Buy Local and build your community Often in the media and social media stratosphere we hear the words – “buy local, buy Australian”. And most of us agree with this ideal and would like to buy Australian and support our own farmers and manufacturers. But it’s not that simple, is it? What does “Buying Local” […]
Buy Local and build your community
Often in the media and social media stratosphere we hear the words – “buy local, buy Australian”. And most of us agree with this ideal and would like to buy Australian and support our own farmers and manufacturers. But it’s not that simple, is it?
What does “Buying Local” really mean? How does it really impact our local economy and community?
In an age where we are seemingly surrounded by corporately owned retail chains, the words Buy Local are often scoffed at. How can we possibly buy Australian or buy local when we don’t really know who owes what businesses anymore?
But perhaps that’s missing the point entirely – perhaps buying local is simple and does directly impact our community more than we think.
Buying local means supporting the local café even if it’s a franchise of a large corporate brand – because the person who owes that local franchise shop is also a local themselves, and employs local university students and tradespeople as their work force. That same business would like to make a better profit because they genuinely would like to be able to afford to employ more local staff and they’d like give to a local charity, and support the local primary school fair this year.
We need to see our community and its businesses differently, we are interdependent – we need to see the people who own, run and work in the businesses, not just the brand or lack of brand on the front door.
Why does buying local build your community?
Local work forces buy local – in my lunch break I’ll often run down the street and do a quick bit of grocery shopping, or buy a present or coffee and lunch from the shops around me.
Schools & clubs need sponsors for projects like shade sails and air-conditioning and prizes for raffles to buy equipment. If your local school population buys from the local businesses who sponsor school projects, then there’s a direct demonstration of return on investment to the sponsoring business. So they are more likely to continue to support your school each year.
Charities who rely on the donations of small businesses in their communities need to be able to show their sponsors that it’s worthwhile supporting them and that the business will get exposure and more people will buy from them if they support the charity.
Young people & University Students need after school jobs to teach them the value of working for a living whilst studying. Mums trying to make the ends meet need access to casual or part-time work close to home so they can be there for the kids too.
More local small businesses, means more opportunities for these people, and better infrastructure and services for you.
Small local businesses need to be able to turn a profit so they can grow and do more in their communities.
Is it more expensive to shop local than over the web?
In the short term it may be a bit more expensive, but this is a very limited and short term perspective about the true cost.
If you take a wider view, what does it actually cost you and your community. Are you really saving money or are you paying that saving out somewhere else. There are consequences to every decision you make.
If I choose, out of convenience and to save some time, to buy all of my groceries from the local Woolworths or Coles down the street there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m investing in the lives of local kids and mums who work there and I save some money.
But if I buy meat from the local butcher and vegetables from the grocer in that same complex and then the rest of my consumables from the supermarket it’ll take a little longer. It will cost me a little bit more cash upfront but I’m investing in building the local businesses in my community and providing a future from my children who will one day be looking for a job after school at one of those stores.
Plus when I do I’ve just made it possible for three shops to prosper. These shops will support the local primary school, sports club or charity with a donation of a meat tray or fruit platter at their next fundraiser because that business feels supported by their local community. Which also means the fees I pay don’t go up as high each year for my kids soccer registration, or their school equipment. GO LOCAL FIRST spokesperson Mark McKenzie said: “Small businesses account for just over one-third of Australia’s GDP and a full economic recovery will not be possible without small businesses trading and providing jobs for their community.”
Next time you’re out shopping or on the hunt for a present, consider shopping local first, tell the shop owner why you’re shopping there, especially if you’ve noticed that they have supported a local community/school so they know that it was worth their while to invest some of their profit in their local community too.
Leading Millennials, What you need to know. As part of our Managing Millennials series David Leahy (Great People Inside) spoke about what you need to know to Lead Millennials effectively. Generational labels exist and stereotypical traits are often associated with these various generations. A lot of leaders express a real frustration at their Millennial workforces, […]
Leading Millennials, What you need to know.
As part of our Managing Millennials series David Leahy (Great People Inside) spoke about what you need to know to Lead Millennials effectively.
Generational labels exist and stereotypical traits are often associated with these various generations.
A lot of leaders express a real frustration at their Millennial workforces, as they associate this generation as disloyal, job-hoppers and that they have a dislike for hard work.
This article and our video from the Managing Millennials series is about helping people to lead better, by understanding that Millennials & Gen Z’s are not as different to other generations as they may seem.
What do Millennials and Gen Z’s want from their work?
The Harvard Business Review published a study of 20 different studies comprising 20,000 different people looking at 3 work-related criteria:
Job satisfaction
Organizational commitment
Person’s intent to leave
The findings showed the relationship between generational membership and work related outcomes were practically non-existent. Therefore, millennials are pretty much the same as every other generation.
Millennials and Gen Z’s Typical Needs are:
Growth opportunities
Great managers to report to
Jobs that are suited to their talents and interests
Inspirational leadership – they want people who will create a vision for the organization and a vision that aligns with their values
Deloitte conducted a pulse survey on millennials in the middle of COVID 2020 to understand if the pandemic had any significant impact on millennials and how they think about the things of interest to them.
The Findings – There was no change whatsoever. They just wanted businesses and governments to mirror a commitment to society where they put people ahead of profits and prioritising environmental sustainability, diversity, inclusion and income equality. The study went on to say the viewpoint of millennials will be critical to building a better normal and that job loyalty will increase once the businesses address the Millennials and Gen Z’s employees needs.
More millennials said they’d like to stay with their employers for at least 5 years than would prefer to leave within 2 years.
What motivates them? The key is to understanding their hard-wiring/behavioural traits.
There are 3 Key Leadership Building Blockscombined with behavioural insights and psychometric diagnostics which enhance leadership ability and skills by:
– Boosting productivity (how to get them to produce more and deliver more = more profitable)
Using today’s next-generation diagnostic instruments can be highly beneficial in approaching psychometric and behavioural analysis which provide objective data.
These tools are cost-effective and simple to understand and can be used in organisations of any size.
Looking at Leadership:
What is the difference between a Manager and a Leader?
“Manager” is a title.
“Leadership” is bestowed upon us.
Just because you’re a manager, doesn’t make you a leader. People observe leaders to assess their fairness, whether they are real and communicative. Millennials in particular want to make sure that the people that are leading them are real and communicative.
Leadership Styles:
1. Laissez-faire – (Hands off management style)
Little or no feedback.
Don’t believe in micro-managing.
Don’t hold others to account.
No influence.
High performers enjoy feedback. They want great managers who are going to guide them and develop them. They want to grow and develop and if they’re not getting feedback and achieving their goals, they won’t stay. Laissez-faire management style could be contributing to the apparent lack of loyalty that some managers may be observing in the Millennials.
2. Autocratic Leaders – (My way or the high way management style)
Highly directive.
Uses hierarchy as power.
Gives no control to staff.
Promotes blame excuses.
Autocratic leadership sets the tone for compliance. Employees tend to be compliant in the way they go about doing their job. They’re less likely to put forward any suggestions for improvement because they feel that their ideas will not be implemented.
This spawns below the line behaviour. This refers to the behaviours such as blame, excuses and denial which people experiencing an autocratic leader may revert to.
These leaders take a more constructive approach to leadership. They work alongside their people, co-create solutions and ideas.
The result – because people are more invested in that particular style, they tend to take more accountability for the outcomes.
Leadership styles are a continuum so no-one operates in one or the other style. However, in terms of managing and leading Millennials, the collaborative style is proven to be the most effective.
Building Blocks of Successful Leadership
As a result of the COVID pandemic, the world has seen the biggest forced migration of people out of offices and into their home workspaces. Therefore, there has never been a more critical time for great leadership.
Below are three different building blocks that you can integrate into your leadership style to help you manage and lead your Millennial teams.
1.Create a productive environment which:
Recognizes potential.
Rewards excellence
Encourages creative thinking.
It comes down to thinking of your people more in terms of their potential rather than in terms of their performance.
Adopt a “Coachable Moment” in the organisation. As a leader, you have a choice you either can provide somebody with the mentoring, defined as the benefit of your experience e.g. master and apprentice, or you can provide them with some coaching, defined as helping people to learn rather than teaching them.
Getting them to think of solutions and how to approach challenges.
2.Build an Appreciative Self
Focus on what’s right – not on what’s Not right.
Which involves more focus on what’s working and what you want more of, and less focus on what’s not working (what you want less of).
Helping staff solve their own problems. For a leader to build an appreciative self they shift the problem away from themselves and encourage the staff to come up with their own solutions.
3.Continue Learning
What makes your people tick? By understanding your employees and their hard wiring using objective data you can enhance your learning.
The objective tools from Great People Inside and other providers, help leaders understand more about the people as they:
Provide easy to understand information to assist with making decisions
Measure cognitive ability of employees, behavioural traits, occupational interests
This data, along with practical coaching and development suggestions help you manage and lead the people you’re tasked with leading.
COVID-19 has meant that more staff are required to work from home. This has lead to Psychologists at Great People Inside developing specific tools to help understand employees and the suitability of them working at home or not, plus what type of support is needed to help them adapt and work efficiently.
The 3 building blocks of successful leadership if implemented as part of your leadership skills lead to:
A greater understanding of your employees, thereby reducing the frustration you have with your people.
Higher retention of top performers because of the productive environment you create (feeding their need for growth and development)
A boost in productivity of your team because they will feel more engaged and energised by the inclusive working environment.
Leading millennials is likely no more different than leading other generations they want the same as everybody else. By adding objective data you will give yourself the edge.
You can find out more by watching our Managing Millennials Series on Free on Youtube:
Managing Millennials Attracting, Leading and Managing Younger generations in your business In late 2020 the team at Foundational Business ran our Managing Millennials and GenZ online seminar, as part of our Foundational People Management Program. The day had a great line up of speakers covering all aspects of Attracting, Leading and Managing Younger generations in […]
Managing Millennials
Attracting, Leading and Managing Younger generations in your business
In late 2020 the team at Foundational Business ran our Managing Millennials and GenZ online seminar, as part of our Foundational People Management Program. The day had a great line up of speakers covering all aspects of Attracting, Leading and Managing Younger generations in your business.
There was so much great content, that covered tactical and practical guidance and information for business owners and people managers, that we have turned these sessions into a series of videos. You can now access these though our new Foundational Business YouTube Channel for FREE. So even if you missed the conference or did attend and want to recap on all the great wisdom shared by the speakers you can listen at your leisure.
Before and after the conference we also quizzed our speakers on the things that they felt were important for people managers of Millennial (people aged 25-35) and GenZ (people aged 11-25) employees to embrace as part of their business culture.
We have captured those insights for Managing Millennials below to help you attract, lead, and manage younger generations in your business.
10 Questions and Answers for Managing Millennials and winning!
1. What is the unique selling advantage of every business?
People first, not consumer first. Your people are your unique selling advantage so this order of priorities matters, says Karen Lawson (former MD of Spotify Australia & New Zealand). If we get the culture inside the business right, people feel valued and listened to and encouraged to contribute to the success of the business, then the customers will be taken care of by people who are invested in the business and want to meet the customer’s needs.
2. What if the business is not sexy, or environmentally friendly?
What can you do to ensure people are on board with your mission, vision, and values?
The goal is to connect employees with your businesses Moral Purpose.
A moral purpose is defined as “a value that, when articulated, appeals to the innate sense held by some individuals of what is right and what is worthwhile.” Increasingly for younger generations of people, it is essential to have a moral purpose in the workplace
Karen Lawson (former MD of Spotify Australia & New Zealand) shared some tips on how to do that in your business:
Provide Benevolence opportunities and invite employees to submit ideas and have a process to enable execution.
IP sharing processes.
Connect people deeply to your purpose.
Align the businesses moral purpose to KPI’s.
Have an Authentic ‘ideas box’.
3. Why are Millennials and GenZ’s leaving and leading so many new start-ups?
They’re solving problems you won’t solve. Many businesses don’t realise that your competition is the people who leave you. But if you’re staying close to the pulse of your business and its culture and employees you shouldn’t be blindsided when this occurs. Use regular feedback, data and reports to provide meaningful intelligence that allows you to learn and adapt to stop you missing great opportunities.
4. How could a small business with limited ability to promote young people, keep them engaged and employed with them?
Both Rebecca Doherty (People & Culture Manager at Phocas Software) and Karen Lawson (former MD of Spotify Australia & New Zealand) shared in their Seminar Q&A sessions the common processes that they are using in smaller and larger businesses to help engage and retain young employees without promoting them and creating extra job hierarchy. You can use these too in your business:
Provide them with rapid learning experiences. Grow skill sets through learning opportunities.
Create squads and short term teams to solve/create (rather than job roles or promotions).
Participation in broader teams and working from different areas of the business (project teams)
Collaboration and time swapping with other businesses. This can provide varied opportunities to experience and learn and it also gives your business access to other resources you don’t have.
Give them opportunity to collaborate with external providers, and network with communities of other people/peers in same industry or interest areas.
Dominic Nair (Talent Multipliers) also suggests that when Managing Millennials you reward people over shorter periods of time. And that your business has a balanced approach to pay structures and personal and professional time. Not everyone is motivated by money, or only money. But some people maybe, so tailoring your rewards to the individual matters. Therefore, as you grow and when you’re managing lots of people, leave it to managers to move as they see fit within a high-level framework.
5. How do we help older generations of workers adapt to working with youngers workers?
There is a big opportunity for upskill younger team members to assist growth through deliberately leveraging older workers as a knowledge base that can add value to multigenerational teams.
Rebecca Doherty (People & Culture Manager at Phocas Software) shared that in their business they work towards helping older workers becoming more open minded, and aware of the development opportunities (like those above) that they might not wish to partake in themselves, but their teams can take advantage of.
6. Why are Millennials and GenZ expectation of ‘going rates’ so far from realistic? Has COVID impacted individual packages?
Robert Briffa (Synergy People) shared that most millennials have higher salary expectations than their value. The internet has helped them to be more aware of industry salaries but they are not considering that the higher rates are awarded to people who have a longer track record of applied experience, not just textbook knowledge. As a recruiter they have found that COVID has not had a significant impact on salary packages.
To young employees, the package is more than money. Businesses aren’t doing enough research on current ‘going rates’ and therefore, are often out of touch with marketplaces. Especially as they are basing their rate on what they currently pay existing employees.
What non-monetary things does your company offer to attract employees? (e.g. flexibility, social opportunities, advancement programs, training). Once you’ve defined these you need to work out how to embed these in your business practices, so they happen.
7. Should you engage with your employees in a social way, is it a do, or a don’t?
This was common question about Managing Millennials from our conference attendees that our team of speakers provided the following responses to.
Robert Briffa (Synergy People) says: “Humans are social. Hence, social engagement is necessary. However, it does not have to be at the bar. It can be as simple as having lunch or a coffee with staff or individuals. I find it best to talk about what is happening in their life outside of work. The more people know and Like you, the more they will be engaged with you.”
David Leahy (Great People Inside) says: “My view is the starting point is ensuring that as a manager/owner you are self-aware of which role you are in at work social events. What is the reason for the event, and what is your objective. For example, are you in the role of “friend” with the objective becoming closer with the employees on a personal level perhaps with the objective of retaining the employee. Or are you in the role of Manager/owner where the objective is to reward the employees for a job well done and to build the team spirit?
Social events are a great way to build relationships within teams. But they can be challenging to manage as the lines between work and play sometimes become blurred, unless the reason for the event has been clearly communicated in advance.”
8. I’ve been disappointed by some of the Millennials I have hired that have seen the opportunities they have been provided with as additional work, that is not part of their KPI’s.
How I can motivate them?
This was another great question from one of our conference attendees that our team of speakers provided the following responses to.
Robert Briffa (Synergy People) says: “This depends on if you will be judging them on the ‘opportunity’ work and their ‘normal’ work. If they are only judged on the ‘normal’ work, then you are setting up competing activities. And only one is one the real score board.
We have a saying in our business; ”If you are asked to paint the fence and you tell me you have mown the lawn, you better have painted the fence first”.
David Leahy (Great People Inside) “The first step is ensuring the people you hire regardless, of the generation, “fit” to your organisation culture and the traits required to be successful in the role .
This can be achieved, if you are not already doing so, by adding behavioural assessments to your recruitment process. Adopting this approach will ensure you have a robust process whereby you match the precise behavioural traits you are looking for with a benchmark that reflects the expectations you have for the role and the individual.
Not doing this tends to result in us learning 3- 6 months down that track that the person you hired doesn’t possess the traits needed to be successful in this role in your organisation.
For existing team members again, I would recommend conducting a behavioural assessment to learn why the behaviour you describe is happening. The same process of understanding fit and comparing their traits to your organisational benchmark will apply.
Once you have done this you will then understand why. And using a benchmarkable customisable tool, such as our GPI assessments, will provide you with clarity as to whether coaching the individual is an appropriate intervention or whether it is best to separate due to lack of fit.
Generally, people “fail” in a role not due to their technical skills, but because as we often hear ourselves saying “they just didn’t fit”. Which is reflective of their behaviours.
Approaching Managing Millennials or any people decision armed with little more than our gut feel is not good enough. We need to tilt the balance in our favour using validated objective data to make sure we give ourselves the best chance to make the right selection, re deployment or promotion decision.”
9. Loyalty to your business will be based on the environment you provide and how you paint the picture of culture – How can you make sure everyone is onboard?
Rebecca Doherty (People & Culture Manager at Phocas Software) suggests considering the following ideas when Managing Millennials:
Talent Mapping – identify who are your rising stars/high impact performers and those that are not. Then determine what to do with those lagging behind and how to continue to motivate high performance.
Design Personalised Development plans for everyone.
Leadership development and understanding how they are “showing up”. They impact culture significantly in your business, so if a person doesn’t realise how their style is impacting this can be damaging and undermines your desired culture.
Share, Communicate, and share somemore your business strategy. Your teams need to understand and feel connected to it. Be transparent with what is going on so doubt/fear does not creep in and enable feedback loops. This process can support the development of ownership, passion/loyalty to your business.
10. Why do Millennials and GenZ employees leave your business?
Rebecca Doherty (People & Culture Manager at Phocas Software) says there are lots of reasons people leave your business, many of them personal needs based. However common reasons Millennials and GenZ employees leave a business that are solvable include:
Lack of opportunities to advance and grow. Lack of Purpose and Flexibility.
Competitive “packages” offered by other businesses (e.g. share options, education opportunities etc.).
Technologies available – Millennials grew up with internet and the advancement of smart devices. If your business have them working on older style laptops/devices/systems that are slow, lack innovation, create roadblocks for efficiencies, they won’t stay as they can see you’re not investing it the future of your business.
Culture Alignment – Millennials and GenZ Employees seek Inclusion, High Trust, Collaboration, working for a cause higher than themselves. They also want flexibility (COVID has certainly fast-tracked changes in this for some industries). They want to work for businesses with a sense of Community Responsibility, and a Company values align with theirs.
Lack of autonomy/trust – unmet expectation collaboration and involvement. To achieve this you need to invest in creating processes & systems that allow you to delegate and manage through accountability structures. But give people flexibility to work towards outcomes rather than uniformity.
Failure to recognise that 1 year is a long time in the Millennial world. There are lots of entertainment choices, therefore short attention spans. The On Demand world is the Normal they know.
You can find lots more terrific insights from our panel of fabulous speakers through our conference videos HERE
How do you effectively Manage Millennials and Gen Z workers in your business?
Based on a 2019 Deloitte Report Millennials and Gen Z are no longer the ‘future’ workforce, they are the present, making up more than 40 percent of Australia’s working population.
The days of Command-and-Control leadership are over, Younger Generations of employees do not respect titles, when Managing Millennials you have to earn their respect. They expect collaboration and involvement in decision making as a day-to-day practice.
So how do you maintain control and give direction, and gain respect for your authority as a business owner or manager and tick these boxes as well?
Whilst our Gen Z and Millennials are often well-educated people, there is a lot of negative press about Millennials as difficult employees. However, there is very little practical information available to business owners and managers of growing companies that can assist them in getting the best out of their Millennial workforce.
Some companies are even avoiding hiring Millennials because it is “too Hard”.
Younger generations of workers value different things. Work differently and expect different outcomes from their careers and work environments. Different is not bad or better – different can be a huge advantage to your businesses growth strategy if you learn how to harness its power.
You can find lots more terrific insights from our panel of fabulous speakers through our conference videos HERE
Merry Christmas from the Team at Foundational Business Well that didn’t go as planned! Who could have predicted having the entire business world shutdown globally? No matter how well you developed your business plan for 2020, I am pretty sure worldwide pandemic wasn’t one of the What If’s you had on your Threats SWOT list […]
Merry Christmas from the Team at Foundational Business
Well that didn’t go as planned!
Who could have predicted having the entire business world shutdown globally? No matter how well you developed your business plan for 2020, I am pretty sure worldwide pandemic wasn’t one of the What If’s you had on your Threats SWOT list
I bet it is now though!
At Foundational Business we started 2020 with big, exciting plans to develop and roll out more of our new programs and services and events for the Foundational Business Centre and our consulting practices.
We buckled down doing business planning work between customer work, which meant long days and weekends in January and February whilst it was a little less hectic.
But in March that suddenly turned in to us contacting our clients to see how we could help them navigate and manage the challenge and shock of global shutdown as their suppliers and customers dried up overnight, indefinitely.
We celebrated 10 years in business 2020, and whilst we’ve loved being a part of helping small businesses start, grow and flourish, 2020 we felt honoured and privileged like never before to be an essential service and support to so many small businesses.
We spent our time giving them hope, a listening ear, and providing practical and tactical advice to help them pivot and plan their way through the pandemic. As well as helping entrepreneurs start new businesses in the midst of COVID, which we are happy to see thriving despite the climate they began in.
Whilst we did that, we also pivoted and made sure we were secure as a business. We were able to keep our doors open throughout. The assistance from the NSW Government to us and thousands of other businesses has meant that we have been able to bounce back to normal, as quickly as possible, which we are very thankful for.
It also meant we could keep looking forward as a business and we have developed those new programs, behind the scenes of our daily work supporting other businesses. The good news is we will be releasing those new programs and services in early 2021, which include collaborations with other businesses we developed during the peak of the pandemic.
There are 6 things we did as business owners to survive 2020 I’d like to share with you:
We chose to Stand and Fight.
Early on the first day of the official shutdown I went to our empty office and walked through the space and told myself that no one and nothing was going to take what we’d built without a fight. And then we accepted the situation and made plans to work through it a day at a time.
We did not panic.
We turned off the news and searched for truth directly from the sources like government media releases on their own websites. This helped us to stay focused and not to feel overwhelmed by opinion’s rather than facts of what was and was not available or going to occur. It also helped us to stay COVID Safe as a workplace to keep our doors open.
We worked with our support team.
We engaged our virtual team of essential business services, such as our Bookkeeper, our Accountant, our Marketing service providers to keep moving us forward.
We reached out to help others.
Which is what we do every day, but it was even more important throughout that period both for them and for us – We were in it together.
We invested in relationships
We made time to be with (online and 1-2-1) our business community, encouraging and supporting each other. As a business owner only another business owner can truly understand the stress you have been under.
Looked after ourselves.
Everyone at some point 2020 has felt tired and burnt out. We are no different, we worked literally 12 hours a day 7 days a week, every day from January – August to both serve our clients and keep the business moving forward so that we lost no ground 2020. So, over the last few months we have been trying to be kind to ourselves and look after ourselves as business owners so we can keep positive and keep moving forward too.
No matter what your journey has been 2020, Christmas is a time to reflect on the richness of the experience you have had and the things you’ve learnt in the process, and wonderful people in your life.
We wish you and you families and staff a very Merry Christmas, and we look forward to serving you and your business in 2021.
Kerrie and the Team from Foundational Business
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope” – Martin Luther King
Why doesn’t my family understand what it means to be a business owner? One of the most common things I hear from our clients is that their spouse or family just “Don’t Get It”. They don’t understand what it means to be a business owner. This weekend it happened again. My husband, on hearing me […]
Why doesn’t my family understand what it means to be a business owner?
One of the most common things I hear from our clients is that their spouse or family just “Don’t Get It”. They don’t understand what it means to be a business owner.
This weekend it happened again. My husband, on hearing me tapping away rapidly at my mobile, looked at me across the lounge room as we were watching something on TV, and asked “What are you doing? I hope it’s not work”.
Now I need to preface this by saying that my husband is very, very supportive of me as business owner. I was in fact typing an email to myself with notes for a speech I needed to give in a months time.
So yes, it was work. His question and slightly censorious tone of voice peeved me, a little. I knew it was coming from a place of concern that I wasn’t just relaxing in front of the TV as I should have been after a very long week. However, I wasn’t stressing about work. A moment of inspiration hit me and I needed to get the words down then and therefore save myself time and stress later in the week. But I felt the pressure to justify intruding on our family time none the less.
Sound familiar? Why do business owners feel that guilt?
Why is it hard for our family members who don’t run their own businesses, to understand our life? How do we avoid getting those judgmental looks from family and friends when we bring our laptop on holidays?
It’s because Business Owners never go home from work – they are their business; it is a part of them. It matters to us deeply and personally if it fails or succeeds. It is not like working for someone else, even if you are a senior executive in a large corporate with hundreds of people working for you, it’s just not the same. And it’s almost impossible to explain it to someone who doesn’t live the life of a business owner.
Unless you are a business owner you can’t understand want it takes to be a business owner.
If you are a business owner who is frustrated with your spouse or family members who don’t seem to “get it”, you are being unfair to them.
They can’t “Get It”. It is not possible for them to completely understand what running a business means. Which is why you need to be in a tribe of other business owners who intrinsically understand this life.
If you’re expecting your staff to get it, again you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. They will make decisions based on their own personal needs and desires. No matter how amazingly accommodating and supporting you are as a boss, they will, at some point, leave you because they need to achieve their own goals, and your business isn’t part of that thought process. Staff aren’t going to invest themselves mentally and emotionally in your business until they have a stake in it.
Proactive communication and setting good boundaries is the answer
When other people in your life can’t understand what it means to be a business owner, you need to take the initiative. You need to set boundaries to avoid disappointment, frustration and hurt on both sides of the relationship.
Proactively communicate with your family and friends about the limits you might have to be able to attend activities. Get creative and suggest alternative options to them so you can participate without adding more stress and guilt to your life.
For example, I call my parents when I’m on the way to and from business meetings in the car (hands free of course). I do this because they both worked in corporate jobs, and now have a lot more flexibility & time (as retired people). Over the last few years they had an endearing, but frustrating, habit of ringing me or dropping in to my office for coffee in the middle of the work day. Then they would be obviously disappointed and offended when I didn’t have time to drop everything and go to lunch with them. I wanted them to feel that I did want to see them, so I had to be the one to take the initiative to arrange that process better to work for me and them.
Embrace the 24/7 work week
Juggling everything and making time for both your business and your personal life means using every minute and hour of your week effectively.
15 years ago as a family we changed how we used our week. We agreed that there was no such thing as weekends. Weekends are for employees, not business owners.
Business Owners can run their week anyway they want to, which means every hour is usable. Embrace that notion, you have all 24 hours of all 7 days a week to plan out and use however you want to.
If you start by identifying your highest personal priorities such as your personal health, your family, your relationships, and plot these into your weekly schedule you’ll put the First Things First.
Then set your business priorities for the week, such as customer work, sales and marketing, operations, people management tasks. Plot these in around your personal priorities, and then any other activities can be scheduled as needed. Balance comes from setting your priorities in place, working together as a team to serve each others needs as a family, and valuing all of your time.
Getting overwhelmed in business is common for most business owners. How much do I need to know about everything before I can delegate? As a small business owner, you wear a hundred hats fulfilling many of the important and not so important roles in your business – and that can get very overwhelming at times. […]
Getting overwhelmed in business is common for most business owners.
How much do I need to know about everything before I can delegate?
As a small business owner, you wear a hundred hats fulfilling many of the important and not so important roles in your business – and that can get very overwhelming at times.
The desire to outsource and delegate some of that work is ever present. As you pick and choose what parts of your role could be handled by someone else it’s a challenge to get your head around all the acronyms, details and expertise required to make that happen without it failing apart.
Before you delegate, it’s important to understand how much you need to know and stay across, as the business owner, to be able to get a good return on the dollars and time you put into handing over responsibility for execution of those key tasks to another person or company.
If you don’t understand what a term or process is, ask for more detail or take a few minutes to google what it is and how it works, until you have a clear idea of what it is and how it will help your business. It can save a lot of pain later.
Here’s some tips to consider when delegating tasks in your business
Financials
It’s ok to delegate financial admin to a bookkeeper, and or admin person to do your day to day processing of accounts payable and accounts receivable. However as the business owner you will need to have a good understanding of your financials at a reporting and cash flow level. That will ensure you can make decisions and give direction to those resources.
Risk Management
It’s not the job of your insurance company to mitigate risks in your business. They insure your business on the presumption that you will put in place appropriate risk management strategies, like contracts and OHS procedures.
As the company owner/director you are liable. Therefore whilst you can get help from people and systems to manage your risk, at the end of the day you need to know that the risks are managed.
Sales
Always own the relationship with your customers, even if you use sales reps or sales admin people. Put in place a good simple CRM (sales and customer pipeline management tool) and communications process with your sales teams and customers, that includes you in the process at various points.
By doing that you’ll feel more comfortable letting other people manage the day to day work load without out loosing connection to your customers.
Marketing
Do your homework, understand what the different marketing methods are and why each method or tool applies to your business needs. Learn how they fit into your business processes for service delivery and sales.
Find out how they work (at a high level at least), and what the full costs are, (eg setup fees, ad creation, reporting, platform/ad budget) so that you don’t get bombarded by experts sprouting acronyms and vague cost models.
IT & Telecoms
Make sure you understand what the business process logic and system map looks like for your business – including devices, applications, backups, cloud storage, email and hosting, mobiles and how they fit together and where your information is and how it moves between these devices.
Make friends with IT terminology and ask lots of questions so that you understand in plain English how it works at a high level and that it’s the right structure for your business now and in the next year.
Admin
Admin people should be using your template processes and staying consistent with your brand/culture. Everything they do needs to be visible to you (use shared drives to help you). You don’t need to be an expert in admin applications and programs.
However, you need to know how to do some of the basics (eg invoice a customer). You need the ability to find a document quickly, and transfer work to another person should that person leave or go on holidays.
A great way to start delegating is to get them to document and template your processes as you develop them, so you can keep delegating and systemizing over time.
So how much do I need to know about everything?
To avoid getting overwhelmed in business by all the things you need to be across, you need to know just enoughabout everything to be able to determine whether the service/person you are intending to delegate to has the right skills, products and approach to help you in your business growth.
That takes time and research and asking lots of questions. Which is why having a good business community around you that you can reach out to is so important.
When you’ve delegated, it’s your job to create chains of accountability that help you to continue to learn about that process and deepen your trust in that person/company as they are doing the work for you. Manage your business by delegation not abdication.
Need help to identify the areas of your business that can be improved? Give us a call today 1300 765 249 (1300 SML BIZ)
Foundational Business connects with Harvey Pence to bring more value to our business community #NEWSFLASH# We hope that you, your business and your loved ones are all healthy and safe. The pandemic is impacting our world and the way we all do business and our business networks. We’ve therefore spent time thinking about how we […]
Foundational Business connects with Harvey Pence to bring more value to our business community
#NEWSFLASH#
We hope that you, your business and your loved ones are all healthy and safe. The pandemic is impacting our world and the way we all do business and our business networks. We’ve therefore spent time thinking about how we can help you.
Foundational Business has a community of 3,000+ businesses with customers who frequently need help from you and other local businesses. Through many conversations, we know that if we all connect and look out for opportunities to refer business to each other, there will be plenty of new customers and business for all. A culture of healthy collaboration and co-opetition helps us to all be in this together.
We thought the greatest benefit would be increasing opportunities for connecting each business in our community. To create the best business network, we spent time working with many providers and decided to partner with Harvey Pence.
It helped our decision that many of you already use Harvey Pence with your own business network. As we became familiar with the platform, we were also drawn to features that you’ll also benefit from. We found the platform made it easy to:
List your business on the directory and share what services you offer so other businesses understand how you can help their customers.
Grow your network and specify which types of businesses you want to connect with and be matched with them and other local businesses.
Add your own business connections, regardless of their industry or affiliations.
Help your customers more by getting them help by referring them to other local businesses.
What’s Next?
Look out for an invite to join the Foundational Business network on Harvey Pence in the coming weeks. There is a benefit in getting in early as you’ll be shown to other businesses when they get onboard. If you want to join our network sooner, click here.
We’ll also be sharing how you can connect with and leverage all the local business networks and marketplaces to grow your business – if you want help with this today, just give us a call.
Let us know if you have any feedback or questions.
These mistakes are only fatal if you refuse to make tough choices, swallow your pride and fix the errors before they get too out of control. 1.Spending more than you earn. Over committing yourself is pretty easy to do. Yes, you need to take some risks and invest in your business significantly in the first […]
These mistakes are only fatal if you refuse to make tough choices, swallow your pride and fix the errors before they get too out of control.
1.Spending more than you earn.
Over committing yourself is pretty easy to do. Yes, you need to take some risks and invest in your business significantly in the first couple of years to get the wheels turning. But, in your excitement, it’s easy to spend money on things you don’t really need yet.
Do you really need a permanent office space to run your business? Or can you book meeting rooms as you need them, to create a virtual office? Maybe you can do admin tasks from a home office and then meet your customers in a professional co-working style space.
2. What subscriptions and systems do you really need as minimums to run your business? There are hundreds of Apps and tools out there, but they all add up and most businesses don’t use half of the features they are paying for.
Be rational and evaluate what the essentials are and remove wasted subscriptions that are costing you time and are a distraction from your work.
3. Extra help.
Ideally you want to outsource everything not essential to your core business, but there is a time and budget for that – so, to begin, maybe you can’t afford to do that.
Key tasks (admin, bookkeeping, service delivery and marketing activities) should be carefully defined and then if you choose to outsource the role, make sure you are just paying for what you actually need now. If you don’t need 10 hours of Admin time and the minimum is 10 hours through a VA service, then look for another option that is a better match for your needs and budget right now.
4. Know all of your costs and income thoroughly.
You should have short payment terms, auto-payment reminders and visibility weekly of all Aged Debtors.
5. Manage your time carefully.
Avoid making FOMO decisions. You shouldn’t be at the opening of every envelope. Time you spend networking is part of your marketing process, but it can get out of hand. Work out where and when you will be most effective in your networking activities, so that it counts and yields a good return on the investment of your time.
It’s okay to say no and discontinue memberships that just don’t make sense now for your business. You can always re-join later, when the time is right for you.
6. Social media forums and marketing.
Participating in discussions on social media should be evaluated in the same way you evaluate networking face to face. If it doesn’t provide a return on investment for your business, you might be wasting your time, and possibly giving away valuable intellectual property. When it comes to social media and digital marketing, too many small business owners try to dabble and DIY it. Let’s be serious. Digital Marketing is a complicated science of algorithms and rules that change from week to week. Unless your business is Digital Marketing, DIY’ing it is probably an area you’re possibly wasting time and money on.
If this is a core way that your customers are going to connect or buy your services or product, then make sure you use a company that knows what they’re doing in this space. Or you could be putting budget into this, that is not optimised.
7. Getting Fancy.
One of the first things a lot of business owners spend money on is a logo (as opposed to a brand), letterhead, website, business cards and brochures or print materials.
Unfortunately, in most cases, businesses change their business name, logo and brand within 5 years as they evolve. So, if you spend too much making things look fancy, before having done a proper business plan, marketing strategic plan and branding strategy, you’ll probably end up spending twice as much on your branding.
Don’t over print and go crazy ordering pens and mugs and promotional material, unless you’re very clear on how you will distribute these (all of them) to your target customers and why they would keep the item on their desk.
Small business evolves quickly. You don’t need to run a company in year one that acts and spends like a 10 person business when there’s only 1-2 of you. Allow your business to change and grow in the right time.
Why is that a problem? There are some downsides and legal issues when business owners use their home address as their business address. Some of the key risks include: Leases and Landlord rules. Some home addresses cannot be used as a business address. Specifically, apartments and unit complexes may restrict you from running a business out […]
Why is that a problem?
There are some downsides and legal issues when business owners use their home address as their business address. Some of the key risks include:
Leases and Landlord rules. Some home addresses cannot be used as a business address. Specifically, apartments and unit complexes may restrict you from running a business out of your home. Some single-family homes may also have similar rental lease or strata rules and restrictions.
Zoning restrictions. Councils have local zoning restrictions and codes that prohibit homeowners from running a commercial operation from their homes. Or, in some instances, only certain types of businesses may be prohibited.
Privacy concerns. In an age when your privacy is limited by the impact of social media, business owners who display their home address as a business address reduce the level of privacy that they maintain between themselves and their customers. In addition, your business may need to provide your customers (for legal contracts and other matters) a clear separation between your business and personal affairs. Many small businesses suddenly find the privacy of their families compromised, with customers and vendor sales people showing up on their doorstep unexpectedly.
Professionalism and Trust. When customers see an apartment or home address on a contract, letterhead, business card, business directory, or invoice, it doesn’t give them a feeling of trust or professionalism. Your business address plays a critical role in building trust with prospects and customers, as well as giving you a local professional presence.
Mistake 2. Using your home phone number or mobile as your primary business contact
When starting out, most businesses will use their mobile number or a home number as their main contact number.
Why is that a problem?
The key problem with using your home phone number as your primary business contact, is of course, like using your home as your business address, that there’s a privacy issue. When using only 1 mobile number as your primary contact in your advertising, you are telling your prospective clients that you are a small 1-man band driving around the suburbs in a van, or working from home., not a team of tradespeople or a service company.
If that’s the impression you want to give that’s fine, but when a business starts trying to sell their services to other businesses, they can’t give business/commercial customers the assurance of being a business that can handle more that 1 customer at a time. If growth is your goal, then consider using a dedicated landline number that redirects all your calls to your mobile, or when you can afford it, to an answering service/scheduler/admin service to make sure you never miss a new lead.
Mistake 3. Meeting your customers in coffee shops or at your home
Offering convenience, the smell of freshly brewed coffee and social atmosphere could be alluring to your customers. But the reality is, that when you’re pitching your services or leading a client through their personal or business plans in a public venue full of distractions, around a dirty café table on which you’ve propped your laptop, and you’re having to yell your message to get past the screaming child in the pram beside your table; it severely diminishes your brand and professionalism in their eyes. The information you’re discussing could be commercially sensitive, and clients wonder who could be sitting at the next table listening to your conversation.
A home office can work if it’s accessed up front, separated from your personal living space completely (i.e. a separate entrance to your front door) and is appropriately and professionally setup as a dedicated office or studio. These work better for personal service businesses such as personal trainers, Yoga, Beauty and Counselling, but not always – so just expect that running your consulting rooms from home, will limit your customer reach.
Often, small businesses who provide consulting, meet clients online or record podcast/webinars from home. Sounds like a great plan – but think about the environment and the light, noise and décor of the room you’re doing it in. The dog barking, baby crying in the background, messy shelves and a poorly lit office that looks like your family’s junk room (we all have one), as your background for a professional customer meeting or webinar, doesn’t polish your brand as well as you think it might. People like to do business with real people, but they also expect that person to be a professional. So please don’t record video of yourself in the car and post those videos online. It’s not a professional way to promote your brand, especially to other businesses.
People are not that comfortable coming to someone’s home to do business, even if you are happy to have them in your space. It feels very personal and an intrusion on someone’s family space. If it doesn’t instil confidence in your professionalism as a business, then don’t meet clients in a home office.
Beyond the potential legal and privacy challenges that occur when business owners use their home addresses, there are also various missed opportunities that can occur in the marketing of your business.
Business Advantages of Virtual Office Addresses
The alternative to using your home address is to use a virtual office location. These services for a fee (generally a small monthly amount) can provide you with a range of service packages.
At the Foundational Business Centre we offer micro and small business owners Virtual Location Services, where you can use the Foundational Business Centre at Rouse Hill as your business address, on your advertising and Google My Business page for $22/mth (inc GST)
We also provide Virtual Redirection Services, where we allocate you a landline number and automatically redirect your incoming calls to your mobile or any other number – which is also handy if you go on holidays and want to change the destination number to another number. The Virtual Redirection Service is $33/mth (inc GST).
Want to get more professional and grow your business 2020? Contact us for more information on 1300 765249 or Enquire Now
Knowing if your new idea or enterprise has commercial value and will make you any money, and when you’ll start to see a profit, are critical factors in your future success. Here are 5 key factors to work through, to determine your actual cost of business before you set your pricing: Fixed or ongoing basic […]
Knowing if your new idea or enterprise has commercial value and will make you any money, and when you’ll start to see a profit, are critical factors in your future success.
Here are 5 key factors to work through, to determine your actual cost of business before you set your pricing:
Fixed or ongoing basic costs. These are the costs of just opening your doors for business, no matter what type of business you’re in. They include accounting, and or accounting systems, bookkeeping, legal costs and contracts, insurances (Public Liability, Professional Indemnity, Product Liability etc.), registrations, licenses and certifications, business management systems (CRMS, Scheduling & Workflow Management Systems, CAD programs etc), rent, fixtures and fittings, maintenance and utilities, IT and the building of your products (R & D). Don’t forget your company tax and GST.
People costs – which may include permanent and or casual or subcontracted staff salaries or allowances, your own wage, and superannuation. Vehicles or equipment and PPE your people will need to perform their work, as well as any training costs.
Cost of goods or services (related to your specific business type). If you’re a consultant or tradie, that may be time with the client, and travel time to and from the client. In a product business it would include the widgets you sell and their cost of production. In addition, any parts or materials you need to deliver for the client job, including freight/delivery, stationary, printing work books, hiring venues or storage etc.
Sales and Marketing – Many businesses put an arbitrary figure into their budget for marketing, without doing any planning around their marketing, which means you end up spending well over the expected budget and don’t measure the returns properly. Having a Strategic Marketing plan and budget (including cost of acquisition per customer, campaign marketing expenses, website, social, PR, print, etc) and a Sales strategy (which is different to a marketing strategy), is essential to setting a real figure for the cost of acquiring and retaining your customers.
Other costs that get forgotten (merchant fees, currency exchange rates, travel costs and costs associated with updates and maintenance of your products, vehicles/equipment, app or website) + the profit margin % above the cost price you need to make.
When setting their price, most businesses consider their core income stream. However, there are potentially other passive and active income streams that can be created, which could help keep the price down, without reducing overall business income. Exploring these as part of your business income model, pricing options and packages should be an action every business takes to maximise their income opportunities.
Unless you’re running a charity, you’re in business to be profitable. To be profitable you need to make sure you know your costs thoroughly and that your income is greater than your costs. This week, make it a priority to set aside some time to double check that your business is on track for profitability.
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