As a business coach, I know that most small businesses operate a tight ship.  They manage overhead expenses and watch cost of sales to stay on the credit side of the ledger. But when you’ve reached a point where you cannot see any further ways to reduce costs, there could still be an opportunity to increase your profits through increasing productivity. Probably the most important way managers can increase productivity is in the way they manage their people. There are a number of practical steps you can take that revolve around your people management systems. Read More

As an employer, you bear a legal responsibility to protect the health and safety of people in your workplace. It is a huge mistake to believe that your business is accident proof and now is definitely not the time you want to get hit with a payout to an employee or customer who suffered injury on your premises.  Read More

As a business coach I know that in soft economic times there can be pressure to cut back on payroll and that usually means laying off employees. As a tactic it works, but this strategy reduces your productivity and can end up costing you in the long run. You will have lost any investment you made in their training, lost their knowhow and will be stuck with the cost of hiring a replacement sometime in the future when business starts to pick up again.  So avoid it if you can. If laying off employees is the only option, give careful thought to how you can maintain production and customer service so as not to plunge into a downward spiral of poor service leading to increasing customer desertion. It's a question I get asked a lot as a business coach, so here are some suggestions for how to slim the payroll burden.  Read More

As more people turn to the internet for news, entertainment and social interaction, online training, also known as e-learning, is being chosen by more SMEs to deliver the knowledge their employees need to achieve organizational goals. With many benefits to both a business and its employees, it’s easy to understand why e-learning continues to grow in popularity. Read More

What is it that makes the successful entrepreneur? What is it that drives sales and builds a business? If you think you know the answer, consider Bill Gates, arguably the world’s most famous and successful entrepreneur. If you had been in his high school class, would you have thought, “Well, obviously, this man bears the stamp of future greatness”?  Probably not. Read More

Poor relationships within the team will always reflect on morale and have been proven to impact on the bottom line.  You can make or break a career or a job depending on the way you behave with fellow workers.  Workplaces need to be profitable for businesses and for the people in them – and that means personally and financially.  Read More

The average age of the workforce is steadily increasing. For employers, that means the average age of their workers is steadily increasing. Baby Boomers, who make up the majority of the workforce, are now aged 45 to 62 years. Over the next few years more and more of them will be retiring turning a trickle into a torrent. In the past new hires would be found easily enough to replace them. In the future the shortage of replacement workers from among the younger generation, the so-called Gen-Y (currently aged 16 to 31 years old), may make finding the right, or any replacement a lot more difficult.  Read More

It’s all too easy to get people offside through poor communication – the careless remark that cuts to the quick, the dismissive answer. People make mistakes in how they communicate with others all the time. Read More

When an employee comes to you with a suggestion, what is your usual reaction? If its along the lines of "That's never going to work", "That's not your problem" or "We don't have time to think about that" - or any equally negative response, then you could be missing out on a great opportunity to pick up on ideas for increasing productivity, cutting costs, or improving working conditions.  Read More

Facebook, Myspace, Second life. All examples of social networking services (SNS). Many businesses are seizing on this new technology as a channel to drive sales, promote brand and network for business opportunities. Much of it comes from marketers who are excited about the target marketing possibilities of these sites — they gather so much data about individuals that marketers are able to profile very specific demographics. At the same time there is a very real risk to small businesses. Read More