Entrepreneurship

GUEST POST: How Women Are Reshaping the Business World

2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the empowering song “Sisters are Doin’ It for Themselves.” It was an instant classic and is just as motivating today as it was then. A whole generation of female entrepreneurs is consistently redefining gender stereotypes.
The result? The number of female-owned businesses grew by close to 3,000% between 1972 and 2018. The working world today bears little resemblance to what it did 30 years ago. (more…)

UNODEUCE VIDEO: Interview with Jerry Norris on the EveryDamnDay Podcast

In case you missed it, here was my interview with Jerry Norris of The Fledge on his podcast, EveryDamnDay. It was a great conversation and very comfortable. His podcast is exactly that, talking with entrepreneurs and business owners every single day. Check out more of his interviews here. And subscribe to The Fledge on YouTube and like them on Facebook, they are doing great things over there.

Guest Post: 21 Books All Founders Should Read to Scale Their Startup

When it comes to being a successful entrepreneur, “knowledge is power.” So, if you’re on a quest to build your knowledge hub, where do you go?

In today’s digital age, the natural inclination might be to listen to a podcast, watch a YouTube video or attend a Ted Talk. Make no mistake, these can be valuable resources for gaining business insights, but they don’t give you the detail that 300+ pages might offer. Yes, If you want exposure to new ideas, modes of thinking, and a library of diverse knowledge, then cracking open a book on the regular is an essential part of being a successful founder. (more…)

Guest Post: What Small Business Owners Need to Know About Coronavirus

The coronavirus is all over the news and basically the only thing on everyone’s minds. Consumers and businesses are in a state of limbo. There are still so many unknowns at this time, everyone is still trying to figure out what to expect.

Today, we’ll focus on a few potential positive and negative outcomes. Overall, negative outcomes will likely fall into two major categories: loss of business and sickness. The travel, tourism, and event industries are the most likely to feel the impact of the virus. Companies in these fields should evaluate their current financial situation and find ways they can quickly save money or cut costs. These companies should also consider thinking about new ways they can serve their customers during this time.

Although it may seem bleak, there is help on the way. Actions are already being taken by lawmakers to protect small businesses, and there are some ways businesses will be positively affected. On March 6th, President Trump signed an $8 billion emergency funding package to support small businesses impacted by the coronavirus. This will make it easier for businesses that need extra capital to get it.

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Guest Post: 10 Ways to Increase Empathy in the Workplace

Empathy is the ability to understand the feelings and vulnerabilities of those around you. Having a strong standing team that is able to notice when someone may need help, or have a good sense of direction when navigating a tough conversation is key. As your small business starts to expand and more team members start joining your team, exercising this skill is crucial.

Whether you are putting your time and energy towards building a more positive working environment this year, or you’re wanting to grow your client list, empathy is a great place to start. Research shows that over 60% of employees would take a pay decrease to work on an empathetic team—proving that investing in your employee’s well-being should be a top priority for industry leaders.

On the flip side of this, showing empathy for your employees doesn’t just happen overnight. There are a few small changes to be made for a long term impact on your team.

Different Types of Empathy

Empathy has various different pros and cons when it comes to a work environment. There is such a thing as being too empathic, or not showing enough empathy. Educating your team about the different types of empathy and which to portray is a great starting point.

1.Cognitive Empathy

Also known as “perspective-taking,” this type of empathy focuses heavily on understanding one’s emotional state. This empathy type provides a comfortable and flexible company environment to help build your team’s ability, goals, and aspirations for growth.

2. Emotional Empathy

This type of empathy is also known as “effective” or “primitive” empathy as it triggers an emotional feeling on a deeper level, affecting one personally. For instance, if someone got in trouble for a project gone wrong, you might develop fear over losing your job or making the same mistake.

3. Compassionate Empathy

Compassionate empathy is the most actionable of all three. This involves seeing someone go through pain, experiencing it emotionally yourself, resulting in an instant desire to help. For instance, say an account executive isn’t meeting their goals that month and have been put on a performance plan. Compassionate workers will do everything in their power to help direct prospects to that team member, schedule additional educational meetings, or give sales directly to them.

Increasing empathy on your team can have a positive impact on your team’s productivity, in turn, optimize your initial salary investment on your employees. Show your team you care this year with Fundera’s roadmap to practicing proper empathy in your workplace.

10 Ways to Increase Empathy in the Workplace

headshot of the author

Meredith Wood Vice President and Founding Editor at Fundera, Meredith Wood is the founding editor of the Fundera Ledger and a vice president at Fundera. She launched the Fundera Ledger in 2014 and has specialized in financial advice for small business owners for almost a decade. Meredith is frequently sought out for her expertise in small business lending. She is a monthly columnist for AllBusiness, and her advice has appeared in the SBA, SCORE, Yahoo, Amex OPEN Forum, Fox Business, American Banker, Small Business Trends, MyCorporation, Small Biz Daily, StartupNation, and more. Email: meredith@fundera.com.

Guest Post: Foot Traffic Faltering? 5 Ways to Enhance Your Storefront

If your business is experiencing a decrease in foot traffic, there are some different tactics that you can try to increase your customer flow. One of the best ways to go about doing this is by enhancing your storefront so that it catches more people’s attention and entices them to stop inside to shop. These five simple methods for enhancing your storefront can help you increase customer foot traffic.

Add a Window Display 

Window displays can spark the curiosity of onlookers and highlight businesses in a more positive light. Your window display can include mannequins, colorful decorations, and visually stunning signage to get people through your doors. It’s also a good idea to include a QR code in your window display that people can scan with their mobile phones to get instant access to your store’s website.

Set Out a Sandwich Board
Even a simple sandwich board can garner more attention for your business from passersby. This sandwich board can be placed directly outside your front door on the sidewalk for easy advertising. Your board can feature written details about any promotions or other aspects of your business that will make people want to become customers. For a custom-made sandwich board, consider ordering one from a reputable plasting moulding manufacturer.

Include Some Flowers
Beautiful flowers around your storefront will give your business a more welcoming feel. Flowers can be especially helpful for brightening people’s moods on cold and dreary days, which will shed even more positive light on your business. Roses, chrysanthemums, and tulips are always good choices. You can also include some ivy or other plants to give your floral display more greenery.

Feature Some Balloons
The sight of balloons can make a person feel like a kid again and make your store look like a more fun place to shop. Business 2 Community suggests using colors like red, blue, green, and yellow, which have been shown to increase sales. You’ll also want to make sure that these balloons stay fully inflated so that they look livelier and remove and replace any balloons that have lost air.

Try a String of Flags
This creative display simply involves a string of individual flags that attaches from a light post to your front door. You can choose to include flags that are of the same color or multiple colors that coincide well with one another. These flags can also feature the name of your business or any special sales or other offers that you’re trying to promote.

Getting more business through your door can be a reality if you take the time to improve your storefront’s appearance. The little bit of extra effort that’s needed to enhance the look of your business might pay off handsomely in the end.

 

 

Lizzie Weakley is a freelance writer from Columbus, Ohio. She went to college at The Ohio State University, where she studied communications. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors and long walks in the park with her three-year-old husky, Snowball.

Guest Post: Simplify Your Business Organization to Increase Productivity

Today’s companies need to embrace the latest disruptive technologies in order to grow and develop, and at the same time, they’re faced with an increase in customers’ needs and demands. All this means introducing a lot of new business processes, which, in turn, leads to complicating the workflow and increasing the workload. Needless to say, overhead costs grow too, while employees tend to become frustrated and disengaged. If we bear in mind that 85% of the global workforce are either not engaged or are actively disengaged at work, it’s clear that streamlining business processes and simplifying your business organization will increase productivity and boost your profit. 

Reduce the number of meetings

While they are important for the flow of information, meetings can be huge time wasters and productivity killers. For example, senior executives spend more than 2 days a week while an organization spends 15% of its time in meetings. When translated into financial resources, it turns out that in the US, companies throw away $25 million a day, or a whopping $37 billion a year, on unnecessary meetings. Instead of running lengthy meetings, use email blasts, or even better, team communication tools to keep everyone informed and on the same page. Another idea is to have some quick, stand-up meetings during which only the employees directly involved in the process or task will be present. This way your employees will be aware that meetings won’t be dragged-out and tedious, which means that they’ll show up and be focused.

Leverage automation

Instead of relying on a mountain of paperwork, automate your document management and go paperless. With the help of professionals, you can implement document management solution that will improve the information flow within your company and have everything in one place where it’s easily accessible. Apart from enabling team and customer collaboration by sharing documents, you’ll also be able to speed up approval processes, prevent jams, and get things done faster by implementing electronic signature tools. Finally, given that your clients are concerned about the privacy of their sensitive information, a reliable cloud-based software will make sure that their data is absolutely protected.

Standardize processes

One of the best ways of simplifying your business is by standardizing recurrent processes. In other words, why wasting time repeating the same or similar task over and over again if you can create templates and save a lot of time? Standardization rests on finding the best way of doing things, that is, implementing the best practices. This results in better productivity and easier process improvement. In addition to that, adopting standard methods for doing things in your company will make it much easier to break in new employees and show them the ropes. Standardization is one of the key pillars of the Toyota Production System also known as Kanban, a management approach which focuses on quality and consistency.

Outsource

The advancement of new technologies has enabled a new way of outsourcing and finding the right people for the job from the global talent pool. This means that you’ve got a chance to hire various professionals who work from home as freelancers even if they don’t live in the same city, country or even on the same continent. Another way to boost the productivity of your business is by introducing a telecommuting option. If you’re having second thoughts, take your cue from Dell, as the IT giant managed to save $12 million on real estate costs only, while some estimates say that the company saved almost $40 million in total by allowing and even encouraging their employees to work from home. Besides reducing the overhead costs, Dell announced that their telecommuting employees were even more productive as they could work from the comfort of their homes and avoid numerous open-office distractions.

Add “no” to your vocabulary

Sometimes entrepreneurs and managers tend to bite off more than they can chew and pile up tasks and responsibilities. It’s only logical to always be looking for business opportunities, but if non-selectively applied, this idea can only lead to wasting your time, energy, and resources on things that aren’t your top priority. Instead of that, it’s essential to assess every situation separately and ask yourself “What’s in it for me and my business?” Learning to say no to things that aren’t exactly profitable can significantly increase your productivity. When it comes to making promises, make sure that you do that only when you know that you can deliver. Now that the multitasking myth has been busted and that research studies have shown that the practice of doing several things at the same time only reduces our productivity, it’s time to come to terms with our own limitations. A day has only 24 hours and the best way to be productive and get things done is to be 100% focused on every individual task.

These straightforward tips can help you simplify your business and boost your and your employees’ productivity.