Figuring out if you are a fantastic boss or not can be tricky. Here are some questions to ask yourself when getting real about whether or not you are. Answer them yourself AND give them to your staff – I dare you! You will learn a lot about yourself. … [Read more...]
Do We Need to Be Selfish to Be Successful?
When we first came into this world as infants, we were very focused on having our immediate needs met. Life was simple. With more "socialization", we began to respond to those around us and our thoughts turned outward. Our parents, friends, and teachers were more interested in finding ways to have us please them than to have us please ourselves and we lost touch with whatever … [Read more...]
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Unlike George Bush, who famously cited The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle as one of his favourite books from his childhood despite it having been published when he was 23, I was born after its publication and have very fond memories of reading it as a child. This year marks its 40th anniversary, and it is still a much-loved classic. Yesterday also marked the beginning … [Read more...]
Tricks for a Stress-free Tax Season
Those of you who already filed your U.S. corporate tax returns earlier this week are probably breathing a big sigh of relief that tax time is over. For small business owners or entrepreneurs who plan to file as an individual (sole proprietor), you have about three more weeks to get everything in line before the April 15th deadline. According to the official U.S. government … [Read more...]
Employees hate it when a boss…
Keeps secrets I know of a business that listed itself for sale without telling its staff. A couple of workers were having a cuppa relaxing with the Saturday paper and read the listing. Instead of enjoying their weekend they were wondering if their job would still exist on Monday. The boss was embarrassed about selling the business, so didn’t tell them anything. The lost trust … [Read more...]
How to Increase Sales Tomorrow: A Step by Step Agenda
If you’re like me, you’ve got to be thinking about increasing your revenue stream for the short term. I mean, I have the long term under control—strategy, business model development, cost management. But nothing else works if you don’t keep the income side generating new sales. So I’ve designed a one-day agenda focused totally on sales, and I invite you to try it! Here … [Read more...]
Staff love it when bosses have…
The Easy Button
Even though there really is no "easy button" in business, I bought four of them on Tuesday at the office supply store. Why? Because sometimes I need a distraction to remind me that I may be the one making things difficult. It's my new "distractor" that makes me giggle when I hear it say, "that was easy." But here's why I bought them in the first place. I sat in my boss’s … [Read more...]
Grow Your Business in a Culture of Abundance
In a growing company, it is very easy to be afraid that you will not have enough—not enough money, not enough staff, not enough time, not enough customers. I call that the culture of scarcity. And in today’s tough economic times, we are being bombarded relentlessly by scarcity messages in all media. But in order to grow your company, you must cultivate a culture of … [Read more...]
When Employees Attack!
Post by Allison O'Neill, contributing Women On Business writer I go on and on about LISTENING to your workers, CARING about what they say and ACTING on it. It was because I worked at a company that didn’t listen (but boasted constantly about how much it did) that I got into surveying staff in the first place. It is UNBELIEVEABLY frustrating working somewhere your voice … [Read more...]