SMB

Small businesses and the lost productivity

One of the most of challenging aspect of running a small business is to have a dedicated staff, at many small business that I worked with, there was a lost of productivity due to the staff not knowing what is needed from them. There was no dedicated staff or the staff members did not know what was their jobs description.

It is typical in a small business setting to see jobs responsibilities overlap; you would see human resource doing the job of accounting and marketing trying to work with IT issues and so on.

Because of the nature of small businesses where resources are limited, the above scenario is typical, but from my experience, management must come up with a quick plan to assign job responsibilities to improve productivity.
On my last consulting job with a small IT firm, productivity really improved when I clearly defined job responsibilities to each staff member, I explained to them that working at small business, you may have to work in other areas not related to your job, but that’s only when we need an extra hand.

Most small business are owned by either a single person or few partners, and the owner(s) is usually doing marketing and public relations work outside and he/she is not available each day to oversee day to day activities, I saw this first hand in few countries I worked in.

Most business owners that I have worked with complain about staff members not being productive and he/she has to do everything. The fact is, staff members are productive and welling to work, they just need little guidance and direction, after all they are not the decision makers.

As an owner of a small business, you should schedule timely meeting with your staff, this may sound basic but believe me not many business owners meet regularly with their staff members, in this meeting you must assign tasks, make decisions, listen to problems, make plans and show support to your staff members. These meetings can be only once a week for an hour or so, but it will be a great tool to energize your employees and you will see the results almost immediately.

Tips to Enhance your small business image

You don’t need to have a big budget to improve the image of your small business, just some creativity. In today’s technologically advanced world, you can give your company real professional image without spending a fortune.

Many small businesses cannot afford to hire a professional secretary or have a prestigious business address, a company called HQ, www.hq.com, resolved this issue for many small businesses and independent consultants by offering, among other services, a prestigious business address and secretarial services for a fee of $100-$200/month. They offer these services in many cities around the world.

Another service a small business can use without spending a fortune is the services of VOIP, I have been using Vonage services for several months now, www.vonage.com, the service is great and I can carry the phone with my any where in the world without my clients noticing that I am out of my office. The basic service is available for under $30/a month.

And the last thing, if you want to hire a professional in almost any filed, from writers to lawyers to computer programmers, try www.guru.com, here you will find talents from around the world with very competitive rates, you don’t need to a hire a full time employees just use these freelancers as you need them.

Dow Jones World Sustainability Index and small businesses

What is Dow Jones World Sustainability Index? In few words, Dow Jones World Sustainability Index is a measure used to track corporate social responsibility, to create long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments. This index excludes companies that generate revenue from alcohol, tobacco, gambling, armaments & firearms.

The Dow Jones World Sustainability Index set guidelines for “CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY” that many small businesses can use to as a checklist to improve their own business performance.

CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY

Corporate Sustainability is a business approach that creates long-term shareholder value by embracing opportunities and managing risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments. Corporate sustainability leaders achieve long-term shareholder value by gearing their strategies and management to harness the market’s potential for sustainability products and services while at the same time successfully reducing and avoiding sustainability costs and risks.

The quality of a company’s strategy and management and its performance in dealing with opportunities and risks deriving from economic, environmental and social developments can be quantified and used to identify and select leading companies for investment purposes.
Leading sustainability companies display high levels of competence in addressing global and industry challenges in a variety of areas:

Strategy: Integrating long-term economic, environmental and social aspects in their business strategies while maintaining global competitiveness and brand reputation.
Financial: Meeting shareholders’ demands for sound financial returns, long-term economic growth, open communication and transparent financial accounting.
Customer & Product: Fostering loyalty by investing in customer relationship management and product and service innovation that focuses on technologies and systems, which use financial, natural and social resources in an efficient, effective and economic manner over the long-term.
Governance and Stakeholder: Setting the highest standards of corporate governance and stakeholder engagement, including corporate codes of conduct and public reporting.
Human: Managing human resources to maintain workforce capabilities and employee satisfaction through best-in-class organizational learning and knowledge management practices and remuneration and benefit programs.
Corporate sustainability performance is an investable concept. This is crucial in driving interest and investments in sustainability to the mutual benefit of companies and investors. As this benefit circle strengthens, it will have a positive effect on the societies and economies of both the developed and developing world.

The above guidelines about “ CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY”,
can be found at :www.sustainability-index.com/07_htmle/sustainability/corpsustainability.html

Workers management conflicts at small businesses Part 2

In my last article I stated that I will keep you informed on the problem I am trying to resolve dealing with workers/ management conflict taking place at my current job.

I also stated that currently, I am working in the State of Qatar, a small country in the Arabian Gulf.
There is a large number of expatriates working here, people from Asia, US, Europe and the Middle East. Working with people with diverse cultural backgrounds is interesting and challenging at the same time.

Dealing with workers-management conflict in a country in this part of the world is quite different than dealing with it in the US. I had to prepare myself by:

1- Familiarizing myself with the cultural backgrounds of all parties involved.
2- Familiarizing myself with the current labor laws in the country.
3- Meeting with senior managers in the company to get an idea of current practices in conflict management in the country.

My next step was to meet with all the parties involved to reach to the root of the conflict.
Direct talk was the key to resolve the conflict; the mechanics were worried about their pay and other minor issues regarding work. The Management was not happy with the way the mechanics voiced their concerns, it felt it was intimidating.
In the meeting:
1- All the mechanics were giving a chance to express their concerns which mainly were:
a- Not getting paid on time
b- No contact number where they can call if they have an issue
c- No group leader

2- The management were concerned with:
a- Mechanics not being patient with the pay issues, the management had no intention to delay their pay, but at times, especially with small businesses, things get out of control
b- The management didn’t appreciate the way the some of the mechanics intimidated the office secretary with their demands
c- The management didn’t appreciate nor it will allow the formation of any types of unions

The meeting went real smooth and all the points above were discussed. The mechanics were giving a monthly date (from the 1st to the 5th of the month) where they should receive their pay; they were told they can not have a group leader or from any types of unions and all their grievances must be communicated to management and finally they were giving a number to call in case they had any concerns.

The management acknowledged the frustration felt by the mechanics when they didn’t get their pay on time or when they cant find the right person to call when the faced a problem.
All the above points were translated into an agreement and was signed by both parties

Workers management conflicts at small businesses

As I start with my new work assignment with a new company and in a new country, I will again share my experience of managing small businesses.
Right now I am in the State of Qatar, small country in the Arabian Gulf region and one of the contenders to host the 2016 Olympic Games.

My first assignment as business development manager with my new company is to resolve a labor dispute between a group of mechanics and the management.

As the case with many small businesses around the world, most of the small companies don’t have clear guidelines for new employees nor there a clear job description for the current employees.

The issue I am having at hand is dealing with the mechanics complaining that the company is not providing them with what they were promised and the management complaining that the mechanics demands never ends and they have no respect for the company’s policy or a respect for its staff members.

The firs thing I requested form all parties involved is to have a general meeting with me to hear from everyone involved in the case, I want to start by having a fresh look at the whole problem.

Meanwhile, I have instructed my direct staff to work on the followings:
1-Develop employee’s handbook that details in particular “employee-management relations.”
2-Re-write the current contract with the mechanics to the level accepted by all parties involved.
3-Write complete job description, skills set and duties of every employee. One of the issues that led to the current conflict is that no one is ready to take the responsibility during time of crisis.

This is the immediate steps I took to resolve the current conflict; I will keep posting about any new developments as they happen.

Think Big by thinking small

As I enjoy working with and managing small businesses, I see a great deal of opportunities within the small business communities.
Many small business are flexible and ready to explore new ideas, one of the most powerful elements of the United States economy is within its small business community.
Developing countries started to realize the important contributions small businesses make to the local economy, although some are still far from providing the real support small businesses need.

In countries like Japan, various electronic parts manufacturing is giving to small businesses by giant corporations, this step helps in supporting the local economy in addition to creating more jobs at local levels.
Some of the benefits local communities can get from supporting small businesses:
1- Boost the entrepreneurial spirit within the local community which lead to more innovations
2- Small business owners are aware of their local communities problems and how to solve them
3- Since setting up and operating small business takes shorter time, the creation of jobs is almost immediate
4- World’s most successful companies started as a small business

So if you have the spirit to innovate and the desire to make it on your own, start as small business, you may get lucrative job offers from the corporate world, but your ideas may not take off in the corporate environment, only at small business level you will have the flexibility and freedom to innovate. If your local environment is not supporting, than fly with your ideas to more supporting environment.