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Small Business Owner or Employee of Your Business?

Small Business Owner or Employee of Your Business?
Most of my clients are small business owners and they might be surprised by the challenge in the title of this week’s article.Are you a small business owner – or are you actually a hard-working employee – for yourself?A lot of my readers won’t want to hear this, but you must hear it if it is the truth.What is the difference? What makes you a small business owner, and what makes you an employee of your business?Successful small business owners are driven. But then so are successful hard-working employees. But what drives them are two different things.A hard-working employee is driven to be good at their job. They take pride in a job well done. They work hard to make sure it is done well. They take pride in working on the details and working in the business.If you are working hard in your business, are you sure you are not merely investing in a job? As a mere employee, you may deeply and rightly believe that you are doing your best and working hard. You certainly are but you are working hard in your job, within your job description, within the parameters, working hard at the procedure or in the...
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Design Your Organisation Chart Now!

Design Your Organisation Chart Now!
All small businesses start in a very similar way, and I’ll bet you can relate to this story:Jack and Jill started their small business just by themselves. They did most things together– they did the sales together, they discussed stock levels as they ordered stock, they worked side by side as they stacked the shelves, they took turns to write different pages of their website, they kept the books together, together they opened every morning and closed every evening.Then they got busy as the business grew and they hired a store helper, Sue.Sue was really keen and helpful, she mucked in and helped to do everything as well. In some things, all three of them were interchangeable as they looked after all the tasks in the business.But things were starting to get missed because they got confused about who was going to do what. This didn't really matter because one of them would see the confusion and between the three of them they sorted it out.Then the business became more successful and they hired Tom. Between the 4 of them, they did all the activities of the business as people could. If one was busy another picked up the slack.But more...
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How To Explain Your Business Plan To Your Team

How To Explain Your Business Plan To Your Team

So, you've completed your Business Plan? Whatever it is, apart from starting to implement it – do you know what’s the most important thing for you to do now?

Explain it!

Who do you have to explain it to?Well, it depends – if you have a team of employees, you need to explain it to them.If you are work on your own but you use contractors, virtual assistants or friends to help you in your business – you need to explain your plan to them. Even if you work totally alone – you need to explain your plan to at least your spouse and family, if not your bank or other people involved in helping you.These are your “stakeholders” and you need to explain your big new plan to them because people hate change, and a plan represents change. If your plan affects them (how could it not?) you need to explain it to them.You also need to ensure that the people involved know about your plan - and especially the parts that they have to play - so that they can help you as required. You want them enthusiastic about the new ideas and the direction you...
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Are You Starting Your First Business? Get These 6 Things Right!

Are You Starting Your First Business? Get These 6 Things Right!
Are you starting your first business?If you are like most people who want to start their own business people, you probably decided to do so because you are an expert in what you do, you believe you can do it better as your own boss, and you want your independence and ability to do it your own way.Today, this seems even more possible due to the technology that you can use from home or a shared space that allows you to keep costs down when you start up.While there are even government websites encouraging you (there’s one that has a header “Open for Business: Simple, Fast, Easy) headlines still exist that shout out nearly 80% of businesses close within 18 months of starting – and you can bet most of these are micro, small, and "kitchen table" businesses.Nevertheless, our enthusiasm as human beings for the life of freedom is boundless, and once you conquer the fear of failure, most of us grasp the chance and plunge in.The question is not “will you start your own business” but “how will you start your business with least risk of failure”. So here are the 6 things I believe you need, gleaned from...
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