Successful Blog

On Being the Kind of Boss People Want to Work With

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By Stacey Thompson

More often than not, the average employee views management in a negative light. Feared, resented, or even reviled, bosses are seen as cruel, unfeeling taskmasters that care only for the bottom line and will readily sacrifice any of the rank and file to attain their objectives.

This culture of hating on the management can go two ways: either employees aspire for these positions in order to propagate the perceived cycle of tyranny, or they will not make the effort to become better workers, seeing that promotion will only turn them into the same monsters they so despise. Neither of these attitudes does justice to the employees, the management, or the company they work in, for that matter.

Are you a boss people like to work with?

In the case of companies, I firmly believe that the culture is propagated from the top down. This places the responsibility of maintaining a prosperous and positive work environment squarely on the shoulders of the managers and supervisors. Just as bad habits and mentalities spring from negative examples provided by the people on top, productive and motivational attitudes are spread by good bosses.

Many people have plenty of theories on what managers should be doing to keep their people motivated, happy, and productive. In my own experiences as both a subordinate and as a manager, I can summarize all these lessons into four pieces of advice:

Open Lines of Communication

No amount of mutual understanding and teamwork will happen if the boss doesn’t even talk with his/her subordinates. This isn’t limited to meetings or official office correspondence; the ability to be able to shoot the breeze with the troops at the water cooler is an important ability to have, if you want to be an exemplary manager of people. It will give you more insights on what motivates (and de-motivates) your people, and in turn, it will humanize you in their perceptions. You’ll cease to be a cruel monster in their eyes, and that can’t be all bad.

Try smiling a little more, too

Though you want to appear a tad more friendly and approachable, do not overdo this, either. Being too chummy with your subordinates will often result in them respecting you less, and your ability to reprimand or correct them will be severely hindered. This does make things lonelier at the top, but remember, this is for the sake of all of your livelihoods.

Give Them a Chance to Shine

You shouldn’t be taking all the glory and credit for yourself, either. This is probably one of the fastest ways to lose favor with your constituents. When they do something above and beyond the call of duty, or have stayed consistently productive and cooperative, give them due praise, and possibly even a material bonus. Let the entire team know when one or more of them have done well, and if your own boss recognizes your team’s accomplishments, let them know where the credit should go.

Allowing them to take the lead and enjoy the benefits of their own achievements will inspire them to work more effectively, and it will give them lessons that will be of use to them when they become managers and supervisors themselves.

Be The Final Word

The two previous bits of advice portray a softer, more yielding kind of management strategy. One cannot be a boss without putting one’s foot down, however. The final lesson on being the boss your people can respect involves being the authority within the team or organization. You are the go-to guy/gal when they want a decision made, the King Solomon that will decide who gets the baby, so to speak.

As a leader, it is on you to set clear goals for you and your team, and you have to be firm when it comes to these things. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to change your mind; it means that you will only do so if your colleagues make a strong enough case for an alternative, or if you yourself have evaluated the factors and have found that a course alteration is in order.

Are you an effective boss? What are your strategies for leadership?

Author’s Bio: Stacey Thompson (@RedHotStacey) is a professional writer, marketer, entrepreneur, and a lover of weird little animals. She is based in San Diego, California, and aspires for her own little company to grow successful enough for her to qualify in entering an elite CEO peer advisory group, one fine example being The Sage Executive Group.

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Will achieving your life’s dream make you happy?

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When I was 10, I wanted to be an archaeologist. Something about the King Tutankhamen treasures touring the country inspired me, and I desperately wanted to find dinosaur bones. Then at some point, I found out that archaeology involved a lot of fruitless sweating, kneeling in the dirt, and being bitten by insects. I moved on to dream of becoming a children’s book writer, which involved none of those things.

king-tutankhamun

Are you working toward a specific life’s goal, either personally or professionally?

Have you stopped to analyze the reality of achieving your goals?

For example, if one of your career goals is to become a famous speaker, giving keynotes all over the world for big-time fees, have you considered the travel involved? Time away from your family, hotel rooms, TSA inspections? Yep, that’s glamorous.

If your corporate goal is to bring in 10 Fortune 500 clients, have you thought through the realities of servicing an enterprise customer? Massive bureaucracy, expectations, slow decision-making…and reliance on a few large customers can be risky as well.

Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

The homework today is to review your goals, both written and unwritten. Take a half hour to visualize what your life would be like if you achieved them. Is it the life you want?

If not, you need new goals.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Image via Flickr CC: Mediocre2010

It Is Your Business to Know Who You Hire

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How much time in running your small business do you devote to actually knowing who comes into your office as a new employee?

In some cases, those running companies will give input and even sit in on a number of or all interviews with prospective candidates. In other cases, however, they leave it to a staff member or members to do the interviewing and ultimately hire the individual for the needed job.

So, the question then begs if you should be more active in the hiring process, especially given how too much turnover and training of countless individuals can have a negative impact on your business finances?

In the event you decide to become more active, here are some things you should look at when considering each and every applicant who walks through your doors:

* Are they truly qualified? – While many candidates who come to you seeking a job are truly qualified, others will try and pass off their experience as suitable for the job. The danger with the latter is that you could end up hiring several times until you get the right fit. Some companies will test applicants on their knowledge of the position they would be doing if hired, while others base their decision off of the person’s work background. Either way, make sure you get the most qualified man or woman in order to hopefully fill that spot for several years to come;

* Will they fit with the team in place? – Chemistry in the office is key to any successful business, so keep that in mind when you interview candidates. Does their personality seem like a good fit for the employees they would be working with? Are they outgoing and seem like they will pitch in whenever asked? Do they have a positive attitude that will help them get through stressful times, including constant deadlines? It just takes one wrong piece to mess up the puzzle of office success that you have worked to put in place;

* Is their background too social for me? – Even though there is nothing wrong with prospective candidates being on social media, more companies are checking the social backgrounds of individuals they interview, looking for any red flags. In the event they have questionable comments and/or images on their social media pages, it should at least give you pause to think about if they’d be a good fit for your business. When you look at the judgment they used in some of their tweets or shares, should you worry that they might use similar questionable judgment when working for you? If you do have such concerns, feel free to bring them up during an interview;

* Long-term plans – Finally, while it is not uncommon for workers these days to move from job to job, this unlike the days when people stayed at a company for several decades, you do not want a revolving door at your business. That being said, question each candidate on what their career plans are, where they see themselves in three to five years, and if they feel they can achieve long-term success with you. While most candidates will say the “right thing” in order to increase their chances of attaining the job, some will be very honest and tell you what their plans are. Even though you should not discount those that can’t make a long-term commitment to you, it does give you pause to think about whether or not to hire them.

As a small business owner, what do you look for when a prospective candidate walks through your doors?

Photo credit: ehow.com

About the Author: With 23 years’ writing experience, Dave Thomas covers small business topics for a variety of websites, including Reputation.com.

Invoice Factoring for New Business Needs

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By Tina Hamilton

If you are an entrepreneur in your start-up year, you are still learning the ropes. You may have tenacity, family support, passion, and past experience in the industry. However, you can’t be managing every aspect of the business at once and all too often young companies find unpaid contracts and invoices piled on the desk.

In worse case scenarios unpaid invoices can sit around for months and cause companies to fail to meet payroll or face challenges in ordering inventory. Knowing your options is vital to keeping your head above water. One of the best solutions to this all-too-common problem is Invoice Factoring due to its successful record in helping businesses continue to flourish by providing instant cash. Continue reading to learn how it works, and what to look out for.

Cash Flow problems

Getting a cash advance on your unpaid invoices can be what saves your starting business. But finding the right invoice factoring company is equally vital to protecting your assets, as is the ability to get paid off your unpaid contracts.

Fee

When paying a company to collect on your Factoring Accounts Receivables you want to find one that will charge you zero money upfront and take no more than 10 percent of your recovered unpaid invoices. Asking a business to pay upfront is counter-productive and defeats the purpose of getting a cash advance.

Reputation

A factoring company’s reputation is extremely important. It is paramount that businesses take the needed time to do thorough research on any company they consider working with. If there are a lot of negative remarks surrounding a company is it best to keep looking for another provider. It is completely normal to find one or two bad reviews on any business in any industry. Perhaps your business even has a bad review. Do not let one bad review shake your faith in a company, but if the negative feedback stifles the positive, dealing with them is not worth it.

Terms

Make sure the terms are just as agreeable as the rates. You may not be buying a used car, but you can still try haggling a bit to get the terms to an appropriate arrangement. If you find a company with excellent rates but the terms need some improvement, try doing a little research until you do find a company with better terms and present your finding to the provider you are trying to work with. Often they will try to save face by matching or beating a competitor’s terms. When it comes to negotiating terms you can follow advise from online articles that help entrepreneurs negotiate traditional bank loans. Although the products are totally opposite from one another, the art of negotiating is not.

Moving forward

Once you have been paid out on your invoices be sure you learn from the experience so not to repeat the same action from happening again. Perhaps hiring someone to manage accounts is in order. This would also free up some of your time to spend elsewhere in the business.

Finally, positive thinking is a powerful, contagious force that helps drive business forward. Be sure that when you finally nail down your business processes, you line them in a silver layer of positivity.

Author’s Bio: Author Tina Hamilton is a veteran journalist currently researching invoice factoring as an option for her family’s business. You can follow her on Google+.

3 Tips for More Customer Referrals

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By Jennifer Dunn

You need more clients, but what’s the easiest way to get them? Simple – through clients you’ve already done business with! However, what isn’t simple is obtaining customer referrals when you don’t know how to go about it. Here are three things you can do to ensure you’ll get a great referral at the end of a job.

1. Knock Their Socks Off

There’s absolutely no way you will get a referral from your client if you don’t do the job they wanted correctly. Would you give a carpenter a referral if they only fixed 3/4 of your floor? Of course not – it would severely hurt your reputation as a business owner and as someone to be trusted.

Make sure you’re doing absolutely everything your client wanted you to do. You may think you’ve completed a job but later discover you forgot a few things. These “few things” can be disastrous – not only to your chances of a referral but also to the client ever knocking on your door again.

2. Follow Up

Most jobs end when the client pays and you go your separate ways. The work is done and the client goes to see if what you’ve done will improve their business, life, or both. You go and try to find someone else to hire you so you can keep paying the bills.

However, that’s not really the end of it all, is it? The client doesn’t really know if what you’ve done has worked until it’s been road-tested. If you’ve created a new front page for their website, they could experience severe backlash to it even though it’s amazing. Their customers might rail against it for a myriad of reasons and you don’t know until it’s out there.

If you follow up with your client, it shows you’re actively invested in their business and not just a passing face in the crowd. Ask them how things are going and if they need any further help. If you see some interesting news they could use, send it along. It shows you care about them and your relationship with them, which can lead to good things down the road.

3. Ask and Offer Incentives

Your client probably has no clue you would like a referral. You can’t just assume they can read your mind no matter how heavily you hint. You just need to come out and ask.

Timing is key, though. If you haven’t completed the above two steps don’t even think about asking your client to refer you to his or her colleagues. On the other hand, waiting too long can be just as bad. The client may not even remember you if you wait half a year to contact them about it!

Sometimes incentives can do the trick. For example, offer your client a discount for the next job they need done if they refer a friend or two. If they’re a repeat client and they regularly bring in more work you can up the ante even more. Rewarding them for maintaining a good relationship with your company is never a bad thing!

Do you regularly ask for client referrals? How do you do it?

Author’s Bio: Jennifer Escalona Dunn is the owner of Social Street Media where she writes about small business, tech and finance for sites like WePay and Outright. You can find her on Twitter @jennescalona.

Are You Better Off Working From Home?

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If you trudge off to an office five days a week, have you ever stopped to wonder what it would be like to work from home?

For many professionals, that opportunity is pretty much a pipe dream, this given the fact that many companies still run the standard office.

You know the office, the one where employees report in for their daily shift, do their jobs with a lunch break and one or two 10-minute breaks during the day, then get in their cars or on mass transit for the ride home. The next morning means the same all over again.

What Opportunities Are in Your Future?

So, what if you had the opportunity to work from home?

Do you think you would be more or less productive from your residence? Could you focus in on work and turn away the various distractions that can all too easily present themselves? Lastly, would you miss spending time in an office setting with co-workers, meaning you basically rely on yourself for entertainment during the day?

Over the last seven years, I’ve had two opportunities to work from home as a freelance writer, both the result of job layoffs. I can say with much certainty that the two experiences have been positive for the most part.

One of the keys to being successful while working part-time or full-time at home is having an employer who avoids micromanagement.

In what should be labeled a disease in the workplace, micromanagement simply means that your boss and/or company owner feel they need to hold your hand during the day in the office or if you work remotely. In such cases, they will oversee you with questions, suggestions and comments, leaving you wishing Friday’s Happy Hour was five days a week and not one.

So, with the micromanagement factor out of the way, here are some pros/cons of working from home:

Pros –

* Avoiding a possibly long and expensive commute daily;

* Ability (with your company’s permission) to set your own hours;

* Not having to deal with constantly ringing office phones;

* Being void of co-workers who have nothing better to do than to talk your ear off while you’re trying to work.

Cons –

* Unless you’re well disciplined, it can be easy to get distracted at home;

* Not having others around to bounce ideas off of, answer your questions and/or solve work related issues;

* Potentially not having access to necessary equipment like a printer, fax machine, tech help if your home computer goes down.

At the end of the day, finding the right work at home situation can be tricky, though well worth your time.

Work is ultimately what you make of it.

If you are one who wants to be successful, potentially make a decent amount of money, and avoid having to deal with office politics, working from home can be just what you are looking for. The tricky part is locating that company that will employ you under those circumstances or being able to get your own business off the ground.

In the event you work from home for yourself or an employer, what have your experiences been like to date?

Photo credit: metro.us

About the Author: With 23 years’ writing experience, Dave Thomas covers a variety of business topics and individuals, including Gary Crittenden.