Category Archives: Goal Setting for Success

Do I need to buy out my partner upon dissolution of a LLC?

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of the business and time management books TimePeace: Making peace with time – the The Book of Answers:  105 Career Critical Situations – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.

 

Today’s question came from a busy entrepreneur.

Do I need to buy out my partner upon dissolution of a LLC?

I started an LLC 5 years ago in Pennsylvania. I brought a partner on board and his share is 49%. We never had a formal Partnership agreement. He never took a salary and just paid expenses. We never really made any profit after paying my salary. He now wants to dissolve the corporation. He is saying to dissolve the company I must buy out him out. My partner never made any capital contributions, he only paid expenses. He also never paid any taxes only I did. My questions are:

  1. Do I really need to buy him out?
    2. Is he entitled to back profits (which were very minimal)?
    3. If there are no assets for the company, what will he be able to get out of the business upon dissolution?

Begin with the End in Mind:

Habit 2 from Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is “Begin with the End in Mind.”  This habit was specifically designed to create effective goals.  Is your goal to build the business until you can sell it?  Are you envisioning a Franchise or licensing path?  Where do you think you are going with this idea?

But this is also critical when deciding partnership term.  By this, I mean, whenever you create a contract of any type, you need to consider how the partnership (or whatever) will end.  In regards to a partnership – discuss exactly what you want to if one person wants to be released, or if the company is dissolved.  When entering into any partnership or business relationship – it’s extremely important to include documentation on EXIT Strategies (up front).   This avoids the problem that is now occurring.

When an Exit Strategy is missing

Since there is no contract or documentation in this example, verbal contracts can be misinterpreted and hard to enforce.  So if you wanted to dissolve on good terms, consider itemizing the following assets of the company (like dissolving a marriage):

  1. Document/list everything he put into the company ($$)
  2. List everything is he took from the company ($$, and value of any assets)
  3. List everything you put into the company ($$, tax payment and value of any assets)
  4. List everything you took from the company ($$, salary, expenses, value of any assets)
  5. List the profits of the company.
  6. After all the +/- are calculated, and if there’s a remaining balance…. give him 49% of what’s left.
  7. If there’s a -negative balance, decide what you want to do with that (he also owns 49% of the debt).

Show your partner the itemized balance sheet and start a dialog. Be above board and transparent in your dealings and intentions.
Consider hiring an arbiter to assure an amicable solution.

I know your situation is different.  If you would like additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.

 

Best way to break bad news to employees

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of the business and time management books TimePeace: Making peace with time – the The Book of Answers:  105 Career Critical Situations – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies.

 

Today’s discussion is regarding how to break bad news to employees.

 

A busy professional asks:

How do I break bad news to employees?  It might be staffing changes, a lost contract or even the death of someone close to the business.  When should I:

  • Break the news?
  • To whom (or everyone at once)?
  • Appropriate ways to communicate?
  • Tips for doing it right?

 

 

Giving bad news is never comfortable, but necessary.  The way you do it can influence the way people accept the news.

Some tips:

  • For those that are directly affected with the news, you talk to them directly (one-on-one).  Those that are not directly affected, it can be a group discussion.
  • Depending upon the type of news, be prepared with answers and follow-up counseling (grief counseling, further training, next steps life coaching, etc.)
  • Focus on them versus yourself.
    1. Avoid the temptation to fill in awkward pauses with “This is the most difficult thing I have had to report.”  or “I’m really broken up about telling you this”.  “This is a shock to me as well.”
    2. You might think you are helping by showing them how badly you feel — but — in actuality – they don’t really care how it’s affecting you (especially if you are not really affected by the layoff, structure change, etc).
    3. Silence is okay.  It gives them the space needed to absorb the information.  Continued talking doesn’t help them.  Wait patiently for them to end the silence, after the initial reveal.
  • Realize that they might want to immediately leave your presence after the news. But don’t assume that your job is done when they leave the room.
  • Schedule a follow-up meeting.  Recognize that people might need time to absorb the information.  Acknowledge that they will have more questions later and need to time to process what has been said.  Actually schedule a follow-up meeting before they leave.  That next meeting will have answers to the questions they asked today, as well as an opportunity for any more questions.
  • Know your audience.  If it’s a particular tough topic and you suspect your employee will be emotional or even volatile – have security (or muscles) ready (but out of sight).  You don’t want to show that you expect trouble (because then you will get it).  But you want to be prepared for it – just in case.

 
See what you think about those ideas.
I know your situation is different.  If you would like additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.

Reasons to add an account manager to your sales force

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Account Manager/Marketing Coach Responsibilities

Mission – provide a unique experience and personalized treatment plan for each and every client.

The Account Manager takes the client to the next level of success through marketing techniques and strategies.   I know most companies are concerned about the cost of non-billable hours.   This solution provides a platform to price the Account Manager/Marketing Coach as part of package.

  • Incorporate Account Management hours in your package pricing – as Client’s <your industry> Coach
  • Meet and maintain client relationship
  • Keep focus on Up-Sale opportunities (Sales folks don’t have time to keep a lookout for up-sale opportunities on current clients – and it’s not the production team to keep a lookout for up-sale opportunities).
  • Keep eye on original constract/featured Items
    • If feature creep – use opportunity to up-sale
    • Continually review Change Requests to validate in original SOW
    • If not – price the change request
  • Weekly meeting with client on account progress
    • Understand the social media, website hits, brand monitoring and various other reports per client. Be able to explain the metrics, what they mean to the clients’ business and what the data suggests the next steps should be.
    • Continually remind clients that they need to go through account manager for requests (even if they think the request is included in the original contract)
    • Continually be the liaison between Sales/Production Team/Client
    • If the Account Manager becomes valuable to the client (understands, explains, and guides toward next steps- the client will want to work through the account manager and not around them).
  • Monthly meeting with client to review up-sale opportunities
    • Determine how long a client should stay at “base/platinum” level before moving to next level
    • Help guide “qualified clients” to their next level of growth with possible discount or “free month” at next level
      • Use the data gathered in the past weeks/months to help determine the next steps
    • Revisit Referral opportunities every month in the monthly meeting
      • Who does client want to do business with in the future to get them to their next level
      • Who can client refer to your company (who do they know that could use your services)
      • What type of industry does client want to be associated with (via cross-promotions, at events, shared interview/tv/radio spots etc)
    • Meet weekly with other Account Managers for synergy
      • Which clients that are complementary and can benefit from cross-promotions
      • Which clients would benefit in being introduced to each other
      • Any common tasks that can be combined for efficiency
      • Any solutions that can be shared – based on common issues
    • Maintain and continually promoting the client working relationship
      • Regularly send Anniversary, Birthday, Sympathy, holiday and gratitude notes/calls
      • Use CRM in Ravetree to track Account Manager’s workflow and client relationships
      • Sales team probably use a CRM, but recommend Account Managers use the same project management tool as the production team does.

 

I know your unique situation is different.  If interested, please setup a complimentary one-on-one discovery call, so that I can learn more about your circumstances and supply a more customized recommendation.

 

For additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

Small Business Saturday: How can I take full advantage?

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Today’s question came from a busy entrepreneur the same week of Small Business Saturday:

Small Business Saturday: How can I take full advantage?

I have a small business on the side and I want to take full advantage of small business Saturday. My business is a retail mom and pop type store, but I do have budget for advertising.

I applaud that you want to take the most advantage of the Small Business Saturday event.  The mistake that most small business owners make is to look at each event (such as the Small Business Saturday) as a “single entity” or single opportunity.  Unfortunately, by taking each event as they come (as in this question arriving the week of Small Business Saturday) – you are actually too late to actually do something meaningful for and with it.

The key to taking full advantage of Small Business Saturday – is to recognize that it’s just one of many business opportunities to take advantage and leverage.

Here are some ideas to implement in your current marketing plan:

  • If you haven’t already, take the time to create your “attracting Client marketing plan” and use the Small Business Saturday as one type of campaign in your marketing strategy.
    • Outline your entire marketing calendar of business opportunities
    • Proactively plan for each opportunity months in advance (versus just days)
  • Design a well thought out brand, vision, mission statement and tag line for your business. Then carry that consistent message throughout your different seasonal campaigns.
    • Use these consistent message in all your campaigns
    • This enables you to re-use templates and methods for the same categories of events
  • Categorize different types of marketing assets such as:
    • Logos, digital graphics, banners and letterheads
    • Flyer and brochures
    • Local radio and cable spots
    • Streaming video spots
    • Promotional offers
    • Up-sale offers, discounts, coupons
    • Charity events and sponsorships
    • Affiliated partner events and advertisements
    • Retail Block Party events – where your business neighbors collaborate to provide bundle packages of cross-promotional products and services.
  • Taking the best advantage of Small Business Saturday is leveraging all your marketing strategies forward.
    • Use Black Friday to position for a more successful Small Business Saturday. Position your SBS event to setup a successful Christmas etc.
    • Don’t see your Small Business Saturday as a single entity, but as a piece in your progressive and aggressive business and marketing strategy.
    • Investigate leveraging complementary small businesses to both your advantages – creating more with few staff.
  • Take the time to make all the pieces fit in a cohesive and consistent marketing and branding message (which starts with your vision and mission statements).
  • Then you can continually leverage toward your next up-sale or promotion.

 

Conclusion:

As you can see, to take full advantage of anything – you need up-front planning.  For example – creating a Retail Block Party Sale for Small Business Saturday will take lots of time and collaboration.  Defining cross-promotional service bundles or packages (to lure more people to your block)  takes planning.  This is not something you can turn around in few days.  But is you mapped out all your business opportunities a year in advance – you would have the time to take full advantage of these single dates.

If you need more information on this or help, just let me know.

I know your situation is different.  If you would like additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

With enough notice, it would be my honor to guest-speak at no cost to your group organization.

 

Working with teams across the world?

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Today’s question came from a busy professional and business owner.

communicationHow do I work with team members located in different parts of the world?

I want to work effectively with team members located in different parts of the world. How do I ensure that location, time difference, culture and beliefs and personality will not affect my work with the team?

 

 

Whether you team members are across town or across the world, creating a Communication Plan fits the build.

Communication Plan

 

Your communication plan includes (but not limited to):

 

1) A directory of your significant members, preferred method of communication, telephone numbers, email addresses, Skype id, Time Zones, etc

2) How you plan to convey regular Status information (daily meetings, weekly meetings, emails, phone calls, etc)

3) How you plan to convey Critical or High Priority information (phone call? text?)

4) Your Service Agreement or Response time expectations (respond by EOD, within 1 business day, within 2 hours).

5) What is expected when someone misses a meeting.  Are you going to have the meetings recorded?

6) Where you are locating your shared meeting minutes, presentations, audios, or other materials.  Will you be recording your meetings and placing them on a shared location for people to refer to, etc.

7) Incorporate weekly or twice-a-month one-on-one meetings with each team member.  Regularly scheduled one-on-one meetings (via phone or in person) eliminate much confusion that email may cause.

8) Supply templates and checklists to assure the work gets completed the way you way, each time.  Consistency eliminates confusion and errors.  If people are getting your status in the same way each week (and vice-versa), they know what to expect and how to respond.

 

Vacation Considerations

 

You communication plans should also consider vacation schedules.  Regardless of your holiday hours, make sure you consider the following:

  • Make sure everyone has all their vacations identified early (by mid-year).
  • Make sure all your project schedules block out for their vacation time.
  • Make sure that all your procedures, outstanding items, and possible issues that may arise during the holiday season is clearly documented and shared with those responsible for handling these issues during the break. This includes creating, publicizing and updating your communication plans.  If you don’t have a communication plan, please setup an introductory consult to discuss that important tool.
  • Make sure the staff has been trained on the outstanding issue.
  • Make sure your clients have been informed about the holiday schedule far in advance.
  • Make sure your clients provide you with all their requirements far in advance so that you can accomplish their goals before the holidays.

 

 

For additional information on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

Numbers Move People Toward a Decision

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Today’s take-away is that Numbers Move People.

If you need a way to move coworkers, clients, managers, family members or even yourself toward action, consider adding a number to your conversation.

Numbers help people move toward a decision and action.  Whether it’s a calendar date, a meeting time, a price for service or product, salary, or even that pesky number on the bathroom scale; numbers move people into action.

Consider the number ZERO – as in A Complimentary or Free eBook, White Paper, or other offer.  That Zero Cost item attracts many people to share their contact information with you.

Numbers are our friends:

Ways to influence others with number come in many forms.

  • You can assign time limits to performance issues, product deliverables, customer review/approval processes.
  • You can make a recurring calendar date with your manager for weekly one-on-ones.
  • You can devise quality metrics to verify your performance, your service, and your products.
  • You can improve company and product exposure by increasing your social media metrics and website click-through.
  • You can time yourself on certain tasks, to enable you to better estimate and schedule certain activities.
  • You can continually increase your work-out repetitions to improve your stamina.
  • You can chart your weight and measurements to show progress toward your health and fitness goals.
  • You can count your calories and glasses of water.
  • and more.

How to make the numbers to work for you

 

Whether you are in the corporate environment or starting your own business, you need to understand your numbers.

Business owners

If you are in business for yourself, you need to understand:

  • Your revenue goals (how much you want to make this year)
  • Your leads to sales ratio (how many people you need to meet/talk with – to make 1 sale)
  • How many sales you need to make your revenue goals
  • How many leads you need to create to make those sales…
  • And the list goes on

Staff or employee

If you are in the corporate world, you need to understand:

  • Performance Evaluation ratings
  • The performance rating you want to achieve
  • The items and quality metrics required to achieve that performance rating
  • What is required to achieve bonuses and additional compensation…
  • The dates and delivery schedules for your work assets
  • The raise/salary you want to achieve
  • The number of hours you want to devote to work, family, community and self

 

Making numbers work for clients

If you are working with clients, and they are on the fence on something; find a way to add a number to the conversation.

 

Some examples could be:

 

  • Additional discounts or promotional offers tend to help move clients down the buyers journey.
  • Putting a deadline on an offer adds a sense of urgency to the decision.
  • Requesting clients to review/approve by a certain date moves the project along and enables you to make your delivery dates.
  • Assuring that you will follow-up in 2 days in order to answer any additional questions – keeps your product and service on their radars.
  • Having a SLA of always responding to any support issue within 2 business days – sets the proper customer service expectations.

 

These are just a few ways numbers can influence us and keep us moving forward.

 

For additional information on how to use numbers to your advantage, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

I am a business coach and this is what I do professionally.  It’s easy to sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

The 6 biggest pitch deck mistakes you may not know you’re making

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The 6 biggest pitch deck mistakes you may not know you’re making

 

Today we are very fortunate to have a TV program to emulate regarding the perfect pitch deck. If you haven’t already watched ABC’s the Shark Tank, make the time to watch and take notes.

 

It gives you a very good illustration of pitching to investors. Even though the ABC’s reality show “Shark Tank” is available for all to learn from, I am always surprised when an entrepreneur shows up unprepared.

If you are interested, I have a list of the most frequently asked Shark Tank questions in a separate article Things we can learn from Shark Tank

 

For now, below is a list of 6 big pitch deck mistakes that you may be making:

 

  1. Not knowing your audience
  2. Not getting to the important stuff quickly
  3. Not including a summary
  4. Not knowing your numbers
  5. Not incorporating the investor’s terminology or experience
  6. Having one pitch deck for everyone

We will cover each mistake separately.

 

1.     Not knowing your audience

Many entrepreneurs are so focused on their own product, their own needs, and their own wants – that they forget the true goal of this presentation. Your goal is to adequately interest the investors such that they will want to do business with you.

People do business with people they know, like and trust. And the quickest way to earn trust is to show the investors that you already know them, what their needs and wants are, and how your product or service can help them reach their goals.

In other words, why should they care about you and your products or services?

Use Stephen Covey’s 5 Habit from his top-selling 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Seek first to understand, and then be understood”

Spend time researching your investors. Find out what excites them. Find out how they make their investment money back.

2.     Not getting to the important stuff quickly

 

Your prepared pitch should be no longer than 5-8 minute in length. So you really need to get your investor’s attention quickly. If they are interested, they will ask additional questions and will get to know you better. Your pitch needs to interest them quickly.

Once you have a better understanding of your audience, make sure you get to the important stuff as quickly and succinctly as possible. What is the “important stuff”? The important stuff is the stuff that the investors care about (and not necessarily what you care about).

This is where watching the Shark Tank will help. Here are some of the typical questions you need to cover, and a fuller list is available at: Things we can learn from Shark Tank

  • What problem are you solving?
  • How prevalent is this problem? (size of the market)
  • What you need financially to make that much money?
  • Who are you competing against?
  • How are you going to grow? How are you going to use their money?

 

3.     Not including a summary

A pitch presentation falls into the category of a training presentation: “Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; tell them what you have told them”. But many forget the summary or “tell them what you have told them” part. Your summary should end with a CALL TO ACTION.

4.     Not knowing your numbers

Investors are interested in a quick return on their investment; therefore, make sure you understand your numbers. And just knowing the dollar figure isn’t enough. You need to be able to articulate where these numbers are coming from, on what platform, are they driven by promotions, and what sort of partners are you working with? Is the marketing working? What does it cost to produce? What are your expenses?

Know your sales information inside and out.

5.     Not incorporating the investor’s terminology or experience

You won’t have much time; therefore, make the best use of that time. Incorporating the investor’s terminology and experience into your pitch will not only eliminate miscommunication but lead them to feel that you already speak the same language. That you are connected.

6.     One pitch deck for everyone

Don’t fall into the trap of creating 1-perfect-pitch-deck. Consider having a “perfect-pitch-deck template”. By understanding your audience, their terminology, and their unique interest in your products or services, you can tweak and quickly customize your single-perfect-pitch-deck template to win-over each unique investor.

Added Bonus

Now that we’ve discussed mistakes to avoid, below is a quick list of things to think about when preparing your “pitch”.

Things to think about when preparing your “pitch.”

  1. What your business makes or does?
  2. What market you serve?
  3. How will this business make money?
  4. How your business compares to similar businesses?
  5. Why you will succeed?
  6. Your ultimate goals for your business?

Conclusion

At the end of the day, there are various Do’s and Don’ts to keep in mind. The best recommendation is to run your pitch deck past a “mock Shark Tank”. One such “mock Shark Tank” panel are the experts at Crowdsourcia. You can’t go wrong with this set of experts.

 

 

Things we can learn from Shark Tank

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SharkTankThe popular TV reality investor program, “Shark Tank” can teach us much about the perfect sales pitch. The investors on “Shark Tank,” and investors ask several specific questions to get the answers they need. Some are straightforward and some are not, but you would be wise to have excellent answers for the following.

Here are eight questions that every entrepreneur should consider before pitching:

  1. What are your sales?

You really need to understand your numbers. And just knowing the dollar figure isn’t enough. You need to be able to articulate where these numbers are coming from, on what platform, are they driven by promotions, and what sort of partners are you working with? Is the marketing working? What does it cost to produce? What are your expenses?

Know your sales information inside and out. The number better be good and growing. They also want to understand what your plan is to keep it that way. You should have a story about how expanding to new geographies, new product lines, or online has boosted or can potentially boost sales. The investors are profit-focused, and the more a business can scale, the better.

Their primary goal is a return on their investment.

  1. What do you bring to the table?

Investors are not only buying into your business, they’re also investing in you   Highlight your record of success, industry experience, or why you’re dynamic enough to justify taking a gamble on.

People do business with people they know, like and trust. So, what are you doing with your business already that is going to make them want to partner with you? A strong personal story or a great narrative about the business, along with strong presentation skills, goes a long way toward impressing your investor.

Know what you bring to the table, and be confident in that.

  1. Why do you need our money?

Investors want to know what your next steps in growth. Answer the question “What are you going to do with this money?” in such a way to help the company grow and scale rapidly. This could include building manufacturing, hiring, or marketing. Spell out exactly what the plan for the funding is.

  1. Why the big valuation?

One of the first questions the investors often ask is “How did you get to your valuation”. The Sharks are interested in a big equity stake in a promising company for the least amount of money invested. If you are asking a large valuation, you better be able to explain your justification.

  1. Is your product unique? 

Several of the Sharks are interested in patents and licensing. Explain how your product is unique. If it is unique, make sure it’s protected via a patent. More often than not, if your product and service can be duplicated quickly by other competitors, it’s going to be hard to get an investment.

Knowing what sets your business apart, and how it can be protected against competitors is absolutely essential.

  1. How much debt do you have?

This goes back to “know your numbers”. If there’s a large amount of debt, be able to justify it, and know the terms it’s been borrowed under.

  1. How much inventory do you have?

Excess inventory is a sign that you are not moving your product fast enough. This is a clear sign that the market isn’t interested in what you have to offer.

Remember, the investors are interested in a quick return on their investment. Excess inventory is dead weigh because you’ve earned zero return on it.

Being able to produce products in response to demand is a sign of having good data, a good sense of the market, and a good supply chain.

  1. What are your costs?

Investors want to gauge your ability to make high profit margins by keeping costs low or having enough demand to keep prices high, or ideally both. You should be able to explain what it costs you to make each product or service, and the difference between that cost and the unit sales price. You should also prepare to outline overhead costs, such as rent, utility expenses, and insurance.

Less Frequently Asked Questions – but you will do well to be prepared

  1. How much of your own money do you have invested into this business?
  2. How does this business scale?
  3. Are you willing to send production off-shore?
  4. How will your product be distributed?
  5. How do we get this to (or find) your target market?
  6. How many competitors do you have?
  7. How many total owners are there?

Conclusion

If you know the answers to these questions as they pertain to your business, you’ll be in a good position to make your pitch to any potential investor.

 

Is it better to terminate or reassign an employee?

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Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of TimePeace: Making peace with time – and I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable and have time to enjoy life even if they don’t have time to learn new technology or train their staff.  I have a knack for taking big ideas and converting them into smart, sound, and actionable ideas.

 

At the end of the day, I transform the way you run your business into a business you love to run.

Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

Is it better to terminate or reassign an employee that is not working out?

I have spent a lot of time training an employee. She is a great person, but I have to remind her several times to do something. I am not sure if she is just not in the right role or if she will always need too much oversight. I am curious how others have handled something like this.

You are not alone. Many new business owners struggle with this same question.

One thing to keep in mind (at all times) is that you are in the business to make money. You essentially hire staff to help you achieve your business goals.

You are not responsible for your employees’ happiness or success in their roles and responsibilities. You can encourage, support and train them – but you are not ultimately responsible for their success. They are.

Your Responsibilities:

What you are responsible is to provide clear goals and directives. You accomplish this by several methods:

  • Visible Mission, Vision and Purpose goals
    1. Do you have a company mission, vision purpose statements?
    2. Are they strategically visible where all your employees can see them?
  • Regular and frequent one-on-one meetings with your employees
    1. Are you conducting frequent one-on-one meetings with your employees?
    2. Have you validated that they not only understand the company mission but how it translate to their individual roles and responsibilities
  • Clear directives
    1. Do you have your business goals clearly documented in the form of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals
    2. Does each of your employees understand how their tasks and business goals support and accomplish those business goals?
    3. Does each of your employees have a PBC (Personal Business Commitment) plan that documents their SMART goals to achieve the company goals?

Once you have clearly articulated and published your business goals and validated each employee’s roles and responsibilities in achieving those goals, you can start determining whether a specific employee is “right” for your company.

Have you provided proper training?

Before you hire staff, you need to verify that your training and orientation materials are in place. If you don’t want to be spending time reminding your employees about the tasks and procedures, make sure they are documented in such a way that they can easily reference.

 

Some examples are:

  • Provide Checklists and document your procedures
  • Conduct frequent status meetings to review their progress and checklist status
  • Institute the buddy system in which a more senior staff is buddies with a junior staff member.
  • Delegate team leaders such that they oversee team progress and staff reports
  • Automate the more tedious and error-prone items to reduce error and rework
  • Automate and optimize items that are done over and over again
  • Optimize the procedures to only items that are MUST DO to bring in revenue, reduce costs or increase client satisfaction
  • If you cannot associate a Business Reason (example: revenue generating reason) for the task, reconsider the need for that task

 

Once you have streamlined your processes and policies, you can be assured that you have provided your employees with the best possible road-map to success.

Is she right for the job?

Once you have done your homework regarding setting up SMART goals, it is easier to assess each employee’s fit. Since you have established your Success Criteria and how you are going to Measure against your Success Criteria, you can determine if your employees are meeting expectations.

Several things that might help further are:

  • Have you documented all the tasks and expectations in a Personal Business Commitment (PBC) document? In other words, have you outlined for each employee – how their role and responsibilities are achieving your business goals?
  • Have you documented their PBCs in the form of SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound)?
  • Do your employees understand the consequences of not meeting those PBC metrics? (for instance: being placed on a Performance Improvement Plan, on probation or fired)?
  • Have your employees signed their PBCs, acknowledging that they understand their commitments and consequences of their performance.

Once you have clearly articulated the expectations for the position in this manner and streamlined the responsibly and procedures, more often than not – it is the employee that will decide if this position is right for them.

For example: A SMART goal would be:

  • If you have to remind her several times to do something – are those
    “things” explicitly documented in a checklist? (Being very specific)
  • Do you have a way to measure or tell if she has accomplished those items, on time and with the quality that you have previously defined? Does she have to report on the status or update a tracking system? (Measurable)
  • Is it reasonable that someone in that position can accomplish that task in the defined time frame? (Achievable) Or would some automation and optimization reduce the error-prone nature of the task?
  • Can you describe the How and Why this task is relevant to bringing in revenue? (Relevant to your business goals)
  • And does this have a time limit. Does she need to do this task every day? once a week? When should it be accomplished? (Time-bound).

If she needs to improve upon her performance – what specific things does she need to accomplish in a certain amount of time.  What are the consequences for not achieving those specific and measurable tasks within the deadline?  (This is what is known as a documented PIP or Performance Improvement Plan)

Conclusion:

If you are “wishy-washy” on your expectations, it’s easy for your employees to give you “wishy-washy” results.  Having your expectations and consequences well documented (and signed by your employee) will make the next steps of performance evaluation much easier.

If you need additional help on this topic, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ

 

How are you handling hundreds of emails a day?

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Today’s comment came from a busy professional and an entrepreneur:

How are you handling hundreds of emails a day?

inboxAs a business owner, I am constantly getting emails from either customers, employees, cc alerts, etc. If I am out of the office for part of the day or in meetings, I come back to dozens of emails that I spend the rest of the day responding too. Any tips for managing and keeping your inbox organized? I think one of my company’s value points is that we get back to our customers and partners almost right away.

There are a few things you can do:

1) Make use of the auto-responders to answer the frequently asked questions. Responding to your clients “right away” doesn’t always mean that you need to give them the final answer right away. Responding that you have received their request and will have a response before the day’s end – is also good. In the meantime, recommend that they review your FAQ for additional information. Your FAQs are published on your website and newsletters as well – to help eliminate those level of calls.

2) Use the your emailer’s Message Rules to automatically file the newsletters, status reports, employee’s questions and important-but-non-urgent mail into properly labeled folders (and out of inbox). Then schedule/block a separate time to review those folders. This leaves your inbox with the emails that you want to be responding to on a more immediate basis. Those folder-based emails can be reviewed at a later time.

3) Put in a Help-desk priority system such that all customer emails go to a different email address which are handled by a Level 1 support or help desk.   If the help desk cannot answer those questions they respond to the client with an update; then the email is passed to the next Level of support.

4) Decide what your SLA (Service Level Agreement) will be. Should “free-mium” clients (clients that only participate in your free offers) get the same level of support that a premium client (someone truly supporting your products and company)? If not, limit the “free-mium” support to online FAQ and 2-day response times. Use the more immediate response times for the higher-paying clients. Give the higher-paying clients your “private email addresses” – and your “free-mium” clients your general “info level” email addresses. Have someone else handle the “info-level” client email. You handle the “high-profile” clients.

5) Short-daily meetings (15 minutes) with your employees to recap the day’s goals and status. Then have weekly one-on-one meetings with each individually. Setting these meetings in place will eliminate much of the employee’s email correspondence BECAUSE a) they know they will talk to you in person daily, b) you will have answered their questions in person.

Have someone document those meetings so you will have the minutes as reference.   Have that person send out (or post on internal website) the minutes to everyone that was supposed to be at those meetings.

6) Ask yourself if you should actually be the one responding to this type of email. Just because you “can” doesn’t mean you “should” be answering that type of email. Setup of procedure to off-load some of the typical emails and requests that you receive.   Delegate team leaders to handle various types of employee requests and emails. Hand-off employee administration issues to HR or your office admin person.

Anything that repeats can be managed – but it doesn’t mean that you have to be the one that actually answers it. Once you take the time to categorize and label the types of email that you are receiving, then you can create a systematic approach or process to start off-loading those tasks.

Conclusion:

If your “response time” to customers is your undeniable benefit and differential – make that a value-add service. All your customers and employees deserve a response. But not everyone needs the same level of service.

 

For help on how to process your email, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

 

Or sign up for a complementary one-on-one coaching call, just use this link https://www.timetrade.com/book/WFSFQ