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SMB Owners

How to make your business more appealing to new and existing workers

May 25, 2010 by admin Leave a Comment

Right now the economy sucks; there is no other way to say it. Yes, the political spin mongers are out there telling us about how rosy it is supposedly getting, but I like that old Mark Twain quote “There are lies, damn lies, and statistics,” (thanks to : Mark Twain. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved May 25, 2010, from Brainy Quote: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/marktwain128372.html)

The thing is that this recession shall pass, and American business will go on-changed but persevering. At that time, American employers will need to concentrate on keeping and attracting new workers. One thing the American employee has learned from this recession is that they work far too much and enjoy far too little off time compared with the rest of the world (who view Americans as people who work themselves to death).
Here is a wonderful article on the issue: http://users.ipfw.edu/ruflethe/american.html

A company that I worked for seven years had a great incentive and they really didn’t realize it: Every year the business shut down for Christmas week (the week between Christmas and New Years). In a company that demanded a lot from its workers it was one thing that kept the standard front line employee from wandering off to other endeavors even though the company was very stingy with raises and was not the gold standard as far as benefits. The entire week was paid for by the employer.

Other ideas are comp time, 37.5 hour work week, summer business hours, and flex time. One thing I did when I lead a sales team was stagger the work week. On Monday morning we were in at 7am and generally worked until 6, but on Friday we came in at 8:30 and left at 3; in fact, if I saw Jr. sales reps or sales assistants in their cubical after 3:30, I officially kicked them out of the bull pen turned out the lights and locked the door. As a manager, HR wondered why “my people” were so loyal-gee it wasn’t that hard. Needless to say if I ever needed to ask for overtime from someone, it was cheerfully accepted, and I avoided asking very often and my sales people knew it.

Other things I have seen effective were buying the first round after work on Friday night at the local watering hole, giving a hard working but seldom recognized employee the company business card and saying, “take your wife-sweetheart out to dinner and a movie-companies buying (every thing but alcohol).”

Implement these ideas now, and when the big loosening of the economy comes you won’t find your business trying to lock the door’s to keep everyone from leaving. I have seen it from the other side as well, a company who sort of enjoyed being demanding, when the economy loosened they could not effectively conduct business, they did not have enough front line people. Also the growth of job sites like www.glassdoor.com are becoming a very usual part of a person’s job search, and you don’t want your company to be poorly rated here if you want to attract new employees.


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Tagged: economy, Save Money, Save Your Small Business, SMB Owners

Busy SMB Owners: Beat Stress with Your iPhone

November 15, 2009 by Sarah Leave a Comment
Busy SMB Owners: Beat Stress with Your iPhone

If you own or manage a small or medium business, you probably don’t get a lot of time to yourself. After seeing to it that your company is running smoothly, taking care of your family, and tending to other mundane daily chores, there is not a lot of time to relax or beat stress. These days, there’s an iPhone app for everything (and in some instances, hundreds for everything) and beating stress is no different. People are turning to their cell phones for everything from job hunting to cooking, so, why not take a few minutes out of your busy day and let your iPhone help you relax? Below you’ll find a list of great apps that will help beat stress in a variety of ways.

If you are simply looking for quick stress relief that you can take advantage of in you car, at your desk, or while you’re sitting in an airport, here are a few great apps to take advantage of.

1. Massage Me – Allows you to use your phone’s vibration to give yourself a quick massage.

2. iHateMyJob – Vent about work, but don’t be surprised if you get some good advice in return.

3. Fracture – In the mood to break things? This app lets you break your iPhone…virtually, of course!

4. Stress Shaker – Watch a boat sail the ocean as the app provides you with thought provoking quotes. If you’re really stressed, shake your phone. The more you shake your phone, the more appropriate the quotes become to your stress level.

5. Stress Relief: Smash Edition – With this app, you can “smash” everything from electronics to food to coffee mugs.

Busy SMB Owners: Beat Stress with Your iPhone

Maybe you don’t have time to exercise and would like to squeeze in a quick workout at lunch, while you’re traveling, or anytime. Here are some of the top apps that will make it easier for you to get in a little stress-reducing workout each day:

1. iPump and Fitness Builder – provides you with a variety of workouts and you can narrow them down based on your location (ie: hotel room)

2. FitDeck – this app offers you instruction on a number of basic exercises that can be done anywhere, using only your own body weight.

3. Yoga Relax – offers soothing music, simple poses, and workouts for 1-36 minutes.

4. Run Keeper – if you want to go for a job, this app will track your pace, speed, and elevation, as well as track your run on a map, which is really good for new and unusual locations

5. Yoga Trainer Pro – customize your own workout with hundreds of poses that can be done anytime, anywhere

Busy SMB Owners: Beat Stress with Your iPhone

If you think being more organized would help relieve you of some of your daily stress, you’re right! Maintaining home and business life isn’t easy, and there are also apps to help you organize the rest of your life:

1. To Do’s – does exactly what the name says. Create your “to do” list, and move items up and down according to priority.

2. Grocery IQ – This app allows you to jot down your grocery list as you think of it. Remember you need milk while in you’re a meeting? Just type it into your iPhone and let the app categorize your purchases.

3. Flight Track – This is pretty self-explanatory. Have to pick up a relative or business client at the airport? Track flight times, departures and more.

4. The Weather Channel – There’s nothing worse than showing up to work in a sweater when it’s 80 degrees outside, or forgetting your umbrella when your day requires you to travel across town on the rainiest day of the year.

5. Evernote – By far, the most popular app for note-taking. It ranks highest on almost every “top” list on every website across the web.

Tagged: Fitness, iPhone, iPhone Apps, Relaxation, SMB Owners, Stress, Yoga

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