The Thriving Small Business

Loyalty Programs – How to Win Customers and Keep Them for Life

by

Coupons, loyalty programs, and customer incentives seem to be in most establishments these days.

I have to admit I love coupons but I also love reward programs that can utilize my phone number to track visits and rewards.

We used to purchase the Entertainment Book for my kids every year and sneak one in for myself. Read the Full Article →

5 Advantages of Professional Networking

by

A simple life reality is that people need people. We need our family, we need our friends, and we need others in our industry. Which makes professional networking so important.

Professionals use networking as a means to form relationships with others, in like or related fields, that help to expand ones’ effectiveness in an organization or industry. Read the Full Article →

6 Employee Benefit Trends – Is Your Organization Competetive?

by

The unemployment rate in the US remains at historically low levels. This tight labor market has organizations interested in the latest employee benefit trends.

A decade ago, employers were reducing benefits just to survive the great recession of 2008. Cutting budgets was commonplace in an attempt to limit employee layoffs of the time. Read the Full Article →

What are the Seven Parts of a Business Letter?

by

Writing a professional business letter is a vital part of business communication.

Written communication to customers, vendors or other businesses is a developed skill that requires practice.

Understanding the proper business letter format, the parts of a business letter and practicing writing is key to effective business correspondence.

The business letter is a little more formal than other written business communications such as email, memos or text messages. Read the Full Article →

5 Tips For How To Improve Workplace Communication

by

I’ve long been of the belief that we as leaders don’t communicate enough. We sit in meetings and have a good grasp of what is going on.

We intend to take that information back to the people on the ground, but in the course of our busy schedules we lose sight of the importance of sharing information with employees and communicating in the workplace. Read the Full Article →

12 Steps to Contract Negotiations

by

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?

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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 →

Service Recovery – 5 Tips For Successful Service Recovery

by

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 →

Advantages and Disadvantages of 360° Feedback

by

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 →