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Community in Conversation: The Give-Back Challenge

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I’ve heard Liz refer to Successful Blog as “community in conversation.” A place where we share tips, war stories, and lessons learned from a life of entrepreneurship and leadership.

With that in mind, I’m excited to announce that we’ll be introducing a new regular feature on the site that will highlight both the community and the conversation.

Give-Back Challenge

With each SOBCon event, Sunday was a special day. In the morning, a few passionate non-profits would present their mission and ask for help with a particular challenge they were facing. It was called the Give-Back Challenge.

After the non-profits presented, the entire SOBCon group would break into smaller teams to brainstorm solutions for the challenges described. The emphasis was always on actionable, real-world advice that would have an immediate impact for the non-profit involved.

On this blog, we’ll be adding the Give-Back Challenge as a recurring feature. It will follow the basic format of the real-life SOBCon event, in which the non-Profit will be invited to present their mission (via a video, images, and text), and pose a particular challenge they are facing.

Our community will then be invited to brainstorm ideas in the comments section (and reach out directly via email if followup is necessary). The goal is to devote some of our incredible brainpower to lifting up some of our non-profit friends and colleagues. We can start to become the “people who won’t let you fail.”

This series will require fearlessness on the part of our non-profits, and a willingness to be vulnerable in order to make an even greater impact.

Stay tuned for the first Give-Back Challenge in the next week or so. If you’re interested in nominating a non-profit, feel free to post the name of the organization here in the comments or reach out to me directly.

What do you say? Are you in?

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

Photo Credit: h.koppdelaney via Compfight cc

Picking the Right Partners to Do Business With

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When it comes to the business world’s recipe for success, it takes hard work and great partners in order for your small business to thrive.

But, finding the right partners is sometimes a difficult task, especially if you don’t know where to start networking.

In order to make business connections that are fruitful and worthwhile, here are just a handful of tips for finding the right partners to do business with:

Get to Know the Potential Candidate or Candidates

Finding the right partner/s for your small business is all about forming a relationship and relationships take time. So, it’s important to take the necessary amount of time to get to know the person or persons you have in mind for your business partnership.

Sometimes choosing a business partner is as easy as picking someone you’ve already known for years.

But, if you’re trying to find a partner that you don’t have a previous relationship with, then it’s important not to push the partnership.

In other words, get to know the potential candidate in a natural way, like over coffee or lunch, so the relationship isn’t forced and nobody is pressured into the union.

Get on the Same Page

Although the phrase “on the same page” is used for many different situations, nowhere is the expression more appropriate than with business partnerships. From the business plan to the finances, business partners simply must be on the same page.

When it comes to finances, it doesn’t matter if you’re looking for one partner to help run your small business or multiple business partners to help your small business expand. A good example is – Picking the Right Partners: LessAccounting software.

In a partnership between WePay and LessAccounting, the two were able to team up; the latter is able to extend the former’s original invoicing tool, along with showcasing the capabilities that WePay’s API offers to service small business tools.

Make Sure Mindset and Skill Set Align

Among other important factors, there are two main things to look for in a potential partner for your small business: mindset and skill set.

If the person’s mindset doesn’t align with yours when it comes to the nature of the business, then chances are the relationship won’t work.

Similarly, if the candidate doesn’t have the skills necessary to get the job done, then problems will also arise.

Don’t settle for one or the other. Your business partner’s mindset and skill set must align with yours in order for the partnership to spell success for your business.

Look for Someone Who is Devoted

Finding the right partner takes more than just finding a person capable of bringing something more to table, it involves finding someone with the utmost devotion to the job at hand. Besides, you don’t want to take the time to track down a business partner only to discover that person lacks in the devotion department.

If you don’t want to feel like you’re running your small business alone, then you need to make sure your partner has all the time in the world to devote to your business too.

This means someone who is passionate and doesn’t have a lot of potential distractions in their life, like young children or financial issues.

By keeping in mind the pointers above, your next partnership will be a match made in business heaven.

As a business owner, have you partnered with others in the past? If so, how has the relationship turned out?

Photo credit: asiapacfinance.com

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including personal health and home improvement.

5 Reasons Temp Employees Will Replace One of Your Workers

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It is true that people seek temporary employment mainly to earn some income, but some temp employees may also hope that their temporary jobs may lead to permanent employment.

A permanent job is desirable to temps, because it gives them a steady flow of income, a sense of security and an opportunity to develop a certain set of skills.

So, when your small business is hiring temp employees, you should also be open to the possibility that they may one day work for you on a permanent basis.

Here are 5 reasons why temp employees may replace your current employees:

Eligibility
Many people were laid off during the recent economic crisis, and some of them have extensive work experience and strong academic backgrounds. As such, you should not be surprised that some of the temp employees you hire may be more qualified and skilled in handling certain duties than some of your current employees. These temps can be a valuable asset to your company.

Performance
The abilities, industriousness and work ethics of temp employees can vary greatly. If you are fortunate, you may get temps who are committed to delivering competent performance. It is a good idea to offer high-performing temps permanent positions if some of your current employees are under-performing.

Motivation
The opportunity to get a permanent job can be a big motivational factor for temp employees. As such, they may be more willing to go the extra mile than your current employees. This can truly make them stand out in the workplace.

Employee Relations
Temp employees are less likely to develop a negative attitude towards their colleagues because they are less exposed to workplace politics. So, they are able to establish amiable relationships with their colleagues, which can contribute to a more harmonious work environment if they become permanent employees.

Safe Hiring Option
Another reason why you may consider replacing your current employees with temp employees is because you already know the work performance of your temps. If you have permanent employees who are underperforming, offering their jobs to your temp employees may be the safest solution.

Should Current Employees Fear that They Will Be Replaced?

Your current employees have a good reason to worry that they will be replaced by temp employees if they are lacking motivation and not performing according to expectations.

As long as they maintain a high level of competence, they will most likely be able to keep their jobs, unless you are planning to reduce your workforce. Temp employees who are really capable and hardworking can be a big threat to your current employees, but in the end, it comes down to who is more valuable to your company.

Whether they are hired on a temporary or permanent basis, all employees are essential to the success of your company.

If you are unsure whether or not to replace a permanent employee with a temp employee, just make a decision based on the best interest of why is small business management important, most notably for your company.

Photo credit: blog.intuit.com

About the author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who provides useful information and tips on small business management.

3 Killer Collaboration Tools

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Great collaboration is about sharing, accessibility, and trust. As more and more people are telecommuting and working with remote teams, it can be tricky trying to coordinate tasks and stay connected.

Today’s tip includes three of my favorite remote collaboration tools that I use every single day.

Flow by MetaLabs

Flow app

You know how, when you’re doing something you love, time just slips away unnoticed? They call that the state of flow, and this app is appropriately named. It’s available as a web interface as well as an iPhone app, and it keeps the whole team together.

I get notifications when someone posts to a Flow task, it kills the whole chain-of-emails torture, and everything syncs up nicely. It’s so easy and fast, I have been able to provide input on an urgent Flow task while standing in line at Disneyland.

HipChat by Atlassian

HipChat

When you’re working in the same office, you can yell through the wall when you have quick questions (or if you want to talk about the latest Survivor episode). HipChat gives you the same immediacy, with public and private text chat rooms, notifications, and file sharing. It’s totally cross-platform on mobile, and available as a web client or desktop app.

Picture this scenario…you are on the phone with a client and they ask a question you can’t answer. You pop into HipChat, and get the answer from another member of your team, without skipping a beat. You look like a genius.

Google+ Hangouts

Google+ Hangout

Sometimes text just isn’t enough. If you really want to build strong team relationships, there’s no substitute for face-to-face. Google+ Hangouts are a wonderful solution for remote teams to share project information and — hangout. They are so simple to set up and use that there’s no excuse for not trying it yet. How else are you going to bust that colleague you suspect is working in their pajamas?

How do you collaborate with remote colleagues? Share your favorite tools in the comments.

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 Twitter as @rhogroupee