The Thriving Small Business

Are Your Employees Engaged, Biding Their Time or Planning Their Escape?

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I have a good friend who recently landed a new job.

She has been wanting to make a move for a while but it took some time for her to secure a job that supports her career objectives.

She is a good friend and I walked with her through the several stages of her past employment. Read the Full Article →

8 Steps to Implementing Successful Organizational Change

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Change is a word that generates uneasiness in most of us.

But most would agree that we can think of a time we had a good change in our lives.

A marriage, the birth of a baby, moving into a new home or a new job are examples of positive changes in our lives.  Read the Full Article →

How To Prepare Your Organization For An Unexpected Disaster

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We are in that time of year again when we experience lots of storms, tornadoes and inclement weather.

These seasons of natural disasters are reminders for us to be diligent and prepare our homes and businesses for the possibility of damage.

In addition, we need our organizations to be ready to respond in the event of an emergency or disaster. Read the Full Article →

5 Steps in Creating An Effective PR Strategy

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The ability to maintain a positive public image is critical to achieving corporate objectives.

Which is why every organization should have an interest in public relations.

What is public relations?

According to Wikipedia, the definition of public relations is “a field concerned with maintaining public image for high-profile people, commercial businesses and organizations, non-profit associations or programs”. Read the Full Article →

How Well Does Your Organization Recovery From a Bad Service Experience?

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We are all human and human beings make mistakes.

This is just part of the imperfect nature of living life here on earth.

Because of this, it is important for organizations to take precautionary steps to minimize human error in the workplace.

This concept is what led the quality movement and product manufacturers to embrace quality management as a business practice. Read the Full Article →

8 Traits To Look for in a Mentor

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We’ve all heard the term ‘mentor’ but we need to acknowledge the importance of mentoring for professional development.

Mentoring has been around for a long time, specifically in academic environments where teaching is a part of the business model.

So what is a mentor?

According to dictionary.com a mentor is “a wise and trusted counselor or teacher – an influential senior sponsor or supporter.”

A mentor is someone who understands the work environment and offers advice to employees coming up the ladder. Read the Full Article →

 7 Tips to Make The Employee Survey Process Successful

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Every business owner understands that customers pay the bills.

And, to keep those customers coming back they need to provide a great service experience.

However, many organizations don’t pay as much attention to those people who care for their customers – the employees.

Employees are often on the front-line and interact with customers either in person, on the phone or delivering the product or service. Read the Full Article →

Administrative Assistant Performance Goals Examples

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Administrative assistants are of the most valuable of all employees because they are the doers, the ones who get things done and can be instrumental in helping the organization achieve its objectives.

This of course is if they have a good understanding of what is expected of them and written employee goals to help them prioritize daily work tasks. Read the Full Article →

12 Time Management Tips – Do You Manage your Time Well?

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Time is a resource that is constantly being lost.  It is one of those things that once lost, you never get back and most people regret wasting at some point in their life.

Good time management helps people accomplish goals, fulfill dreams, desires and ultimately their destiny.

We may never know how things may have been different if people had been more responsible with the time they had. Read the Full Article →

4 Tip for Improving Productivity and Decreasing Employee Errors

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I am a firm believer that employees come to work and want to do a good job.

However, it is the organization’s responsibility to ensure the work environment is one that inspires creative thinking and allows employees to do their job without any barriers or distractions to slow them down.

Apple is getting ready to open its new Spaceship Campus or Apple Park. Read the Full Article →

What Are Critical Success Factors?

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Whether you are managing a restaurant, boutique or insurance agency, it is important to know that you are focusing on those things that help the organization achieve its mission.

Anyone who manages internal processes understands how challenging it can be to balance daily responsibilities with monitoring how well the organization is performing. Read the Full Article →

7 Tips for Your Benchmarking Efforts

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Learning from others is how we all improve.

Organizations use benchmarking to compare themselves to others and learn.

Benchmarking is the process of going outside an organization to look at how high performers are doing things in other industries.  The concept is to identify and learn from best practices.

Organizations use benchmarking as part of their Quality Management System in an effort to gain insight into ways to improve what they do. Read the Full Article →