Veronica Kirchoff

As a successful home-based service provider you will soon realize, if you haven’t already, there are not enough hours in the day for all the projects you could be working on. You also may have discovered that you don’t have the skills necessary to complete every task your clients – or potential clients – need.

You may have already turned away clients when your project calendar filled up, sent clients to a colleague or tried to meet their needs with disastrous results. Have no worries, it’s happened to the best of us, but that doesn’t mean you’re stuck with too much work, not enough time. And there is a better way.

1. 1. Subcontractors Can Take the Extra Work

By hiring subcontractors, you can increase your workload exponentially. For example, let’s say you schedule twenty hours of work in one week for two clients. By hiring a subcontractor, you can schedule in two more clients for another twenty hours of work that week.

Because the subcontractor charges less than what the client is paying, you still make a profit on those extra hours, even though you did not do the work yourself. In this situation, you serve as a project manager, quality control officer and client liaison. In other words, you hand out assignments, inspect the work to make sure it’s up to standards and communicate with the client and with the subcontractor.

1. 2. Subcontractors Can Add New Skills

Hiring subcontractors with a complementary skill set can also help you expand your services. For example, if you are a web designer, you could hire a ghost writer to help those same clients add great new content to their websites and blogs in order to make the most out of their online presence. This way, the client can continue to work with you, and you can meet more of the client’s needs. This means more money for you, money for the subcontractor and happier clients.

1. Subcontractors Mean Less Paperwork

Subcontractors also come with a special set of benefits that you wouldn’t get from hiring employees. A subcontractor comes with their own office, their own equipment and their own training. She/he often is running their own service business and therefore has a stake in making a good name for herself – and for you. The subcontractor is also responsible for their own taxes, sets their own hours and is usually self-motivated. You only pay them for the actual work they do and you are also usually not their only client.

On the other hand, an employee needs space in your office and you need to provide them with equipment and training. While there are good employees available, you could easily end up with someone who simply wants a paycheck, regardless of whether or not they worked for it.

You would also need to set hours and pay for the hours they are “on the clock” even if they don’t have a full list of tasks that day. In other words, if there is no work, you still have to pay the employee. And then there is the whole business of withholding taxes and Social Security and other paperwork that goes along with employing someone.

Growing Your Business with Subcontractors

Hiring subcontractors can be a relatively inexpensive way to grow your business quickly and efficiently. It’s a win-win situation for you, the service provider who gets the help they need, and the subcontractor gets the work she/he needs.

Whether it involves talking with your teen about sex or drugs, your spouse about finances or housework, or your employee about attendance or performance issues, the prospect of initiating a difficult discussion is daunting to many, if not most, people. Mix in the tendency to procrastinate tackling unpleasant tasks, then feeling guilty about putting something so important off, and you can wind up feeling even more miserable and anxious about the impending conversation. You might even lose sleep over it.

Initiating such a discussion doesn’t have to be nearly so painful. With the proper mindset and some preparation, you can learn to handle even the most difficult topic with ease and confidence. The following tips will enable you to do just that.

1. Realize that by having the discussion, your goal is to benefit others as well as yourself. Whether or not he shows it, your teen will most likely appreciate that you care enough to talk to him about things that concern or matter to you. In the case of the employee with the performance issue, she will have an opportunity to correct or improve on it, or face consequences. In either event, the other members on your team will certainly appreciate that you took steps to address the situation, because they will see the poor performer either stepping up to the plate or terminated.

2. Focus on the possible positive outcomes of having the discussion sooner rather than later. The employee’s performance could most certainly improve. Or you may have the opportunity to replace a poor performer with someone more willing and able to do the work and follow company or departmental policies. Either way, the performance of your team as a whole will benefit, which will be a positive reflection on your own performance.

3. Prepare for any possible reaction to the discussion. Have contingency plans for handling any behavior or response to what you have to say, whether it be anger, denial, silence or disbelief. Knowing in advance exactly how you will deal with any of these will give you the confidence you need to proceed. Understand that you cannot control a person’s reaction, and in many cases you cannot predict it either. But you can always prepare for any possibility.

4. If the topic for discussion is an especially difficult one for you, have a reward planned for yourself when you complete it. Take a half day off to do something you enjoy, or treat yourself to something you ordinarily would not. After all, you just accomplished something that doesn’t come easily for you. You deserve something special.

Following these tips will not make handling difficult discussions any more fun, by any means, but doing so when the necessity arises will make you a better and more competent communicator, manager, parent and/or spouse. And who wouldn’t benefit from that?

Creating a positive work environment is crucial to the success of any organization. In the current challenging times, less people need to do more or the same amount of work for the organization to stay ahead. What are the strategies that an organization can apply to create a positive work environment?

1. Plan Effectively
While it is important to do a lot of research and study reports for planning purposes, effective planning should include the people involved in implementing the plan.

There are things that these people are aware of that can make a difference to the plan. Aside from that, there will be a better understanding of the plan and a sense of ownership when it is time to act on the plan.

2. Change Where Change Is Needed
Change is something that cannot be avoided. Either you change with the times or you get left behind.

It is necessary to be aware of customer needs, changes in the economy and trends in the industry to be aware of the changes. However, make changes where it is needed and not just for the sake of changing.

3. Groom Your People
Your people are crucial to the success of your business.

Groom your people to develop skills as well as attitudes and behavior required to take your business from where it is to where you want it to be.

4. Encourage Dissent
Do not be afraid of dissent. If all your employees agreed with everything, you may not become aware of changes that are happening to your customer base or in the industry. Focus will be narrow and based on conventional ideas.

Allow dissent that will generate new ideas and actions that will enhance your business.

5. Foster Leadership
You need more than management personnel to run the business. Thinking like a leader is a mindset that needs to be developed in every employee.

Every single person be it from sales, support or administration can also contribute creativity and responsibility to the roles they play.

6. Move Quickly
Change is happening so fast that it is necessary to make your move quickly. While it is important to think through your decisions, there are changes to which response has to be fast to stay ahead of competition.

7. Be Customer Oriented
Ultimately, it is your customers who keep you in business.

Be aware of your customers’ needs and wants. When they provide feedback on your products and services or require support, listen and take appropriate action.

If there are complaints, handle them. Be glad that they remain your customers despite the complaint. A complaint well-handled will get you a happier customer.

8. Take Action
While having ideas and strategies are great, a difference is made only when action is taken.

It is necessary to study and research whatever decisions you make. However, remember that often you may not get all the information you would like to have to make the decision.

Make your best judgment call and take the required action to make the decisions work out well.

Creating a positive work environment may be about environment and comfort. More importantly, it is the passion that you create within the organization by bringing people together to deliver a vision.

Keeping your employees motivated with high morale is the most important function of a supervisor. This article provides a list of actions that can be taken to keep employees producing for the success of the organization.

The first three suggestions are related to the physical characteristics of the work place:

1. Make sure that the work place is clean and well-lighted.

2. Give employees the proper equipment (furniture, computers, machinery) to perform their jobs efficiently and comfortably.

3. Design the work flow such that there are few bottle-necks and downtime.

The following are suggestions for keeping employees’ morale high:

1. Reward employees with the highest rank and status justified by their aptitude, performance, and contribution to the success of the organization.

2. Provide salary and wages based on the employees’ performance and value to your organization.

3. Provide a meaningful annual review which includes recognition for work accomplishments and an honest assessment of areas where the employee could improve.

4. Give employees effective feedback on their work, including giving reasons for work assignments, the assignments contribution to the organization, and how the assignment contributes to the success of the organization.

5. Delegate as much authority to employees as they can handle effectively.
6. Provide positive incentives rather than negative incentives.

Consider the following actions related to communicating effectively with your employees:

1. Listen to employees–really listen.

2. Allow employees to air their grievances–even if they reflect on your perceptions of your own performance.

3. Give credit for actions, ideas, and suggestions for improvement to operations. (Never take credit for actions or ideas of your employees.)

4. Organize your operations so that everyone can make a contribution by offering suggestions for improvement. Consider all suggestions seriously. If you find that the suggestion can’t be implemented, give a full reason for not adopting it.

5. Show a genuine interest in each employee without becoming a bore.

Now that you’ve been presented with a series of actions that you can take to improve the morale and motivation of your employees, here’s one more important point to remember:

Each supervisor comes into the job with a set of attitudes and behaviors that have developed over a period of years. In most cases a new supervisor needs to take stock of his or her attitudes and behaviors that might not be effective as a supervisor.

Most new supervisor don’t take the time (or even realize that they need) to assess their skills related to being an effective supervisor.

Let the list above serve as a checklist of areas where you need to make improvements to be successful as a supervisor.

It may appear that all great managers know the secret to improving an employees performance. But what these managers know is no secret at all: everything you ever needed to know about enhancing the productivity of your employees is actually contained in a few simple techniques that are guaranteed to increase the efficiency of your business.

5 Things That Every Great Manager Knows

These five things are not profit margin, gains, losses, tax deductions, or assets – but instead are the human factors of management.

You cannot put a price or value on the factors that drive an employees performance. This is because most people remain with an employer because of the quality and satisfaction derived from a rewarding and balanced workplace.

Great managers recognize and respect this “x factor” of the business world and work to improve it with these simple tips.

1. Motivation – Every employee is unique; therefore the motivation to perform better will be different for each person. Identify the motivator for each employee and provide opportunities that encourage their interest and performance.

2. Setting Goals – Make sure you have a vision for how you want your business to operate now and in the future. Communicate your vision to your employees so that they are directing their energies toward a common goal. They will feel like they are a part of the business and this will enhance performance.

3. Praise – Take advantage of big and small opportunities to praise your employees for work well done. Your recognition of their performance means a lot and it is important that you acknowledge their efforts.

4. Feedback – Be lavish with praise but selfish with criticisms -but do offer kind words of constructive feedback that makes your employees feel respected and valued.

5. Management – Be available as a resource to your employees. They should feel comfortable to approach you with questions and concerns and not feel as if they are imposing on your time. They should be able to depend upon you for guidance and as a model of what excellent performance is all about.

A Last Word…

As you can see, there is no one secret to improving the performance level of employees. You can start today with these simple tips that are easy to implement into the everyday workings of your business. After all, your employees and business deserve anything and everything that will help them flourish and continue to grow.

How many people do you know that say they hate their job or their boss? Well, it’s called “work” and not “fun” for a reason. However, a work environment doesn’t have to be dull and oppressive. Employees don’t have to feel like they are chained to their desks all day. With some creative management techniques, you can enhance employee motivation and maybe even increase your employee retention.

One of the biggest morale boosters you can provide your employees is to give them a voice in some of the company’s operations. That doesn’t mean they should set the stock price or decide on a hostile takeover. Those are decisions correctly left to upper management and the board of directors. However, there are little things that affect the employees directly.

Managers should not try to fake this method. Listening to your employees’ input but implementing what you had already decided will only grow resentment. After all, employees can quickly figure out that none of their suggestions were chosen, even though those suggestions were the majority! Let your employees decide their own fates every once in a while and you will make them happier.

One office function that employees dread is the office party. For many companies this occurs during December’s holiday season. If your employees don’t like being at work with you, they certainly won’t want to spend their free time with you at a party. Employees also feel obligated to attend such parties; for fear that they will not be seen as a team player.

There is an easy solution to the office party problem. Let the employees vote on whether or not to have one! If the company is having a bad year, yet management throws an expensive holiday party, what kind of message does that send to the employees?

Have the employees vote on whether to have a big party, or to simply take the party money and divide it evenly among themselves. If the money would be spent anyway, shouldn’t it go directly to the employees that helped the company earn it?

If you think hard about similar functions that you “make” your employees do, you can probably imagine other ways to empower them. Perhaps a randomly chosen employee gets a paid Friday afternoon off once per month. Little things like allowing radios in offices or flexible work hours can make big differences in employee morale.

Show your employees that you really are listening to them, and give them a few extra benefits. You might just find yourself with a more loyal work force that stays longer with the company.

Your time is your life and your business. Master them by being forceful and deliberate! Lose no time in choosing how to use your time. Control your time and you control your life. Let others control your time and your time is not your own. Own it NOW!

If there is something you want done and want to do, then schedule it and nothing else for that allotted slot of time. The most important work you can do is work at a schedule that you have planned yourself. You’ve marked a time for your endeavors and if anyone asks what you’ll be doing at that time just say you will be busy.

The best way to be productive is to set aside time to focus on a project. Do the project. Ignore distractions. Say no to interruptions. Dedicate yourself by dedicating your time to what you are doing. Do that one thing either for the whole time or until it is done. Only then do you move on to something else.

Lock the doors and put up a “will be gone until such and such o’clock” sign. Shut off the phones and leave a message in your outgoing voice mail saying you will be unavailable until such and such a time. Set an alarm to go off, signaling when you have put in the time wanted on that activity for the day. Then work straight through until the alarm rings before going on to the next item in your schedule. That way you don’t always have to be looking at the clock, which is one more distraction you have gotten rid of.

That is how you make the time to do one thing at a time. If you want to accomplish more, schedule more. With a schedule there is no need to hesitate and procrastinate wondering what to do with your time. It does not take long to plan a schedule. Figure it once and write it down. It is simple, it is structured, and it brings success, which brings satisfaction. Time management equates to increased output. You can apply it to business as well as to your personal life.

Try to track down the things that waste your time. Find and eliminate them. Cut out excessive television, computer games, sitting doing nothing. Those things get you nowhere. Write goals so that you can be doing something worthwhile. That way you can have a streamlined upwardly mobile direction and a dynamic proactive life.

See what you could be doing more efficiently than you are doing now. Sometimes we are doing something simple that can just as well be done while we are also doing something else (listening to motivational or informational DVD’s while driving is one example) thus we get more done. Other times we try to multitask and the complexity and the details make us have to do them again, when if we concentrated on just the one thing then we would have done it right the first time and thus saved a lot of time. There is also the sometimes-smart option of not doing the work at all. Hire someone else to do it instead. And by all means, if there is a way to automate the task using technology, see what you can do to set it up.

To make time truly your own, find out when you have the most energy for doing things. Maybe it is in the morning, afternoon, or night. That way you know how to best make your schedule, which just might include a siesta nap in the middle of the day. Working tired equates to dragging your feet and is inefficient.

A schedule is a tool you use to control your time. With your own schedule, you rule your time and your life. Do you want more than 24 hours in a day? Then schedule a 36-hour day! A study was even done of people living in caves where they couldn’t see the daylight and the study found that a 36 hour cycle was natural in that situation. The people would sleep for 12 hours and be awake for 24.

So what is it that you would like to do with your life or your business? If for instance your main objective in business is making money, then you should focus on marketing. Make it the priority in your schedule. The value of time is in how we use it. We can spend it mindlessly, or invest it wisely. It is your life; it is your choice.

There’s a difference between being a boss and a leader. Which one are you?

Webster’s definitions of a boss include: A person who exercises control over others and makes decisions, usually the person of highest rank or authority, a supervisor, a person who commands in a domineering manner.

In contrast the definitions for a leader include: A person who rules, guides, inspires, escorts, directs, influences, persuades, and is out and ahead of or at the head of others. They have influence, power, and commanding authority over those they lead. They tend toward a certain goal or result, are in the foremost position, and usually “pull” people toward what becomes a common vision. People usually follow a leader because they want to rather than have to.

Influential leaders, who lead with great ethics, whether they are Presidents, Kings, corporate CEOs, Girl Guide or Scout leaders, bear some traits in common. They are passionate about what they do and what they believe in; they are visionaries, can see the “big picture,” and are driven inside to draw people into what they believe – to jump on the train with them.

A boss in a grocery store sees shelves that need to be stocked, employees that need to be scheduled, doors that need fixed, floors that need to be cleaned, and the year-end staff social that needs to be planned. They work toward these ends, seeing them to fulfillment, sometimes in very creative ways.

A leader in a grocery store sees those things too, but he or she also feels excitement about being in business, or about making profit from people’s need for food and daily household products and how that profit can be poured back into the store to make it superior over other grocery stores. They care about and inspire, their staff, realizing that they are the front line ambassadors of the store. They not only see where the store is at now, but they also envision what it will look like or how it will impact their community ten years from now. Whether they actually own the store or not, they make the store their own.

With a good leader, people usually feel drawn, or “pulled”, into the same vision. Have you ever gone into a store or restaurant and been treated so well by the staff there that you just knew that you would return again? Not only did you just receive knock-your-socks-off customer service, but you also met employees empowered by the vision of a true leader.

A leader usually develops and motivates leaders under them. People who get “fired-up” and captivated by the vision and rise to the occasion.

For leaders, leadership is a way of life. If there’s leadership spontaneously required at a gathering, leaders will step up to bat, even if it’s just to open a door as people arrive.

Can a boss be a leader? Definitely.

The question is: Which one are you? Or rather, maybe the question should be: Which one would you like to be?

There is a famous story in business articles and productivity books. It’s often attributed to different people and the exact dollar figure that the consultant was paid is always different.

But the story goes something like this: A man was concerned that he wasn’t being very productive. So he asked a consultant for a suggestion. That consultant made a profound suggestion that worked! He told the man to do the following: before leaving work at the end of the day, list the top three things he wanted to accomplish the following day. Then, when he got into work the next day, he should tackle them in order, not starting one until the one before it was complete. He was to keep working until he finished all three. Then he could be done for the day.

This story has taken on a life of its own and it is retold in every productivity book, but it never grows old. That’s because the truth of this tale, no matter how fictional the story itself is, is universal.

If you want to be successful in business – whether your business is online or offline – you need to know what you want to accomplish and prioritize it.

Now, the story itself was clearly written in an era when the owner of a business had a plush office and a company car and could come and go as he or she pleased. Nowadays, most online business owners work out of their homes (and sometimes have another job until their small business grows) so the story needs to be tweaked and updated for the modern entrepreneur.

The new moral of the story might be this: Prioritize everything! Rather than listing the top three items to be done, list everything and assign a number (from 1 to infinity… and for most entrepreneurs, the list seems that long!).

Then, get to work. Start at one and begin working down. Periodically you’ll have to re-prioritize as changes occur in your business. Task management programs such as Microsoft Outlook can help with prioritization. Even just a Microsoft Word document with an auto-numbering feature is better than nothing.

If you start working on the first one and keep going until you cannot work any more on it, then move to the next point on your list, you’ll see two things happen:

First, your productivity will increase dramatically because you’ll have started to hone in on doing what needs to be done.

And, second, you will work far more efficiently because you know the most important thing to do and you’re doing it first, before everything else.

If you employ people in your business, you’re going to be faced with a number of tricky management issues – dealing with tardiness, sick leave, and keeping your staff motivated.

Performance reviews can be useful for motivating employees, but only if they are accurate. An inaccurate review, which fails to recognize the employee’s value to the organization, can be worse than no review at all.

If a performance review fails to take note of an employee’s shortcomings, it won’t be taken seriously. If an employee consistently performs poorly, it’s vital to document this, as well as any corrective action that is taken.

Your staff may be genuinely unaware that their performance in some areas is poor (or exceptional!), unless you tell them.

Most employers conduct performance reviews annually, in order to decide on salary increases and bonuses. Since performance reviews should build on previous reviews, it’s better to conduct them more regularly – every 4 months is a good frequency.

Employees thrive on feedback, and regular performance reviews provide a consistent framework for providing positive reinforcement.

Under-performing employees can also benefit. Regular reviews can identify weak performance areas, and allow you to set clear goals and expectations, and to coach and mentor the employee to improve their performance.

Objectivity is vital. You need to concentrate on measuring performance, and not on quirks of personality.

The performance review should relate directly to the employee’s job profile – your employees do have job profiles, or job descriptions, don’t they? The job profile should identify the Key Performance Areas for the job. For instance, some Key Performance Areas for a receptionist might be:
* answer incoming calls within 3 rings
* take messages accurately and pass them on quickly
* type at a rate of 25 words a minute

The more measurable a Key Performance Area, the better. Some other measurable Key Performance Areas include:
* number of sick days
* number of absent days
* number of instances of tardiness
* number of customer complaints
* number of customer compliments
* number of co-worker complaints

Of course, you would have to keep accurate records of all of these, in the employee’s personal file.

You should prepare a performance review form for each employee, which lists the Key Performance Areas for the job, and provides a matrix for you to record the performance in each area.

For example, you might rate the employee’s performance in each Key Performance Area against a scale of ‘Poor, Satisfactory, Good, Very Good, Excellent’

Performance reviews should be a collaborative process – as far as possible, the employee should agree with your assessment.