Employee To Entrepreneur

After working for a major telecommunications company for 28 years, Toni Cory's position servicing chip-placement machines was outsourced to another country. Even though Cory could see it coming months before her position was eliminated, it didn't make the downsizing any easier to swallow. Cory had planned to retire from her company when she was ready and with some financial security -- but like many others in today's turbulent economy, that was no longer a possibility.

Retraining for a new career
Once Cory knew her days at her company were numbered, she began to do some soul-searching. As a dog owner, Cory had heard of dog day-care establishments and wondered if the idea would take off in her rural community in the Midwest. So she did some research and found out about a state-sponsored program being delivered at the local community college to teach people how to set up a small business. It was here that she also found out about and took advantage of a $15,000 NAFTA federal training grant for displaced workers and enrolled in a five-month school in another city to become a professional dog trainer.

Around the same time, Cory's son saw an advertisement for a dog day-care mentorship program at a local dog day-care establishment in conjunction with their relationship with VocationVacations, a company that partners business owners with people considering a career change. Cory spent one long day (from 6AM to 7PM) at the dog day-care center soaking up as much knowledge as she could about running a dog day-care business.

Personal and financial obstacles
Cory was not without her naysayers. "The economy is going down the tubes, and you plan to open your business in a very rural area -- will people actually pay for this service?" seemed to be the party line among several of Cory's colleagues. But the skepticism didn't stop there. The banks did not want to give her a loan to start her business. It took her a year to convince her banker to give her a loan; and in order to get the amount she needed, Cory was forced to put up everything she had in her 401(k) as collateral. Once the loan was secured, Cory and her husband found a piece of property, and her husband, a contractor, put his work on hold and built the dog day-care center himself.

Cory confesses that the first 18 months were not easy. The business had a slow start; people who said they would bring their dogs to the center didn't. Yet the staff and the bills still needed to be paid. Cory persevered -- and by the end of the second year, she was turning a profit and getting repeat business and new referrals.

Advice for others
"If you are starting a business, be realistic about your goals; don't think you can do it yourself and don't be afraid to ask for help. There are many organizations and people willing to share information, and your local chamber of commerce is another great resource for small businesses. Have faith in yourself. I have a high-school education and I never ran a business before. Every year I learn more, and I use those lessons to make my business better," Cory says.

Cory says she is very satisfied with her progress to date: "I started my business because I no longer wanted corporate America to be in charge of my life and I wanted to do something within my community."

Conducting An Effective Meeting

“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be meetings.”

Thus spake humorist Dave Barry, and many of us would agree. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Some tips for having a good one:

Start and end strongly
Running a productive meeting isn’t rocket science. As Denver-based consultant Teri Schwartz notes, much of it boils down to opening and conducting every meeting with a purpose and closing it with a plan for “going forward.” Problems arise when people forget this. “It’s like flying a plane,” says Schwartz. “Most crashes happen at takeoff and landing.”

Pick a leader
Four years ago, Cleveland’s KeyCorp bank adopted a new principle: Always assign someone to lead. “The worst thing you can do is go into a meeting with no one in charge,” says the bank’s senior EVP and chief risk officer, Charles Hyle. “It turns into a shouting match.”

Think small
Be realistic about what you can accomplish. “You can’t solve world hunger in an hour,” Schwartz says. By the same token, keep the number of attendees manageable to stimulate discussion. “When you have too many people in the room,” says Hyle, “everyone clams up.”

Direct, don’t dominate
“People hate it when they can’t get their work done because they have to go to somebody else’s meeting,” says Columbia Business School professor Michael Feiner. So encourage others to speak up and get involved, especially junior staffers. “They need to believe it’s not his meeting or her meeting, but ‘our’ meeting,” Feiner says.

Lay down the rules of engagement
Everyone should understand who will take notes and how decisions will be made. Remember that consensus is typically a bad thing. “It means there isn’t enough dialogue or debate,” says Feiner, “and that’s the lifeblood of any innovative organization.” Jon Petz, the author of Boring Meetings Suck, suggests assigning follow-up tasks during the final five to ten minutes, then reiterating them later in a group e-mail so there’s no confusion.

Job Interview

For college graduates who fear they may be trading their diplomas for Starbucks aprons, there’s good news and bad: Employers have hired 19 percent more graduates in 2011 than they did in 2010—when just 56 percent had locked down a job by last spring, according to a Rutgers University survey. But the market is still tepid. How to improve your chances at landing—and keeping—a great job:

You’re a Seller, Not a Buyer
Writes Nell Minnow at bnet.com, “[College seniors] act as though they are meeting with their college advisor, telling prospective employers what the job will do for them instead of what they will bring to an organization.” Tell your interviewer the skills you have that would benefit his company.

You’re Part of a Team
College promotes individual achievement, says Minnow, which means “students … have no reason to feel responsible for the group,” and working together is a must to succeed in business. Stress your ability to work with colleagues for the common good. Don’t dwell on your own goals but rather on the company’s.

Act Like a Grown Up
That may sound obvious, but a recent survey by the Protocol School of Washington found half of all college grads don’t exhibit professionalism on the job. What’s more, they often think their obligations to the company end when they clock out at night. “Incidents at work and comments about coworkers are not to be put on Facebook or Twitter,” notes Minnow.

Employers Expect Results
With the changing economy come changing expectations, writes Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times. When an employer interviews a candidate, he writes, he is asking himself, “Can he or she help my company adapt not only to doing the job today but also reinventing the job tomorrow?” Someone who seems able to morph to meet a company’s changing needs is more likely to get the job.

Channel Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa, CEO (Berrett-Koehler, $21.95) has advice for even older job seekers: “If it can be done now, do it now” and “Take your work seriously, never yourself.”

Influencing Others

Leadership plays a vital role in the building of any business and can have a direct effect on the attitudes of colleagues and staff, which in turn affects products and services. The attitude and influence of the leader is also reflected in aspects such as staff satisfaction and retention.

It's important to distinguish leadership from management. A manager oversees subordinates who primarily do as they're told and have little or no input to the business or organisation. Leaders on the other hand have people who follow them willingly as they also "see" the leader's vision and passion, and clearly understand the organisation's mission and purpose. So, which group are more likely to support you and your business?

Great business leaders all have common traits that contribute to their success. Most importantly is an understanding that leadership is not only about growing financial wealth but also focusing on growing personal or human wealth. Companies and organisations that take responsibility for the people they employ as well as the wider community often have outstanding business success.

Listed below are 20 practical tips to enhance your leadership skills and bring success to your business:

1. Let people know their contributions in the workplace are valued.

2. Keep communication at an open and honest level.

3. Acknowledge, privately and in public, an outstanding individual effort.

4. Be a positive role model: walk the talk.

5. Give people the skills and knowledge to do their job well and invest in skills.

6. Be aware of your own strengths and weaknesses.

7. Prioritise your day and know some things happen unexpectedly.

8. Always view the long term plan and don't allow negative days to torment your mind.

9. Learn to be resilient: you will face challenges and make mistakes - bounce back.

10. Be prepared to make tough decisions to get the results you need.

11. Don't take yourself too seriously:have a laugh daily.

12. Great leaders have great mentors:find yourself a mentor that you can relate to.

13. Clearly define your vision and focus on goals to achieving it.

14. Always ask questions - even if they seem 'stupid.'

15. Never overlook talent - involve great people in your business.

16. Develop excellent listening and observation skills.

17. Understand the difference between 'leading' and 'managing' your business.

18. Don't be afraid to show your weaknesses and acknowledge your skills.

19. Be passionate and believe in yourself and what you are doing.

20. A healthy work-life balance is important - ensure you make time for family, friends and the community.

One secret to success is how we influence the people around us – in our personal and business life. Who are you influencing today and how?

Basic People Skills

How to build a winning, creative team? Clichéd though this may be, you need to start with treating people right. There is no other way.

Humans all appreciate:

• Respect; which includes appropriate remuneration.

• The opportunity to express themselves without undue criticism and censure.

• Feeling heard and understood; even without agreement.

• Sharing goals; having sense of purpose and togetherness; feeling supported.

• Invitation to be part of an engaging vision.

• Praise, positive feedback and genuine appreciation.

• Strive for a calm environment – psychologically and physically.

• Be honest, be real and be nice.

Make people happy and they will be more creative. Even more so than putting them in highly stressful situations. “It’s no accident that AHA and HAHA are spelled almost the same way.” — Mitch Ditkoff.

“Drive out fear” — W Edwards Deming. Management by threats ,however well-veiled, is not good.

Leadership Is About Serving

When we become a leader at any level, we become responsible for the wellbeing and success of other people. And as a leader, we achieve success through the success of others. The following two steps help us to improve our ability to lead others effectively.

Get to know your people well
Our first leadership obligation is to develop our understanding of our people as individuals. As a leader, how can we expect to get the best out of people if we don’t know them?

There are issues that relate to everyone, such as policy or procedure, but to get the best out of people we need to reach them on a personal level. The key to leading others is to understand and consider them – put them first.

Our job as leaders is all about training, developing and educating people and we achieve this by developing a true understanding of:

• what motivates them

• what their aspirations are

• what they are capable of

• what is important to them

Leadership isn’t about telling people what to do.

Leadership is about:

• showing them what to do

• teaching them how to do it

• developing each person, enabling them to fulfil their potential

• focusing on the interests and wellbeing of others

• helping people to improve and achieve results

• building relationships based on mutual respect and understanding

Leadership is about being the best we can be to help others be the best they can be. Once we have taken the time to get to know them well, we can achieve this by focussing on two key aspects: their competence and their perspective.

Develop an understanding of their competence and perspective
Competence is each person’s individual level of skill and ability to perform the tasks that are required of them in their role.

Each person is a product of their own experience, level of education or training, natural abilities, values, beliefs and personal standards and this all needs to be considered in all leadership situations.

The only way we are able to assess an individual’s competence is through our relationship with them, by developing a true understanding of who they are. We need to get to know them. If we don’t, leadership mistakes are made.

Perspective is each person’s individual way of thinking about or evaluating a message, subject or situation, based on their personality, frame of mind, experience, wants and needs.

People all have individual perspectives in every situation, which can be shaped by an endless list of variables, such as age, sex, culture, experience, upbringing, values, beliefs, expectations, family circumstances, what is happening in their personal and professional lives etc.

It is our responsibility as a leader to increase our awareness and understanding of these variables and learn how to use this understanding appropriately to align our leadership style with their needs.

To be the best they can be, people need to know exactly what to do, how to do it and what is expected of them – they need to be provided with the appropriate guidance.

Knowing the people we lead, gaining an understanding of their competence and perspective, allows us to align our leadership style with their needs, and give the right guidance.

Key Points to Successful SME

5 Key Areas SME must focus on :-

The product or service that you offer
Many businesses get started because someone has an idea or a passion. Unfortunately not enough research is put into whether the product or service is viable and if there is a market for it. Passion is important in business, but if the idea just doesn't have legs, it's going to cause a lot of heartache. The product or service needs to be well researched to ensure it delivers a solution or benefit. Research, testing and improvement needs to be ongoing , as markets change rapidly.

Marketing and Selling
Once you've found a great product or service and you've identified a market, how do you let people know about it? There is no point in having a fantastic product or service if no one knows about it. If you can't convey your value proposition, the business will fail. You need to sell to your customer. You need to engage with them, listen to their needs and find ways to solve their problem. It is a long road from enquiry to closing a sale and it needs patient and trained salespeople. A good sales process can have a massive impact on revenue and getting top performers to share knowledge is vital.

Operations and Finance
Once you've made the sale, you have to deliver. There is a lot involved in delivering a product or service to the satisfaction of customers. Systems are the best way to ensure efficiency.

Then there is finance to consider. There are costs and overheads to pay, stock and jobs in progress to finance, debts to collect, equipment to be bought or financed, suppliers to pay, interest to financiers and the list goes on. Cash flow is one of the biggest issues for SMEs.

Customer service
"The customer is always right? If the customer is wrong, go back and read the first line"? Without happy customers - business will be a struggle. Constantly finding new customers is expensive. It's an often quoted point in customer service training, that a happy customer will tell two or three people, whilst an unhappy customer will tell around twenty.

Human Resources
Happy staff means happy customers. If you want staff to look after customers, you must look after the staff. I often hear that even big businesses rarely have reviews with staff and don't provide any mechanism for feedback. Staff, are your most valuable asset.

You probably spend time dealing with all five areas. The best way to grow your business is to surround yourself with people who understand and specialise in each. You can't be an expert in all five. If you try, you will wear yourself out and create an unhappy working environment. I've been very fortunate to be surrounded by a team, each has a focus on one of these areas. It has freed up mine and my business partner's time to focus on strategic management and growth. I can recommend this thinking. If you don't currently employ these people start looking for them or outsource to specialists.