The Thriving Small Business

tips for small business

10 Ways to Protect Your Organization from Employee Fraud

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Employee fraud costs businesses billions of dollars every year.

According to a 2008 report by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), 994 billion dollars is lost every year to employee fraud.

This equates to businesses losing a staggering 2.7 billion dollars every day!

ACFE defines occupational fraud as:  “the use of one’s occupation for personal enrichment through the deliberate misuse or misapplication of the organization’s resources or assets.” Read the Full Article →

3 Reasons You Need to Manage Employee Performance

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Having a strategy for business growth is imperative to success.

And, creating SMART business goals are the best way to achieve those objectives.

However, goals and objectives are only as effective as the people who have responsibility for completing them.

Managing employee performance is how work gets done and goals are accomplished.  Read the Full Article →

7 Steps to Creating a Customer Service Strategy

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Effective managers help employees understand the importance of the customer experience. And, a customer service strategy can help create a service culture.

Organizations should incorporate customer service into their business goals.  As well, those strategies should be incorporated into employee goals to ensure the organization reaches their customer service objectives.

Employees only perform at the level they are managed and it takes great leadership to help employees understand the importance of the customer experience.   Read the Full Article →

5 Forms of Coaching Employees

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Coaches can have a positive affect on the development of employees.

Many organizations encourage their leadership team to coach employees in performance,  skill development and career planning.

We all come from different backgrounds and have differing frames of references.

Some people are taught professionalism growing up and others have never been exposed to proper business protocol or etiquette. Read the Full Article →

What is a Vision Statement?

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A business should be able to articulate what it is trying to achieve and the basic purpose of its existence.

Successful organizations understand the importance of investing the time to define its vision, mission and values. This simple step helps to provide long-term direction for employees.

This philosophy supersedes the notion that organizations simply exist to make a profit and focuses on identifying the customers that will be served and investing in a long-term approach to serving that customer base. Read the Full Article →

9 Areas Your Organization Should be Auditing

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More and more organizations are using an internal auditing process to identify improvement opportunities.

Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization’s operations.

Businesses use policies and procedures to maximize efficiency and create consistent practices. However, policies and procedures are only as effective as an organization’s ability to enforce them. Read the Full Article →

Its About The Process – Not The People

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Organizations are responsible for creating systems and infrastructures that support employee performance.

A speaker at an IHI Conference once said:

“every system is perfectly designed to achieve exactly the results it gets”.

This is so simple – yet so true.

Good employees, who are forced to work with bad internal systems, often fail. Read the Full Article →

Tips for Writing and Giving Performance Appraisals

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Businesses use the performance appraisal process to manage employees toward achieving organizational goals.

The annual performance appraisal is one of the least favored times of the year because the process is often painful.

If done well, performance appraisals can be a positive experience for both the employee and the manager.  Read the Full Article →

6 Ways to To Give Your Customers a Great First Impression!

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Some organizations provide a great first impression. Others do not. By first impressions I mean the first point of contact a customer has with an organization.

The reality is, customers have choices and organizations that get it pay attention to the details that matter to customers.

Every organization has a slightly different first impression moment. Read the Full Article →

Example Business Goals and Objectives

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Businesses need to plan to be successful. An important part of the business planning process is determining business objectives that are translated into actionable business goals.

Goals should support the strategic plan – a written document that articulates an organization’s strategy for achieving its mission and vision. The goal development process looks at this strategy and determines the necessary steps to get there. Read the Full Article →

8 Steps for Creating a Customer Service System

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Have you ever interacted with an organization that provided great service in one area and terrible service in another?

How can there be such a cultural disconnect in the service that is provided by the same organization?

Every interaction a customer has with an organization is an opportunity to win or lose that customer. Read the Full Article →