11 Tips for Handling Internal Employee Promotions With Finesse |  |
- 11 Tips for Handling Internal Employee Promotions With Finesse
- Small Business Manufacturing Is Up. One Reason: Reinvention
- 16 Tools to Come Up With Blog Ideas for Posts
- Samsung Will Introduce a New 8 Inch Tablet in June
- Housing Rebound Should Help Small Business
| 11 Tips for Handling Internal Employee Promotions With Finesse Posted: 06 May 2013 04:00 PM PDT
Growth is exciting for a small business or startup — but it often comes with a lot of internal HR challenges, including the less-than-pleasant task of promoting or hiring the right person for the right management role (often to the disappointment of another employee). Done right, employee promotion can ensure growth. Done wrong, a promotion can lead to the kind of office politics that no CEO wants to deal with. To find out how to turn this sticky situation into an opportunity, 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. Be Clear “Outline the employee’s successes within the organization so they know the things they don’t have to focus on. Then, as tactfully as possible, outline the areas where they need improvement so they can position themselves for that promotion in the future. That way, they clearly understand what they need to work on.” ~ Andrew Schrage, Money Crashers Personal Finance 2. Have a Career Plan “It is easier to break challenging news when there is an alternative plan to get an employee where they want to go. Employees who see a future in the company, an opportunity to move up in title, a more challenging role and higher compensation tend to stick around, even if there is a setback. If they know what their target is, and there is transparency, this conversation is much easier to have!” ~ Raoul Davis, Ascendant Group 3. Be Honest “As this is a great opportunity for employee development, don’t save face or overly sugarcoat the information. Highlight areas the employee should work on in order to succeed in the position in question, and identify appropriate resources to help them get where they need to be. Keep them motivated by giving them intriguing new responsibilities as well.” ~ Alexandra Levit, Inspiration at Work 4. Explain That You’re Running a Meritocracy “From the outset, make it very clear that your company is a meritocracy, and then act that way. I find if you set clear expectations, this type of thing has minimal negative consequences.” ~ Rob Emrich, PaeDae 5. Be Open “You must (I hope) have had good reasons to promote the person you selected. Convey these in a concise, clear manner to the person who did not get the title. True professionals should understand, appreciate and, hopefully, learn from a logical and rational decision. ” ~ Nicolas Gremion, Free-eBooks.net 6. Tailor the Job to the Person “If we have a new role that someone on the team can fill, it’s rarely about a “promotion,” but instead an evolution. We’re all growing together, so the job titles and responsibilities grow as we do. By customizing it to each person, no one loses out.” ~ Derek Flanzraich, Greatist 7. Become a Flat Organization “If you choose to have an organization with fancy titles and a hierarchical system, then you are going to run into these problems. There is no good solution to sugarcoating the news to someone that their former colleague is now their boss. In this day and age, there is no reason why we have to have a corporate-looking system of promotions, instead of everyone just accepting more responsibility. ” ~ Matt Wilson, Under30Media 8. Do Away With Titles Altogether “Titles make people feel more important, but they don’t make you more money. We eschew titles altogether and stick with disciplines to describe what the person does — marketing, finance, development, etc. You never have to explain why someone didn’t get a coveted new title if there weren’t any titles to begin with.” ~ Michael Portman, Birds Barbershop 9. Turn It Into a Motivational Lesson “Rather than emphasizing the things an employee may have done wrong or poorly, I prefer to focus on the things that they did right — being proactive in meetings, showing enthusiasm, arriving early and staying late when needed, etc. By turning this missed opportunity into a learning experience, you keep the passed-over employee engaged and motivated.” ~ Zach Cutler, Cutler Group 10. Use Performance Evaluations “Many executives and managers have trouble explaining why someone didn’t get promoted because they haven’t been doing performance evaluations, which is a huge disservice to their team and their business. Good performance evaluations show current performance and indicate future potential. In lieu of evaluations, though, explaining the decision based on current performance and future potential helps.” ~ Charlie Gilkey, Productive Flourishing 11. Inspire Employee Understanding With Honesty “Honesty is crucial when delivering news in regard to a promotion. Inform your employee about your decision, and then tactfully explain your reasoning. In some situations, it may be in regard to skill level and experience; other times, it might come down to an employee being more of a natural fit in regard to personality or soft skills. This is a chance for an employee to learn and grow.” ~ Heather Huhman, Come Recommended Promotion Photo via Shutterstock The post 11 Tips for Handling Internal Employee Promotions With Finesse appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Small Business Manufacturing Is Up. One Reason: Reinvention Posted: 06 May 2013 01:30 PM PDT
Small business manufacturing is growing, according to a recent analysis. One big reason for the growth is the ability of small manufacturers to reinvent themselves to take advantage of new industries and new business opportunities. The PayNet Manufacturing Index found that American manufacturing by small businesses is up 48 percent since 2009. While it still hasn’t rebounded to pre-Great Recession highs, the trend overall is significantly upward since 2009. See chart above (black line is the full index – green line reflects the industrial machinery sector). PayNet’s index measures investments by small manufacturing businesses in property, equipment, tools and business units. In other words, small businesses in manufacturing are investing again – a positive signal. Manufacturers of industrial machinery and equipment are one category of manufacturers fueling this resurgence in an area of the economy that has been losing jobs since the 1990s. Companies manufacturing equipment like gas compressors, carburetors, tools, and industrial fans fall into this category. They did better than manufacturers as a whole. PayNet President William Phelan said with the release of the new data, “This sector is the biggest example of the resurgence of U.S. manufacturing. The process of re-invention and recreation is core to business right now and surviving companies have figured this out.” Instrument manufacturers make up another category showing positive gains since the 2009 recession lows. One sector that has not seen growth is small manufacturers in the printing and publishing sector. They appear to be a casualty of the digital age. There’s less need for book binding and other traditional printing technologies, PayNet points out. PayNet also notes that these investments by small business manufacturers are driving productivity increases of 15%. Small businesses are “producing more more manufactured goods for the same level of capital.” PayNet is based in Skokie, Illinois. It was founded in 1999 and maintains a large proprietary database of small business loans, leases and lines of credit encompassing over 20 Million contracts. The company also publishes the Thomson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index. PayNet recently launched a Small Business Delinquency Index. Chart credit: PayNet The post Small Business Manufacturing Is Up. One Reason: Reinvention appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| 16 Tools to Come Up With Blog Ideas for Posts Posted: 06 May 2013 11:00 AM PDT Content marketing is helping small businesses generate website traffic, online visibility and ultimately, sales leads. And a business blog is key to content marketing. But if you’re like many in a small business, you may find yourself wondering, “What do I blog about today?” If you have trouble coming up with blog ideas for posts, read on. We’ve collected 16 of our favorite tools that help us here at Small Business Trends generate ideas for blog posts. Try out some of these tools the next time you find yourself staring at a blank screen. Tools to Generate Blog Ideas for PostsGoogle Keyword Tool
The free keyword tool from Google AdWords is great for finding out what people are actually searching for on Google on a daily basis. You can use the tool even if you’re not advertising through Google. Hint: look for keywords that get a significant number of searches (say, 50,000 monthly searches), but have low or medium competition. Take note of “local monthly searches” if you specifically want to target readers in your region or area. You can also change location to determine how keywords are performing in different regions. Netvibes
Netvibes lets you create a personalized dashboard so you can monitor RSS feeds, social media accounts and even analytics for your blog and website — all in one place. Add RSS feeds for your favorite blogs and news sites, and check it daily. You can add as many feeds as you like to get wide coverage of topics. Then simply scan the headlines for something in the news that triggers a blogging idea or serves as a launching point for your own commentary. Alltop
Alltop is a collection of the best blogs under hundreds of topics. You can easily come up with blog ideas by browsing through the current post titles that are shown under each topic. For example, if you write on technology, there are plenty of technology posts you can learn from. You can also search for related topics for each heading. Quora
A good blog post often answers a burning question people have. Quora is a great place to identify the kinds of questions that business people want answers to. Quora is particularly good for B2B (business-to-business) topics. Questions are grouped under topics. Look especially for questions with a lot of interactivity and comments. That’s often a signal that the topic will be engaging. Topsy
Topsy allows you to search across various social channels. You can use Topsy to get real-time insights into a wide variety of business questions: You can filter your results into just links and tweets, videos, posts or even photos. Take advantage of the filter tool to explore details of the search results. Topsy gives you the option to create an email or RSS alert to send you regular updates for different topics. Twitter Search, Trends, List
Twitter has over 400 million users. There’s a high likelihood that someone on Twitter is talking about topics that will appeal to your readers. First, make use of Twitter Search. Type in a word or even a hashtag phrase (example: #smallbiz) and watch tweets unfold on your chosen topic. Twitter is particularly good for finding up-to-the-minute topics. You can also take note of topics that are trending on Twitter at any given moment. Trending topics appear on the left side of your screen once you are logged in (more here). You can change to a different location to know what topics are trending in other geographic areas. You can also use Twitter Lists to follow industry leaders in your niche. Find and follow Twitter experts whose posts and articles are the most popular within your industry. (More on Lists.) Google News (Personalized)
Google News offers great content on virtually any topic you are interested in following. You can create your own news results based on your keywords. Ask yourself which keywords or topics you tend to write on or that your readers would be interested in. Use targeted keywords to create news feeds you can track daily for news as it breaks. To get to Google News, hit the link above. Or go to Google.com, search for a topic, and then click the News link across the top of the page. TweakYourBiz Title Generator
The TweakYourBiz Title Generator specifically generates blog post titles for you to either print or download. Plug in a word or phrase, and it will generate hundreds of titles grouped by approaches: how-to posts, lists, questions, contrarian headlines, and so on. Not only does it generate potential titles, but the titles give you clues for how to structure your blog posts and captivate interest. There’s also a synonym generator, to look for related words and phrases. The Title Generator is sure to get your creative juices flowing. StumbleUpon Trends
StumbleUpon now provides users with news or content on trending news. Trends are grouped into topics or headings: Explore each topic for more ideas in your industry. Trending posts on StumbleUpon show the kind of content users are interested in at the moment, and the type of topics they click on or share. Take advantage of the StumbleUpon lists to create your own lists to follow. Scoop.it
Scoop.it lets you curate engaging social news based on a topic of your choice. You can easily enhance your blogging productivity by adding a feed to your website that includes topics of interest to you and your readers. You can also discover topics curated by others. Scoop.it is one of a number of curation tools that help you collect references to other content — see 55 curation tools. For more on the benefits of “curating” content, read about reasons to pick up the curator habit. BizSugar
BizSugar, a sister site to Small Business Trends, is an online community where members can submit, comment on and vote for their favorite small business posts, videos and news. Anyone can share content, and the site has over 1 million registered users. The community then votes on its favorite posts. The site makes it easy to track the top posts overall, or by category such as marketing, finance, management, technology and startups. By seeing what others find popular, it may trigger blog ideas for posts that appeal to your readers. BizSugar is especially good for identifying ideas for blog posts that appeal to a small business audience. Copyblogger – How To Write Magnetic Headlines
When creating a great blog post, start with the headline. Headlines are a small but important part of your blog post. They attract readers’ attention and make them decide whether to read further. They establish what to expect when reading the post. Headline writing is an art, but it can be learned and Brian Clark of Copyblogger has created a guide. Read this collection of posts discussing how to write magnetic headlines. It will trigger blogging ideas and subtly guide you in how to frame topics to be more popular with readers. Storify
Storify helps you find and collect information from a variety of sources around a particular “story” – such as a breaking news story — that may trigger ideas for blog posts. For example, you can collect news reports, blog posts, tweets, Instagram photos, YouTube videos, Facebook posts, and more all organized around a topic. And of course, you can search stories created by others. The site bills itself as helping you sort through the noise online for the voices and topics you want to focus on.
You can also search for topics to blog about in a very different way — visually. Pinterest is a popular site where users post images they like. Searching the boards of other Pinterest users can give you ideas for post topics because you see what they find interesting enough to “pin” to their own boards. This content can serve as inspiration for new blogging ideas. It can also be research and source material for blogs you are already writing on a particular topic. Pinterest is especially good for identifying infographics, beautiful products, and other visually-striking information. SEOBook Keyword Tools
Another resource for coming up with blog post ideas around a particular topic is the Keyword Suggestion Tool at SEO Book. This tool takes an in-depth approach to examining keywords related to a topic you might be considering. This tool is particularly good if you start with a broad topic in mind, but need to narrow it down — especially if you want to optimize your posts for search engines. SEO Book offers both free and premium tools for you to consider. Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin
And last, but certainly not least, here’s a nifty little tool to help you narrow the focus your blogging ideas. The Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin does a lot of things to optimize your posts for search engines (and human readers, too). But one of the best features in our opinion, is that it “forces” you to focus your post on a single idea. The Yoast plugin goes to work after you have started writing your post. Let’s say you’ve started a post but it lacks focus. You’re not sure where you’re going with the article. (It happens to us a lot.) This free plugin for WordPress has a keyword suggestion tool built in. After you choose a keyword phrase, it actually scores your draft post to tell you how well it focuses on that phrase. In other words, it keeps you on track to one specific topic. FINAL THOUGHTS Remember to give credit to the source if you are quoting or paraphrasing someone else’s thoughts, or curating content from other sources. Drawing inspiration is one thing. Trying to pass off someone else’s work as your own is something different. If you would like a bit more inspiration when creating that next blog post, check out “7 Steps to Writing a Great Blog Post” and “100 SMB Blogging Ideas.” The post 16 Tools to Come Up With Blog Ideas for Posts appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Samsung Will Introduce a New 8 Inch Tablet in June Posted: 06 May 2013 08:00 AM PDT
[Samsung 10" Galaxy Tab 2] Samsung is working on a new 8 inch tablet the company plans on launching in June. Samsung already has two other tablets in its Galaxy Tab 2 budget series, one bigger and one smaller. It’s easy to see how an 8 inch tablet would be more portable than the bigger 10.1 inch Samsung tablet (pictured above). The screen would also be bigger and easier to see than the smaller 7 inch Samsung tablet. The Wall Street Journal reported on both the tablet and new water resistant and dust proof smartphone, but offered few details on either. Samsung is planning to launch the smartphone in July, the report said. Of course, Samsung has stiff competition in the tablet market from Apple’s iPad, but for business and other users, how do these tablets compare? Well, the new Samsung tablet would be smaller than the 9.7 inch iPad. And it’s closer in dimension to the iPad mini, which has a screen size of 7.9 inches. For the cost conscious business owner, both the 10.1 inch and 7 inch Samsung tablets are already lower in price than either iPad, so probably the new device will be cheaper too. The new water proof and dust proof smartphone would be just like the company’s popular Samsung Galaxy S4, but more rugged, The Journal reported. Samsung is apparently targeting government and enterprise level corporate users with the new smartphone tentatively called the S4 Active. But clearly, any business users looking for a durable smartphone to stand up to the wear, tear and potentially adverse weather conditions when traveling may want to take a look. The post Samsung Will Introduce a New 8 Inch Tablet in June appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
| Housing Rebound Should Help Small Business Posted: 06 May 2013 05:00 AM PDT Housing prices are on the upswing, increasing 9.3 percent between February 2012 and February 2013, the Wall Street Journal reported last week. That's not just good news for America's homeowners. It's also welcome information to America's small business owners. The drop in home prices has crimped some small companies' access to credit. According to Barlow Research's Quarterly Economic Pulse Survey, 26 percent of small businesses with between $100,000 and $10 million in annual sales used the home equity of the company’s owner or largest shareholder for business purposes in the third quarter of 2012. That fraction was nearly identical to the one recorded in 2007 when Barlow's survey showed that 25 percent of small businesses in this size range tapped home equity for business purposes. While the fraction of small business owners using their homes as a source of credit for their businesses is the same now as before the housing bust, financial crisis, and Great Recession, the amount that small business owners are able to borrow against the equity in their homes has dropped substantially. Business owners are seeking to borrow against homes that are worth considerably less than before the housing bust. According to the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances, the typical home owned by a household headed by a self-employed person decreased 14.1 percent in inflation-adjusted terms between 2007 and 2010. The amount of small business owners' home equity has likely fallen. While information on the value of business owners' equity is not broken out separately in any government statistics the way that home values are, they have likely followed decline similar to that for all homeowners' equity. According to analysis of data from the Federal Reserve's Flow of Funds Accounts, "homeowners' equity in household real estate" decreased 28.2 percent between 2007 and 2012, when measured in inflation-adjusted terms. Not surprisingly, the value of outstanding home mortgages has declined alongside the value of homeowners' equity. The Fed's Flow of Funds Accounts data show a 19.2 percent drop in real terms over the same period. The one quarter of small business owners who rely on home equity to finance business operations have been forced to cut their home equity borrowing as the value of that equity has shrunk in recent years. While the fall in home values is not the only factor constraining small business borrowing, it has contributed tight credit conditions in the small business sector – conditions that may account for weak hiring and contribution of the sector to economic growth in recent years. The post Housing Rebound Should Help Small Business appeared first on Small Business Trends. |
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