|
Actual for You - Small Business Success Is Not About Doing Great Work- It's About Coordinating Great Work
Examining the Importance of Packaging in the Distribution EnvironmentDistribution packaging provides the first and most important line of defense against the hazards of the distribution environment. A well-designed distribution package can make an immediate and significant contribution to a company’s bottom line by reducing or eliminating product damage and decreasing transportation costs. A properly designed package will also enhance company image.The packaging design mission is to achieve optimum cost by balancing the sensitivity of the product with the protection provided by the packaging to match the hazards existing in the distribution environment.The science of distribution packaging is more sophisticated and complex than most people expect . Supervise your employees. That is what successful business owners do. It’s your business; don’t leave it to your employees to decide how your business is run or how your customers are treated. After you have assigned them responsibilities, set aside time daily to discuss what they are working on and what problems they are facing. Provide guidance and training to improve your employees’ capabilities and increase their responsibilities. Take the time to know what they are doing and how they are doing it. That is your job! Share your company’s vision. Hold company meetings and discuss the challenges your company is facing as well as any recent success in overcoming challenges. Listen to their ideas and let them know their contribution is both welcome and necessary. Try some Breathing Through Feast And FamineThis morning when I opened my calendar, everything looked different. Surely someone’s been playing with my computer. I could swear I had appointments booked and paying clients taking every available spot for the next two months. I must be having a bad dream. Pinch myself. Nope. It’s true – I’ve hit the dreaded dry spell!Entrepreneurs talk about it all the time as part of the game, but being in it is an entirely different thing. If you are like most business owners, you haven’t yet managed to balance the feast and famine phenomenon. The question is, “What do you do when the famine hits?”First of all, BREATH!!! Preferably without hyperventilating. Don’t panic. Don’t th Doing Great work: Most Small Businesses exist because their owners do great work and have succeeded in;- Creating, purchasing or otherwise acquiring a product or service
- Developing the method of producing and supplying their product to customers
- Marketing their business and creating customers.
Achieving some level of success in these areas has created a business.Now ask yourself the following questions: - Is your business achieving its potential?
- Are you satisfied with your business’s overall performance?
- Is your business what you imagined it would be?
- Are you doing too much of the work?
If you do not like your answers, perhaps the company is being mismanaged? By You! Coordinating great work: The most common mistake made by Small Business owners is assuming too much of the workload themselves. They are too busy to train their employees or they simply do it faster and better themselves. These business owners do great work but have not developed the ability to share the workload without sacrificing quality and performance. This results in failure to grow the business, poor performance or outright business failure. Successful companies are structured in a manner that allows the owner to oversee and supervise company activities. If you want your business to achieve its potential, you must develop effective managerial skills. Below are a few tips that will improve your managerial abilities and the performance of your employees. - Write down each function contained within your business. (Include sales, marketing, product development, administration, finance, and operations).
- Identify your personal strengths and weaknesses and assign yourself functions so that you maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Work to improve on your weaknesses but find someone else to do the things you are not good at.
- Assign responsibility for each remaining function to someone else based upon their skills. Define their responsibilities in a written Job Description. Job descriptions specify the desired result for each function included within that job. Do not confuse job descriptions with Procedures which specify the tasks, method or process. For example, the Job Description for the “fry guy” at a fast food restaurant might be stated as “maintain an adequate supply of fresh French fries to meet demand as it arises”. The Procedure would state that “fries are placed in the fryer for 7 minutes”. In this case, the employee could follow The Procedure yet fail miserably at achieving the objective included in their Job Description.
- Document the “best way" to perform each business task. Everything you do to create and supply your product or service should be documented and included in a Procedure Manual. Make sure your procedures include due dates as well as a detailed description of the process.
- Give all employees the documented Procedure Manual (the “best way") and their written Job Description. Make sure each person understands these responsibilities. Review these documents with them as many times as reasonably necessary.
- Supervise your employees. That is what successful business owners do. It’s your business; don’t leave it to your employees to decide how your business is run or how your customers are treated. After you have assigned them responsibilities, set aside time daily to discuss what they are working on and what problems they are facing. Provide guidance and training to improve your employees’ capabilities and increase their responsibilities. Take the time to know what they are doing and how they are doing it. That is your job! Share your company’s vision. Hold company meetings and discuss the challenges your company is facing as well as any recent success in overcoming challenges. Listen to their ideas and let them know their contribution is both welcome and necessary. Try some o
Get The Sale By Not Over-SellingWhen the customer is ready to buy, do not tell more than necessary. Yet how many times have customers been put off by sales people who should know better?I would like to relate two experiences when sales people nearly lost the sale through "telling too much".In the first case, a direct marketing representative was selling a health food to a customer. The representative never bothered to find out the customer's background and instead went into the product benefits - that it was supposed to remove free radicals from the body, was scientifically proven and had many testimonials from satisfied customers. A simple check on the Internet would have revealed that the customer was a qual rdinating great work:The most common mistake made by Small Business owners is assuming too much of the workload themselves. They are too busy to train their employees or they simply do it faster and better themselves. These business owners do great work but have not developed the ability to share the workload without sacrificing quality and performance. This results in failure to grow the business, poor performance or outright business failure. Successful companies are structured in a manner that allows the owner to oversee and supervise company activities. If you want your business to achieve its potential, you must develop effective managerial skills. Below are a few tips that will improve your managerial abilities and the performance of your employees. - Write down each function contained within your business. (Include sales, marketing, product development, administration, finance, and operations).
- Identify your personal strengths and weaknesses and assign yourself functions so that you maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Work to improve on your weaknesses but find someone else to do the things you are not good at.
- Assign responsibility for each remaining function to someone else based upon their skills. Define their responsibilities in a written Job Description. Job descriptions specify the desired result for each function included within that job. Do not confuse job descriptions with Procedures which specify the tasks, method or process. For example, the Job Description for the “fry guy” at a fast food restaurant might be stated as “maintain an adequate supply of fresh French fries to meet demand as it arises”. The Procedure would state that “fries are placed in the fryer for 7 minutes”. In this case, the employee could follow The Procedure yet fail miserably at achieving the objective included in their Job Description.
- Document the “best way" to perform each business task. Everything you do to create and supply your product or service should be documented and included in a Procedure Manual. Make sure your procedures include due dates as well as a detailed description of the process.
- Give all employees the documented Procedure Manual (the “best way") and their written Job Description. Make sure each person understands these responsibilities. Review these documents with them as many times as reasonably necessary.
- Supervise your employees. That is what successful business owners do. It’s your business; don’t leave it to your employees to decide how your business is run or how your customers are treated. After you have assigned them responsibilities, set aside time daily to discuss what they are working on and what problems they are facing. Provide guidance and training to improve your employees’ capabilities and increase their responsibilities. Take the time to know what they are doing and how they are doing it. That is your job! Share your company’s vision. Hold company meetings and discuss the challenges your company is facing as well as any recent success in overcoming challenges. Listen to their ideas and let them know their contribution is both welcome and necessary. Try some
Make the Most of Your Mortgage LeadsIf you are a loan officer or mortgage broker and you invest in mortgage leads, or you are considering investing in mortgage leads, make sure you are making the most of them.A lead provider, if they are a good one, can provide you with a good quality lead, the rest is up to you.The lead provider has no control over what the potential customer might say.Put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Purchasing a home or refinancing an existing one are very big financial decisions in the life of the consumer. They most likely will be a little apprehensive.When you call a lead you receive from a lead provider, and the customer seems to be in a stand off mood, say something like ion contained within your business. (Include sales, marketing, product development, administration, finance, and operations). - Identify your personal strengths and weaknesses and assign yourself functions so that you maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses. Work to improve on your weaknesses but find someone else to do the things you are not good at.
- Assign responsibility for each remaining function to someone else based upon their skills. Define their responsibilities in a written Job Description. Job descriptions specify the desired result for each function included within that job. Do not confuse job descriptions with Procedures which specify the tasks, method or process. For example, the Job Description for the “fry guy” at a fast food restaurant might be stated as “maintain an adequate supply of fresh French fries to meet demand as it arises”. The Procedure would state that “fries are placed in the fryer for 7 minutes”. In this case, the employee could follow The Procedure yet fail miserably at achieving the objective included in their Job Description.
- Document the “best way" to perform each business task. Everything you do to create and supply your product or service should be documented and included in a Procedure Manual. Make sure your procedures include due dates as well as a detailed description of the process.
- Give all employees the documented Procedure Manual (the “best way") and their written Job Description. Make sure each person understands these responsibilities. Review these documents with them as many times as reasonably necessary.
- Supervise your employees. That is what successful business owners do. It’s your business; don’t leave it to your employees to decide how your business is run or how your customers are treated. After you have assigned them responsibilities, set aside time daily to discuss what they are working on and what problems they are facing. Provide guidance and training to improve your employees’ capabilities and increase their responsibilities. Take the time to know what they are doing and how they are doing it. That is your job! Share your company’s vision. Hold company meetings and discuss the challenges your company is facing as well as any recent success in overcoming challenges. Listen to their ideas and let them know their contribution is both welcome and necessary. Try some
Professional Color PrintingAre you looking to have professional color printing? The number of products that you can purchase from color printing professionals will amaze you. In fact, with all of the products available, you will find that an array of unique services is on offer that can assist you in a variety of endeavors.Maybe you are looking to have professionally printed brochures for your business. Why struggle with your home printer and panic while you search for just the right kind of paper for your brochures in your local office supply store? Instead, you can specify the type and size of brochure you desire and have your business brochures professionally printed and delivered right to your door. Of c an adequate supply of fresh French fries to meet demand as it arises”. The Procedure would state that “fries are placed in the fryer for 7 minutes”. In this case, the employee could follow The Procedure yet fail miserably at achieving the objective included in their Job Description. - Document the “best way" to perform each business task. Everything you do to create and supply your product or service should be documented and included in a Procedure Manual. Make sure your procedures include due dates as well as a detailed description of the process.
- Give all employees the documented Procedure Manual (the “best way") and their written Job Description. Make sure each person understands these responsibilities. Review these documents with them as many times as reasonably necessary.
- Supervise your employees. That is what successful business owners do. It’s your business; don’t leave it to your employees to decide how your business is run or how your customers are treated. After you have assigned them responsibilities, set aside time daily to discuss what they are working on and what problems they are facing. Provide guidance and training to improve your employees’ capabilities and increase their responsibilities. Take the time to know what they are doing and how they are doing it. That is your job! Share your company’s vision. Hold company meetings and discuss the challenges your company is facing as well as any recent success in overcoming challenges. Listen to their ideas and let them know their contribution is both welcome and necessary. Try some
Wholesale Neon SignsNeon signs are considered to be an efficient medium of advertisement. They are bright, modern and above all they are visible from a distance. Neon signs are cost effective and are capable of attracting potential customers. When considering wholesale neon sign purchases, it is important to understand advertising needs. Retail, franchise and advertising companies make numerous wholesale neon sign purchases. This includes payday loan signs, bar signs, ATM signs, pizza takeaways and caf? signs and phone card signs. This effective advertisement medium prompts multiple walk-ins and consequently increases trade.Market trends reveal that creative advertising is the need of the day. Striking lo . - Supervise your employees. That is what successful business owners do. It’s your business; don’t leave it to your employees to decide how your business is run or how your customers are treated. After you have assigned them responsibilities, set aside time daily to discuss what they are working on and what problems they are facing. Provide guidance and training to improve your employees’ capabilities and increase their responsibilities. Take the time to know what they are doing and how they are doing it. That is your job! Share your company’s vision. Hold company meetings and discuss the challenges your company is facing as well as any recent success in overcoming challenges. Listen to their ideas and let them know their contribution is both welcome and necessary. Try some of their new ideas. People who perform the tasks on a daily basis will usually identify ways to improve efficiency or quality. If they do not offer suggestions, ask for them. Constantly seek a “better way”.
- Reward employees for contributing to your company’s success. Rewards could include a bonus, company paid benefits, a gift certificate, or simply a pat on the back. Provide incentives to your employees to follow and improve the procedure (“best way"). Share the credit for your success with those who contributed. Let your employees know that the company values their contribution. This approach will make them care about the success of the company and result in greater employee loyalty and increased company profits.
Once you have made progress in organizing your company, delegating responsibility and motivating your employees, you can begin to coordinate great work. You should now spend your time measuring and evaluating the results of the work. It is important to constantly check your employees work so that you can identify those who need more instruction or guidance or those who are not capable of performing to your company’s standards. Developing your managerial skills is hard work. The more you practice these skills the more effective you will be and the more reliable your employees will become. Gradually, your business will grow and you will be able to do all those things you always wanted to “get to” but could never find the time.
HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.actual4u.com/article/40817/actual4u-Small-Business-Success-Is-Not-About-Doing-Great-Work-Its-About-Coordinating-Great-Work.html">Small Business Success Is Not About Doing Great Work- It's About Coordinating Great Work</a>
BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.actual4u.com/article/40817/actual4u-Small-Business-Success-Is-Not-About-Doing-Great-Work-Its-About-Coordinating-Great-Work.html]Small Business Success Is Not About Doing Great Work- It's About Coordinating Great Work[/url]
Related Articles:
Where Will Your IT Staff Come From NOW?
With companies planning to hire more IT workers tahn they have in the past few years and suitable labor becoming rare, what steps can you take to help you find the people you need when you need them? Jeff Altman, CPC, MSW offers four alternatives to help you attract staff. For other articles by Jeff, go to www.newyorkmetrotechnologyjobs.com
A Company in Crisis is in a Nightmare
Crisis is visibly recognised when the company faces credit squeeze, negative profitability,
cash flow problems and collection concerns. However, before the full crisis manifests
itself the management of failing companies goes through a four stage of crisis
development
Health Insurance Information for Small Businesses
Just because you're a small business doesn't mean that you can't provide health insurance for your employees. Find out about the options and what it means to your bottom line.
|