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Tips for Small Business Success
February 9, 2009
Nature...reduces cognitive fatigue and stress and can be helpful with depression and anxiety.
-Irina Wen, Ph.D
-Irina Wen, Ph.D
- Surround yourself with experts in various fields. If you don't know any personally, then ask for advice from friends, family members, neighbors, parishioners, etc. Offer to take your new contacts to lunch in exchange for a half hour of advice. By offering to exchange lunch for advice, you're sending a clear message that you're eager to learn, you value their time and advice, and that you're serious.
- Don't procrastinate. When you own a small business, you will find that tasks and paperwork pile up. Avoiding them is similar to piling up debt; eventually it can overwhelm even the most proficient business owner.
- Never ignore the competition. Customer loyalty has consistently dropped in recent years. Customers go where they can find the best products and services, even if that means terminating long-term business relationships.
- Never ignore customers' needs. Once a solid customer base is formed, savvy entrepreneurs must work hard to maintain it.
- Look for competence. Hire only the best and most skilled workers. Happy employees are good, productive workers.
- Be versatile. Successful business owners tend to be adept at a number of tasks and can offer diverse services and products to clients.
- Watch your cash flow. Keep careful track of the money coming into and out of your business. Monitor spending and learn how to create cash flow.
This week our popular resource, The Art of Leadership: Managing Early Childhood Organizations, is on sale. The comprehensive guide includes contributions from the leading experts in the field on the following management areas...
- Leadership
- Advocacy
- Getting organized
- Legal issues
- Financial management
- Fundraising
- Personnel policies
- Recruiting and selecting staff
- Supervising and developing staff
- Evaluating your program
- Shaping your curriculum
- Working with parents
- Marketing your program
- Community outreach
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ExchangeEveryDay is the official electronic newsletter for Exchange Press. It is delivered five days a week containing news stories, success stories, solutions, trend reports, and much more.
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Comments (1)
Displaying 1 CommentEdgecombe Community College
Tarboro, NC, United States
After reading both articles "Women as Communicators" I just had to put in my "two cents". Before entering the field of Early Childhood Education I worked in two mostly male dominated areas, agriculutural research and the military. I learned a lot for these two areas in how to communicate to both men and women. A lot of what I learned was from making mistakes in communicating.
As far as the comments about communication go: First let's address that women introduce themselves too soon. I support name tags and ID's. The military uniform features a name tag and rank. So there is never any doubt about someone's name. I still wear a name tag at work to this day. I find that both men and women don't listen to a persons name, that they both are too busy sizing up the other person first. Most of the time it's trying to decide whether this person is going to agree with them.
Women nod as they talk. I do not agree that this makes people think you are listening. The nodding of head is the global sign of "I agree". This is misleading to nod the head in agreement as one is listening, it makes the listener think you really do agree with them. And tilting the head is also misleading, it is universal for confusion or noninterest.
Taking the super woman stance is what our mother's did when they wanted to make a point. Remember your Mom putting her hands on her hips, you knew you were in trouble. To this day young children still interupted that stance as "Oh I am in trouble". So if children think that, don't you think just maybe adults do too.
And the part about "fidget" to put people at ease. That only gets on my nerves. It does not in anyway make me feel at ease. It makes me want to send the person to the "Time Out" chair.
I think the bottom line here is, we learn body language in communication at an early age. And shame on every early childhood educator who didn't see this. These lessons in communication follow us into adulthood. Some well change as we encounter life as we get older and our experiences introduce us to new situations. I find what works best for me is simple straight forward honest communication. End of story.
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