Tips and Articles

Mary and Tom brought in a pile of sand and dumped it in their back yard for their daughter Jan to play in. By the end of the summer, how much sand do you think was left? If you said not very much, you are correct.

On the same day, their neighbors Joan and Bob brought in the same amount of sand and placed it into their son’s sand box. They taught Bobby that sand belongs in the sand box and encouraged him to play as much as he liked, and to return any piles of sand that accidentally landed outside the sand box back in. By the end of the summer, how much sand do you think Bobby had left? If you said more than Jan, you are again correct.

What does any of this have to do with small business? That is a good question.

I once saw a TD Bank survey where small business owners ranked bookkeeping as their number one most hated task in running their business. In fact, 46% of the small business owners surveyed responded negatively to bookkeeping. Coming in second was a tie at 22% of small business owners indicating banking and marketing.

Karen,

I caught a really good employee checking Facebook. She says that she was only responding to her sister’s private message about needing her to babysit her niece, but we have a zero tolerance policy about accessing Facebook at work. What should I do? Do I have to fire her?

Mark, PA

Recently we discovered that one of our larger customers was not as profitable as we thought. They were making our gross revenue number look good, but were adding very little to our gross profit. In other words, we were churning cash.

In conversations with small business owners, we have discovered that many small businesses fall into the same trap. They take on customers that buy a lot, frequently pay quickly, but add very little to the profitability of the company. These customers are initially attractive because of the cash flow they create. Unfortunately, in many cases for every $1 that is brought in, $0.99 goes right back out. Thus the phrase: churning cash.

You may have noticed that over the past couple of months I have not been posting with any regularity. It’s my intention and goal to write and post a blog entry every week, usually on Tuesday. This is an example of just one of the many tactics we use to grow RedKnight.

I was raised on this axiom from Mom: “Don’t air your dirty laundry in public.” What Mom meant by this was that I was to keep my failings to myself, almost as a dirty secret. But here I am – airing my dirty laundry in public on the internet.

Do you have an employee that is driving you crazy?

According to a Gallup poll, 18% of all employees are actively disengaged and 52% are disengaged. This means that only 30%, or less than a third of the workforce, are actively engaged at work.

What is the impact of this on you, the employer? Well, chances are good that if you employ 10 or more people, you have at least one actively disengaged employee and two or three that are simply disengaged. (Note: Statistically, it would be 1.8 actively disengaged and 5.2 disengaged for every 10 people. I am lowballing the number here based on your above average management skills.) 

Karen,

I am a manager. Recently, my manager left for another position. I had applied for his position, but did not get it. Next week my new manager starts. What should I do if my ultimate goal is to move ahead in this company?

Lil, PA

Karen,

One of my team members is very slow to reply to emails. Frequently the topics addressed are time sensitive and her lack of response is impacting team performance. What can I do?

Cheryl, PA

I’ve been talking about branding for years now. And it seems that all too frequently I am asked about graphic design and marketing plans. And while RedKnight provides both of these services, I personally do not excel in them. Therefore, when Gummi provided me with the phrase Internal Branding last week, I was thrilled.

As I mulled over the phrase, I knew that it was perfect. It describes exactly my passion for assisting companies to identify their brand, or what the companies’ personality is. (Yes, I like to refer to companies as a living being, not as an ‘it’.) Internal branding also incorporates the services RedKnight Consulting provides that reinforce the internal brand or personality of the business: the six part empowerment series, staff retreats, culture building, and ethics training.

In fact, internal branding is so important that companies like Starbucks, Walmart, Zappos, Southwest Airlines and IBM spend a lot of time and money to get it right. They understand that internal branding provides them with business clarity and creates focused flexibility.

Karen,

We recently had a professional level staff person quit and it did not go very well. As a company we are subjected to certain reporting requirements regarding terminations to meet industry regulations that were not met. Would you provide me with some tips to make sure that I don’t have a repeat in the future?

Barbara, PA