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April 2022
Teaching the next generation and deciding if your business should follow the trend Very proudly I am the fourth generation of my family to be in our business. If my great-grandfather were still alive, he would be celebrating his 99th year. When I was a child there was not such an event, but today there is an event called, "Take our daughters and sons to work day".
While she took a different career path, I remember our daughter, Amanda, wanting to work in the family business. Her grandmother was hesitant, but when Amanda, at age 14 scored higher on our business entrance exam than the two previous hires, her grandmother conceded.
Watching her today you can see a lot of what she learned in the family business being utilized. The date for Take our daughters and sons to work day is Thursday, April 28. A quick search online will provide you with more information.
This past week I was working in San Antonio. While not naming it, there is a restaurant there I have greatly enjoyed over the years. With a trip there last fall, I ate there three times in thirty hours. I do like their food.
What I do not like is a change they made. It is a change I am seeing in many businesses. And to be expected, they want to tell us it is because of the pandemic.
After being seated, water was brought to our table. We sat waiting for someone to bring menus. When we got the attention of a waiter, instead of menus, he pointed to a card with a QR code for us to see the menu. Upon pushing the point, he did return with the traditional printed menu. He mentioned that sometimes they are busy and run out of menus. (Not sure I understand how a restaurant can't count the number of seats in their business and print accordingly.)
This San Antonio restaurant is not the only one. There are many businesses using phrases like friction-less, seamless, cashless, self-service and any other way of diminishing human interaction. Businesses that now have customers check themselves out; bag their own purchases; have little or no interaction with someone in the business.
This should be an option; not a mandate in a business. This is not my having a tirade about an experience. It is my opportunity to ask you a question. Are you following this trend?
Going in the other direction could bring you more business. While most are respectful of the pandemic and its after-effects, there is still a want, need and opportunity for your small business to buck the trend and provide that human interaction and experience that makes a small business different.
I am suggesting you consider having your business see something more than an opportunity to cut expenses. This could be another advantage your business offers.
Article of the Month - Hiring non traditional employees Product availability; price increases; and staffing; the three big challenges that, across the board, small businesses are having to deal with.
We aren't dealing with the first two, but with this month's article we do have some suggestions for helping with the third.
Let us add another solution that we did not include in the article of the month. Contact your local AARP. We found them to be a great source of possible employees as they maintained a database of individuals over 50 years of age. Some of these individuals had retired but later decided they would still like to work part time. Others were individuals who had been "early retired" by their business and they want to demonstrate they are still valuable.
Bottom line is, we found the AARP to be a great source of employees for our business.
Who is visiting Small Business Converations this month? - Cliff DuVernois A few months ago we received recognition by a small business magazine for our Small Business Conversations podcast. We were recognized as one of the "top 20 podcasts". We wrote an article for a magazine about how we create our podcast which was followed by another podcast host asking for an interview about our unique format and longevity.
Apparently we are unique with our not using all the various analytics for our program. Starting with the first podcast we have used the program as a means to meet some very talented people whose specialties can be valuable to small business owners. Meeting these people we become better equipped to share new ideas.
The second part of the interview was about our longevity. Our first podcast was in 2009. That is some 13 years ago and we have been doing it every month since then. We were told the average podcast lasts only 10 episodes before the program goes dark.
Our guest for the April podcast, Cliff DuVernois, is the person who has done all this research. During the program we will hear of his research and learn how your creating a podcast relevant to your business can help you to extend your realm of influence as an expert to your existing and potential customers.
We hope you will join us for the April Small Business Conversations podcast. If this Small Business News was sent to you, there will be an invitation to the event will be coming to you. However, if this newsletter was forwarded to you, sending an email to us will get you added to the subscriber list. Our email address is below.
Book of the month - Switch; how to change things when change is hard I do like books that go to the contrary; books that will cause us to question lots of things and take a deeper look at ourselves. Written by Chip Heath and Dan Heath, there are multiple examples of small business making changes.
"Sometimes small business is a result of small thinking"; this is a phrase I have frequently used. All the while realizing that this is my challenge and remembering, "the average small business owner does not read books. Perhaps that is why they are average".
I like this book and think you will, too.
Internet Tool for Your Business - Posters to give you some ideas For more than the past twenty years, each presentation I have given has concluded with some expression I have found to be relevant to the message in the presentation. It is usually the last slide of the presentation.
We can count on multiple people grabbing their phones and taking photos. Then we tell everyone that the image, along with another 40+ images are available on the Profits Plus website as a poster. All a person needs to do is visit the profitsplus.org website. Each poster is formatted that when you click "print" you will get an 8 1/2 x 11 poster that you can hang as a reminder of the message in the presentation.
Staff Incentive for Your Business and Yourself A point of discussion with an audience last week was job descriptions. Not the tradition ones, but one that was created for you as the owner of the business. Regardless of how many employees your business has, they all share one thing in common - you!
As with any owner, you want to have great employees. The question in this presentation was asking if you were being the best boss you can be. The best place to get the answers to this question would come from those people working for you and with you.
The process could begin with a staff meeting and your asking your employees what do they need from you to perform at their highest level. As with the job descriptions we have spoken about in the past, this can be a simple document without any "legalese" and without any template you purchase from some online service.
As said by DaVinci, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication".
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MAY 2024
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With over 25 years of frontline experience Tom Shay is America's leading Small Business Management Expert. He's a "Must Have" for your next event.
Small Business
The May Small Business Advisory is titled "Planning for a successful accountant" and is appropriate for many with the April 15 tax deadline having passed.
Did you work with your accountant? Or, did you just give them a bunch of papers and wait to receive a completed tax return?
Successfully working with an accountant requires a partnership. This month's Small Business Advisory gives suggestions of how to make this happen in 2024.
Small Business
We see that many small business owners have too much of a focus on the "top line" of their income statement.
Increasing revenue is great, but it is not a cure all for any challenges your business is facing. And sometimes, incresing revenue can create a challenge.
Who is your customer? Some small businesses have no focus. Their customer is whoever calls or walks in the door.
And some small businesses have determined which customers, in sufficient numbers, they should spend their efforts to attract.
The article of the month shares an old Southern rhyming couplet about business; "The bertter you niche, the more you get rich."
Lean Startup by Eric Reis is our suggested book for May.
As the title suggests, the reader of the book would be someone that is starting their business. However, we see more value than just that.
Perhaps you have been in business for many years. We think this book could give insight to items, and methods, that a small business owner should think about with their business today.
