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As a business owner, you know what it’s like to lie awake at 2 a.m. Maybe it has happened when you are excited and full of new ideas for your business. More often, it’s because you are worried about issues you will face the next day. Sometimes, it’s because you just woke up with the solution to a problem. I’ve experienced all those emotions about my businesses over the years. Awake at 2 o’clock? is where I share them with you, and hopefully help with answers that will let you sleep.
John F. Dini, CExP, CEPA
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Small business owners are the Hunters of the 21st century. We are 3% of the US population, and yet we create over half of all American jobs. As Hunters, we may not be inclined to manage by the numbers or stick to systems. Are you a Hunter or a Farmer?
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How prepared are you to exit your company?
The Assessment breaks down the four major categories of exit readiness; Finance, Planning, Operations and Revenue/Profit.
Tag Archives: employees
What Does HR Do?
What are the roles of a Human Resources professional in your organization? A common rule of thumb is that a company should have a dedicated HR function once it reaches 80 employees or so. This post comes from a recent meeting of … Continue reading
4 Responses to What Does HR Do?
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Small Businesses Fantasies: Service
As an evangelist for small business, I am the consumer equivalent of the locally-grown food movement. I spend as much of my discretionary income as possible with the owned-and-operated businesses in my area. As a consultant and coach to owners, I also … Continue reading
3 Responses to Small Businesses Fantasies: Service
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Even if you work on it every day, if you do not do it well the effort is still wasted.
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people have stopped investing in training and expect their employees to intuitively “know” these things. not possible. Really caring is just not that common.
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Service is a nebulous term. It has a different definition whether it comes from the provider or the customer. What supersedes service is the experience from the customer’s standpoint. Today’s independent business owner has a great opportunity to differentiate itself from its competitors. Unfortunately, many do not know how to do this.
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Talk to Your Competitors
In my two decades of managing over a dozen peer groups, I frequently had the opportunity to sit in meetings with a business owner who competed with a member of another Board. I occasionally had to bite my tongue as someone vilified … Continue reading
2 Responses to Talk to Your Competitors
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Good article.
There is another reason to understand competitors. If you understand their methods, philosophies, and other aspects of their business, you can find other ways “Not to compete” with them. Since you are “different from the crowd”, perhaps your customer will conduct business with you without being price sensitive!
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As usual a great lesson,especially for small businesses.
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The 7 Deadly Sins of an Entrepreneur — Reprise
I make no claim that using the Seven Deadly Sins as a metaphor for business behavior is original. Of course, the original concept is a codifying of “undesirable” human behaviors, or sins. The work probably comes from the Latin word … Continue reading
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The Seventh Entrepreneurial Sin — Pride
Every business owner should be proud of his or her business. If you are the founder, you built every system, and probably landed the biggest customers. If you bought the business, you took what was in place and made it … Continue reading
I think you have done a good job describing most aspects of the role of an HR professional, but you haven’t touched upon “discipline”. In our organization, 60 plus employees, we use an HR contractor. In addition to those areas mentioned, a large amount of their time is spent supporting supervisors and department heads on how to respond to issues ranging from harassment claims to customer service complaints, attendance and general behavior problems. You haven’t addressed activities such as tracking discipline, conducting investigations, coaching managers and employees with policy or behavior infractions. Would you assign such tasks to the HR role as described by your “peer group”.
Excellent point, John. I don’t think it is appropriate to have HR actually conduct discipline, but making sure it is complaint with both government and policy, administered even-handedly, and that management is supported when claims arise should certainly be in there. Perhaps the group just doesn’t have any discipline problems. (wink)
Hi John,
It is true, that, HR activities are very important if you grow, Choosing and Hiring qualified leads are crucial.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge unto us.
I really appreciate your work. Great job and Keep it up John! 🙂
Or, if you don’t want to worry about hiring a skill you have never hired before, and having a single role with nobody for that person to learn from, consider outsourcing those administrative, process and systems to experts you don’t want to “buy” in your small business. Also, outsourcing allows you to get the critical work done, by fully qualified professionals, without carrying non-revenue generating employees. Hence the birth of the PEO! We are growing like crazy because owners know they their time is better spen focused on profit and growth!