12 Daily Ways to Communicate Company Culture |  |
- 12 Daily Ways to Communicate Company Culture
- Sending a Fax Via the Internet with eFax
- 3 Video Tips That Can Make or Break Your Blog
- Check Your Google+ Page: Cover Images Now Much Larger
- Let the Sequester Cut SBA Loan Guarantees
| 12 Daily Ways to Communicate Company Culture Posted: 11 Mar 2013 02:00 PM PDT
But much of what we call “culture” is about the day-to-day interactions between staff and executive team members, or customers and your service or sales departments. And so the actions you do (or don’t) take as a leader are what really influence perceptions of your company’s culture, both inside and out. We asked members of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the country’s most promising young entrepreneurs, the following question:
Here's what YEC community members had to say: 1. Celebrate Values Alignment Through Actions “Culture isn’t a few platitudes on the wall. Culture flows from true values: what the company spends time and money on. Discuss how alternatives (strategy, hiring) reflect company values. Include values alignment in performance coaching. Celebrate team members when their actions embody company values. ” ~ Kevon Saber, Fig 2. Create Traditions “Capture and create traditions that support your culture. They’re under your nose every day; you just have to find them. Look for opportunities to create “rites of passage” for new employees, stimulate healthy competition, award prizes and celebrate major accomplishments. These things all give your company personality and are what people go home talking about.” ~ Christopher Kelly, Sentry Conference Centers 3. Hold Virtual Meetings “Virtual meetings are our tool of choice. We run a large team of 50+ employees, and getting an entire division’s — let alone the entire company’s — attention is near impossible. Instead, we do virtual meetings through Skype chat groups and a ‘virtual state of the company’ meeting where we go through our sales and next steps as a video address, which we record so the team can view it when they want.” ~ Liam Martin, Staff.com 4. Put Egg in Everything “We include the word “egg” in a lot of our words. It’s really embarrassing, but it works: egg-cellent, egg-ceptional, egg-stra. When we’re feeling really TalentEgg-y, we even come up with more creative lines, such as “hatch your career” or “omelette you go.” ” ~ Lauren Friese, TalentEgg 5. Connect at Morning Meetings “Each morning, we get together for the only mandatory part of our schedule: the morning meeting. We go around answering first, what we’re most excited about doing that day and then second, a silly question. (Examples include favorite children’s book, first pet’s name and No. 1 Thanksgiving dinner staple.) It’s a refreshing way to start the day and laugh a lot (one of our core values).” ~ Derek Flanzraich, Greatist 6. Send Encouraging Emails “As an online business owner, I try to write a message each day to my staff that reinforces my organization's culture. It may be an excerpt from our goals and initiatives, or details on a project recently completed that was in tune with our company culture.” ~ Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance 7. Lead by Example “Most people could care less what you say — what’s important is what you do when the chips are down. I try to work harder than anyone else, never be to good to do the jobs that no one wants to do, and most importantly treat everyone with honesty and respect. That culture drives decisions from how we work with vendors, employees and especially customers.” ~ Erik Severinghaus, SimpleRelevance 8. Get Pumped for Game Time “Every day, my team and I get together and talk about our goals for the day and what we learned from yesterday. What challenges, customer service and production issues did we have? The company then provides free breakfast and we tell jokes, write down goals for the day, play loud music, get pumped up and get on with our day to be a better company today. ” ~ Ak Kurji, Gennex Group 9. Show Appreciation “I make a point of walking around the office every day and thanking people for their contributions. It could be something as small as, “I really appreciated the email announcement you crafted,” or something more substantive like, “Thanks for handling that tough situation a few days ago.” Thanking them reminds them to thank others and be appreciative of what we have.” ~ Brent Beshore, AdVentures 10. Appoint a Chief Culture Officer “Culture is communicated, whether we try or not; it lives in all the small interactions we have and in the policies and procedures we adhere to. The goal is to be intentional about creating a great, life-giving culture — and the best way to do this is to have someone whose job is building good culture. Unless someone (or a team) is specifically paid to focus on it, it’s unlikely to be good.” ~ Josh Allan Dykstra, Strengths Doctors 11. Have a Daily Huddle “Each and every single day at 11:11 a.m., we have a 5-minute, high-energy meeting that is open to every team member from every level of the company. We review good news and numbers from the day before, but an important part of the agenda is to share specific examples of how we've each demonstrated one of our company's four core values in the last 24 hours. ” ~ Nick Friedman, College Hunks Hauling Junk 12. Share Successes Everywhere “We make sure everyone has a channel to announce their successes and curiosities with the rest of the team. Yammer announces everyone’s daily progress, a sales gong rings throughout the office whenever we get a new client and whiteboard paint from IdeaPaint covers many of our walls so no one ever has to travel far for a brainstorming session.” ~ Robert J. Moore, RJMetrics Vision Wall Photo via Shutterstock The post 12 Daily Ways to Communicate Company Culture appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Sending a Fax Via the Internet with eFax Posted: 11 Mar 2013 11:00 AM PDT There are still a fair number of businesses that use fax as their primary means of communication. The fax machine may be going the way of the dinosaur, but faxing is still going on, oddly enough. eFax is on top of these trends and that’s why they keep diversifying to keep up with the digital marketplace. Before you ask where, let me say that in researching this article I discovered a number of government offices, medical professionals, financial and insurance industry people who rely on it. If you are still wondering about this, read this New York Times article published just a few weeks ago about faxing in Japan. This post is for the small business owner who gets the occasional or regular fax stream. In addition to small businesses, other industries are using their mobile devices a lot more to fax. Doctors, many of whom I consider small business owners, are using online options to fax in prescriptions or sign off on X-rays. The eFax app is very valuable for many industries and it works well with mobile devices, including the iPad Mini, iPhone 5, and, of course, Android-powered phones. Sending an Internet Fax with eFaxeFax allows you to send and receive faxes around the world from Word without using a fax machine or all-in-one printer. It is one of the top online fax service for professionals, boasting 11 million users. This cloud-based app is easy to download and only requires an Internet connection to work. As you can see in this dashboard image, it is pretty straightforward. Just below what you see in this screenshot for my trial account is a spot to add a cover page and also attach a file as the fax itself. There are two pricing plans and both come with setup or activation fees. The eFax Plus 16.95 monthly (less on annual plan) and has a $10 setup fee. You receive 150 free pages per month, then it is $0.10 per page. The premium level is eFax Pro which is $19.95 monthly (again, less with annual purchase) and $19.95 setup. The Pro plan allows you to receive 200 pages per month, which lets you save $1.00 on those additional 50 pages. What I Really Like
What I'd Like to See
Just because they seem to be increasingly rare, doesn’t mean you won’t need a fax machine or service from time to time. As additional proof of the need, as I was finishing this article, my wife said, “Can we fax something from that multifunction inkjet?” When I asked why, she said that a bank confirmed that we had to fax in our document. I told her I had a temporary trial with eFax and we could use it for a test. So there’s one more bit of proof that the fax machine has not totally gone extinct. When you do need a service, you’ll want to take a closer look at eFax and its useful service. The post Sending a Fax Via the Internet with eFax appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 3 Video Tips That Can Make or Break Your Blog Posted: 11 Mar 2013 08:00 AM PDT
However, I feel the need to voice one concern: Don't overdo it. Investors diversify their portfolios and content marketers need to adopt that strategy, too. As video continues to explode and every other company's CEO points to the medium’s omnipotence, it's important to remember one word—moderation. Where Video Gets DiceyDon't get me wrong, I love video. In fact, our company just created a custom animated video to use in our sales funnel. You'll see videos embedded in a number of the posts there. While this is great, it's important to keep a level head in dealing with this medium. Video can get dicey, so please: Don’t Ask for Too Much Here's the thing, folks – nobody has to read your blog. Nobody has to tweet it. Nobody has to comment. When you make a video a core piece of a blog post, your audience either has to watch it or bow out. You can't really get much from a blog post that continues to refer to a video when you haven't actually watched the video, right? Respect your audience. Don't post a video unless you're confident that your audience will appreciate the share. Don’t Bore or Over-Stimulate You wouldn’t sit your kids down in front of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” would you? I guess if you wanted them to take a long nap, you might. At the same time, if you have a lot on your plate, you can't afford the distraction of an action-packed movie playing on the T.V. Think of your video content in the same way. Don't bore and don't over-stimulate. Don’t Overdo It Too much blogging can hurt engagement. So can too much video. If you develop a reputation as the "video blog," people are going to be less inclined to engage with your blog. (Unless you happen to post incredible videos on a regular basis that are universally loved. . . good luck.) 3 Video Tips For Your BlogFinding the Artful BalanceThere's no magic formula. But I do have three tips to help you make the most of video on your blog. Follow these 3 video tips for a successful, balanced approach: Experiment Experiment with different frequencies of video posts to find what's working best for you. Then, take your data and create an editorial calendar that repeats this ideal frequency. Be Creative Be creative with your video. Having your bloggers read their posts in front of a webcam is not being creative. Offer more than the competition. Have a Reason Last, choose video for a reason. Failure to use video does not mean you'll lose the race. If video doesn’t make sense for you, then disregard it. It's better to have no video content (or very little) than to create content that doesn't have a clear reason for existing. How will you be using video and what balancing tips do you have? Video Photo via Shutterstock The post 3 Video Tips That Can Make or Break Your Blog appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Check Your Google+ Page: Cover Images Now Much Larger Posted: 11 Mar 2013 06:00 AM PDT Google+ surprised people by suddenly making cover images much larger on the social network. Cover images are the big wide image at the top of your Google+ page. They will now be a HUGE 2120 pixels by 1192 pixels. That is much wider and taller – previously the dimensions were 940 x 180. Another change: profile avatars that appear superimposed over cover images have gotten smaller and have moved. They used to be square on the right side. Now they are on the left side, and appear round. The announcement was made by Googler Sara McKinley on (where else?) Google+ last week. The changes include several other enhancements:
By default, the cover images will not show completely. Only the bottom part will show unless the visitor scrolls and extends it. Even so, the cover image takes up most of the space on many displays. Below is an example. On a 17-inch laptop, essentially that’s all one can see of the person’s Google+ profile when you first land on the page. None of the posts show unless you scroll down the page:
What This MeansIt means you probably have to change your cover image. If you had carefully chosen five images for a collage as your cover, to convey just the right impression — it’s back to the drawing board. Businesses are likely to have designed a special cover image for their Google+ business pages. Now those cover images will have to be redesigned or rearranged. For instance, for BizSugar (one of our sites) we strategically laid out our cover images so that the large square photo avatars covered an empty spot on the right. Now that the profile avatars are on the left, they are obscuring part of the cover image verbiage and there’s an unintended blank area on the right. We have 3 different cover images that we rotate from time to time. All our cover images will have to be redesigned now. Also, creating a cover image for a business just got trickier. With the cover image being so large parts of it may get cut off on some browsers and devices. Asif Rahman has some helpful information on how to determine the “logo safe” area of your business’s cover image. You don’t want your logo to be obscured. If you have been using one of those default cover images, this is a good reason to ditch it. Use a personalized cover image. The cover image is now so large it makes a powerful impact. Reaction so far has been mixed. You can see that from the comments on McKinley’s Google+ post. Many people love the new size. On the other hand, numerous people are annoyed at having to change their images. Others think the larger images hide the content. The post Check Your Google+ Page: Cover Images Now Much Larger appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Let the Sequester Cut SBA Loan Guarantees Posted: 11 Mar 2013 04:10 AM PDT
The Small Business Administration (SBA) is no exception. Its former director, Karen Mills, wrote the Senate Appropriations Committee Chair, Barbara Mikulsi to tell her that the sequester would hurt small business's access to capital by cutting the SBA's budget for loan guarantees. The claim is overblown. Sure the sequester will impact small business owners, just like it will affect all Americans. But the cuts to the SBA's budget will do little to affect small business owners' access to financing. By contrast, not letting the sequester work has the potential to do serious damage to small business credit. Let's start with what Ms. Mills said the sequester will do. According to the former SBA administrator, sequestration will cut $16.7 million from the SBA loan guarantee program. Yes, that's million with an "M," not billion with a "B." She said the cut in the SBA loan guarantee program will force the SBA to guarantee $902 million less in loans to 1,928 fewer small businesses. That's barely a rounding error when it comes to small business lending. Data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) shows that at the end of 2012 there were just shy of 1.4 million non-farm, non-residential loans of less than $1 million – a common proxy for small business lending – totaling $302 billion in outstanding debt. Even if the SBA’s estimates for the effect of the sequester aren’t inflated, it will cut the number of small business loans by 0.1 percent and the value of the loans by 0.3 percent. The economic impact of the reduced SBA funding is even smaller than the drop in lending. The SBA estimates that 22,600 jobs would be affected by the sequester-induced drop in small business lending. That's only 0.04 percent of small business employment. Moreover, it's not clear that all this employment would be lost. Some loans that typically carry SBA guarantees would be made anyway because the lenders would deem the creditors to be acceptable risks. To justify exempting SBA loan guarantee funds from the sequester, the SBA would need to show that we are better off cutting some other government agency’s funding instead. Unfortunately, there's no evidence of that for any metric that our elected officials consider important, from job creation to economic output. On the other hand, the sequester itself has value. Washington has a credibility problem. The American people don't believe that Congress and the President are serious about getting the country's financial house in order. If the sequester cuts are reversed, and Congress and the President simply spend the money that otherwise would have been cut, they won't look serious about cutting the deficit to the ratings agencies, like Moody's and Standard and Poors, or our creditors, like China and Japan. If ratings agencies respond to a failure of the sequester to stick, by cutting the federal government's credit rating, our creditors might lose confidence in us. A crisis of confidence would roil financial markets. If banks raised interest rates, cut access to credit, or took actions similar to what they did during the 2008 financial crisis, the effect on small business access to credit could be severe. A loss of $16.7 million in SBA loan guarantees will look like nothing in comparison to another financial crisis hitting the small business credit market. The post Let the Sequester Cut SBA Loan Guarantees appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
We revere companies with great culture, and idolize CEOs like Tony Hsieh who put culture first in a very public way. Young startup founders in particular invest a lot of energy into defining their values, and often put “culture fit” at the top of their hiring must-haves.
We're a couple of months into the new year and it's safe to say that everyone has thrown predictions out into the ring about what the year holds for content marketing. By all accounts, this year is shaping up to be the year of visual marketing. Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, video. . .great. Bring it on.
These days, the director of virtually every federal agency is writing to Congress to outline some disaster looming for its constituency as a result of the sequester that cut $85 billion from the federal budget.| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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