When you decide to venture out on your own and start your very own business, it seems there are dangers awaiting at your every footsteps and risks to be taken at every single stage. In this respect, it’s not all too difficult (or uncommon, for that matter) for a start-up entrepreneur to make a mistake with the strategy and/or expectations of their small business’s performance. Mistakes can cover a whole variegated gamut of missteps, from choosing an unsuited location to open a restaurant, employing the wrong currency conversion rates when dealing with foreign business partners or simply expecting too much too soon. The key to mistakes in business is to identify them as quickly as possible, owning up to them, and then finding the proper way of turning them around. Once you’ve reached that stage when you can turn faults into assets, you can truly and safely say you have arrived on the business scene. But what are the most common mistakes made by small business owners?

Instant Gratification
Many small businesses start out based on a capital of frustration, dissatisfaction and disgruntlement with one’s corporate employment. As such, one sets out with lofty ideals, matched by unreasonable financial goals. Be aware of the fact that if you’re planning to invest in a field with which you’ve had no prior professional experience, it doesn’t really matter how passionate you are about you. The odds are against you getting rich too quickly—did you know that it can take anywhere between fifteen and twenty years to build a truly successful franchise? Don’t let this fact of life discourage you. As a matter of fact, don’t let pitfalls of any kind discourage you, be they financial or otherwise.

Read More

In any business, software needs to be constantly updated to keep up to date with the advancements in technology. New software packages allow for companies to implement a system which makes day-to-day tasks and activities easier to conduct and complete. An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system integrates all of the facets of an operation into one easy to manage system, including manufacturing, development, marketing and sales departments. An ERP system can be an effective and useful tool, however, if staff and users are not given the correct and appropriate level of training, the software will not be used to its full potential.

When staff are trained on new software packages and programs, several mistakes are easily made. Here are the most common:

Forget to explain why

Training and education are two completely separate processes and many companies train their staff on how to use particular programs but fail to educate them on the deeper ins and outs of the system. Training staff on how to use a piece of software and how it helps with daily tasks and duties will ensure that they are capable of using the system to benefit them in their daily routine. However, without sufficient education, members of staff will not know how to diagnose a problem if one occurs. Educating staff on how to navigate a particular piece of software is not enough; they need to be able to understand why a system works in a particular way and why problems may occur and how they can be amended.

Change is difficult

Change can be a scary and daunting experience. Many staff may not want to have to adjust to a brand new software system, especially if they are relatively new to the company or have only recently come to terms with a former system.

Read More

The President of Arby’s Restaurant Group, Inc., Hala Moddelmog, introduced the new Board of Directors of the ARG Holding Corporation in its Atlanta conference as reported in QSR Magazine.  The new Board is led by Jon Luther, formerly of Dunkin Brands, and Sidney Feltenstein, former CEO of Yorkshire Global Restaurants.  Moddelmog said that because of the previous experience of the new Board members, he expects Arby’s to grow further on sales.

Hala Moddelmog, president of Arby’s Restaurant Group Inc., introduced members of the new ARG Holding Corporation Board of Directors to the Arby’s franchise community during its National Franchise Conference in Atlanta. The new board consists of five members and will be led by chairman Jon Luther.

“Jon’s experience as a former owner, franchisor, and operator will help strengthen the Arby’s brand as we continue to build on the sales and transaction improvement that we’ve seen in 2011,” Moddelmog says.

Luther, a veteran of the restaurant industry, has served as the nonexecutive chairman of the board of Dunkin’ Brands since July 2010. He is widely credited for leading the transformation of Dunkin Brands while CEO from January 2003 to January 2009. The additional title of chairman was added in 2006. Luther served as executive chairman until July 2010.

“The Arby’s brand is filled with potential and opportunity,” Luther says.

Joining Luther on the board is Sidney (Sid) J. Feltenstein, former CEO of Yorkshire Global Restaurants. Feltenstein has had a successful career as a corporate executive and entrepreneur.

Read More

A survey of human resources professionals recently found a surprisingly high number of them lacked confidence in the effectiveness of their company’s performance-management system. Though 91% of respondents said their organization evaluates performance, only 47% said the process is effective.

It gets worse. Only 47% of respondents said their appraisal system helps their organization achieve strategic objectives, while 30% said employees do not trust the system. An even smaller number – 28% – said their managers regarded the appraisal process primarily as an administrative headache.

Numbers like these from Sibson Consulting help explain why performance appraisal is at a train wreck at so many companies around the world. The study, conducted in mid-2010 with the HR association WorldatWork, queried executives at hundreds of companies of all sizes from every corner of the planet. No place on Earth is immune from performance-evaluation angst.

Let’s explore the reasons why and start at the top – with senior management. The survey found widespread support for performance evaluations from senior management. In fact, 74% said executives at their organization support the system. Still, that leaves 26% of all organizations with non-supportive top-level executives. Those, however, do not fully explain all the problems with performance-management systems today.

Something is getting in the way of the widespread support of senior management. The answer, it turns out, may very well be the performance-management system itself. According to the survey, a full third of senior executives “strongly” or “mostly consider” the evaluation system to be business-critical. And a third of the respondents reported their leadership viewed employee appraisals as an exercise in pencil-pushing.

We’re now at the heart of the problem.

Read More

Performance-management systems are broken at the majority of companies in every corner in the world. By teasing apart results of a recent worldwide survey of HR professionals, we’ve seen how evaluations are viewed as a joke by employees, a waste of time by many managers and a non-actionable talking point by some senior executives.

Even HR managers, who in most companies lead the performance-review charge, see formidable roadblocks in the way of successful evaluations. Here are the top three, based on Sibson Consulting’s mid-2010 survey of HR professionals:

1. Managers are reluctant to have difficult conversations about performance with employees. (63%)
2. Evaluations are seen as an HR-driven process rather than something that’s critical to the business. (47%)
3. The appraisal cycle begins with little or no goal setting. (36%)

Let’s start at the beginning of the appraisal process. In order to make progress, an employee needs to know what his or her goals are. Yet only half the respondents to the survey said their organization uses any kind of goal setting in the appraisal process. And only half of those use quantitative measures. Is there any mystery as to why employees see the appraisal process as subjective and unpredictable? It’s also not too hard to figure out why respondents estimate only a third of employees actually trust the evaluation system.

In the 50% of companies where goals are part of the evaluation process, the connection between individual and organizational goals weakens with decreasing employee seniority. Senior managers, for instance, are “completely” or “largely” aligned 70% of the time. Middle managers? 45%. Frontline employees? 17%. It’s no surprise why the majority of the latter group sees appraisals as a waste of time.

Then there’s the issue of participation.

Read More

Performance appraisals are hated by employees, largely dreaded by managers and often described as ineffective by HR professionals. So why do organizations still engage in this annual exercise?

The primary objective, cited by 66% of respondents to a survey by Sibson Consulting, is to distribute rewards based on individual performance. By comparison, just over half (54%) said greater individual accountability is a primary objective. Only 46% identified talent development as the biggest factor.

Rewards distribution is key in other ways, too: It’s the biggest reason why employee-appraisal systems are failing to meet expectations. Proponents of tying rewards to appraisals argue that the overall organization will benefit if the best and the brightest see their pay or bonuses increase more than their average or below-average co-workers.

But what if the appraisal system itself is too subjective, untrusted and flawed? The linkage between rewards and appraisals would then only serve to magnify other problems with the performance-management system. And just as the overall organization was supposed to benefit when the evaluation system works, the entire organization suffers when the evaluation system fails.

And that’s exactly what is happening. The Sibson Consulting survey, which was conducted in mid-2010 with the HR association WorldAtWork, found rampant mistrust in performance management. The results weren’t limited to one country, industry or company. Some 750 people responded, representing a broad swath of industries and organizations around the world. Headcounts of respondents’ organizations ranged from fewer than 100 employees to more than 500,000.

Nine out of 10 respondents reported that their organizations have formal systems to rate the performance of individual employees, shape behaviors and, in theory, provide some sort of benefit to the organization as a whole.

Read More

I just had a birthday.  Yeah I know- So What….  But  celebrating a birthday when you are “Middle Age” by most definitions and or “old” by my teenage daughters definition a little introspection is done.  Fact is Im not getting any younger.  As a business broker based in Florida it also makes me think of all the business owners that are getting older and maybe are or have been ready to sell their business but the bad economy has delayed that decision. Another year passes, the “recession” is still with us and it really looks like it will be with us next year and maybe beyond.

How long can a business owner wait to sell their business?  What if this down economy last 2,5, 10 years.  I am generally an optimistic person.  I started and owned a business for 20 years and during the lean years I continued to see the glass as half full, and fought thru some difficult years and successfuly sold my business when I was ready.

I beleive there are many business owners that had planned to have exited their business by now.  Maybe they planned to sell their business and begin enjoying “that retirement thing” they have heard of, but had to delay those plans due the the reduced value of their 401k and other investments, the reduced equity in their home, and the lower revenue and profit of potentially their biggest asset- their business.  Its easy and common to say “I want to sell my business but I dont want to sell it now when my business is down”.   I understand that thought process.

But I think from here is where the thought process becomes more difficult.  Considerations should include:

• What if we remain in a prolonged recession- can I wait 3-5 plus years?
• What happens in our world of supply and demand.

Read More

The answer to this question may be simple and may seem obvious to many; however it is always good to remember why a company should always train new employees during their first month in the organization.

To incorporate a new employee within a group and help him be successful, it is crucial to get him rolling with the least difficulty.

You don’t want to see a new person inactive and doubtful about trying new things and about actively learning from his errors and from the others around him.

In the same way, you don’t want your new employee to start doing too much only to make a mistake that can really impair his reputation early on.

New employees know everyone is watching over their performance, and extensive early training is the only way to make sure they do not get eaten up by unnecessary stress and are capable of showing their full capacity.

If you’re reading this, you probably know what the hiring process is like, right?

You know what it is like to post a position, read hundreds of resumes, choose the group of qualified candidates, assess their capabilities and skills, interview them two or three times, get feedback from others, and finally make a decision…

What happens if during the first day at the job you discover you hired the wrong person? How do you make up for that?

When dealing with new employees, there has to be someone to help them understand the new environment. They are being bombed with new information coming from everywhere; it is just hitting them too fast and hard. So, they need a source of solid knowledge to help them identify their place and comprehend how they fit in this new environment.

And here’s where an elearning training program becomes very valuable.

Read More

There are as many e-learning alternatives today as there are products in a supermarket. You go grocery shopping and find 15 different brands of teas, 10 brands of salad dressing, and 50 brands of soap… it is the same in the virtual arena of online training and development.

How do you know the e-learning platform you are currently using is the best for your needs? How do you evaluate a course?

Here we give you 5 hints that will tell you if it is time to look for a new e-learning platform:

1. Wrong information in the materials

It doesn’t matter how small the error is, if there is wrong information in any of the materials provided by your e-learning platform, change it ASAP.

You are providing training for your people to make them better and more knowledgeable employees, the last thing you want is to teach them the wrong information.

2.  Unprofessional instructors

A professional instructor will make sure the information he is teaching is updated and exact. They know how to create dynamic classes capable of stimulating all sorts of students.

A professional understands that different people learn in different ways; so, he can make sure the course he is teaching reaches everyone in an effective way.

If your personnel is bored and is not advancing, you are probably dealing with an unprofessional instructor.

3.  Complicated navigation

How easy… or difficult… is it to navigate the platform and the course?

A good platform will have a clean graphic layout capable of guiding the users in a clear way during all three phases: before beginning the course, while taking the course, and after completing it.

Read More

If something is clear nowadays, is that a company’s long-term success is directly linked to the efficiency and capacity of its personnel, and how efficient people are depends on the personal growth opportunities and career supervision they get.

Companies are always looking for the best way to control their future without spending in an unsustainable way; however, they are in constant danger of losing key personnel, the one with the talent and unique skills, which could mean the difference between succeeding or going under in such times of hard competition.

When it focuses on the training and development of its staff, a company will begin to understand the advantages and future profit that can come from e-learning and learning management systems (LMS).

LMSs take care of the management of employee training, certification, expert training, and career path supervision, and they can do this as a portable self-study system, as an online or onsite approach, or in the way of virtual corporate training sessions imparted by knowledgeable instructors.

Through an LMS, you can train large groups of employees in very little time no matter where they are located, you have the capacity to generate several comprehensive reports for completed courses and test results, and your people can learn at the speed they feel is right for them.

Obviously, e-learning poses an important economic advantage for several reasons:

• The more people you can train, the lower the cost per person.
• There is no need for hiring instructors and paying for their stay.
• More is learned in a more efficient way; so, there is less waste of resources.

There are 4 things you have to think about before choosing an LMS:

1.  The skills your personnel needs to cultivate
Can these be taught through e-learning or would another method work better?

Read More

There is no question about it! Training and development are key when talking about making your team more efficient. They are the best way to guarantee everyone has the skills needed to work in a productive, safe, and effective way. Nevertheless, even though training makes your staff more efficient … do you have a 100% efficient training method? Have you confirmed it gives you the return on investment you expect? Are you able to control every aspect of the process? Can you confirm everyone is learning what and how they are supposed to be learning?

Well… let us tell you…

Your company is very lucky to be operating in the era of technological improvement, because now you can polish up your training approaches to take advantage of custom learning, improved engagement, and far-reaching performance analysis.

Today, Learning Management Systems (LMS) use the Internet to supply employees, who need to learn or perfect a skill, with online training courses directly on their desks. In this way, you achieve two things:

• You make sure any employee in need of developing a skill has access to top-quality training, and
• You can train big groups of employees in a fast, dependable, and coherent way.

These let your company assess, register, deliver, and track skills in a very efficient way. You can send a course to employees across the organization, manage, and track their progress, and you don’t have to install any hardware of software, making it a highly cost-effective solution.

Many LMS’s give employees access to large libraries of corporate training courses that can improve and benefit their jobs; they don’t have to travel or leave the office to attend class, which simplifies the learning process for everyone, employees and managers, and they can sign in and take the courses at their own pace and when they have the time to focus.

Read More

“Needs Improvement”
“Below Expectations”
“Unacceptable”

As an employee, you would be mortified to see these ratings on your performance evaluation. Yet year after year, those are the words often used to describe performance reviews at organizations around the world. Any employee with such ratings would have “managed out” long ago.

How badly are employee performance evaluations failing? Take a look at the conclusions of a global survey conducted by Sibson Consulting:

● Less than 50% of HR professionals see performance reviews as helping their organizations achieve their strategic objectives. These are the people who are often driving the process.

● Only 46% of respondents see talent development as a goal of appraisals, while 54% identified greater “individual accountability.” Two-thirds (67%) identified the distribution of pay raises and other rewards as the goal of their appraisal system.

● Only half of the respondents say their companies use goal setting in their performance evaluations, and only half of those use quantitative metrics in evaluations.

● Only 56% of respondents said their organizations train managers to use the performance-management system.

● 55% reported delivering appraisals on time.

● More than a quarter of respondents (28%) felt that performance evaluations were an exercise in filling out forms rather than an opportunity to have quality conversations with employees.

These results aren’t limited to a single industry or a single country. The survey, conducted in mid-2010 with the HR association WorldatWork, drew more than 750 responses from a variety of industries and countries. Responding organizations ranged in size from fewer than 100 employees to more than 500,000.

Read More

Sports teams play hard to win, and so does your business. The desire to take a victory lap, however, isn’t the only similarity. Business owners and sports teams watch rivals closely, strategize at every turn and work together to reach the final goal, whether it’s the trophy, a customer win or the successful deployment of a long-running project.

In business, we often look at our competitors to better understand what we’re doing right and wrong. I believe there’s similar value in looking outside the business world for examples. As a basketball fan, I often look at teams and how they succeed or fail. Not surprisingly, the best teams engage in certain practices that make them winners. Apply these practices to your business and you can come out on top, too.

Practice Point No. 1: Remember the Name of the Game
Basketball players who strive for home runs or touchdowns don’t get far. Their goal is to land the ball in the basket at either side of the court. Knowing what game you’re playing is the obvious first step to scoring more points than the other team and eventually winning the game.

Business Application: A surprising number of employees have no idea what game they’re playing and only a foggy notion of what it means to win. As they aim for home runs on the hardwood, their performance will be unsatisfactory, and their chance of success will be nil. As the coach of your business, discuss with every player/employee the game you’re in and define what success is. The big picture might be obvious to you, but it’s not necessarily clear to them.

Practice Point No. 2: Understand Your Position
A power forward knows he’s in the game to catch rebounds. A point guard knows he’s the team’s best handler and passer. A shooting guard knows his job is to get the ball in the hoop.

Read More

Starting an online business? Have a great product idea that you think can make millions?

As you start developing your idea, the first thoughts coming to mind are probably technology focused. Who is going to build your site? How much will it cost? How quick you can launch your site?

Unfortunately, the phrase “if you build it, they will come” does not apply to online businesses.

There have been many entrepreneurs that have built great products, but have made little money in doing so. The way the Internet has evolved, if no one knows about your great product, it can and will be a bust.

To prevent this, consider user acquisition just as important as your product itself.

In fact, in recent years, I’ve seen mediocre sites make more money than those with sound business plans, with the primary driver being website traffic.

So how do you get the traffic?

You have two main options. You can pay for your traffic via pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns like Google AdSense, or you can plan ahead and have a great search engine optimization (SEO) strategy in place.

The PPC route can yield quick results, but my best advice is to make sure you have a healthy set of conversion metrics in place. With any PPC campaign, you are required to pay for every click a user makes. If the conversion rate is low, you can quickly find yourself in a money losing situation.

Those successful in using PPC campaigns as their main traffic and revenue drivers typically have a complex reporting mechanism in place, which allows them to quickly asses the profitability of a campaign. This undoubtedly helps, as under-performing campaigns can be swiftly addressed to minimize loss.

The other approach to traffic acquisition is SEO.

Read More

Great companies all have a common thread that runs through them. And its not just one thing that makes them great either. In reading this article, you’ll see the things that make them great every single time. The basics you’ll find are related to money management, markets, products and finally management its self. You’ll know the signs that make a great company and learn when to recognize a great one, and avoid the losers.

Products And Markets: Products and markets are important because without them, there’s nothing to sell. The first trait that great companies have is a great product. Their products solve a problem, are relevant and are have a good price point. The second trait is markets.

They know how to pick the right markets. If their market is too small, then the revenues wont sustain their efforts. Too much competition, and it might be too costly to enter that market. But products and markets are just part of the story.

Margins, Revenues, Cash and Debt: The third trait is growing revenue. By having increasing revenues and earnings, you know a company has life. Its alive and the market is buying its products and services. The fourth trait is that they have cash on hand. With Cash on hand great companies have the ability to seize opportunities as they come. Even as competitors are shrinking, the great companies are pressing in and growing with their cash.

The fifth trait is that they have low debt. For any company, this shows that they know how to manage money properly. The sixth trait is rising margins. Its not enough to make sales. A company can go broke with a high amount of sales but no margins. Great companies have growing margins. This is where they get their cash from.

Good management: The seventh trait of a great company is good management. It takes good leaders to control debt and margins.

Read More

As the most important goal in any organisation, striving to achieve continuous improvement should be at the forefront of all management processes, regardless of the size of the organisation or the nature of work produced. Effective processes are required to achieve this goal, and also assist in quality management. Processes should not only be developed and implemented, but they should also be visible in order to achieve optimal results. In this regard, process visibility plays a vital role in every improvement strategy within the organisation.

Many managers make the assumption that the design and application of an improvement process is enough to enable a better level of quality in all areas of the organisation. In order to make sure that these processes are followed efficiently however, processes need to be visible to all levels of staff and management, as each staff member’s role to implement processes is required for effectiveness.

Factors that are needed to ensure process visibility include the following:

• Documentation – document control is by far the most efficient and straight-forward way to document and distribute all processes within the company. Whether it is a formal process manual or a basic list of tasks that are to be carried out, documentation is essential to keep all relevant persons informed. Process documentation can then be shared amongst all staff and key decision makers who will be involved in applying the processes. This documentation is also kept on record, which allows the document to be updated as changes are made.

Read More

You’d think with all the literature, research, evidence etc out there that small business owners would know who their target customers were and what their needs are. And yet, still I went to a networking event the other day and heard a lady say that she could help “everyone”. 

So, today I thought I’d turn the question around and ask who will you CHOOSE to work with? 

You see, in any business there are several different types of clients:

1. There are people who expect everything to be free. In fact, they can’t believe you would possibly want to charge for your products or services. They will ask you for free advice and if you offer a free giveaway, they’ll be the first to take you up on it. But, they have absolutely no intention of every paying for your products and services.

2. Then there are people who will pay something, but it will always be a fairly low fee. They may buy one or two low cost products from you or possibly come to a few courses, but they won’t generally spend any more than that.

3. There are those who will then spend a medium amount with you. They like you, want to work with you and are generally fairly good payers. 

4. And then of course, there are your top clients – those who think you’re wonderful, pay a top amount for what you do and come back to you time and time again. 

Now, who do you want to work with?

Many of us dream of being able to help everyone, but of course everyone doesn’t actually pay the bills. And then we also dream of having a really successful business; one that brings us in lots of money and provides a great lifestyle. In order to have the two dreams, it’s not possible to work with everyone, so you’re going to need to focus on who you WANT to work with.

Here’s how I see it.

Read More

Perform any search on any engine about how many computer viruses are in existence and you will get the same answer… too many to count.     Most computer viruses are targeted to attack computers running Microsoft’s Windows operating system, while Apple computers running Mac operating systems experience drastically fewer attacks.   Considering most businesses and home users choose Windows over Mac, hackers have a greater area to toss their nets and pull in a catch. 

Just as with any battle or even sports game for that matter, you have the offence and you have the defense.   In this ongoing war over privacy and security you are on the defensive and the hackers are on the offensive.  

For any business, the threat of online attacks and hacks are a daily reality.   All it takes is one point of weakness in their infrastructure – just one open accessible port, one faulty firewall, one employee unintentionally downloading a virus – or a single network engineer incorrectly configuring the private network– and all hell could break loose. 

There are a few steps a business owner can take to at least keep a minimum level of security.  

Internet and email use policy.  Instituting a companywide policy which outlines all the details about what is and is not acceptable internet in the office is a good practice.   Examples of some guidelines are as follows:

Read More

Creating successful change today in any organization is getting more difficult. However, making change successful is not a choice that we have. How is your organization going about changing systems and people? IBM’s Global Business Services survey, Making Change Work Study, asked more than 1,500 people involved with change management projects about their change management practices. Organizations consulted in the study ranged from small to very large.

The IBM research looked at a representative sample of small to large programs implementing a range of strategic, operational, organization wide and technological changes. Projects surveyed covered sales, customers, revenue, innovation, technology and market segmentation.

The predominant learning from the IBM research is its support of the key notion that organizations need to respond decisively and effectively in today’s volatile business environment. Bringing about change is now a “must have” skill in every organization’s armory. Unfortunately, many organizations have not got this core requirement right. In fact, the increasing volatility and uncertainty of the current business environment has only served to widen the gap between the skills possessed and the skills needed. Businesses are now in a crisis situation and must meet the challenges if they are to survive.

The IBM survey demonstrates that the proportion of CEOs anticipating sizable change has increased from 65% in 2006 to 83% in 2008. However, CEOs saying that they had handled change well in the past has risen from 57% in 2006 to only 61% in 2008. The size of the gap between actual and needed competencies has more than tripled in the intervening short period. Why should this matter? Well, for the very important reason that botched change programs leave behind budget blowouts and disheartened and burned out employees.

How well do organizations bring about change?

Read More

As a business owner, one of the biggest questions that you will face is how to get the most out of your different resources. Likewise, another big question that you’ll face is where to find the most advantageous credit terms. Luckily for business owners, there is a way to combine these two things and make a responsible decision for your business. Using a solid business credit card and maxing that credit card out can have many benefits for a smart, sensible owner. So why should you max out your business credit card? Here are four of the top reasons why that is such a good idea.

1. Cash Back Aids the Bottom Line
Studies suggest that just less than 40% of all business are profitable over the long run. Some industries have it more difficult than others, as well, as food service and retail businesses tend to fail at a higher rate than their service-based counterparts. What this means for business owners is that you must do whatever it takes to add little bits to the bottom line.

When you max out a business credit card instead of using cash reserves or some other form of credit, you are giving yourself a significant boost in the form of cash back. Many business credit card providers give a hefty percentage of all purchases back to the card holder. This percentage is even higher for some types of purchases, so it is smart to buy things like gasoline on a credit card if you have those expenses. Even if the amount of money you’re getting back seems small in comparison, it can add up over time. A smart business owner will recognize this and maximize his use of the credit card in an effort to aid the bottom line.

2. Travel Rewards Make Expanding a Business Much Easier
One of the things that most business owners struggle with is expansion.

Read More