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5 Ways Small Businesses Can Boost Employee Morale

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

You already know that you need a high rate of productivity to keep up with the competition. But how much effort are you putting into rewarding those employees that go above and beyond the call of duty for your company? What incentives are you offering to encourage even better performance?

While you may be a small business and don’t have an extensive budget for incentives, there are several low-cost ways to boost employee morale and motivate your staff to want to work harder towards your company’s success.

1. Show Your AppreciationThere are many ways to show employees your appreciation. When they perform well, they do expect some sort of recognition in return for that hard work. If you have an employee or multiple employees excelling at their jobs, make sure their performance is recognized. And never wait until their annual review to let them know you appreciate them. A few affordable ways you can show your appreciation includes:
  • Offer them a gift card
  • Provide small bonuses
  • Give them an extra paid day off
  • Take them to lunch

Or just give your employee a card saying “thank you.” It’s a low-cost but effective way of letting him or her know that you recognize and appreciate their dedication to meeting your company’s goals.

2. Have An Open Door Policy With Your Employees
Having an open door policy is another way to boost employee morale within your small business. Actively communicate with your staff, notify them of changes, and give them the opportunity to express themselves. When your employees feel like they’re in the dark, they may not feel as though the company and/or their job is stable, and may not work as hard to help you improve your business.

3. Make Schedule Changes Easier
Morale suffers when employees feel that they’re stuck in a specific schedule with no flexibility. While you cannot cater to everyone, try to make your scheduling tactics as flexible as possible. For example, allow employees who have young children to be able to take their kids to school and pick them up afterwards. Offer multiple shift types so that employees are able to pick a schedule that works for them.

4. Don’t Be So Critical
While constructive criticism is important for your employees to learn and grow, too much criticism could be taken the wrong way. Keep communication lines open, but avoid being overly critical. The fastest way to crush employee morale is to always focus on the negative without ever acknowledging small accomplishments as they happen every day. Provide positive feedback whenever possible.

5. Promote From Within
Employees will always be more motivated and will work harder if they know they have a chance to advance within your business. When managerial positions open up, offer it to existing employees before looking outside your company. Also, offer employees adequate training programs so that they have an opportunity to move into higher positions in the future. And, if there aren’t opportunities for advancement in your company, every employee appreciates growing and improving their skills. Reward them for exceptional performance by furthering their skills.

Improving employee morale isn’t difficult, and it doesn’t take a lot of money either. The higher your employee morale is, the lower your turnover rate will be as well. To unlock more secrets on how you can boost employee morale and reduce turnover rates, get your copy of Practical Tools to Manage Costly Employee Turnover today.

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

MJ Management Solutions, Inc., is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.

5 Human Resource Management Mistakes Small Businesses Make

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

As a business owner, you’re challenged with a variety of tasks every day. Small business owners take on multiple roles, from accounting to legal to human resources. Regardless of whether you handle human resources yourself or delegate it to someone else, your company is bound to make mistakes.

These human resource management mistakes can be devastating for your company in numerous ways—from litigation to employee replacement costs. Therefore, it is imperative that you make sure your company avoids these common, costly mistakes.

#1. Not Hiring the Right People for the Job

Some small business owners hire people they know for open positions, rather than interviewing for outside, qualified options. Perhaps you don’t have the finances, so you don’t do background checks or pull references to verify what a candidate says on his or her resume, or perhaps you just hire someone because you feel bad for them. Regardless, hiring the wrong person is costly. Not only are they not qualified; eventually you will have to replace them, which is another added human resource management expense.

#2. Not Creating Clear Job Definitions

When you create a job listing, you create a description for that position. But most small business owners neglect creating an accurate, clear job description. This is imperative if you want to attract the right people for the job. Your description should include the skills, training, and education, an ideal candidate should possess, and you should only accept interviews with candidates that meet those basic requirements.

#3. Not Addressing or Documenting Performance Issues

If you have employees with performance issues, do not ignore them or hope that they go away on their own. You must create a performance review with a correction plan for the employee so that he or she knows how to improve. Also, make sure you address any employee issues right away rather than wait. By having all of the issues in writing, you can also back yourself up if you ever need to terminate that employee because of his or her performance.

#4. Not Understanding Basic Employment Laws

There are many human resource management laws that most small business owners ignore, but ignoring these laws could be detrimental to your company. Familiarize yourself with:

  • Discrimination
  • Overtime and minimum wage requirements
  • Family leave
  • Age and gender discrimination
  • Disability
  • Military leave
  • Gender-pay differences
  • Safety in the workplace
  • Pregnancy discrimination
  • Immigration

Never assume that employment laws don’t apply to your company. Ignoring them can cost your small business millions of dollars—or at least more than you realize.

#5. Misclassifying Your Employees

Do you know the difference between a contract worker, full-time employee, and part-time employee? If not, you need to familiarize yourself with these classifications. The U.S. Department of Labor has strict guidelines, as does the Internal Revenue Service. Do not try to classify employees as “contract workers” to save on benefits either. The duties and pay of employees classify whether or not they are permanent employees. In general, a person is only an independent contractor if you:

  • Don’t have control of their job and the work they do
  • Don’t have any written contracts, benefit plans, or vacation time spelled out
  • Don’t control the financial aspects of the worker’s assignments

Learn more about the costly mistakes employers make by getting your own copy of Practical Tools to Manage Costly Employee Turnover. This e-book teaches you about the common mistakes and provides you with practical tools that you can implement right away to fix employee turnover and save your company thousands in human resources costs. You can also download a free Hiring Essentials packet to make sure you avoid making any human resource management mistakes during the hiring process.

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc.

MJ Management Solutions, Inc., is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.

6 Employee Retention Strategies to Reduce Small Businesses Turnover

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

Replacing employees is time consuming, costly, and frustrating. It’s one thing to hire for a new position, but replacing employees you have spent time and money training is another. If you want to reduce costly turnover and create a more competitive workforce, follow these employee retention strategies for your small business.
 
1. Keep Employees Motivated With Incentives
Keep your employees motivated and give them a feeling of accomplishment by offering low-cost incentives. They can include giving gift certificates, adding paid time off (PTO), taking them out to lunch, or featuring them in the company newsletter. When implemented right, these types of incentives keep your employees motivated and excited about their work.
 
2. Offer Benefits to Suit
One-size-fits-all benefits packages simply don’t work. Increase employee retention by providing multiple benefit packages and allowing employees to pick and choose which are best for them.
 
For example, offer health insurance, life insurance plans, retirement funds, and perhaps even telecommuting opportunities. This employee retention strategy shows employees that you are interested in their personal well-being and that you are willing to accommodate their needs—which gives them even more reasons to stay.
 
3. Foster Development
Provide employees training on job skills, offer continuing education courses, or even tuition reimbursement for job-related degrees. The more you encourage and reward personal development, the more you’ll be able to retain your best employees and improve morale.
 
4. Promote From Within
When it’s time to create a new senior position, start the search with your existing employees before searching for outside candidates. When you constantly promote from the outside, employees get frustrated and may stop giving their best since they don’t see any opportunities to grow with your business.
 
Promoting from within is one of the key employee retention strategies because it shows employees that there is a chance for advancement within your small business.
 
5. Keep in Contact
Effective communication is critical in any business. Owners and supervisors should be in constant contact with employees. Share your small business’ mission and goals, keep tabs on emerging employee conflicts, show interest in their personal life (when appropriate), and make sure employees know you have an open door policy. Keeping in regular contact can motivate employees and make them more willing to truly care about the growth of your small business.
 
6. Encourage Feedback – And Listen
Getting employee feedback is important but, all too often, small business owners don’t follow-up or communicate the reasons for certain decisions. While you can’t accommodate everyone’s request, showing that you care enough to ask and fix what you can will go a long way. For example, if employees ask for more flexible hours, see if you can work that into your scheduling. If you get multiple requests for the same thing, it’s an indication that a majority of your staff is looking for change.
 
Employee turnover is a costly problem for any small business. Following these employee retention strategies can help you retain your best employees—not to mention saving on hiring, training, and much more. Learn more about how you can avoid costly turnover by getting your copy of .

This article first appeared at M.J. Management Solutions, Inc. 

Play Nice With Your Small Business Network to Net New Clients

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

Small business networking, whether conducted online or offline, is the lifeline for new business during the core business development of your business. It’s how you take your organization from one stage to the next. In fact, it’s much more than showing up and shaking a few hands or liking a few pages and commenting on status updates. The real success from small business networking is found in how you treat your network.  

Business Networking with the Law of 250

Years ago I heard one of the most intriguing stories about networking. It demonstrates the importance of “who you know, not what you know,” when it comes to small business networking. (Click to Tweet)

As the story goes, Joe Girard, recognized as the world’s greatest salesman by the Guinness Book of World Records, stumbled across a most interesting fact about people and the scope of their influence.

While attending a Catholic funeral, he noticed “mass cards” being distributed to attendees. The cards were designed to memorialize the departed. Out of curiosity, he asked the mortician how he knew the number of cards to print. According to the mortician,  it was a matter of experience. After counting the number of signatures in a memorial book, the mortician observed a pattern. The average number of attendees at one’s funeral was 250. Therefore, 250 mass cards were routinely printed for each funeral.

Another time, while Joe and his wife were attending a friends wedding, Joe asked the caterer how they determined the number of people to prepare for. (Obviously, this was before RSVP cards were invented.) The caterer remarked that they routinely prepared for 500 people – 250 from the bride’s side and 250 from the grooms side of the family.

Notice a coincidence?

Don’t Dis Your Small Business Network 

Whether your networking efforts take you face-to-face with a group of professionals or browser-to-browser via a social media platform, it’s important to pay attention to Girard’s Law of 250. Although you meet someone that may not perfectly match your buyer persona, they have tremendous influence over an average of 250 unique individuals – many of whom may be your next new clients!

Consider this…If you treat one person rudely or in a way that leaves them feeling dissatisfied, ignored, or upset, you have just lost a potential for 250 new clients. Yowsa! That leaves an indelible mark on your business.

On the other hand, treat your network, and its connections, with respect, consideration, appreciation, and courtesy and watch your small business grow…exponentially.

Can Telecommuting Work for Your Small Business?

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

Telecommuting, commonly called a work-from-home option for corporate employees, is not new to the SOHO (small office – home office) community. For many entrepreneurs, we’ve run successful enterprises from a home office long before Marion Behr coined the phrase “home office” in 1978. In fact, the number of small businesses operating from a home office continues to grow as technology expands and improves. 

According to Forrester Research’s US Telecommuting Forecast, 34 million Americans currently work from home. And, a recent Reuters poll revealed that approximately “one in five workers around the globe, particularly employees in the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, telecommute frequently and nearly 10 percent work from home every day.”

It’s clear to see that telecommuting is gaining credibility – despite how my neighbor may feel about my “home-based business” (said with a bit of a condescending tone).

Blissful Benefits of Working from Home

As a “telecommuter” since 1978, I’ve enjoyed many of the perks of working from my home office.

For instance, the Pacific Ocean backdrops the buzz of coaching conversations. My yoga mat is merely two “cubes” from my desk – if my home office was a cubicle farm (which it’s not). Because of infrequent commuting, my auto mechanic needs to nudge me about oil changes. In fact, researchers tell me that I free up an equivalent of 15 to 25 workdays a year because I telecommute. Yipee! 

I save on overhead costs, like office rent and utilities. I amass savings on fuel, automotive wear & tear, lunches out, and wardrobe expense – after all, how much does a pair of pajamas cost – just to mention a few of the assets I stockpile with a home office.

I also put up with the pitfalls of working from a home office. 

Enduring the Drawbacks of Telecommuting

My neighbor isn’t the only one that infers that running a company from home doesn’t make for a “real” business and I’m sure I’m not alone. 

Well-meaning colleagues, friends, and family may think that since you work from home, you can drop whatever you’re doing to play with them…or fix their computer…or unplug the dishwasher…or unclog the sink…or repair the scanner….or sew a button on their shirt. Ack!

There are the distractions you can do without, such as laundry, home repair projects, dirty dishes, dungy windows, the nonstop disruption of telemarketing calls, and workflow disruption by the retired other half or busy little people…or both. 

Those are the days you wonder if Starbucks is hiring. 

Knowing Thyself Wins the Telecommuting War

Many entrepreneurs, faced with the same tug of war for their time and attention in their wonderful world of telecommuting, discover that self-awareness is key in determining if working from home is right for them.

Telecommuting is most successful when you understand your primary motivators, your unique requirements for performing at your best, your ability to focus in the midst of who-knows-what, and, most importantly, with no one relying on you to be someplace at a certain time, your capacity of discipline. 

Can you work in an office by yourself surrounded by laundry and dirty dishes? 

Here are a few pointers to make your telecommute arrangement more fruitful:

  1. Have separate, designated office space to minimize distractions.
  2. Operate with regular office hours.
  3. Establish a separate, and distinct, business telecommunication channel. 
  4. Make it crystal clear to well-meaning family and friends who don’t think you work a “real job” that you’re working – even if it is from home.
  5. Never shrink from the pride of running a business from a home office. 
  6. Set yourself up for success with the proper tools and technology. After all, working from your home office doesn’t mean you can slack on your professionalism. 

Most importantly, remember, you’re in the company of greats:

  • Apple Inc., started by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak from Steve’s garage
  • Hewlett-Packard, whose original location is now a museum, the HP Garage
  • Amazon.com, internet retailer founded by Jeff Bezos

Now go get dressed! 

Interview Tips Every Small Business Owner Should Know to Find the Best Fit

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

Most small business owners have little time to attend seminars and train themselves on becoming an interviewing expert. But hiring the right people can dramatically impact the success of your business. The interview is the prime time to measure a candidate’s skill level and see if he or she is a great fit for your company. However, conducting an interview without preparation can result in choosing the wrong candidate or, worse, landing in some legal hot water.
 
As a small business owner, there’s a lot of information out there on interviewing. But these are some key interview tips to help you hire the right employee to help build your business.
 
Ask for Examples

Behavior-based interviewing can tell you a lot about a potential candidate. For example, ask the candidate to give an example of a moment they had to make a quick decision. This tells you how the candidate handles responsibility and, most importantly, how they handle working on their own. After all, as a small business, it’s unlikely that you’ll have employees under excessive review, so you need to know they can work on their own while still doing the job up to your standards.
 
Involve Other Staff Members

Candidates will show their true colors and attitudes around other employees. Involve other staff in the interview. If you can, step out of the room for ten minutes and let two or three other employees spend time with the potential hire. Then get their feedback. Since your other staff will likely interact with your new hire more than you, you want to make sure there’s a positive chemistry and also see how the candidate handles himself around his peers.
 
Ask “Why”

Asking the “why” is really important in an interview. For example, if you see on the candidate’s resume that he has short stints at past jobs, ask what and why that happened. You should ask the “why” in every question so that you can get to the root of the candidate’s answers.
 
You should also ask them, “What do you feel I need to know that we haven’t discussed?” This gives the candidate an opportunity to tell you about skills you may not have asked about or experiences that enhance their ability to handle the job. It’s the perfect opportunity to allow him or her to display their talents, show-off their best skills, and convince you why they’re a valuable asset.
 
Know What You Cannot Ask

While you probably have a lot of interview questions, you can’t ask some of them. There are literally hundreds of questions you legally cannot ask a potential candidate. If you are unsure of what you can or cannot ask, avoid any questions that have to do with:

  • Nationality
  • Race
  • Gender
  • Religion
  • Age
  • Marital or family status
  • Health and/or physical abilities
  • National Guard or reserve status
  • Location of the employee’s home or his/her commute

 
Delve Deeper

Interviewing candidates can give you a sense for a potential employee’s personality and ability to have a professional conversation, but if you stick to the expected interview questions, you might miss the opportunity to cut past the canned responses and gauge how that person might perform in the daily realities of your workplace.
 
Hiring the right person to fill a position isn’t easy for a small business owner. But when you start with the right hire, you can limit how often you’re interviewing because you’ll reduce turnover. To learn more about how to avoid costly turnover, get your copy of Practical Tools to Manage Costly Employee Turnover today.

This article first appeared at M. J. Management Solutions, Inc.

Why Your Small Business Needs a Social Media Policy

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia
business growth through social media

Most of us enjoy using social media during our personal time. But what happens when social media spills over into the workplace? Your small business suffers for every minute an employee uses social media during working hours. After all, you’re paying them to do a specific job, not to correspond with friends—or worse, posting comments that actually disparage your company.

A social media policy doesn’t just protect your small business. It gives your employees guidance on how they should behave—and not behave. For example, misuse of company logo, disclosure of trade secrets, racially offensive social media posts, sexually harassing posts, etc. Creating a clear-cut policy lets your employees know what behaviors are acceptable and what behaviors could result in disciplinary action up to termination.

Unfortunately, many small business owners often neglect the importance of implementing a strategy for managing social media in the workplace. They often assume that a small handful of employees couldn’t possibly harm their reputation, but it only takes one ill-advised post to damage your good name.

If you don’t have a social media policy yet, here a few reasons why you should consider creating one.

Loyalty

You pay your employees and provide them with stability, so shouldn’t they be loyal to your small business? If they’re making derogatory remarks toward your business on social media, they should be terminated for their disloyalty. Even if a post is made on the employee’s own computer on his or her own time, you may have legal grounds to terminate them. Be careful, though, that you don’t violate the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) which protects employees who discuss the terms and conditions of employment with others.
 
Social Media Impact

Many employees don’t realize the impact social media posts have on the public (and your potential customers). Just one negative post can lead to lasting damage to your brand, so you need a social media policy that identifies the risks of negative remarks.

Guidance

Your employees are not mind readers. They need specific guidance that tells them what they can post and, most importantly, what they can’t. Be specific and give examples of what isn’t acceptable. Being vague could mean that you don’t have a legal right to terminate, even if you feel the employee posted inappropriate comments.
 
FTC Considerations

Social media policies don’t have to just focus on the negative; they should focus on the positive comments, too. When employees promote your business via social media, they are required by the Federal Trade Commission to disclose their relationship to you. Not doing so could violate advertising policies with the FTC.

Wasted Time

Productivity suffers when employees use social media at work. As a small business owner, you can’t afford to have employees spending their time on personal business. As long as they’re on the clock, they need to be focused on your business.

HR and Social Media

When you’re looking at a potential hire, do you look at their social media profiles? There is a fine line between what you can use via social media as a consideration for hiring. For example, you cannot use a potential employee’s political standing, religion, or sexual orientation against them.

Protect Your Small Business

Social media policies protect everyone—not just your small business. They prevent human resources disputes, ensure your reputation isn’t damaged, improve revenue due to increased productivity, and even keep your employees from violating federal law.

What are you doing about social media in your small business?

7 Human Resources Trends Your Small Business Needs to Know

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

The world of human resources changes fast. If your small business isn’t on top of the trends, you could not only experience significant turnover, but also legal ramifications. Whether you employ a team of fifteen HR employees or are the accidental HR manager, it’s important to know the current trends and legal considerations.

Top Human Resources Trends

Trends help you tailor your employee benefits package, keep retention rates up, and even assist with recruiting. Key HR trends include:

  1. Compensation is still driving employee interest. As long as employees are adequately compensated, they are more likely to stay with your small business. Job security comes in a close second to compensation. After all, it doesn’t matter how much you pay if employees are constantly worried that they won’t keep their jobs.
  2. More employers are implementing policies for social media use. In 2014, more than 70 percent of employers disciplined their employees for misusing social media. Reasons for discipline included divulging confidential information, harassment of coworkers, and defamation of the business’ brand.
  3. There is an increased focus on Generation Y workers. These are employees who were born between 1981 and 1994. They want to work in a casual workplace that values self-expression over self-control. Generation Y workers also want a challenging career in which respect is earned and growth opportunities are available. They value instant feedback and high compensation for good work. Your Generation Y employees are the future of your small business, and will be making a much larger impact as other generations retire.
  4. More small businesses are skipping annual reviews for continuous performance management as part of their day-to-day operations. Doing so allows managers to provide feedback as it’s needed, and gives employees the opportunity to improve year-round rather than just once a year.

Legal Considerations to Keep in Mind

Small business owners may not understand that they face many legal gray areas. From terminating a pregnant employee to forcing an employee to change his status on social media, you can put yourself in hot water if you aren’t careful. Make sure you have and follow a comprehensive policy and procedure manual so you can stay on top of these legal human resources trends:

  1. Terminating a woman during her pregnancy could result in a discrimination suit, but did you also know that terminating an employee a few months after delivery could still result in the same lawsuit?
  2. Social media is more popular than ever and employees are likely to list you as their employer on their various accounts. But when they’re terminated or they quit, can you force them to change their social media information? In most cases this requires you to contact the social media platform and, even then, you must prove it is damaging your small business in some way to have it listed on the website.
  3. Workplace cliques could put you at risk for racial discrimination claims and lawsuits. While they may seem innocent, employees left out of these cliques may feel as though they’re being discriminated against—especially if the race, gender, or religious preferences of those involved differ from the affected employees.

Staying on top of human resources trends is critical for retaining your existing employees and attracting the top talent. By understanding these management and legal HR trends, you can reduce employee turnover and keep your business competitive.

Learn more about how you can avoid costly turnover and manage your employees more effectively by getting your copy of Practical Tools to Manage Costly Employee Turnover.

MJ Management Solutions is a human resources consulting firm that provides small businesses with a wide range of virtual and onsite HR solutions to meet their immediate and long-term needs. From ensuring legal compliance to writing customized employee handbooks to conducting sexual harassment training, businesses depend on our expertise and cost-effective human resources services to help them thrive.

Help! I Need an Expert! What Your Small Business Needs to Grow (Part 2)

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

As a thriving business continues to expand, the need for skilled service providers to support and expedite growth becomes more apparent. A flourishing business depends on service providers, such as accountants, copywriters, lawyers, telecommunication providers, and strategic business coaches for their expertise, industry knowledge, and timely service to take them to the next level. How can you be assured you select the ideal service provider for your business? It’s easy — once you know the right questions to ask.

The ability to discern which service provider drives or diminishes your business growth is important. Nothing is more frustrating to work with than a provider that isn’t a good fit. Time, money, and a few brain cells, are squandered because of incompatibilities…not to mention the energy lost from tolerating a poor fit.

Let the Vetting Begin! The Service Provider’s Pre-Cana

Vetting a possible service provider begins the moment you start your search.

During the screening process, your goal is to ensure a service provider is a good fit, capable of meeting your business needs, and able to deliver the outcomes you desire. Do your homework. In addition to scouring your network for trustworthy sources, conduct your own investigation.

Query your referral sources. What do they like and don’t like about their engagement with the service provider? Ask about the outcomes achieved.

Use social media and online review sites, like Yelp and Angie’s List, to uncover details about a potential service provider. What stands out? How do they respond to less than favorable reviews?

Once you reach out to a potential provider, make note on how they handle the initial request. Are they timely in their response? Do they communicate clearly?  What do they provide to help you prepare for your initial meeting? Are they punctual?

Although seemingly insignificant, these actions speak volumes about the quality and effectiveness of their business…and what it will be like to work with them.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

During the initial meeting, don’t wait for the service provider to tell you about their business, take the lead in asking carefully crafted questions to uncover what you need to know to determine whether or not you’re a fit. Here are a few to get you started:

1. Tell me about yourself and your business.
2. How long have you been in business?
3. What is your approach or philosophy in working with your clients?
4. What additional support or services do you provide?
5. Who is your ideal client?
6. What are your company’s strengths?
7. Who else might I be working with in your business?
8. What’s your policy for responding to requests by email or phone?
9. What is your approach to timelines?
10. Tell me about a particular client project (without divulging confidentiality) and the outcomes achieved?
11. What are your billing practices?
12. How do you communicate changes to your clients?
13. How do you best like to work with your clients?

A wise sage once said, “If you don’t have time to do things right the first time, how much time do you have to do them over.” The same truth applies to contracting with service providers.

Choosing service providers that meet the needs of your growing business is a big decision. Take your time, carry out your due diligence, and make sure you select the right service provider for your business the first time.

This article first appeared on The Huffington Post, What is Working: Small Business

Help! I Need an Expert! What Your Small Business Needs to Grow (Part 1)

Posted by
Jackie Nagel, Synnovatia

As momentum builds in the economy, small businesses are enjoying a nice bump in business growth. (Can I get an “Amen”?!) The hard-working entrepreneurs who kept their “nose to the grindstone” are the business owners enjoying the fruits of their business development labor. During leaner times, they persisted to stay in front of their target audience…and it’s paying off!

If you’re one of those tenacious entrepreneurs, you are busier than ever delivering the core goods and services of your business! That’s the good news. Now for a word of caution…

The Cautionary Tale of Sustainable Small Business Growth

The very business actions that positioned your small business at the forefront of your marketplace and kept you at the top of your prospects’ mind, can easily get lost in the flurry of daily activity. Undertakings, such as social media, website updates, blogging, networking, marketing, bookkeeping, strategic planning and thinking — just to mention a few — are left to chance.

Consequently, over time, business momentum swings — and not in the direction you want it to go. Left unattended, critical business growth activities soon lose the hefty steam built during sparser spells.

Ask any small business entrepreneur who has neglected these essential activities. It’s not pretty! All their tough work is lost — along with the momentum they’ve worked so hard to achieve.

That’s why we say — don’t grow your small business alone!

Help Is on The Way: Prepare to Engage Service Providers

With cash flow relaxing and your availability tightening, it’s time to engage service providers to lend a helping hand. The right service provider can implement the business activities your small business needs to continue momentum and avoid a self-inflicted revenue slump.

Selecting a service provider can be daunting! Service providers either elevate or interrupt our business pursuits. Engage the right service provider and they exert influence on our business that expedites our success. Retain an ill-fitting, ill-equipped, or ill-prepared service provider and they add unnecessary stress and chaos to an already full day.

In many ways, when engaging a service provider, you’re entrusting them with the future of your business. Granted, you’ll continue to provide strategic oversight throughout any projects implemented by a service provider. However, a service provider can be a dream to work with or your biggest nightmare.

Engaging the best service providers for your business to keep it grooving and growing requires preparation. Here are a few steps to make sure you’re properly primed to involve the correct service providers to make your small business excel.

1. Develop a standardized process for engaging service providers. Like most small businesses, you’ll need a variety of service providers to grow a strong, successful business.

From web designers to an accountant to an attorney to a strategic business coach, you’ll likely have several people on your team that you’ll rely on to support your efforts to move your business forward strategically.

A standardized process for engaging all service providers, regardless of discipline, will save you time. It also allows for consistency in how service providers interact with you and your business to make it easier to manage and grow.

A standardized process supports your ability to objectively engage the type of service providers needed by your business without being swayed by their charming personality alone.

2. Identify the skills needed. Before entertaining a conversation with a vendor, make a list of the skills you want in a competent service provider.

In addition to a strong core competency in their particular field of interest (as evidenced by the results produced), you want your service provider to be proficient in the following skills:

  • Project management and organization to save you time and ensure your growth initiatives don’t get lost in their shuffle.
  • Written and verbal communication skills, including keen listening ability to make sure your needs are heard and understood.
  • Decision making with your best interest at heart.
  • Strategic planning and thinking that aligns suggestions and/or advice provided with your company’s mission, vision, and goals.
  • Critical analysis that allows them to accurately assess outcomes and make the necessary course corrections.

Additionally, you’ll find it beneficial to solicit input on needed skills from other members of your team.

3. Outline needs and expectations. Every small business owner has needs and expectations of those with whom they do business. Unfortunately, many are unsaid until an expectation is unsatisfied.

Clarity and communication of your needs and expectations reinforces your ability to pinpoint the right service provider for your business.

Here are some questions to consider when identifying the needs and expectations of your service providers:

  • Does your business need a quick turnaround or can it afford to wait 7 – 10 days for projects to be addressed?
  • What method of feedback and/or communication do you desire?
  • What time frame do you anticipate for a service provider to respond to your requests? Would you expect a 12-hour turnaround on responses to your communication or is 36 hours okay with you?
  • Are you looking for something transactional or do you prefer a long-term partnership with a service provider?
  • Do you need a strategic or a tactical service provider?

As you review these questions, there are likely many others you can add to your list. The most important piece, however, is to be relentless in carving out your needs and expectations.

When looking to engage others in growing your small business, you need more than an “expert”. You need a qualified, skilled service provider to come alongside of you and make your business shine.

Remember: this is your business. The better your needs are met by others, the better you’ll be able to meet the needs of your clients and grow your business.

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Brooke Billingsley

Vice President
Perception Strategies

Synnovatia is a strategic coaching firm that is detailed and knowledgeable about business. i have a small business that grew from $150K to $750K because of the goal setting and resources that Synnovatia provided. It saves me years of learning on my own.

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