New Coalition Encourages Businesses to Go Paperless

New Coalition Encourages Businesses to Go Paperless
Finding the Right Sustainability Initiatives for Your Business
Ways to Hire Smarter in 2013
U.S. Self-Employment Rate Predicted to Decline
Dish Network Named Worst Company to Work for in U.S.

Posted: 07 Jan 2013 01:00 PM PST

Workplace technology is constantly evolving. With new devices, cloud storage, and other collaboration options popping up daily, it seems that fewer and fewer businesses are using more tangible methods like printing documents and other papers.

For this reason "going paperless" has become a popular term for businesses looking to save money on office supplies.

Now, online faxing service HelloFax has teamed up with Google Drive, online bill management company Manilla, electronic signature service Hellosign, online accounting service Xero, scanning company Fujitsu ScanSnap, and online expense report tool Expensify to form the new "Paperless Coalition," which aims to encourage businesses to use less paper in the workplace.

If you go to the coalition's website, you can take a pledge to go paperless with your business in 2013. The photo above shows the homepage where businesses can sign up with their email address and take the paperless pledge. This also signs you up for the coalition's monthly newsletter, which contains articles and tips about running a paperless business.

It's likely these newsletters will mainly contain promotions from the partners and sponsors of the coalition, telling pledgers how Google Drive and other products and services can help companies cut back on paper usage.

But promotional or not, if one of your company's goals for the new year is to save money on office supplies or cut back on paper usage, learning about different companies and tools on a monthly basis could still prove to be valuable.

And with so many different new technology options available, cutting back on paper usage should be a fairly simple goal for 2013, if your business hasn't taken the leap already.

Though paper usage in office settings has certainly declined in the last several years, the Environmental Protection Agency still says that the average U.S. office worker uses about 10,000 sheets of copy paper per year, according to Paperless 2013's about page.

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Finding the Right Sustainability Initiatives for Your Business

Posted: 07 Jan 2013 11:00 AM PST

sustainability initiatives It's easy to feel intimidated with sustainability. Once you address the basics—installing energy-efficient light bulbs and stationing recycle bins around the office—you may not know how to proceed.

How do you determine which sustainability measures will ultimately pay for themselves and be the best investment for your business?

It doesn't have to be such as monstrous, stressful endeavor. In fact, it can be a very rewarding journey that ultimately pays back in multiple ways by lowering your environmental footprint, improving your bottom line and bolstering customer and employee loyalty.

So, where do you start?

Here are four steps to finding sustainability initiatives that make sense for your business:

1. Identify Measures That Aligned With Your Business

Often the most powerful sustainability measures are those that align closely with what a business does or sells. Think about the grocery store that donates excess inventory to a local food bank, an accountant that sends tax documents electronically or helps businesses assess the paybacks of sustainability initiatives, or apparel makers that focus on using sustainable, non-toxic fabrics and dyes.

These initiatives are so closely tied to what they do that it's easy to feel passionate about them and discuss them with customers.

2. Take a Customer Perspective

Put yourself in your customers' shoes. What would help them reduce their footprint when using your products? An olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette store near where I live gives customers a discount for returning and refilling their used bottles. They decorate their recycled paper bags as gift bags when people ask, so customers don't need to re-wrap it themselves.

Considering what happens to your products once they leave your business can help you figure out how to reduce your total footprint even more.

3. Form a “Green Team”

Have employees? Get them involved in helping identify sustainability initiatives for the business. Chances are, your employees most passionate about the environment will volunteer to serve on a green team. (Learn steps for starting a green team.)

And they will eventually become ambassadors, helping other employees reduce their environmental footprint while at work.

4. Relax, Take it Slowly

Becoming a “green business” isn't an overnight process. Yes, certain measures require some research and analyses. But start with the low-hanging fruit—the things that you know will help the environment and save you money. Take advantage of services available to your business, like free or low-cost energy audits from your utility companies. Write a basic sustainability plan with goals that are achievable.

Consider joining a local business sustainability group, so you can network with other business owners striving to be greener and share ideas.

Once you start realizing how these initiatives lower your footprint, you'll likely want to keep doing more.

Olive Oil Gift Photo via Shutterstock

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Ways to Hire Smarter in 2013

Posted: 07 Jan 2013 08:00 AM PST

hiring employees Is hiring more employees one of your New Year's resolutions?

While hiring ultimately relieves your headaches in the long run by helping you and your team with workload, in the short run most entrepreneurs dread hiring because of the time and effort involved.

Fortunately, there are ways to ensure you recruit more of the right candidates and waste less time with people who don't suit your needs.

1. Target Your Advertising

If you've ever posted a job listing on a big general-interest job search site, you know what a deluge of resumes you get hit with—and how few of them are even relevant to the job you're hoping to fill.

Instead of using this scattershot technique, hone in on the job search sites that are most relevant for you. That could be sites specific to your industry or to the type of position you're trying to fill (such as marketing director).

2. Get Social

Social media has emerged as a great way to find job candidates. LinkedIn's focus on business networking makes it the first place you should think of when looking for qualified employees. You can post an official job listing, or just put the word out to your network on LinkedIn.

If you're willing to put in some extra legwork, you can also check out any LinkedIn groups you belong to for people who may not be actively searching for a job, but could have the skills you need, then get in touch with them. Or ask your networks to do the same in their LinkedIn Groups.

Of course, LinkedIn isn't your only option for seeking candidates on social media. Depending on what platform makes sense for you, you may want to tweet news of your job opening or post it on your Facebook site. Along the same lines, consider if there's anyone among your business's Facebook or Twitter connections who might be interested in the job.

3. Use Your Website

All of your social media efforts regarding the job posting should link back to your business website. Use your website as a tool for recruiting by creating a meaty "About" section where you explain your business's purpose and history and introduce your team.

Depending on your needs, you might even want to create a tab called "Job Opportunities at [Your Business]" or "Working at [Your Business]" that talks about your company culture, lists available job openings, and includes contact information for interested candidates to reach you.

This used to be something only big companies did, but I'm seeing more small businesses start to incorporate it.

4. Enlist Your Employees

If your employees are reliable, hard-working and good people, chances are their friends are, too. That's why when you're seeking to fill a job your existing employees should be among the first people you tell. Ask them to spread the word about the job opening to family and friends.

Sweeten the pot by offering a finder's fee if someone recommends a job candidate who gets hired and completes their 90-day probation period.

Using the four methods above will lead to fewer, but more qualified, job candidates than the typical want ad posting. You'll get candidates who are connected to your industry, your business and the people you know.

This will make it easier to weed out the poor candidates and hone in on the ones who might fit into your business.

Choosing the talent person Photo via Shutterstock

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U.S. Self-Employment Rate Predicted to Decline

Posted: 07 Jan 2013 05:00 AM PST

In 2020, a smaller fraction of Americans will be in business for themselves than currently, a new report released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows. Between 2010 and 2010, the BLS predicts that the self-employed fraction of the labor force will shrink from 6.3 to 5.9 percent.

This decline is part of a long term downward trend in self-employment. Back in 1948, 12.8 percent of the non-agricultural labor force was engaged in unincorporated self-employment, Steve Hipple, a BLS economist has shown.

As I have said, declining self-employment is a natural trend as economies develop. It occurs in part because of something I call the "Walmart effect." Because of the efficiencies of scale, Walmart replaces a lot of small, independent businesses. The end result is fewer people running their own businesses and more working for someone else.

The declining rate of self-employment will occur because the number of self-employed people will increase less rapidly than the number of wage employed. Between 2010 and 2020, BLS economists predict that the economy will add about 20.5 million workers, 19.7 million of whom will work for someone else and 800,000 of whom will be self-employed. That works out to a 1.4 percent annual increase in wage workers and only a 0.8 percent annual increase in the self-employed.

The pattern contrasts with the 2000 to 2010 period where the economy lost 3.2 million workers, 400,000 of whom were self-employed. During that period the patterns were more similar for those employed by others and those self-employed, causing the fraction of self-employed to shrink only from 6.4 percent to 6.3 percent.

Secondary self-employment (self-employment by people whose primary job is working for a wage or salary) is expected to increase more slowly than primary self-employment, with BLS economists forecasting a 0.5 percent annual increase from 2010 to 2010.

That's also very different than what happened from 2000 to 2010 when over 500,000 secondary self-employed left the labor market, resulting a 3 percent annual rate of decline.

Self-employment Decline Photo via Shutterstock

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Dish Network Named Worst Company to Work for in U.S.

Posted: 07 Jan 2013 02:30 AM PST

What your employees think about you and your company is important. If you don’t think so, just read the story that follows. Your employees serve as brand emissaries, communicating the values of your company to your customers, and that message can affect the way your brand is perceived. If customers don’t believe in you or your company, it will show, one way or the other. What your employees feel about your company is on you, too, so be sure to take responsibility for the value you create for them.

Worst Practices

Dish it out. This is the kind of brand recognition your company doesn’t want. The method that the website 24/7 Wall St.com used to pick the worst company to work for in America isn’t very scientific, but as the stories of employees and former employees show, there is more than enough evidence of discontent. The complaints of the disgruntled may not mean much to some, but don’t ignore the possibility that these underlying attitudes are affecting service and quality. Bloomberg Businessweek

Don’t go to the dark side. We’ve all been tempted to point fingers when mistakes happen, but business coach Bernd Geropp warns against creating a culture of fear where employees are more likely to hide mistakes than share them with you. If this is the environment you have created, you should understand it will hurt much more than just morale. Also, if mistakes persist, you must consider your own leadership to determine whether your decisions are part of the problem. More Leadership, Less Management

Hire Right

In a fog about hiring. When hiring employees for your business, don’t use the mirror test. Entrepreneur and blogger Tom Watson describes this as the approach of sticking a mirror under an applicant’s nose to find out if they are still breathing. If they fog up the mirror, hire them quickly, before someone else snatches them away from you. Unfortunately, this approach will only lead to trouble down the road. Focus instead on hiring the right people for your company, and save yourself management headaches in the future. Cleaning 4 Profit

Be an interviewing super star. To hire the right people, you must realize that the interviewing process is much more than a chore to squeeze in between other important tasks in your day. Interviewing will allow you to hire the perfect employee for your company, adding value to your business while relieving you or another employee of tasks that are keeping you from growing. Karen Axelton has some suggestions to help you hire the best. Grow Smart Biz

The wonders of management. Hiring a great manager is critical, especially for a small startup business, so understandably you don’t want to go through the whole process only to discover you’ve hired someone like Michael Scott from the popular TV show, The Office. Fortunately, there are some simple things to look for in a good manager, especially if you have the opportunity to observe their work habits ahead of time. Here are some qualities to consider in your search from startup adviser Martin Zwilling. Startup Professionals Musings

Watch the Subtleties

Time for new talent. There comes a time in every business when new talent is needed. You should recognize this transition can be difficult for staff members and managers who may have played a much broader role when getting your company started. You will need these employees to help and support your new talent while adjusting to new or redefined roles. And you must avoid making them feel as if they are being replaced in the process. Business adviser Ian Smith has some suggestions to ease the transition. The Smith Report

Talkin’ ’bout your generation. It’s difficult enough to communicate with employees, but communicating to a multi-generational group is even more challenging. Often how those employees react to you depends upon their experiences and the generation to which they belong. It’s important to consider some of the differences between your employees based on age and experience. Make sure you are making your true meaning known. Moats Kennedy Inc.

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