Mine Your Own Business

Marketing Your Small Business

We recently ran across a great article from a new source (for us anyway), The Southeast Missourian. Each month they ask local experts for their input on some issues facing small businesses. The question this month concerned the problem of effectively marketing a small business and also managing day to day tasks at the same time. The article provides great responses from four small business owners, but we'll concentrate on just one in this posting. All four responses are well worth reading though.

Drew Janes, owner/producer of Relentless Media Productions responded with the following five tips for growing your business and managing daily tasks.

1. Rethink your marketing strategy.
2. Learn to network.
3. Hit the market.
4. Learn how to use social networking...the right way.
5. Keep it simple or get an intern.

All five are excellent suggestions and Drew provides a lot of good reasons for each of the five tips, but today we are going to focus on the last tip and specifically on hiring an intern. Here at Tacony Corporation we have made extensive use of interns over the years, and have found them to be a great addition to our company. Almost all have been college students and the  method of payment or employment has varied. Sometimes they were paid, sometimes they got college credits, sometimes they were unpaid and just wanted the experience, etc. They all had one thing in common though, they were bright, motivated employees and frequently we got some great new ideas from them. Based on our experience, we think interns are a great idea for small businesses, so look for a followup posting on Monday or Tuesday on how to get the most out of any intern you might hire.

Happy Employees

There was a recent article by Jay Goltz in the Small Business section of the online New York Times about The Secret to Having Happy Employees. In the article he describes how half of the secret to happy employees is to treat employees well. The second half is much more difficult for most employers, unhappy people have  to be fired. Jay goes to great length in the article to emphasize that this is a last resort, but he makes two important points. Sometimes people don't make a good fit in one company and would do very well in a different company culture, so in the long run it might be better for the employee.

The second important point is that an unhappy employee can have a negative impact on the rest of your company. Jay uses the example of the great motion picture "The Caine Mutiny", while another example might be the old adage one bad apple spoils the whole bunch (here's a link if you want to know why one bad apple really does spoil the whole bunch). The article ends with two sharp observations, it is very difficult to build a strong business with the wrong people and it is much easier to build your business with the right people. If you have time you might want to look at some of the very interesting comments on the article.

A Word to the Wise

There was a short article recently in USA Today about how the IRS and several states are keeping a close eye on companies that are changing the status of employees to independent contractors. Since many small businesses legitimately use independent contractors as mechanics, teachers, etc. we thought it might be a good idea to post something the use of independent contractors. The article describes how businesses can save up to 30% in payroll, so states are acting more aggressively during these tough times to shore up their struggling budgets.

At the end of the article are two excellent links that give some very good information on the differences between employees and independent contractors and in what situation to use each. Some of the best advice is in the article Should you hire an employee or independent contractor?. The point it makes is if you are going to use independent contractors, make sure and check with your attorney to make sure you are well within the law, and talk to your accountant to make sure all necessary tax forms are completed and done correctly. In these times the IRS and states are going to make sure small businesses are in complete compliance.

 

Employees and the Recession

We did a lot of postings on employees and the recession in 2009 because both have such a huge impact on any small business. The recession has had a negative impact for most businesses and employees can make or break a business. There was an article recently in The New York Times about small business owners and employees that gives some great tips on how to manage and treat your employees. The writer owns five small businesses in the Chicago area, so he should certainly have some experience in this area.

One of the last points he makes in the article is that sometimes letting a problem employee go is the best thing for the employee and is always the best thing for your business and your other employees. Now for the link between employees and the recession that is not mentioned in the article. With the current national unemployment rate at 9.7% there a lot of very qualified people looking for work. Now might be the time to assess your employees and make some changes. Hopefully you are happy with all your employees, because firing is never fun for either party, but if you have some problem people this should be a good time to take care of the problem.

Blue Monday

This is a probably a good post for a Monday in January since it concerns an article in USA Today about those times when we are having trouble getting motivated. Now, you may be someone who enjoys Mondays even in January, but for almost all of us there are those days that we'd really rather not face the daily grind. This is especially problematic for a small business owner since that blah feeling can have an impact on employees and sales as well.

Hopefully this article will be helpful because it takes a two pronged approach to solving this problem. The article first suggests that you need to figure out the root of the problem and provides a list of possibilities, such as are you overworked, or under worked, or let down (there are eight suggestions altogether).  Once you've figured out some reasons, the next step is to take some steps to rev up your motivation such as get outside help, or remind yourself of you long-term goals. The article concludes with the thought that maybe a day off will solve the problem if all else fails.

Important Personal Job Skills

We ran across an article recently on the results of a survey that provided a list of personal skills that most employers feel are very important for employees. Some of the survey results are obvious, such as Cooperation, Drive, and Good attitude. These are very important traits for any employee. Others may not be as obvious initially, but on reflection make perfect sense. There are fifteen personal skills on the list and you can see all of them here.

As a small business owner, do you agree with the list or do you have some other suggestions you look for in current and prospective employees? When you read the article you also might want to check out some of the most e-mailed previous pieces posted on the right portion of the page, such as The 13 Most Annoying People to Work With. All of us can identify with some of the descriptions of co-workers mentioned in the article.

Legal Tips for 2010

We ran across an excellent article from Business Week on four legal pitfalls that business owners may face in 2010 based on input from attorneys that work with small businesses. They came up with the following four.

1. Employee lawsuits
2. Immigration audits
3. Improper insurance
4. Internet security

We've done postings in the past on some of these topics, but this article presents a great deal of information on all these areas with links to other business resources. One of the best links may be the link near the beginning of the article to Smart Answers for Entrepreneurs. If you don't have time to read the whole article we've provided a link to Smart Answers here. Do you agree with the list they came up with or do you have other suggestions?

Hiring and Firing

We've done a lot of posts on the importance of good employees for any small business and just a few days ago we did a posting on the kinds of workers a business could hire as the economy improves in the future. But what about the other side of the coin, what to do if all else fails with a problem employee. It is something almost every business owner faces at some point and it is one of the least pleasant situations in business ownership.

A recent Wall Street article describes this scenario and first describes some of the actions an employer should try to help a problem employee improve. If all attempts fail the article then goes on to describe the next actions in the process and some pitfalls to avoid. This is never a pleasant situation, but the advice presented in the article should help make the best of a difficult situation for all parties involved.

More Timely Advice

Small business owners face the daunting tasks of working at their business and in addition must take care of the overall management of their business. Good employees can help tremendously and in fact we did a posting on May 9th this year in A Timeless Article that referenced a piece that focused mainly on getting the most from your employees. It had a few more tips on time management for the owner, but overall it emphasized the daily work of a business and not overall management.

Now comes a new article that focuses more on effective time management tools for overall management of your business. It provides four techniques that should help any small business owner with the difficult task of finding enough hours in a day. The four tips are:

1. Prioritize
2. Delegate
3. Limitations
4. Perspective

There are further details and examples for these four tips and you can read the whole posting here. Either article is good in itself, but combined ideas from the two could really help any small business owner beat the clock.

What Kind of Employee?

One of the few positive aspects of our current economic downturn and dismal unemployment figures is that it means the pool of high quality workers is much greater than usual. An article from the Associated Press discusses the many employment options available for small businesses when they are ready to add employees again.

The article presents three kinds of workers, employees, independent contractors, and temporary workers. Each of the options has some pros and cons as discussed in the article. There are also some other options in the three main categories,  for example employees can be full or part time and temporary workers can be someone that is a temporary hire or hired through a temp agency. The main point is that there are a great number of employee options to be considered before taking the first step.