SWOT Analysis
When your car starts to make funny noises and quits running well, what do you do? You either stop to do a check-up or you take it to a mechanic. But what about when your business is struggling and you’re not meeting your goals? That’s where SWOT analysis comes in. SWOT analysis is a method used to understand the strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats of a company and provides both a high level and in depth look at internal and external factors; a sort of business “check-up.” Investopedia says: “The method of SWOT analysis is to take the information from an environmental...
Read MoreThe “How To” of Goal Setting: Objectives and Key Results
Image courtesy of myrestoredhealth.com Every small business owner knows that goal setting is a key to success. We all know why we need to set goals but the how is where we get hung up. And that’s where Google comes in. Their system of Objectives and Key Results (OKR’s) provides an excellent framework for goal setting and measuring. Here’s a brief intro to the method. In the first year of Google’s operations, John Doerr, big-time venture capitalist and entrepreneur, presented the idea of OKR’s to the founders. He committed them to a test run and now it’s become part of the...
Read MoreThe Measuring Stick: Determining the Strength of Your Workplace
Image source: tothministries.org via Google search Revenue, profit, sales volume – that’s easy enough for us to measure. But what about employee morale? Company culture? A manager’s effectiveness? Overall strength of a workplace? Now that’s tough. But, the Gallup Organization believes it’s possible, and so do I. Over the course of 25 years Gallup studied these and other questions by interviewing over a million employees and gathering their answers to hundreds of similar questions. In the end, Gallup ran an in depth and extremely complex statistical analysis that...
Read More5 Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know
5 Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know Paul B. Brown, Forbes entrepreneurship columnist, gives 23 wonderful insights from 30+ years of experience. I’ll give you my 5 favorites. See the full article here. 1. The best way to predict the future is to create it. If you’re wondering if today, this month, this year, is going to be successful, you’re the one that makes it happen! 2. The most important decision you can make is where to spend your time. A common question asked of successful people is, “How do you balance your time?” A common answer is, “You...
Read MoreWorking with Gen Y, the Millennials
Tips for Working with Gen Y, the Millennials With each new graduating class, more and more millennials are entering the workforce. Although Gen Y, a.k.a. “millennials,” born between the early 1980s and 2000, are often viewed as lazy or entitled this new generation can be a great asset to your business. Read on to learn how to make working with Gen Y employees a strength for your business. Gen Y Strengths – Tech savvy, especially with social media- Strong multi-taskers – Hold high expectations of themselves and employers- Prefer to collaborate and work in teams- Seek...
Read MoreProtecting Your Business: Cyber Security
Protecting Your Business Online Cyber security is something on every business owner’s mind. Protecting your business and client information is a big worry with all the recent big company hacks. How do I protect my confidential information? How can I make sure my client information is not collected by a hacker? Here are a few tips to help keep your company protected. 1. Charge your phones and tablets at home or in the office. Hackers have created fake USB chargers. They look like real chargers and may be available in public places. These fake chargers steal data when an individual plugs...
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