Month: September 2013

Categories
Entrepreneurs

3 Ways Being Creative Can Hurt You In Biz

Yes you read the title right. This is all about how being creative can hurt you in biz.

 

We all know being creative is definitely an asset when you’re an entrepreneur. But…

 

Your greatest strengths are also your greatest weaknesses. And being TOO creative can actually keep you from building the biz of your dreams. So let’s dig into how creativity can actually hurt you in biz.

 

1. You love starting new things — but finishing? Not so much. There’s nothing like the rush of a new idea or a new brainstorm, is there? It’s soooo much fun to live on the Island of Possibilities and Dreams.

 

Which is why the Land of What Your Biz Is In Real Life feels so, well, blah.

 

Ideas that live on the Island Of Dreams are fun. Coaxing those ideas off of their fun island (where they’re hanging out at the beach during the day and partying every night) and talking them into becoming permanent citizens of the Land of Reality where they are now earning their keep and making money for you can be not-so-fun.

 

Those ideas aren’t necessarily all that thrilled about leaving their carefree lifestyle. So it takes time. And work. And sometimes that work is difficult and unpleasant.

 

(And that doesn’t even cover the “what if the idea isn’t all that hot once it’s real” fear that can also take over as you get close to finishing a new project.)

 

So being super creative can also mean lots of unfinished projects that are still half on the Island of Dreams, which means they’re hanging out having a blast rather than making any money for you.

 

2. You want to love the projects you’re working on. Yes we all want to love what we’re working on, but the truth of the matter is no matter how much you love an idea, there will be times where you just want to ship the smelly thing back to the Island of Dreams to stay.

 

If you’re too creative, you may decide it’s easier to just fall in love with a different idea on the Island of Dreams and, well, that means another unfinished project on your to-do list that isn’t making you any money.

 

But if you want to be a successful entrepreneur you must resist that urge. Only ideas that are firmly in the Land of Reality will have any hope of making you any money so even if you aren’t feeling the love, work through it.

 

3. Ideas aren’t the only thing you fall in and out of love with — your biz brand is also a constant moving target. This is the one that’s really tough to overcome. If you find yourself changing your brand every year, then it’s going to be really difficult to build traction in the marketplace.

 

Now while I am a big believer in just getting something out and letting the marketplace give you feedback (and yes I have gone through a few brands myself over the years) if you are constantly just not happy with your biz brand, then you are definitely letting your creativity rule your biz.

 

There is a time and place to rebrand — but it’s NOT because you’re tired or bored with your brand (especially if it wasn’t that long ago you rebranded because you were…well tired and bored with your brand). If you rebrand too much you’re just asking for your ideal clients to be confused, and that’s very often the first step to biz failure.

 

So, you’ve probably sensed a theme here. And that theme is — if you know you’re creative, and you find yourself making decisions on your biz, your brand, your products, your programs, your marketing, etc. based on if something is fun or gives you that rush, and you find yourself NOT working on something because it’s starting to feel like work (and you’d rather go back to the rush) then you’re probably allowing your creativity to dictate your biz rather than enhance your biz. And that’s a recipe for a not-so-successful biz.

 

 

 

 

Categories
Operations

Should You Use Subscription Based Software?

Subscription Based Software

There are few things more frustrating than having to pay a bunch of money for something that you don’t really need and will probably never use. Unfortunately, for most small business owners or sole proprietors, that is what a lot of business software tends to be.

For instance: you know that you shouldn’t be doing your company’s books on a simple Excel spreadsheet you made yourself; your company is too big for that now. At the same time you don’t need all of the bells and whistles that the major financial software companies insist on packaging with their programs (all of which help elevate the price).

Typically, most entrepreneurs breathe a heavy sigh and go ahead and buy that software anyway. Maybe they’ll wind up needing all of those bells and whistles in the future. Maybe they won’t mind having to pay for expensive upgrades that fix a single bug at a time (ensuring massive profit for the company while potentially causing money problems for yours). This is because, until recently, that was the only option.

Today, though, you can buy subscription based software. What’s that? Subscription based software is software that you don’t actually own but that you pay to use on an as-needed basis. It’s often abbreviated SaaS for “software as a service”.

This got a lot of press earlier this year when Adobe announced that it was stepping away from the standard “here pay for this big thing” model and switching over to a monthly subscription fee. The hope was to pick up business from people using open source alternatives like Pixlr because customers couldn’t afford the hefty one-time payment for the primary software package.

Now, other types of software companies are getting in on the act. Next Process, which now offers SaaS for business process management, had the same basic idea that Adobe had—create a subscription based software service. But they took it a step further. The company also offers assistance with the processes themselves. For instance, a business owner who opts for their Accounts Payable solution can outsource the bulk of their invoicing and collections duties to Next Process and pay only for exactly how much work the system does (after the setup/installation fee).

Imagine being able to outsource the chasing down of client payments (to a certain extent)!

Subscription based software isn’t just for tech companies either. It’s a big hit in the entertainment industry as well. Just look at streaming media companies like Netflix and Hulu Plus. A better example, are gaming companies. The MMPORPG (Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Game) industry is doing better than it ever has before. These are large complex games that charge a monthly fee for players to continue playing.

So, should you switch?

Before you make the leap and switch over all of your software to pay-as-you-go and subscription based services, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is there a subscription based service for what I need?

2. Is that service truly secure or could a twelve year old with too much free time hack in?

3. Can I afford the subscription fee/payment plan?

The answers to those questions will help illustrate what path you should take.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

Categories
Teamwork & Leadership

Top Tips for Maintaining Staff Motivation

employee-motivation

When it comes to running a successful business, there are few factors that are more important than the motivation of your own staff. Keep in mind that your employees are the ones who are doing a large amount of work with regards to the various projects that your company is trying to complete. Motivated employees are typically both happy and productive, which are two qualities that businesses absolutely need to move forward. If you’re worried that your business has a few motivation problems or just feel like the staff motivation could be higher, there are a few important things that you should be considering.

Feedback

A very effective way to increase motivation in general is to provide regular feedback to all of your employees and team members. It is always important to remember that feedback isn’t only reserved for when an employee has done something wrong. If you see an employee working hard and putting forth their best effort, or generally see someone who has been churning out quality work day after day, make sure the person is aware of your thoughts.

Rewards

Rewards are another proven way to increase the motivation of your staff. Rewards don’t have to be huge displays of gratitude – sometimes even a simple gift certificate to a local restaurant or a gift card for gasoline can do the trick. Even small tokens of your appreciation will go a long way towards getting employees to work as hard as possible on the work in front of them.

Before you start thinking about cutting back on employee hours to save money, always think about other areas where you can cut costs around the office. Cleanitsupply and other online ordering sites are a great way to save money on various types of cleaning products and supplies for your business.

Clear Communication

One of the biggest reasons that employee motivation can begin to deteriorate around an office is due to a lack of communication. If employees aren’t really sure what is being expected of them, they likely won’t work as hard or as well as they would if they had clear directives to follow. Always make sure that your goals for a particular project are clearly defined and that every employee is well aware of what he or she needs to be doing.

Suggestions

Another great way to maintain staff motivation is to allow employees to offer their own feedback and criticism with regards to certain aspects of the business. If an employee has a great idea on how to further progress on a particular project that everyone is working on, that employee should be allowed to speak his mind. Doing so will help him feel more involved in the overall process, which will give him a very real sense of ownership over the work that he’s doing. Even though you might not necessarily implement every last suggestion that your employees give you, the fact that you’re willing to receive those suggestions at all will go a long way towards showing employees that they are valued.

Michael Ferguson was a factory supervisor for three decades. Now that he is retired, he enjoys sharing his sage advice with others on various Internet blogs. He recommends Cleanitsupply.com for DIY office cleaning if you are looking for one.

Categories
Business Ideas

What “Cut Throat Kitchen” Can Teach You About Business

KT-Logo_s4x3_e

I’m not a huge reality television show watcher, but what I do like to watch are competition shows. Whether it’s sports or competitive cooking, I like watching how people respond to pressure. (After all, as entrepreneurs we’re always under pressure – it’s just not as condensed as it is on television nor is it typically terribly visual.)

Anyway so there’s a new cooking competition show called “Cut Throat Kitchen” that is the perfect analogy for how we view challenges in our biz.

Here’s the premise — professional chefs are able to sabotage their opponents while they’re cooking. Maybe they take away a key food item, maybe they force them to do all their cooking in a microwave or take away their knives. It always changes depending on what they happen to be cooking (the chefs “bid” on the sabotage items).

Anyway so on one particular show, the last two chefs standing had very different paths on how they got there. The woman had very little sabotage done to her, but the man had pretty much everything thrown at him.

The last dish they had to cook was lobster rolls. When they collected their ingredients, one of the woman’s lobsters fell on the floor. She was so disgusted by the thought of cooking with “living” food, she decided she couldn’t be bothered picking it up and left it there.

Cooking commenced and as par for the course, the man lost both sabotage auctions and ended up having to cook around the sabotages.

And you know who won? The man. The reason why the woman lost is because she didn’t have enough lobster in her lobster rolls — if she had just picked her lobster off the floor she probably would have won.

Okay so where are the business lessons? Well to me this was a beautiful analogy of how you deal with setbacks in your biz.

The man had everything but the kitchen sink thrown at him, yet he prevailed. He easily could have folded and used what he had to cook through as an excuse for failing. Yet he didn’t. He found a way to succeed despite the outside factors working against him.

As a business owner, we deal with outside forces beyond our control every day. We could easily say we’re not successful because of the “economy” or not having the money/time/team or not living in a supportive environment, etc. But is that REALLY why we aren’t successful? Or is it just an excuse to fail?

The woman, however, sabotaged herself. She didn’t pick up her lobster. And she lost. Her mindset kept her from doing the one thing that would have allowed her to succeed.

So now I ask you — when you hit a speed bump in your business, what do you do? Do you immediately blame outside forces? Do you look for a way to succeed despite outside forces? Do you look at yourself to see where your mindset or actions could have led to this outcome?

There’s no question what I’m saying is much easier said than done, but if you can change how you view setbacks, challenges and obstacles, that could be the difference between winning it all or going home empty handed.

Categories
Human Resource

HR Software and Its Benefits to a Business

humanres
Whether you own a business or head the Human Resources department, you know what top talents can do. When armed with the right set of tools, they have the power to propel a business to success. Top talents, however, aren’t always easy to come by, which is why taking care of those you already have is important. One way to do that is to ensure that their HR needs are addressed in a timely manner.

Timeliness and accuracy being two important elements, it’s no surprise that a lot of businesses today, big or small, are employing the help of HR software solutions to simplify and streamline their HR needs, some of which being turnover reports, sick/vacation/bonus accruals, trainings and certifications, performance evaluations, benefits enrollment and updated contact information.

HR software – the benefits

If you haven’t yet joined the fray, you’re probably wondering what’s in it for you if you choose to implement an HR software. Here are some of the benefits:

  • Increased productivity 

Using an HR software to track every employee information and request (a routine task that happens within the HR department on a regular basis) saves you half the time it normally takes to do the process manually, which, then affords you more time to do more important stuff, like creating/revising employee training manuals, resolving employee conflicts, if any, planning team building activities, among others.

  • Data accuracy 

If there’s one thing that irks an employee the most, it’s HR not getting his/her information right despite multiple requests for erroneous fields to be corrected, especially if such errors are directly tied to benefits, tax exemptions, deductions and the like. With an HR software, you get one central repository of employee data that you can update as needed, and which can also be forwarded to other pertinent departments, such as Payroll, for example.

  • Task distribution 

Normally, when an employee sends in a request, say, for vacation leave, a sequence of tasks is set to motion. HR acknowledges the request, which, depending on your business protocols, then checks things with the Workforce Department or any such department overseeing the company’s service level and staffing requirements. Once approved, the employee is informed, and other necessary data tracking steps within HR are performed.

With an HR software, tasks are automatically created for each step, and then distributed to pertinent individuals through push notifications, reducing the need for constant follow-ups among the participants. 

  • Data tracking 

In the leave request example above, data such as the employee’s available leave days, requested leave dates, and whether the request is approved or denied are involved. Alongside task distribution automation, data tracking can be automated as well, making yearly/monthly/weekly audits a breeze, as opposed to tracking every piece of data for each employee manually. 

  • Real-time visibility 

Let’s say the business just hit the big time, and you’re in need of new employees, not just several but a good number of them. If you’re the HR head, naturally, you have to stay on top of things, particularly if there are hiring schedules and targets you need to strictly adhere to.

The right HR software is equipped with a central dashboard that gives you immediate visibility into the status of every task being undertaken by your staff, eliminating the need for board meetings and numerous status updates. This allows your people more time to actually get the job done. 

Conclusion 

Technology has come a long way, and the ability to address your workforce’s concern in a manner that doesn’t require them to jump through hoops is a big plus in taking your relationship with them to the next level. This way, they recognize that you value their contributions and that your HR department is willing to work with them, not just for them.

About the Author:

Maricel Rivera is a researcher and freelance writer currently writing web content for Comindware, a business solutions software provider. Comindware Tracker, Comindware’s core product, is a single software with pre-built templates that can be tweaked to suit your specific business needs, whether that be for HR, Finance, Sales and Marketing, Software Development, IT Helpdesk, and so many others.