on employee taxes. The experts below can help your team understand what happened with the changes to the tax code. From there, they offer actionable advice to help employees get their withholdings updated to minimize surprises.

Why some taxpayers were caught off-guard

“You fill out a W4 when you get a new job, and then you don’t think about it again until you have the next first day of the next new job,” says Ben Watson, CPA and CFO of Dollar Sprout. The “set it and forget” nature of the W4 form means that life changes, but the information on your W4 form doesn’t. Out-of-date information can lead to under-withholding employee taxes, especially in a year with significant changes to the tax code.

Even if employees had taken steps to update their W4, the form itself might have been the reason for under-withholding. “It’s possible that the current version of the W4 form hasn’t been the best tool to help employees get the right withholdings, even if they go step-by-step through the worksheet,” says Brenda Soucy, an IRS Enrolled Agent and manager with Lopez, Chaff, & Wiesman Associates Inc.

Soucy adds that multiple income streams can also create an under-withholding situation. “If you have a bunch of smaller jobs where you make $20,000 on each job, your withholding on those jobs assume this single job is your only income,” she says. “But if you have three of those $20,000 jobs, that’ll put you in a higher tax bracket.”

The rise of the gig economy adds to the scenario Soucy describes. Jobs like rideshare driving and delivery services typically don’t withhold employee taxes. Employees might not have increased withholdings at their full-time jobs to account for their increase in income, leading to under-withholding.

New tools to estimate withholdings

While launching a year later than changes to the tax code, there are new tools that will help with adjustments.

The first new tool is a revised W4 form. Estimated to arrive for employer use in December 2019, Soucy says the new form “takes many new factors into account, like dependents, other income, and multiple jobs.”

These changes point toward more accurate estimates for withholdings moving forward.

The IRS has also released a new online withholding calculator. Employers can distribute a link to the calculator to employees and invite them to update their W4 form withholdings, even before the new W4 form is released.

Steps employers can take

In addition to the new tools from the IRS, employers can help educate employees about changes to the tax code.

Watson suggests that employers partner either with their existing financial services partners or look to firms in the community to provide education.

“Reach out to your tax firm. Reach out to your payroll provider. Ask them, ‘What do we need to know?'” he says. “By inviting partners to share information about tax code changes, the burden doesn’t fall on employers to pass this information on to their employees.”

Atiya Brown is a CPA and consumer debt management specialist who also advocates for employers to bring in specialists to keep employees up-to-date each year.

“The changes that happen in an employee’s life aren’t necessarily something employers know about or even think about,” she says. “By having someone come in and explain all these new changes – changes to deductions, the W4 form, the new online withholding calculator – employers are taking a proactive stance.”

Brown also adds that employees can forget that they’re in control of their withholdings. “When employees have the perception that an employer under-withheld their taxes, their employer does what the employee told them to do on their W4 form.”

By empowering employees with up-to-date tax information annually, your company can play a role in demystifying a seemingly complex process.

To put your company ahead of the pack, here are a few additional tips from the experts above that can help pave the way to more accurate withholdings.

Don’t forget about employee benefits.

“Don’t just offer benefits. Offer the education to help employees understand the tax implications of their benefits,” says Watson. When you invite financial partners to educate employees, make sure they thoroughly address the breadth of your company’s benefits. And, just as important, how each of these benefits impacts an employee’s tax situation.

Have open conversations about gig income.

Brown wants employers to embrace the reality that many employees might have a side hustle to make ends meet. “Employees should know that they can increase their withholdings at their employer to account for income from a gig job,” she says. “Employees can even specify a specific additional dollar amount to be withheld from each paycheck.”

Conversations like these can also help employees avoid end-of-year tax surprises.

Engage Human Resources.

“Have HR put together a week each year with the sole purpose of encouraging employees to update all of their information on file with the company,” says Watson. HR departments can build annual agendas that include lunch-and-learns and “CPA Days”. During these events, employees can receive general tax information, benefits education and enrollment, and more. Employee taxes are a very human topic with wide-reaching effects on an employee’s life beyond the workplace.

While companies could see payroll taxes as something unpleasant to discuss, employers can lead a narrative that creates happier employees.

“As an employer, you want your employees to be happy,” says Brown. “If employees perceive that their under-withholding is something that’s their employer’s fault, that’s a source of tension in your company. Education has the potential to create happier, more empowered employees. Whichever avenue employers choose to pursue employee education, whether a webinar or lunch-and-learn, that’s a step toward decreasing potential tension.”

Supercharge Your Employee Benefits With These 5 Out-of-the-Box Perks

October 7, 2019/in Human Resources, Living Your Best SBO Life /by Wil Rivera

Want to rev-up your employee benefits package? Explore 5 low-investment, high return ideas your team will love.

Employee Burnout: The Risks and Ways to Combat It

October 5, 2019/in Human Resources /by Kelley Katsanos

Are your employees stressed out at work to the point that they are feeling burned out?

Employee burnout is a common problem businesses face in the U.S. and around the globe — so much so that the World Health Organization recently addressed the issue during its World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

The WHO concluded that “burnout” is an “occupational phenomenon” and “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

The agency even updated its International Classification of Diseases, which is the global information standard for the identification of health trends and statistics, to include the following indicators of the syndrome:

Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
Reduced professional efficacy

And not managing workplace stress may have more risks than you think.

According to Mayo Clinic, ignored or unaddressed job burnout has significant consequences, including:

Excessive stress
Fatigue
Insomnia
Sadness, anger or irritability
Alcohol or substance misuse
Heart disease
High blood pressure
Type 2 diabetes
Vulnerability to illnesses

Health problems such as these can potentially cause low job performance, disengagement, missed work or high employee turnover, to name a few.

However, the good news is that there are ways to combat employee burnout and mitigate associated risks. Here’s how.

Create a Flexible Work Environment

Lessen employee burnout at your business by providing a flexible work environment. You can do this by establishing communal work areas, multi-use furniture or unassigned desks. Unlike a traditional office space which often consists of private offices or high wall cubicles, this set up can help facilitate collaboration between employees who might otherwise have minimal interaction.

More importantly, a flexible work design increases employee comfort and productivity and improves employee well-being, according to TurningArt. Therefore, this effort may indeed reduce burnout. As an added benefit, a flexible work environment can help your business maximize spatial efficiency and reduce costs.

Flexibility in terms of employee schedules is also an integral piece in keeping your employees happy and less likely to burn out. By allowing flexible work hours, your employees will be able to adjust the time or place their work is completed. This arrangement can help accommodate their personal needs, such as to better manage a long commute or to allow parents to take their children to school.

Overall, flexible schedules can enable your employees improve their work-life balance and feel less stressed at work — factors that may help prevent burnout and improve employee retention. In fact, according to a 2018 Work Environment Survey, 73 percent of full-time office professionals say a flexible schedule is in their top two reasons to stay with a company.

Conduct Wellness Programs

Another way to prevent employee burnout is by offering wellness programs to promote healthy habits. And there are many wellness programs for small businesses that don’t require a lot of time and money.

For instance, stock your breakroom vending machine with granola bars and flavored seltzer water instead of high-fat and sugary items like candy bars or sodas. You can also regularly stock your breakroom with complimentary fresh fruit, for instance, apples, oranges and bananas, to give your employees a healthy treat and energy boost.

You can also wrestle burnout by implementing daily 15 minute nature walks to allow your employees to get some fresh air and exercise. To boost employee camaraderie, try initiating workplace walking or running clubs. For an added incentive, support leading participants with a monthly prize or a half-day off.

Offer Professional Development

Professional development can mean more to your employees than just job training and educational opportunities, it can help mitigate employee burnout. That’s because it provides the opportunity to connect with your employees in a more personalized way. For instance, instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach to employee growth, give your employees a development plan that is tailored-made for them.

A targeted approach to professional development based on each employee’s specific skill set and strengths will not only help them achieve their personal careers goals, but will also make them feel more valued. Solidify this connection by asking your employees for regular feedback or ideas for business improvements and then take action on some of those ideas to show that they are appreciated.

When offering professional development, relay your business’s mission and how each member fits as an integral part of the team. This is also an opportunity to relay job expectations so your employees feel more comfortable at work. To avoid members being overworked or working exclusively on their own responsibilities, which can lead to burnout, offer social support by facilitating peer connections and encouraging mentorship.

Recognize Your Employees

Help create a positive work environment and reduce burnout by taking the time to recognize your employees for their solid performance. There are many easy, low cost ways to recognize your employees on a regular basis. For instance, a simple shout out in the monthly newsletter or email to relay an employee achievement can go a long way. You can also give a handwritten note expressing gratitude for their work.

Another idea is to offer high performing staff a day off or allow them to work from home for a day. This can help support work-life balance, so your employees return to work recharged and less likely to burnout. You can take it a step further by adding PTO or implementing quarterly bonus incentives. Recognize a group of employees by having a quarterly party or treating them to a meal at a fine restaurant. All of these ways can help your employees feel valued, less stressed and more motivated to succeed in their jobs.

Employee burnout poses risks to not only your employees, but also to your business. However, by providing the right opportunities and incentives, you can help your employees strike a balance between their personal lives and work and take the edge off burnout.