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When is it time to hire your first employee?

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You’re a solo entrepreneur. Business is doing well, but you are burning the candle at both ends and your family is no longer pretending to expect you at mealtime.

That’s no bueno.

It might be time to consider hiring some help.

You Might Need to Hire Some Help If…

  • Your customers are seeing you less and less (especially if you’re in the consulting business).
  • You are doing tasks that aren’t in your sweet spot of skills (hello accounting, graphic design).
  • You are spending 100% of your time putting out fires and no time planning your business (recipe for disaster).

Think about the last month. Do any of the items above resonate with your schedule? Then it’s worth at least exploring whether you’re ready to handle hiring someone.

You’re Ready to Hire Help If…

  • You are prepared to delegate work and manage another person.
  • Your profit margins can support the investment. (Consider salary and benefits.)
  • You’re mentally ready to fire the person if it isn’t working out.

If you feel comfortable with the items above, you can move to the next step, which is defining your biggest need and writing a detailed job description. This might be the hardest part, because you may need skilled help in multiple disciplines.

Time to sit down and gut check what you really need. How many hours worth of work do you need for each task or skill-set? Maybe you don’t even need a full-time person.

Some Alternatives to Hiring a Full-Time Employee

  • Virtual help, virtual assistants – there are tons of resources out there for virtual employees. They can help with tasks like scheduling appointments, copywriting/editing, and more.
  • Part-time help – you could consider hiring someone for a few hours a week. See if it’s working out, if you’re comfortable delegating responsibilities, if it’s helping you get more business.
  • Freelancers – hiring a freelancer is a great way to accomplish a one-time, defined project. Be sure you specify, up-front, exactly what the job entails and what the delivery date will be. Get a signed agreement.

Have you been thinking about expanding your business?

You’ve got to spend money to make money. Don’t be afraid to invest in your business and yourself.

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

 

Time for a Career Consultant?

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Are you feeling stuck in your career? If your career is a little lackluster, a career consultant can help you get it back on track.

A career consultant is a worthwhile investment of time and money if you need some help moving forward, but naturally you want to choose the right consultant to make sure you get a return on that investment.

So how can you do just that?

Follow these four tips to help find the right career consultant for you.

  1. Know Your Goals

A career consultant can help you find what you want to do, gain clarity and narrow down your options. However, they will be much better able to help you if you start off with a clear idea of your aim.

Are you looking for a complete change of career or are you more interested in moving forward in your current field? Do you have specific goals regarding earning more money or being able to work from home?

It’s ok to have a lot of unanswered questions – that’s why you’re hiring a career consultant – but try to start out with an idea of your overall aims. That way, you’ll be better placed to choose a consultant whose methods and track record are well suited to those aims.

  1. Research Their Credentials

As the article “How to Find the Right Career Consultant for You” points out, anyone can set themselves up as a career consultant.

The lack of consistent accreditation can make finding the right consultant seem like a minefield, but don’t worry.

There are other ways to find out how well qualified your career consultant is:

  • Search engines. By searching for their name, you can see what others have said about them online;
  • Professional references. Ask if they can provide you with professional references to follow up;
  • Find out if they have previous clients who would be willing to talk with you;
  • A good consultant will usually have some level of visibility, such as books, papers, social media or speaking engagements.
  1. Make the Most of Your Consultation

Any career consultant worth your time will be happy to offer you a free initial consultation, either in person or by phone or email. This helps you both assess one another and figure out if you’d be a good fit.

Prepare some questions before hand to learn more about how they work and what exactly they can help you to achieve.

The consultation is also a good opportunity to see if there’s chemistry between you. Do you feel you could work well with this person?

A career consultant doesn’t occupy the same place in your life as a friend, but a certain level of rapport and ease of conversation is a must.

  1. Assess Their Methods

Every career consultant works differently.

Some are more hands on than others. Some lean more towards “tough love” while some are more holistic. All good consultants will help you with goal setting, but some will have a more formal approach than others, and some will set very specific homework.

As well as getting a feel for how they work and what kind of success they’ve had with those methods, finding out more about how they approach coaching will help you to decide if their methods are right for you.

Everyone is different, so be honest with yourself about which methods are most likely to motivate you.

A career consultant can help you turn your career around and guide you in the best direction for you.

Of course you’ll still be responsible for the work needed to get there, but the right consultant will act as your trail guide, showing you the best routes and helping you avoid the rocky ground.

About the Author: Tristan Anwyn writes on a wide variety of topics, including social media, career consultants and changing careers.

How To Use Yelp Reviews To Improve Your Business

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By Lindsey Tolino

Yelp reviews can be excellent marketing or the bane of your business. Have you thought about improving your business based on reviews? Is it sometimes hard to know what is constructive criticism and what isn’t?

Here’s how to cut through Yelp reviews to improve your business:

Things to keep in mind – 1. Yelp reviews may or may not represent your customers as a whole since only a fraction of your customers “yelp.” 2. If you don’t have enough reviews, Yelp explains how to get more genuine reviews here.

 

If you have mixed reviews (3-4 star average):

  • Look for major themes. What do people generally like and dislike about your business? For example, do people often write that the table service is rude? Do people regularly write that you have the best steak tacos?
  • When you find the themes, it should show what your business is doing well and what it may need to improve on.
  • When you know what your business is doing well, ensure that you’re communicating to your customers what you do well to create accurate expectations. For example, if people love your steak tacos, your ads could say ‘Best steak tacos in town!’
  • When you know your weakness, decide if you should eliminate it, turn it into a strength or improve upon it. Let’s look at rude table service as an example. To eliminate it, you could get rid of table service altogether and convert to counter service and take-out only. To turn it into a strength, you could emphasize your rude service and use it as an edge like some restaurants have. To improve it, you could work with your servers to ensure they are serving customers more kindly.

If you haven’t been able to find major themes, issues may be related to inconsistencies in products or services. In that case, you may want to look into establishing some QA/QC processes to establish consistency.

If you have mostly positive reviews (5 star average):

Congratulations! But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from your reviews. You can always learn and improve, especially if you’re trying to grow your business.

  • Use reviews to gain demographic info. Examining Yelp reviewers as your only demographic can be a bit misleading (because not everyone ‘yelps’), but it still helps to aggregate some data from Yelp to see who loves your business.
  • You can use this information as a source of data to help you determine areas of potential business growth. For example, if college students seem to love your place, you may want to consider events, marketing or even new locations that serve them better.

If you have mostly negative reviews (1-2 star average):

I’m sorry, this can be rough. But you have to set the emotion aside for a moment to look at it intellectually. You have direct-from-the-customer information about how to improve your business, which is great news.

  • If you have consistently negative reviews, it probably relates to the fact that you’re not delivering on customer expectations. Go back to the drawing board and examine what expectations you’re creating for customers. If you don’t know what expectations you’re creating, examine the negative reviews and cite the themes of customer disappointment.
  • If customers expected something wrongly (i.e. you didn’t mean to promise it), then you need to implement better methods of communication (in signage, advertisements, website, etc.). This will ensure that customers have expectations consistent with what you’re promising.
  • If customers expected something rightly (i.e. you do promise it), but are disappointed, then you need to examine what is letting them down specifically. If it is related to a product, use the reviews to recognize product issues and make it right. If it is related to timely service, examine your systems and determine bottlenecks. If it is related to quality service, examine your capability, culture and employees. Make changes as needed.
  • After you’ve made changes, it is essential to let customers know that you have heard their feedback and changed accordingly. You might need to run a promotion, do a PR release or even rebrand. Ultimately, you want to ensure customers know that the old problems are resolved and that you will serve them better.

Yelp is a great source of information for analyzing and improving your business. Don’t be discouraged by harsh reviews. Instead, discern through them and use information wisely to greatly benefit your business.

Author’s Bio: Lindsey Tolino is small business management consultant that comes alongside artisans, craftsman and people monetizing their passions to help them create healthy, structured businesses. She writes business musings and tips at ToBusinessOwners.com. Follow her on Twitter @LindseyTolino or connect with her on Google+.

Why strong people ask for help

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I was told yesterday that I have “walking pneumonia.”

Not really a big deal, it’s pretty common and I don’t feel that sick. However, it’s my own fault that it got this far.

I let a bad cold linger for three weeks before finally breaking down and going to the doctor. Through all of the symptoms, coughing, chills/fever, sore throat, sleeplessness, lethargy…I soldiered on and told everyone that I was “riding it out.”

That was selfish and silly. If I had gone to the doctor in week one, I probably would have gotten medicine and started healing in a couple of days. Instead, I’ve been a shallower version of myself for almost a month. Family, co-workers, and customers have gotten the short end of the stick because I was “too busy” to take care of myself.

This morning, having taken some medicine and finally gotten a great night’s sleep, it hit me like a ton of bricks. It’s not weak to ask for help. It’s strong.

Strong People Ask for Help

  • If your business is suffering because you are bogged down in repetitive tasks that don’t require your “special sauce,” consider hiring a virtual assistant.
  • If you spend too much time going back and forth trying to set appointments with people, think about using an online scheduler like MeetMe or Simplybook.me.
  • When you’re trying to launch or promote something for your business, don’t be afraid to reach out to your friends and colleagues and let them know what you need. Look for the people who won’t let you fail. Be specific, and be grateful when they do support you. Be there for them when they have something to promote as well.
  • When someone offers to help, accept it. Stop pushing people off, saying “I’m OK, it’s all good.”
  • Trust the people you hire to take care of their responsibilities, until proven otherwise. The ability to delegate effectively is a true sign of leadership.
  • Think about cross training your team as much as possible, so that colleagues can offer relief to one another when necessary.

And if you’ve had a bad cough for more than four days, take yourself to the doctor!

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Is Your CEO Taking the Company to New Heights?

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Chief executive officer, or CEO, is usually the highest-ranking executive officer in a company, and he or she is responsible for overseeing every aspect of the business.

As a business owner, you have to make sure that you have a competent CEO, because he or she can make a big difference to your company’s performance.

Here is a look at the role of a CEO and how he or she can contribute to the success of your business.

Responsibilities of a CEO

Your CEO is tasked to ensure that every aspect of your company is running smoothly and effectively, including operations, human resources, financing, marketing, sales, public relations, fundraising and others.

While some of the responsibilities of your CEO can be delegated, others cannot be delegated, such as building company culture and establishing the senior management team.

Basically, your CEO’s main responsibility is to develop a vision and business plan for your company.

He or she will set the direction for your company and make decisions concerning budgets, partnerships, product lines, market entries, brand identity and others.

Another important duty of your CEO is building culture. His or her every action will send cultural messages to your employees, giving them a clearer idea of what is acceptable or unacceptable in your company.

Additionally, your CEO is responsible for capital allocation and hiring, firing and leading the members of your senior management team.

How Your CEO Can Be a Greater Asset to Your Company

Be Humble

According to successful entrepreneur Cecilia Ibru, CEO of Oceanic Bank International, CEOs should try to refrain from being overly arrogant even though they hold a higher position than most people in their companies.

It is fine if your CEO wants to be in the spotlight to help your company gain visibility and establish a firm foothold in the marketplace. However, he or she should be willing to do whatever is best for your company at any given time, even if it means putting aside his or her ego.

A humble CEO will be able to gain the trust of your employees and create a more closely-knit workforce.

Make Full Use of Data

The success of your company depends a lot on your CEO’s decision-making ability.

One thing you can do to ensure that he or she will be able to make better decisions is to implement big data analytics.

With a big data system in place, your CEO can analyze your company’s data more efficiently and effectively, and derive valuable and actionable insights that can help him or her make well-informed decisions.

Communicate Clearly

Whether your CEO is communicating with the board, investors, employees or clients, it is essential that he or she knows how to communicate and inform clearly.

The people whom he or she is communicating with should be able to understand his or her visions, goals and strategies. Clear communication can lead to greater efficiency and productivity, as well as higher work quality.

In most companies, the CEO is the person who has the greatest influence on business performance.

If you have a capable CEO, you will have the peace of mind that your company is in good hands.

About the Author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who writes on a wide range of subjects, from social media marketing to running a business.

Visualization Plus Journaling Equals Sales Magic

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By Deb Bixler

We all know about the power of visualization. Combine that with journaling for direct sales success!

I am often asked about how to write a journal.

When we can combine journaling and visualization with a sense of fun, we can create some very powerful possibilities; and you don’t even need a coach to do this!

It’s a coaching technique you can do by yourself.

To illustrate this, I want you to do a little role-playing, a little visualization in your mind’s eye, and then we’ll sort through the ideas behind the activity.

I’ve chosen a situation from a typical direct sales party plan, but you can easily use the same technique, using a networking business opportunity meeting.

How To Write A Journal: Visualize

Just imagine yourself sitting in an invisible corner of a living room watching a party taking place. Visualize what should be happening to achieve success at the party.

As you sit there listening and watching, your mind starts to wander a little bit.

You say to yourself, ‘wouldn’t this be fun if I could just direct this party like it was a play?’

Visualize Direct Sales SuccessYour mind suddenly starts racing as if a light bulb came on, and you start to think back to everything you can remember about dramatic play productions.

Your mind now shifts into overdrive as you think about the different elements of your production. You think about five dramatic elements too fast almost to even write them down, but then you remember that you were going to write down all of your inspired thoughts. You pause just long enough to scrawl down five words that you’ll revisit later.

You’re getting ready to write in your journal the next morning. You remember your scribbled message and pull it out to look at your five terms. If only you could produce this play!

Write a Journal Of Your Thoughts

Write the pictures in your mind in your journal.

  • Scene: Every play has scenery or a situation within which everything occurs. A dark and stormy night produces a much different production than a sunlit meadow. You think about all of the background that makes up a party and then realize if you had the party set in a different scene, the party itself would often be different. A bingo held at a traditional party is much different than one held with multiple hostesses. You also realize that a lunchtime party is much different from an evening one because the scenery is so different. It’s the same basic party, but because the scene changes, the party changes.
  • Act: Every production has different acts. You giggle as you think about the one act play you almost got involved with in high school. Then you start to think about a party as a drama in three acts, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. You keep going as you realize the party guests expect different things to happen at different stages in the party: introductions, product explanations, your recruiting bid, a question-answer time, and finally the order processing. Getting into this whole thing, you start to think about doing different activities during the different acts because they might fit together better with the audience’s expectations.
  • Actors: Drama just wouldn’t be a drama without people playing their parts. When you hold your demonstrations you’re the main character, but you pause to think about the possibilities. Could I make the hostess and the guests the main characters? Maybe if I was more of a director and let them be the actors, they’d enjoy the experience more. Why do I need to prepare all the samples? Let’s let the guests be the characters who make samples.
  • Props. You’ve never seen a play without all that other stuff being present for the actors to use. You smile as you think of a western gunfight happening without any guns. Then you have a serious moment as you think about how your choices of products influence the rest of the party. Maybe you should tell more about what the host offers to help with your dating bids. Those really are very important!
  • Theme: Think about the different types of theatrical productions that you’ve seen over the years. The melodrama (not at my party, you vow); the comedy (they keep coming back because we have fun) the drama (that hostess and her sister really had a terrible fight); stand-up routines (you grimace as you think about how practice might have helped that one).

Thinking about themes, some synonyms come to your mind like the purpose of the party:

  • Was it to sell?
  • Was it to recruit?
  • Was it to just get together and have fun?

Thinking about your theme also leads you to wonder about key motivations.

Why should the hostess have the party? You always hear directors talking about motivation.

How Do You Visualize Your Attitude?

Finally consider attitude:

Did we all really want to be here? What’s our attitude about this play?

You’ve finished writing in your journal and it’s time to start your day.

You think about those five key terms: scene, act, actors, props and theme and realize you’ve found a new way to think about your demonstrations.

How To Write A Journal? Just Visualize Your Business!

How can you see your activities through the camera’s eye? When you start journaling your visualizations you will begin to see results from the efforts!

We’d love to hear about how you can shift the framework for your visualizations. Please share in the comment section below some of your visions of success.

Author’s Bio: is a direct sales educator who teaches proven systems that work in all direct sales companies. Treat your business like a profession and you will get professional results. Learn more home business systems at: http://www.CreateACashFlowShow.com