You don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving
to start thinking about what you’re grateful for. In fact, running your
business with an air of gratitude is a great way to connect with customers and
employees as well as friends and family. It sets your company apart and
engenders deserved trust throughout every level of your business. Want to
reduce turnover with your staff while developing employees you can be proud of
and trust? Show them gratitude. Want to invest in customer loyalty? Showing
gratitude for their business goes a long way. You can even show gratitude for
your community’s support. It always pays to show gratitude to others, so they
feel good about the relationship they have with you whether it’s as an owner or
partner, a client, vendor or as an employer.
Like countries and families, every organization has its own unique culture. A company’s values, traditions, priorities, people and work processes shape the overall cultural vibe in that business or entity. When people feel comfortable at work, they tend to be more productive and stay with the company longer, even without increased benefits or pay; this is a healthy work culture. There are many ways a company can develop a toxic or unpleasant culture; those who do, often have high turnover and spiraling numbers. If a toxic culture is not addressed soon enough, it bleeds into the success of the business, not only losing workers but customers. What is your work culture like?
Small businesses are started for any number of reasons, but most entrepreneurs agree that they wanted to be their own boss and found a way to make a living doing something they already enjoyed doing. Starting your own enterprise, or finally being handed the reigns to a family business can require courage and sacrifice. This is expected, but over time, having to stress about every detail in your business can wear thin. If you find yourself in that situation, you might want to read this. As time passes, it may get tougher to cheer yourself up or create work/life balance. This could lead to long-term small business burnout, a condition describing the desire to not run your business anymore. Some owners close down their small business in order to work for somebody else so they can work fewer hours.
There is a lot of talk in leadership theory now about conventional or hard leadership skills vs the modern demand for soft skills. Traditional skills include the ability to sell, calculate and understand numbers, writing, speaking, and marketing. While all of these skills are indeed useful, they may either not address leadership ability or they serve very specific purposes that don’t always require upfront interaction with people. Soft leadership skills, such as active listening, have a lot to do with relational dealings within our company, which can include co-workers as well as clients.
If you are still wondering if you should have a blog at all, read this. If you are wondering as a business owner, should I have a personal or business blog, think about what each of those are. Blogging has become a common way of posting stories, articles and musings about a variety of subjects. It’s done by corporations, businesses, governments, and private organizations and charities.
It’s tough to
go on some websites or online articles and not run into somebody’s blog. There
are many kinds of blogs, but for business, they range from personal blogs to
industry-related to community interest. Do you need a blog for your company? Do
you want one? You’re a busy small business owner; we get it. If you’re going to
do something that takes your time, you want to make sure it’s useful.
