The Thriving Small Business

12 Steps to Contract Negotiations

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The ability to negotiate a vendor contract is a skill that every business owner will need at one time or another.

Whether it is the decision to outsource a service, or negotiate the price for new office equipment, business leaders will need to fine tune their negotiation skills.

Most of us don’t have the natural ability to negotiate so the trick is to use a systematic and unbiased approach to negotiate vendor contracts. Read the Full Article →

8 Sustainable Business Practices – Are You Doing Your Part?

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There seems to be more and more education on the importance of corporate social responsibility in support of sustainable business practices.

The increasingly popular green approaches to business practices is what sustainability is all about.

Sustainability is a term that has grown in popularity and has become a catchphrase for green business practices that has been incorporated into many corporate strategies. Read the Full Article →

12 Competencies Every Manager Should Master

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There is a first time for everything and managing other people can be a scary first.

Granted, some people are natural leaders and can get up to speed very quickly. However, most need some help developing important manager competencies.

Manager competencies can improve management skills and influence the behavior of others – which can result in a positive impact on the bottom line. Read the Full Article →

The 5 Step Process of Strategic Planning

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Strategic plans help identify what an organization is striving to achieve and maps out the necessary steps needed to be successful.

It used to be that strategic plans would go out for ten years but organizations today typically look 2-3 years down the road – some industries just plan year by year. Read the Full Article →

7 Management Tools for Quality Control

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Many organizations use quality tools to help monitor and manage their quality initiatives.

There are several types of tools that can be used.  However, there are seven management tools for quality control that are the most common.

Different tools are used for different problem-solving opportunities, and many of the tools can be used in different ways. Read the Full Article →

13 Examples Of Empowered Employees

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Empowerment is a buzz term that we hear a lot about in leadership. A culture that embraces employee empowerment, understands the role workers have by taking care of the needs of the customers they serve.

Empowerment is defined as “the giving or delegation of power or authority; authorization; the giving of an ability; enablement or permission.”

Empowerment is based on the belief that employees have the ability – and want to take on more responsibility. 

Empowerment is a way to give employees greater authority and responsibility to take care of the needs of the customer and to provide employees with the means for making influential decisions. Read the Full Article →

Service Recovery – 5 Tips For Successful Service Recovery

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Great customer service is the cornerstone of any successful business. Knowing who the customers are, what they want and making an effort to exceed customer expectations – is the key to business success.

Unless an organization understands this very basic principle, it will have a difficult time achieving desired results.

What is service recovery?

Read the Full Article →

7 Ways to Demonstrate Ethics and Integrity in Your Business

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The success of an organization is built off of the trust of customers, employees and the general public.

According to a Gallup poll, “68% of adults worldwide believed corruption was widespread among businesses in their country…… and 60% of adults in the U.S. responded this way in 2017…..”

The best way to gain that trust is to demonstrate ethics and integrity in business practices. Read the Full Article →

Advantages and Disadvantages of 360° Feedback

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One common tool that is used for managing and assessing  employee performance is a 360° Feedback process.

What is 360° Feedback?

“A 360-degree feedback is a process through which feedback from an employee’s subordinates, colleagues, and supervisor, as well as a self-evaluation by the employee themselves is gathered.” Wikipedia

This tool is used to solicit feedback from all coworker perspectives. Read the Full Article →

Employee Turnover – 6 Tips To Retain Employees

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Unemployment is at historic levels. At 3.8 percent unemployment, finding and retaining workers is a topic of discussion for every business owner.

According to a Work Institute Report, one in four workers, will leave their jobs this year to go work for another company and that 77 percent of that turnover could have been avoided. Read the Full Article →