Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Managing Your HR Duties
One of the toughest jobs you have as a business owner is dealing with your HR duties. In almost every business this can be a huge headache and a never ending nightmare. However, there are a number of tactics you can implement to relieve the so-called headache. Since this nightmare will never go away you need some strategies to make it a pleasant experience or at least as pleasant as possible.
The very first tactic to consider is “ATTITUDE”! You may not realize it but your attitude about hiring and all the HR duties you have is the most important element you need to master to make business life pleasant. You must force yourself to have an excellent attitude and be positive even when things are not going your way. This one tactic can change everything for you and your outlook on life and your business. Your positive attitude should permeate every part of your business – customers, vendors, business partners, family members and especially employees. If necessary, change your attitude and you will be surprised at how pleasant your HR duties will become.
The second strategy to focus on is “BUDGETING TIME” every week to work on your HR functions. For example - placing or renewing ads, reviewing resumes, phone interviewing, face to face interviewing etc. If you will make your HR duties a priority and schedule time every week to focus on these tasks your HR nightmares will turn into pleasant dreams. Finding excellent, qualified painters is a function of your time and effort. It’s a numbers game. You may have to weed through 20 applicants to find one excellent painter so you have to budget enough time to accomplish the numbers game. Just realize and except the fact that you need to work on HR tasks every week and then it won’t bother so much.
The third strategy is making sure you “ORIENTATE AND TRAIN” your new hires properly and spend enough time helping them understand your business and way of doing things. They need to buy in to your model and the only way they will is if you sit down face to face and orientate them properly. If you schedule some time weekly, bi-weekly or monthly for training, evaluating and coaching you employees your HR troubles will shrink. The reason this is so important is that when you invest energy, time and resources into making your employees be the best they can be they will be happy employees and your retention rate will shrink, which leads to less hiring. You have to treat your employees like partners in the business. They need to be like family. They still need to know the boundaries and expectations and there needs to be accountability but they need to feel that you care about them and are genuinely interested in their life and happiness. If you have that kind of attitude you will have lifelong employees and very little turn over.
If you will institute those three strategies when it comes to your HR duties your business will run much smoother and you will have a lot more fun. Remember the first strategy, “ATTITUDE”, it can make everything in your business positive.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Keep Peddling
It seems as we try to build our BP3 business and as we take on new web site projects we are not really making any progress. This feeling happens to most business owners, especially within the first year or so. However, if you ask someone who is looking in from the outside they would probably say, "wow, you guys are doing great and growing by leaps and bounds".
The title of this particular blog posting is "keep peddling" meaning, don't stop building and working on your business like we are doing with BP3. When you are in the thick of it all it does not seem like you are making any progress but if you were to step back and look from the outside you would actually realize you are making some progress and usually significant progress. You have to keep working the business. If you fall off the bike you have to get back on and keep peddling. If you think you are not getting anywhere you still have to keep peddling and realize that those who are looking from the outside can see you are making progress.
One of the most important things to remember about this process is to work smarter and not harder. Spend the majority of your time working on your business and not in your business. Think about the tasks you perform each day like for BP3 it's building web sites and then determine if those tasks are building your business or are they just tasks that get you some money for today.
In my opinion the most important tasks you can perform that will build your business and help it grow each day is sales/marketing and human resources. You have to find people to buy your product and service and you have to help convince them that they do need your service or product and then you have to find good workers to help you provide the service or sell the product. Finding good employees is key to your success and finding customers is key to your success. You still need to perform all the other daily tasks like buying paper clips etc but you should budget time to work on those critical tasks of sales/marketing and human resource management.
If you budget time for these critical task your business will grow and you will not fall into the trap of working in your business and not on your business. At BP3 we are always looking for talented programmers and we are always looking for potential clients. This is never ending and if you do it right it will lead you to extreme success.
The title of this particular blog posting is "keep peddling" meaning, don't stop building and working on your business like we are doing with BP3. When you are in the thick of it all it does not seem like you are making any progress but if you were to step back and look from the outside you would actually realize you are making some progress and usually significant progress. You have to keep working the business. If you fall off the bike you have to get back on and keep peddling. If you think you are not getting anywhere you still have to keep peddling and realize that those who are looking from the outside can see you are making progress.
One of the most important things to remember about this process is to work smarter and not harder. Spend the majority of your time working on your business and not in your business. Think about the tasks you perform each day like for BP3 it's building web sites and then determine if those tasks are building your business or are they just tasks that get you some money for today.
In my opinion the most important tasks you can perform that will build your business and help it grow each day is sales/marketing and human resources. You have to find people to buy your product and service and you have to help convince them that they do need your service or product and then you have to find good workers to help you provide the service or sell the product. Finding good employees is key to your success and finding customers is key to your success. You still need to perform all the other daily tasks like buying paper clips etc but you should budget time to work on those critical tasks of sales/marketing and human resource management.
If you budget time for these critical task your business will grow and you will not fall into the trap of working in your business and not on your business. At BP3 we are always looking for talented programmers and we are always looking for potential clients. This is never ending and if you do it right it will lead you to extreme success.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Marketing Your Business
Sales and Marketing are two of the most critical tasks you must focus on to grow a small or large business. I have coached many business owners who informed me that they are not salesmen and they are not planning on becoming a salesman. I had to remind them that the most important task a business owner has to focus on is sales and marketing.
As a business owner your main and most important job is finding a way to drive sales, getting the phone to ring or getting people to come in the door and buy your product or service. If you do not focus on sales and marketing your business will most likely die.
So, you have two choices. You can either do it yourself or you can hire someone to take care of sales and marketing. Most of the time the best person for sales is the business owner. Compared to hiring someone the business owner has the most vested interest in seeing the business succeed so he or she will do the best job at selling their products or services to a potential customer. Typically the business owner has the most knowledge about their particular product or service also. I almost always recommend the business owner along with all employees focus on sales. Every employee should be a salesmen in one way or another even if it is just telling people they meet or associate with where they work and how great the business is and how great the product or service is, just doing that constitutes sales.
Marketing on the other hand sometimes should be left to a marketing professional since there are so many factors that make up a marketing plan like the message, who the message is for, how are you going to get the message out and so on. Marketing is a science, not an exact science, but a science non the less and it can become complicated and you can spend thousands of dollars and get a zero return on your investment if your marketing is not done right. Even if it is done right you still may not receive the return on your marketing investment you were expecting.
In future posts I will get into more detail about marketing and how to create, implement, track and review a marketing plan but for now one of the most important things you must do with your marketing, whatever it may be, is track it. If you do not track your marketing efforts you are throwing money down the toilet. If you do not track your marketing efforts how do you know those efforts are working or not working. You can not always rely on, "oh it feels like it's working", that is not good enough. Trust me on this that you must track your marketing so you can figure out your return and figure out if you should continue with your current plan or should you make adjustments to your plan or should you change the message or should you change the vehicle etc. More to come.
As a business owner your main and most important job is finding a way to drive sales, getting the phone to ring or getting people to come in the door and buy your product or service. If you do not focus on sales and marketing your business will most likely die.
So, you have two choices. You can either do it yourself or you can hire someone to take care of sales and marketing. Most of the time the best person for sales is the business owner. Compared to hiring someone the business owner has the most vested interest in seeing the business succeed so he or she will do the best job at selling their products or services to a potential customer. Typically the business owner has the most knowledge about their particular product or service also. I almost always recommend the business owner along with all employees focus on sales. Every employee should be a salesmen in one way or another even if it is just telling people they meet or associate with where they work and how great the business is and how great the product or service is, just doing that constitutes sales.
Marketing on the other hand sometimes should be left to a marketing professional since there are so many factors that make up a marketing plan like the message, who the message is for, how are you going to get the message out and so on. Marketing is a science, not an exact science, but a science non the less and it can become complicated and you can spend thousands of dollars and get a zero return on your investment if your marketing is not done right. Even if it is done right you still may not receive the return on your marketing investment you were expecting.
In future posts I will get into more detail about marketing and how to create, implement, track and review a marketing plan but for now one of the most important things you must do with your marketing, whatever it may be, is track it. If you do not track your marketing efforts you are throwing money down the toilet. If you do not track your marketing efforts how do you know those efforts are working or not working. You can not always rely on, "oh it feels like it's working", that is not good enough. Trust me on this that you must track your marketing so you can figure out your return and figure out if you should continue with your current plan or should you make adjustments to your plan or should you change the message or should you change the vehicle etc. More to come.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Why is Customer Service so Important
Why is excellent customer service so important in today's world of buying and selling goods and services? The simple answer is, without it you may fail.
Today most consumers are spending less, which means you as a business owner have to find more and more creative ways to lead the consumer to your business, peak their interest with your message and persuade them to buy from you.
One of the most effective ways to set your business apart is excellent customer service. What is amazing to me is how easy it is to provide excellent customer service and create an experience that your competitors just don't offer. How do I know it is not difficult, just look around at the businesses you frequent and take a close look at their customer service practices and you will soon recognize that it is hard to find a business that offers excellent customer service.
There are companies out there that do a fantastic job with their customer service like Southwest Airlines or Costco or Hilton Hotels. Yes, they make their share of mistakes but excellent customer service is one of the most important ingredients to their success. Again, there are a number of businesses that offer excellent customer service but a vast majority fail at this critical part of their business.
It really does not take much to offer ECS (excellent customer service) because consumers have very low expectations since they are so used to bad customer service. One simple concept related to customer service that can make a huge difference in a lot of businesses is just answering the phone live. You would be amazed at how many companies do not answer their phone live. Of course I am not talking about large companies with thousands and thousands of customers and thousands and thousands of employees but I am talking about small businesses. They are the majority.
Here is a great example of how important it is to answer your phone live. I had just moved into a new home and I needed to hire a business to come and install an automatic garage door opener so I grabbed the yellow pages and started calling from page one. I called 12 garage door companies before I got a live person to answer and guess what I did with number 13 that answered live? I hired them with almost no questions asked and it turned out they were a great company with great customer service. I could have guessed that since they had answered their phone live. If you have a company where it is possible to let an answering machine take your calls I would suggest throwing the machine away and figure out a way to answer your phone live.
A few other simple things I recommend to offering excellent customer service would be....do what you say you are going to do, show up when you say you are going to show up, charge what you say you are going to charge.
These may seem simple but it is hard to find businesses who practice these simple things so if you do them you will set yourself apart, which is what it takes in today's economy to influence consumers to buy your product or service.
One last thing about customer service that will make the biggest difference is having an excited, positive, enthusiastic and fun attitude about your product or service. If you don't love it and show your love of it to your customers why will they want to love it and more importantly, buy it.
Today most consumers are spending less, which means you as a business owner have to find more and more creative ways to lead the consumer to your business, peak their interest with your message and persuade them to buy from you.
One of the most effective ways to set your business apart is excellent customer service. What is amazing to me is how easy it is to provide excellent customer service and create an experience that your competitors just don't offer. How do I know it is not difficult, just look around at the businesses you frequent and take a close look at their customer service practices and you will soon recognize that it is hard to find a business that offers excellent customer service.
There are companies out there that do a fantastic job with their customer service like Southwest Airlines or Costco or Hilton Hotels. Yes, they make their share of mistakes but excellent customer service is one of the most important ingredients to their success. Again, there are a number of businesses that offer excellent customer service but a vast majority fail at this critical part of their business.
It really does not take much to offer ECS (excellent customer service) because consumers have very low expectations since they are so used to bad customer service. One simple concept related to customer service that can make a huge difference in a lot of businesses is just answering the phone live. You would be amazed at how many companies do not answer their phone live. Of course I am not talking about large companies with thousands and thousands of customers and thousands and thousands of employees but I am talking about small businesses. They are the majority.
Here is a great example of how important it is to answer your phone live. I had just moved into a new home and I needed to hire a business to come and install an automatic garage door opener so I grabbed the yellow pages and started calling from page one. I called 12 garage door companies before I got a live person to answer and guess what I did with number 13 that answered live? I hired them with almost no questions asked and it turned out they were a great company with great customer service. I could have guessed that since they had answered their phone live. If you have a company where it is possible to let an answering machine take your calls I would suggest throwing the machine away and figure out a way to answer your phone live.
A few other simple things I recommend to offering excellent customer service would be....do what you say you are going to do, show up when you say you are going to show up, charge what you say you are going to charge.
These may seem simple but it is hard to find businesses who practice these simple things so if you do them you will set yourself apart, which is what it takes in today's economy to influence consumers to buy your product or service.
One last thing about customer service that will make the biggest difference is having an excited, positive, enthusiastic and fun attitude about your product or service. If you don't love it and show your love of it to your customers why will they want to love it and more importantly, buy it.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Small Business Struggles
I have been an entrepreneur for over 20 years and have worked with many business owners coaching and consulting them in their business endeavors and one thing I know for sure is that owning and operating your own business is no easy task. It takes a certain personality and some tough skin to survive.
The toughest part of operating your own business is dealing with employees. This can be a never ending struggle that can drive you nuts so my recommendation has always been the following.
First, have a proper attitude, a positive one. Since your HR (human resource) struggles will most likely never go away you might as well just have a positive outlook. This will make it easier to deal with your HR tasks. Have a positive attitude with all of your HR duties. Hiring, firing, coaching, training and anything else dealing with your employees. I promise this will make a big difference.
Second, keep your HR duties and tasks on your daily, weekly and monthly to do list. HR should be on your plate at all times. You should always be looking for that diamond in the rough. You never know when that great employee will come along and you need to be prepared to snag him or her and typically there is always an employee that you would like to get rid of.
Third, you are the one person in the company that can set the tone and atmosphere for everyone else so make your company an awesome place to work. Treat your employees like one of the family, like partners in your business, like a precious asset. When you do this you will be amazed at how successful your business can become. Your employees will enjoy working for you, which will make a positive difference in productiveness and a positive difference in customer service. Your customers will notice the difference and reward you for having great employees. This is one suggestion that will pay off every time. Your employees will follow your example on how to treat each other and how to treat customers and how to be loyal to the company. They have to respect you and know their place in the company related to your place in the company but they should enjoy working for you and consider you the best boss they have ever had.
Owning and operating your own business can have so many rewards but it is an experience that is not for the weak in heart. My experience over the past 20 years has been a roller coaster of ups and downs but the ups are worth all the downs for me.
The toughest part of operating your own business is dealing with employees. This can be a never ending struggle that can drive you nuts so my recommendation has always been the following.
First, have a proper attitude, a positive one. Since your HR (human resource) struggles will most likely never go away you might as well just have a positive outlook. This will make it easier to deal with your HR tasks. Have a positive attitude with all of your HR duties. Hiring, firing, coaching, training and anything else dealing with your employees. I promise this will make a big difference.
Second, keep your HR duties and tasks on your daily, weekly and monthly to do list. HR should be on your plate at all times. You should always be looking for that diamond in the rough. You never know when that great employee will come along and you need to be prepared to snag him or her and typically there is always an employee that you would like to get rid of.
Third, you are the one person in the company that can set the tone and atmosphere for everyone else so make your company an awesome place to work. Treat your employees like one of the family, like partners in your business, like a precious asset. When you do this you will be amazed at how successful your business can become. Your employees will enjoy working for you, which will make a positive difference in productiveness and a positive difference in customer service. Your customers will notice the difference and reward you for having great employees. This is one suggestion that will pay off every time. Your employees will follow your example on how to treat each other and how to treat customers and how to be loyal to the company. They have to respect you and know their place in the company related to your place in the company but they should enjoy working for you and consider you the best boss they have ever had.
Owning and operating your own business can have so many rewards but it is an experience that is not for the weak in heart. My experience over the past 20 years has been a roller coaster of ups and downs but the ups are worth all the downs for me.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Who is BP3
BP3 is a professional Utah web design firm. BP3 provides graphic design, websites and social community integration that builds your business with eye-catching design and necessary functionality.
Whether your website requires e-commerce functionality, dazzling Flash animation, high-volume information management, and more, our specialized team of designers, programmers, and social community integration specialists will handle your project from start to finish. From design to development, from coding to connecting, whether you are going live or going to print, BP3’s work is custom fit to your requirements.
Whether your website requires e-commerce functionality, dazzling Flash animation, high-volume information management, and more, our specialized team of designers, programmers, and social community integration specialists will handle your project from start to finish. From design to development, from coding to connecting, whether you are going live or going to print, BP3’s work is custom fit to your requirements.
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