Business | Business Management Resource

How to Have Successful Client Relations

May 16, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Successful client relations are key to any business. Of course there are easy clients that are easy to please, but there are also high maintenance clients that seem to require hours on the phone, tons of edits and lots of time. There are some keys to successful client relations that can make a business flourish.

It is important that you know your role. Be sure that expectations are clear and concise. You need to know exactly what the client wants and expects. Get it in writing and pyrefer to it often.
Invite client input. If the client feels that they have made a significant contribution to the project they will be less likely to request major changes. They have a stake in the finished product due to their contributions.

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If you have messed up admit it. Clients do not like excuses. They want results.
Do not take every project you are offered. Too many companies just starting out are desperate for work and are tempted to take on projects that they know they may not be able to complete or do successfully.
Be on time. When you say you are going to deliver the results do it.
If the partnership just isn’t making progress ending the relationship may need to be considered. If you are miserable chances are the client is miserable. Part ways peacefully.

Client relations are the bread and butter to any business. Follow these tips for a happy, successful client relationship which will lead to a successful business.

Hiring employees for less

March 28, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Maintaining a healthy head count is crucial for the success of any business. You don’t want to end up understaffed when you need the manpower to finish vital projects or overstaffed during lean periods that leads to unnecessary spending. Although companies generally have a plan on how they will be going about their recruitment process, smaller businesses often end up incurring huge expenses in hiring. They need skilled and talented employees yet can’t afford to pay high salaries or commissions to agents. Here are some tips on how you can get quality staff for your organization without having to delve too deep into your pocket!

1. Hiring immigrants instantly reduces the amount you will be spending on salaries. Immigrants, although highly talented, usually ask for lesser pay as their English may be flawed or they may not have enough local experience. With a little bit of training they can become high performers.

2. A lot of female executives leave their jobs to concentrate on their families once they have children. Often, however, they look out for part time jobs or work as consultants. They can provide you with much needed expertise at a discounted price!

3. Look out for people who work on contract basis. If you think you will need additional staff for a single project, hire employees on a contract that lasts the duration of the project. This way, your work will get done and you won’t have to pay for employee idle time.

4. Interns are a great way to fill up positions that don’t require a lot of experience. They look for jobs solely to gain experience and don’t expect much of a pay.

5. Encourage employee referrals to avoid paying huge commissions to agents.

Filed Under: Business, Employee Relationships Tagged With: Business, Employment, Recruitment

Hiring top management for small businesses

March 24, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Businesses, not matter how big or small, need top management who are experienced and experts in their fields in order to guide the company towards success. While large and established companies can afford to spend mammoth amounts in hiring senior management, smaller businesses can’t afford this luxury. However, this doesn’t mean that they should settle for poor quality staff or eliminate certain positions which may lead to their business objectives being compromised. There are several ways in which small businesses can get the expertise of top management without having to invest too much in hiring. Here are some tips:

1. To begin with, try hiring top managers as consultants. There are many chief officers who work part time or as advisors in smaller companies. You will be able to gain a lot from their knowledge and will pay only a fraction of the cost of hiring a senior manager on a full time basis.

2. Several educational institutions like colleges and universities have highly educated and experienced staff who are available as advisors or consultants. Many such institutions also run programs that provide free leadership and mentoring to budding entrepreneurs. Check if your company can qualify for any such program.

3. Even when you hire top management on a consultant or part time basis, encourage a team atmosphere. Making them feel that they are as much part of the company as a full time manager will motivate them to perform better and give the organization their best.

4. Before you hire anyone for a top management post, go through a proper reference and background check procedure just as you would for any other employee. Top management are the leaders of a business and you need to be sure they are genuine.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: Business, Management, Small business

How to make training effective

March 7, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Employees are one of the most crucial resources of a company. Gone are the days when staff was taken for granted and it was believed that paying them on time was enough to keep them happy. Employee productivity is no longer only about how many hours a person works but also about the quality of their work and how their skills can be developed for higher roles. Training goes a long way in the development of employees and most modern organizations pay a lot of attention to this facet of business. However, just getting your employees into a training room and lecturing them for hours is not enough. Here are some tips on how you can make training more effective:

1. Set clear goals based on your business objective. What are the skills you want your employees to develop? Is training going to be enough or does it have to be backed up by some formal education? How will the training help employees drive towards business objective?

2. Think from an employees’ point of view. They will be more interested in the training if they believe that they too will gain something from it. Link training programs to promotion or salary hike prospects. Make training a part of the performance appraisal process.

3. A lecture lasting several hours can be extremely boring. Make the training interesting by using multimedia like videos and presentations. Engage the attendees by interacting with them during the course. Conduct a quiz or debate o stir up some excitement.

4. Have clear expectations on what you want the training to achieve. If you are aiming at improving communication skills of employees then set a bar which every employee must cross after the training is done.

5. Training would be pointless if you can’t measure its effectiveness. Conduct a test or survey post training to see how the employees have progressed and encourage them to take further training if they miss the bar.

Filed Under: Training Tagged With: Business, Employment, Training

Business Planning is Essential

February 21, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

We all dream of owning our own business, but most of us really don’t know the right way to do it. A business plan is essential to starting a successful small business. To simply talk about it, dream about it, and then try to make a go of it will most likely result in failure. Successful business ventures always begin with an idea and motivation, but in order to implement that idea into a work in progress specific steps need to be taken.

The more organized an idea the better result will be for all involved. Using ERP, a enterprise resource plan, will help business owners, future employees, and potential lenders see how the business can benefit the community, if it will survive the first year, and what alternatives or contingencies the owners has should the business begin to fail.

There are many business plan templates available on the internet, and even if you have to pay for one, it’s worth it. Business plan templates guide you through the important information you’ll need to really lay out your new endeavor. Think of it as a wordy math formula. Once you’ve filled in all of the blanks, does the sum add up to a positive answer?

Often times, it’s the business plan that reveals the sad truth. Maybe that awesome idea really wasn’t so awesome. That’s not to say it’s impossible, it just means you’ve got to get back to the drawing board.

Some things that are included in a business plan are:
Mission Statement – This is where you really focus on what you plan to do.
Start Up Capital – You’ll need some money to start that business.
Key Players – Who are the owners, officers, managers, etc.
Products – This is where you discuss what you will be selling.
Location – This is where you describe where your business will be located.
Overhead – This is where you try to budget the various costs of running the business.
Income – Figure out what you’ll be charging for various products. Also, this is where you try to set a monthly goal.

These are just a few of the components of a business plan, and if they don’t add up, you’ll know before you start. Always work through this part of starting a business so that you can be successful in your new adventure.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: Business, Mission statement, Ownership

Cautious Hiring to Begin in 2011

February 3, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Hiring is predicted to be up in 2011. During the last several years there have been more hiring freezes and layoffs due to the slow economy, and it looks like that may be lifting for some cities. Slowly, people are starting to get jobs and it’s beginning to look a little better – but we aren’t out of the recession woods just yet. To err on the side of caution can’t hurt.

CareerBuilder.com did a survey of 1350 businesses with 500 employees or less, and found that over half of small businesses are expecting to hire permanent, full time staff in 2011 to keep up with production and demand, even if they are being cautious about it. Nobody trusts it when the job market looks up a little, but acting carefully can make it possible to navigate toward success.

Hiring in 2011 Will Improve, but Cautiously

Just 14% of those small businesses surveyed said they wouldn’t be able to keep up with current demand, so hiring more temporary and contract workers to help them get caught up is all they plan to do. However, 31% of those small businesses said they would take those temporary new hires and convert them into contracted or full time employees. That is good news.

Many small businesses expressed frustration at not being able to get the credit they need to support their businesses during 2010, and a quarter of those said they were unable to add more employees because of it.

Another 66% of businesses that were able to get credit did hire on new permanent employees, and survey responders indicated dissatisfaction with the associated costs. A full 50% cited higher costs in healthcare benefits, 27% cited marketing expenditures and brand-building, 26% indicated a lack of qualified applicants and 19% cited the relative challenges of hiring new people.

Six percent of the small businesses will actually downsize this year, reducing full time jobs by 6% and part time jobs by 3%. Between 64% and 66% will make no changes at all.

Filed Under: Business, Business Costs Tagged With: Business, Employment, Small business

The Training Session

January 30, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

The training of your employees in the way that things are done at your particular business is a very important part of making your business run smoothly. Well trained employees are less likely to get frustrated and quit before they even know the ropes, and more likely to incorporate themselves into the daily workings of your business properly. Creating the proper atmosphere for learning is important, as well as keeping the material relevant to what you want to teach.

If you are planning to train a large group of employees it is a good idea to start out with what all of the employees need to know. Maybe a video presentation or a talk from your Human Resources representative on hours, time off, break time, lunch time, benefits, etc. Laying out in clear terms what is acceptable and what is not will alleviate problems later. Having done that, it is probably a good idea to break the training session up into groups. The training can then be concentrated on each different department or job. The employees need only learn what is needed by them.

One of the most important parts of the training session is the question and answers. Listen to the questions, ask some yourself. Let your employees know that at any time if they have further questions they will be directed to the proper channel and make sure the question is answered. Make sure that everything you have gone over is either accessible on the employee’s desktop or hand out a folder or packet with all the necessary information, as well as contact names and numbers. Make sure the contact people are aware that they may be contacted.

Proper, thorough training benefits the boss as well as the employee. The employee feels confident that he has learned what he needs and the boss gets confident employees right from the start.

Filed Under: Human Resources, Training Tagged With: Business, Human resources

Before You Call A Contractor

January 29, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

There are times when you will require the work of a contractor for your business. You may need to have someone else come in and do a part of your work. These are the days of specialized everything. The family doctor sends the patient to a specialist, the specialist sends the patient to as surgeon and so on. As in business, you are either the guy who oversees the project or you are the guy who has been contracted by the guy who oversees the contract to do a certain part of the job. For the sake of argument we will say the business is construction. The contractor is an every day event in this business.

The general contractor is the guy who oversees the entire project. He has limited knowledge of each part of the job, and his major area of expertise is making it all come together. He does this by contracting out certain parts of the work. If plumbing is needed, a plumber will be contracted to do his part of the job. The electrician will be contracted for the electrical work, right down to the plasterer and painter who will be contracted for their expertise. The general contractor has a crew of his own, who probably started the construction. Obviously everybody is getting their fee. The general contractor commands a fee, as well as each individual contractor. The general contractor can save money on the job as well as make more for himself is he has reliable people in his crew with at least a general knowledge of all parts of the construction. Maybe the painting and plastering part of the job is just a quick fix, something that can be done by a general contracting crew. By not calling in a separate contractor for this job and using his own crew, the general contractor has saved money for the client, as well as made some extra for himself.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: Business, General contractor

The Termination Crisis

January 26, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

There are many times in your business where you have to let employees go, terminate your relationship with them. Sometimes it is a matter of realizing they are not the right person for the job. There could also be incidences of insubordination. You may have an employee who takes advantage and calls out sick too often. You may have someone whose production is not what it should be, even after many talks and chances to right the wrongs. These are all reasons to terminate an employee. There are definitely more serious infractions and unfortunately they are all too common. Employees have been caught outright stealing from the company. Books have been doctored and accounts are open in names they should not be. These more serious infractions are cause for immediate termination. If not caught, these infractions can and will be traced back to you. You could lose your business or even face criminal charges.

You need to deal with an employee in this situation very carefully. This person may have a personal grudge against you or your business. He may be someone who just needed the money and knew he was good with the books. Whatever the reason, terminating a disgruntled employee can go badly very quickly. Hopefully your business has rules about weapons and/or firearms and is diligent in making sure those rules are followed. You just never know. If you have to confront an employee who is breaking the law, make sure you have legal back up. Call the local law enforcement if you need to. Consult your attorneys on what should be done.

While you know this employee needs to leave, you have other employees and their safety to consider. Take every precaution when terminating someone who has done something illegal. If they are capable of that, you do not know what else they are capable of doing.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: Business, Employment

People People

January 23, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

If your business has a recurring client base, it is very important to develop and nurture a relationship with those clients. It is not always the boss who has the dealings with those clients. The big boss can choose to have some of his employees, more than likely those in management, deal with the clients. Choose your best people person. The employee who has to deal with your clients should be someone who has great people skills. The person should be likable, well dressed, well groomed, as well as confident and sure of him or herself. These are extremely important characteristics when choosing the person or persons who will represent your company to the public.

Screening for this position should be rigorous. Present many different situations to the employee to see how they would deal with them. This is the person who will field complaints as well as requests from your clients. He or she should be able to think fast on their feet, be able to come up with at least a temporary solution while a permanent solution can be sought. Once they have developed a rapport with the customer this is also your go to guy when you want to know about the customer and his dealings with your business. Is this a good time to let the customer know of new services? Your client liaison will be know if this is something the client would be interested in at this time.

The person you choose should also be a stickler for detail. He will know your customers personally, their birthdays, anniversaries, do they have children, what kind of wine do they like? These little nuances can separate your product or service for other businesses out there trying to take that customer away from you. A good working relationship with that customer can insure the customer stays with you.

Filed Under: Client Relationships Tagged With: Business, Customer