A New On-Line Approach

For the past several months I have been working with two free Websites for design and hosting.  MS Officelive is my preferred host for flexibility and creativity; but you cannot link with Google Adsense easily (it can be done but is quite involved and difficult).   With Google Adsense you can develop passive income – a click-through results in several cents income.

Weebly.com is not as good looking but is much easier to load Adsense onto.  During the past two weeks I have had difficulty publishing my Weebly Website.  As soon as that is live I will no longer be using WordPress; hopefully this will be in the next week.

Thank you for viewing my posts.  Very soon I hope to have BizPlanSpecialist.com active with the focus being – you guessed it – a more effective approach to developing your business plan.

In the time being, please utilize PeakPlanningSpecialist.com.

Dick McCormick     www.BizSuccessWithLess.com

www.PeakPlanningSpecialist.com

Make a Difference in Your Business

For my bi-weekly post, I am encouraging you to review prior posts, select one, two, or three priority items to implement, then implement them! We – me included – have a tendency to read,… and read,… and read but take too few action steps.

Scroll down and review these posts – find something that will help you. And just do it!!

Dick McCormick     www.BizSuccessWithLess.com

Se also: www.PeakPlanningSpecialist.com

Brand New Website!

PeakPlanningSpecialist.com has been created to Fast-Track the business planning process. It is designed to help the start-up develop his/her business plan and the existing business owner update his plan (or develop one if he has none!).

Utilizing the information and links on this site will cut through the long search process, the hit-and-miss approach to finding relevant info about developing your business plan.

Especially check out the “Me, A Business Owner” page for several free assessments that would benefit any small business owner, or aspiring business owner!!

Have a great day!  Dick McCormick

www.BizSuccessWithLess.com                  www.PeakPlanningSpecialist.com

Wonderful Free Websits to Start & Grow Your Business!!

This post will be short but packed with three great resources to help you start and grow your business.  If this economy is getting you down, look these up!  These are ones I refer my clients to.

www.SBA.gov. On the top under “Small Business Planner” click on “Manage Your Business.”  When you get there, click on “Market and Price” on the right sidebar.  Here is an entire marketing course with about 15 topics on marketing and advertising.

www.SCORE.org. The Service Corps of Retired Executives is actually a part of the SBA.  Click on “How-to” on the left sidebar.  There are sections on “Starting Your Business,” “Growing,” “Financing,” “Technology,” “60 Second Guides,”  and more.

On the home page again, click on “Business Tools” on the left sidebar.  Then click on “Templates” which will take you to a 31 page business plan outline and financial templates which can help you get started and manage your business.

SCORE also provides mentors to answer your questions – the home page will get you connected with someone with your industry experience to offer helpful input.

www.sbcn.nc.gov. This is new and the home page for the Small Business Center Network of North Carolina.  There are 58 Small Business Centers attached to the 58 community colleges in NC.  Some great resources can be found by clicking on “Resources” (what else?) near the top of the page.  As you scroll down near the bottom under “Resources” you will find: “Business Plan Template,” “Business Self-Guided Assessment,” and “IRS Tax Center.”

But one of the most helpful sections is near the center of the “Resources” page, on the left: “Market Research.” Especially during these difficult times you need to be looking at your market demographics or developing new markets or products.  Good research is essential!

Dick McCormick Biz Success with Less

For more business success tips go to… www.BizSuccessWithLess.com

How to Get the BEST from Your Employees

This economic downturn (“recession”) affects most of us as consumers spend more on gas and food and less on other things. To get and keep customers you have to give them a great experience! It’s been shown that happy employees are vital to creating a positive experience for your customers. What it boils down to is that your employees ARE your competitive advantage – it pays to keep them happy and satisfied.

Strategies to develop and maintain satisfied employees:

1) Hire the right people in the first place. Make certain they are suited for the particular tasks that they do. Do not settle for just any warm body! Hiring is both an art and a science; you need to review and probably revamp your hiring process to ensure you are hiring those who fit the job and your culture.

2) Periodically ask your employees what THEY want from the job. Are you providing this? The four different generations in the workplace have different values, goals, work ethics and respond differently to various rewards.

3) There are many factors that provide a motivational environment. Frederick Herzberg – a 20th century management guru – discovered six things that contribute to outstanding employee performance:

• Responsibility – People must know their responsibilities, how their performance is measured.
• Achievement - People must see that they are accomplishing goals relative to those responsibilities.
• Recognition – People must be recognized for their accomplishments.
• Job Itself - Job fit is crucial: matching the job to the person’s strengths and interests.
• Advancement - People want opportunities to take on more responsibility.
• Personal Development - People want opportunities to learn and grow in their fields of interest.

4) There are many other factors that contribute to employee satisfaction and motivation:

• Good communication – Keeping your people in the loop, financially and otherwise.
• Communication also involves continuous individual performance feedback on how they’re doing.
• Involve your people in planning and strategizing, in making decisions, and in solving problems.
• Build teamwork – plan, strategize, make decisions, solve problems as a group; provide some team rewards for accomplishments.
• If you want the best people, you have to pay them above average, with part of their compensation based on performance, how well they accomplish their individual goals.
• Provide fun rewards when you and they have success. Let them share in the company profits.
• “The closer the supervision, the poorer the performance.” Give your people responsibility, train them properly, give them appropriate decision-making authority, then let them go and do the job without hovering over them.
• Be fair and honest in everything you do.

In highly competitive and slow economic times, don’t scrimp on employees – you need to have the very best people working for you and provide reasons for them to stick around for the long term.

Dick McCormick – Biz Success with Less
For more Business Success Tips, go to: www.bizsuccesswithless.com