Blog

Great managers are made by how well they motivate their team members. Here are five proven ways for motivating people on your staff. 1. They take responsibility for the store’s success and failure. Exceptional managers always have a “the buck starts and stops here” mentality. They never blame weather, competitors,... Read more

Accountability is truly essential for any successful organization. When team members take ownership of their projects and accept responsibility for outcomes, the entire company benefits. In order to foster a culture of accountability, leaders must step up to the plate. Accountable leaders don’t necessarily have to come from the very top.... Read more

Just as important as goal-setting is developing a way to track your progress. Having barometer, so to speak, will show you how you are progressing — and how close you are to reaching your goals. Seeing your progress will also help keep you focused and motivated. In short, having a business barometer will keep... Read more

Tax planning for the year ahead presents similar challenges to last year due to the unknown fate of the numerous tax extenders that expired at the end of 2014. These tax extenders, which include the mortgage insurance premium deduction and the sales tax deduction that allows taxpayers to deduct state... Read more

Since its inception, the United States has always been considered “the land of opportunity” – a place where any individual with motivation and drive can have a successful small business. This notion still holds true today as 99 percent of all American companies are small businesses, according to Small Business... Read more

Taking your business from the start-up phase to becoming a medium-sized enterprise is a pivotal step for many entrepreneurs. If you are at this stage, congratulations! You have succeeded where many others have failed, and you are potentially on your way to becoming a very successful company. That said, there... Read more

With the right infrastructure, small businesses can not only survive, but thrive by giving employees parental leaves. For example, Becca Apfelstadt has a $3 million, 20-person company, treetree, that works with large corporate marketing departments. Her company expanded 10-fold after her first maternity leave three years ago. She credits the... Read more

Knowing how to effectively give positive feedback is a powerful tool to develop employee skills and talent. However, many leaders on the front lines, middle management, and upper tiers of organizations often overlook positive feedback and reinforcement, or are unsure or uncomfortable about giving it. Why Positive Feedback Is Important... Read more

Finding good staff members is consistently in the top three priorities for small business owners. It seems that business owners will tell you that this problem is worse in their country than any other.  Clearly that can’t be true, but it gives an indication of how serious the problem is.... Read more

Do your co-workers ever feel upset or angry in the workplace? Let’s look at the kind of feelings that can impact your work negatively and what kind of mental exercises can help you work around those feelings to keep your positive thinking alive. Recognize those bad feelings      ... Read more

Nothing mirrors your quality of life more than your thinking. By deciding to take a positive outlook on life, one can begin to discard a negative frame of mind and view life more positively, with the anticipation of opportunities and challenges ahead, instead of dwelling on barriers in life. Positive... Read more

Many business owners have the mistaken idea that retiring from their business will be a pretty simple process… …they’ll just find a buyer when they’re ready to retire and live off the proceeds of the sale for the rest of their lives. In an ideal world, this would be true.... Read more

Small businesses have a lot to manage, and often without a lot of resources to do so. The focus is on keeping the business running smoothly, pleasing customers, and making a profit. But in today’s digital world of non-stop news headlines reporting data breaches and fraud, making security a priority... Read more

Everyone deserves a break, especially those who work hard trying to a get a business off the ground. A recent survey found that three quarters (76%) of small business owners and entrepreneurs skip their holidays in order to keep their business running smoothly. But while there may never be a... Read more

It’s never too early to start succession planning in a family business. Here’s a story… …From the moment the Yung Kee restaurant sold its first goose in Hong Kong, in the 1960s, its founder Kam Shui-fai groomed two of his sons for management roles. However he never had the time... Read more

The Trinity of Management is a simplified concept of basic business management. Coined and trademarked by Ernesto Sirolli, it makes it relatively easy to get across the basics of business by creating a framework in which we can start the work of building a solid new business or expanding an existing... Read more

It used to be that you’d finish high school and quickly move in one of two directions…. …you either enrolled in a four-year college to work towards a degree, or you got a job right out of high school and never looked back. Enter the modern day, when more and... Read more

Owning a service business can be tough, and running a service business day-in and day-out can be even tougher. For many service business owners, building a service business stopped being fun a long time ago and somehow it mutated into a “job.” Here are 4 tips to help you scale your service... Read more

Running a business is not easy. It requires a lot of time, hard work, and sacrifice. If you operate your own small business, you’re likely all too familiar with the never ending to do list. Maybe you’ve even given up weekends and burned the midnight oil to make sure everything... Read more

If you’re thinking about hiring an accountant, you’ve probably discovered that you may need one for more than just crunching numbers. Today, many accountants strive to serve as small business financial advisors. Many of them want to be there for you at every stage of your business’s growth. Helping to write... Read more

Building a high-performance organization means successfully outperforming one’s competitors for the long haul. But…how exactly is this done? If you start by looking at key characteristics of high-performing organizations, a blueprint for achieving long-term success emerges. This can be mapped out in five steps, along with some commons traps to... Read more

It’s the middle of summer, and you’re stuck behind the desk at your small business — working and sweating. Your friends’ Facebook feeds are filled with pictures of them happily enjoying a drink on some beach. It’s no wonder you’ve lost that loving feeling for your own business. Falling out of love with... Read more

Each new financial year is a common time for people to reconsider their approach to their business. Whenever we meet a business owner, we like to ask about their business model and what they are looking to achieve in the next three years. It’s rare to get a concise response... Read more

What’s a team without trust? Mary Scannell, author of “The Big Book of Low-Cost Training Games” and several other team-building books, says a lack of trust among team members is a major concern for many managers she consults. “Everybody’s just clamoring for ‘How do we build more trust on our team?’” she says. “Well, you... Read more