How To Keep Your Small Business Innovative

How To Keep Your Small Business Innovative

It is not an easy task to run a small business! As all small business owners know, there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes in addition to managing employees and products or services. In addition to the basics of running a small business, a successful small business owner is also always thinking about ways to innovate.

Start Small

When thinking about innovation, it can be easy to become overwhelmed by big ideas. However, it is essential to remember that innovation can be simple. This is especially true for brand new small businesses. Make it a goal to set aside a certain amount of time each week to sit together as a team and think creatively about the future. This small step is sure to lead to new ideas for the business and just might lead the company to a new product or service!

Work as a Team

A considerable part of thinking innovatively as a company is involving the whole team. It can be tempting to keep innovation meetings exclusive for the higher-ups or people in positions of management. However, the best ideas will be produced when everyone is working together as a team. In addition to new ideas, these types of meetings will also help employees bond with each other and improve their feeling of belonging.

Study Up

Before calling the first team meeting, do some research about the different types of innovation. An introduction to the types is listed below.

- Disruptive products: start at the bottom and work their way to the top. A great example of a disruptive product is the cellphone.

- Reverse innovation is when a product is designed for a weak market but makes its way in rich markets. An example is Ramen, which was initially invented for India but is now a staple in the United States.

- Incremental innovation starts with a reliable product and slowly expands this product to meet consumer needs. A great example of progressive change is the single blade razor that was eventually upgraded to multiple blades.

- Breakthrough innovation refers to products or services that are not available in the existing market. For examples of this type of innovation, think of anything that Elon Musk has created.

Helpful Apps for Your Small Business

Running a business can be challenging. There are several apps that can help you run a small business. Here are some of the productivity apps that will guide you on how to manage a small business.

Evernote

Evernote is an application that enables you to organize your notes. This application allows you to take notes at the comfort of your home or office. These include meeting notes or even your to-do-list. The application also enables you to find and share ideas faster.

Wunderlist

Wunderlist is more of your most effective to-do list. The application enables you to personalize your tasks. Wunderlist is easily accessible and can be shared from anywhere. The app creates and updates the tasks automatically.

Wunderlist has a new, more advanced version. The latest version enables you to delegate the listed tasks to others. You can also divide the tasks into subtasks. Wunderlist allows you to set reminders and add notes. The version is free.

Pocket

Pocket allows you to save materials that you cannot read right away. These materials can be articles, videos, or emails. You do not require an internet connection to access this application. It is easily accessible and free.

Rescuetime

Rescuetime will take control of your time. It holds you accountable. The application keeps track of where you spend your time. Thus, you will set your productivity goals. The advanced version of this app has new features. These features will enable you to set notifications and block some sites. Rescuetime also tracks offline activity.

Basecamp

Basecamp is a management application. The application allows you to collaborate within the projects and share files. You can also track your progress in projects from the application. Additionally, you can also create calendars and track employees from the App.

Slack

This application allows you to organize conversations. The app enables you to create channels and chats. You can also filter your clients and projects as per your liking using this application. The basic version of slack is free.

Insightly

For any business to prosper, a good customer relationship is required. Insightly is an application that will help you categorize your customer contacts. You can also create reminders to keep track of customers.

How to Build a Good Company Culture

If your company has a turnover rate that is higher than you’d like it to be, there are things you can do to change that. A good company culture is something all businesses need, and it works wonders in fostering a better relationship with your employees and having them stay with you a lot longer. Building this culture is easier than you might think, and below are some tips for doing just that.

Communicate with Your Employees Consistently

If they feel you aren’t in touch with them regularly, employees can feel like you don’t care about them, so consistent communication is key. You can do this through one-on-one meetings, team meetings, text messages, and even regular emails so that everyone feels like they are in the loop regarding what is going on with the company. If your company is small, this communication is a little easier, but even large companies can make their employees feel like a part of the organization if consistent communication is practiced. 

Be Flexible When It Comes to New Ideas

Successful companies realize that not all great ideas come from corporate or board meetings, but they can come from anywhere. This includes employees who work anywhere in the company, including the mailroom. If you give lower-level employees more responsibilities, they just might surprise you and become your next team leader or supervisor. If every employee in your company feels like it’s possible for anyone to move up the corporate ladder, they are likely to remain with you much longer.

Treat All Employees Like You’re Trying to Help Them Get Ahead

If you treat all employees like you’re interested in helping them shape their career so that they can get ahead, instead of making them feel like all you want is for them to stick with your company, they’ll feel like you are more interested in them as a person than just as an employee. Create an environment where learning and growth are emphasized, even if you feel like that person might eventually leave your company and grow his career elsewhere, and the chances of the person staying with you longer can increase.

How to Improve Your Delegating Skills

If you’re a supervisor or manager, you already know how important it is to build up your team, and one of the skills you have to be good at when you supervise others is the art of delegating. Without being able to delegate to other team members, your management skills will suffer because let’s face it, you can’t do it all yourself. Learning how to delegate is not that difficult, as long as you learn a few basic, but very important skills.

Learning the Basics of Delegating to Others

You’ll become a micromanager if you don’t learn how to delegate, so the first thing you should do is figure out why you’re unable to do this. For many people, it’s the fear that the task won’t be done correctly, while others simply aren’t sure just what they should delegate to others. To decide what to delegate to others, consider two things:

• Which tasks are tasks that don’t need special attention and that anybody can do?

• Which tasks can be given to someone with more experience than you?

If you’re working on a company website and someone else has expertise at this, it’s best to let that person handle the site-building task. In addition, always be specific about the tasks that you do delegate to others, so instead of telling someone to “write an article for the company website or blog,” you should tell them to “write a 500-word article on the company’s mission statement and what the company does.”

Don’t Stop at the Beginning

When you delegate to others, make sure you remain in the loop the entire time so that you know what is going on and what others are doing. Give your employees access to the information and resources they need to do the job well, because if this doesn’t happen they’ll think you don’t trust them to do the job themselves. Eventually, they will fail at the task you’ve assigned to them, which will likely give you an excuse to go back to micromanaging them and putting you back at square one.

Four Valuable Management Tips for Leaders

“Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” Such is the lesson in leadership that Henry IV passes onto the young Prince Hal in Shakespeare’s Henry IV. The Bard’s timeless examination of the nature and burden of leadership is no less prescient today. You may not wear a crown, per se, but if you’re in a leadership role, you’re going to face a lot of pressure. The decisions you make can have huge implications not just for yourself and management, but everyone in your company and, indeed, everyone whom your company impacts.

The burden of leadership is great, which is why you’ll want to strive to measure up to the task with the help of these tips.

Communication Is Key

You may have the best ideas for your company and industry, but if you aren’t able to communicate them effectively, they won’t come to anything. Make sure that you are always communicating your message clearly and effectively. Check with employees to be sure that they understand what your vision is and what you’re asking them to do.

Delegate Tasks

It’s true among kings, and it’s true among corporate leaders—no man rules alone. Even if you’re the most energetic or micromanaging of leaders, you simply cannot be everywhere at once. 

Watch Out for Conflicts

One thing that has the potential to bring even the mightiest company down is the potential for personal conflicts. You cannot afford to have infighting in your company. Hire quality human resources managers who are trained in conflict resolution strategies to help manage personal issues between personnel.

Eyes on the Prize

Even with all the little details of managing people and running a company on a day-to-day basis, you need to keep your eyes on the prize. What is the big picture? What is your end goal? Keeping focused on these larger points will not only keep you motivated and focused, but it can help ensure that your employees do the same.

With these tips, you’ll be able to shoulder the burden of leadership admirably.

Hiring Mistakes Made by Employers

There is a lot of pressure on general managers come draft day and free agency. One of the big differences between lackluster franchises and the ones that win championships and forge dynasties is their ability to acquire the right free agents and draft well. Building a great team starts at the top and bringing in the talent you need to succeed.

In that same vein, when you are a hiring manager, the stakes are high with every personnel move you make. The same way general managers can draft busts and set their team back years, so too can hiring managers make mistakes in the hiring process that can leave their team with a personnel mess.

Here are a few common mistakes employers make, and how to avoid them.

Nix the “Ninja”

There is a trend nowadays to create “job titles” that sound less like actual positions and more like Halloween costume ideas. “Ninja,” “Superhero,” “Rockstar”—the groan-inducing list goes on. These titles can sound forced, faux-quirky, pandering, and condescending—because that’s exactly what they are. They not only treat the people you’re hiring like they’re children who can’t handle a proper job title, but it denies them the career prospects opened up by having an actual job title on their resumé instead of one of these jokes.

Applicants know that, which is why many avoid jobs with these pandering unhelpful titles. Listing your job with one of these, thus, undercuts your company’s ability to recruit the best talent and demeans the very people you’re looking to hire.

Goodbye to Ghosting

It’s true in dating, and it’s true in hiring—ghosting hurts. Nevertheless, while there are understandable reasons to ghost in the former, simply never getting back to rejected applicants can start to spread a bad reputation about your company. Besides, it’s hurtful. Rejections are never easy, but a “Thank you for your interest…” letter is better than nothing.

Be Realistic

Nobody’s perfect. As such, if you’re waiting to fill a role until a 100% perfect candidate rolls around, you may as well say you’re waiting for an M. Godot to apply.

With these factors in mind, your hiring managers will be able to avoid common pitfalls and start building the kind of championship company you need.

Keys to Entrepreneurial Success

Nothing attracts people quite like the prospect of success. From Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics to Confucius’ philosophical system, excellence and success has for millennia been posited as one of the foundations of a great society. Today, we take that basic reverence for success in society and apply it to the world of business. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, success is the name of the game.

Of course, success is easier said than done. Countless entrepreneurial figures aspire to the top, but only a select few ever even glimpse the summit. Let’s take a look at some of the tips and tricks you’ll want to heed to have a chance at getting there.

Know What You’re Getting Into

Who wouldn’t choose to be their own boss if they could? A big part of the allure of being an entrepreneur is the idea of having freedom and control in your work day. However, the idea of the free-spirited playboy entrepreneur is largely fiction. Being an entrepreneur means long hours, board meetings, and lots of expectations. It can be hugely inspiring, invigorating, and yes, even a little bit liberating—but only if you know what you’re getting into from the start.

Bigger Than Yourself

That being said, you have to recognize that this enterprise is bigger than you. It’s bigger than any one person. It’s a big idea and will take commitment and comradeship from everyone involved. Having an understanding about that from the start between yourself and your team is key to ensuring success for you all.

Give the People What They Want (or Not)

The old standby in the news industry is to “give the people what they want.” Whether or not that’s a good news ethos, it’s definitely a double-edged sword for entrepreneurs. On the one hand, you always want to respond to market demands. On the other hand, sometimes people don’t know what they want until they see it in your product.

Armed with these keys to entrepreneurial success, you’ll be able to mold your company’s approach appropriately.

What's Motivating You to Become an Entrepreneur?

It is no secret that being an entrepreneur can be glamorous, enriching, exhausting, and terrifying all at once. Striving to be an entrepreneur is a goal which is all too clear and yet incredibly hazy at the same time. On the one hand, you know what an entrepreneur is “supposed” to look like—the Mark Zuckerbergs and Elon Musks and Steve Jobs of the world. On the other hand, the world of entrepreneurship isn’t always what it appears—look no further than Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos scam.

As with any profession, it’s worth asking what motivates you to achieve that goal. After all, being an entrepreneur is something that takes a lot of commitment on a daily basis. You are the driving engine and imagination behind your business ideas, and you are tasked with being a self-starter and motivator—so what motivates you?

The Money

Let’s be real—one of the big draws for striving to become an entrepreneur is the money. We’re supposed to say and think it’s about other things, and for you to succeed, it has to be about more than money. Even so, few things motivate people to get up early and work late like the prospect of a big payday down the line.

The Fame

There’s definitely a certain allure that comes with being a household name. Who wouldn’t want to be celebrated for their genius? No one wants to admit to being a glory hound, but there’s definitely no shame in seeking entrepreneurial fame.

The Power

Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark are easily two of the most popular film heroes of this era. Both are billionaires who can become their superhero alter egos Batman and Iron Man in part because of the power and resources made available to them by being entrepreneurs. Batmobiles and Arc Reactors don’t pay for themselves, after all. Superheroes are power fantasies, and in a way, so are entrepreneurs.

The Passion

Finally, there’s passion. All of these other motivating factors are great, but without the passion for your position, product, company, and idea, you won’t get very far as an entrepreneur. Even if you don’t have all the fame, money, or power, you can still be a great entrepreneur if you have passion.

How to Utilize Trends for Small Businesses

Few things hold a more prominent place in the American imagination than small businesses. Even with behemoth international mega-corporations such as Disney and Microsoft ruling the roost, we like to think that small businesses are the symbol of the American economy. There is a certain magic around the idea that the little business you and your family begin today can grow into one of those mega-corporations some day.

That being said, it can be hard to be a small business today. As many as a third of all restaurants and new businesses fail within the first year. There’s always the existential threat of being beaten out by one of those mega-corporations. Even if you build your business up over the first few years into something sustainable, there’s still the risk of hitting a wall and having to sell it off to those major competitors. As a small business, you need every bit of help you can get, and that means figuring out how to make trends work to your advantage.

Appearance Is Everything

You can’t become a successful company if you don’t look the part. Make sure that your company is imbued with an aura of professionalism and chic stylishness wherever possible. You want clients and employees alike to think that your company is a great place to work for.

Networking Is Key

In business, it’s all about who you know. We’re all busy, but finding the time to network and build relationships within your industry is key.

Read, Read, Read

How will you know what trends to capitalize on if you don’t know what’s trending in the first place? Tracking and reacting to marketplace trends is crucial for transforming a small company into a force to be reckoned with. From social media to industry papers to the financial news and beyond, always make sure you’re up on the latest trends and events in your field.

Have a Filter

No one can shoulder the whole workload of their company day in and day out. Know what trends and ideas need to be acted upon now, and which can be filtered out to be acted upon later or cast aside.

With these tips, you’ll be on the right track for riding these trends to success.

Tips for Young Aspiring Entrepreneurs

To say that the world of business has been seeing some changing of the guard of late is an understatement. The past couple of decades has seen a tech book, unlike anything else in modern history. One of the distinguishing features of the online revolution led by platforms and apps such as Facebook, Twitter, Uber, and Google is the fact that the CEOs and driving forces behind these giants are all young.

More than ever, our most brilliant aspiring entrepreneurs are some of our youngest businesspeople. Entrepreneurs in their 20s and 30s are changing the game. If you’re a budding entrepreneur looking to follow in the footsteps of Mark Zuckerberg and the guys behind YouTube, you’ll want to follow these tips.

There’s No Such Thing as Too Young

One thing to keep in mind is that it’s never too early to get started. As stated, many of our leading entrepreneurs today are in their 20s and 30s. 

Play to Your Strengths

This is true for all entrepreneurs, and it’s especially true for young entrants. When you are young, it can be understandably hard to market yourself based on an extensive resumé. Instead, you’ll want to promote tangible in-demand skills. Being able to speak another language, having technical, computer, or app-creating skills, or other strengths which you can use to set yourself apart and build your career.

Seek Expert Help

Don’t be overly proud and assume you know and can do everything by yourself. Even the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world can’t do it alone. That’s why it is vital that you get expert help on board to shore up any weaknesses or blind spots you may have. 

Embody Values

If you have worked for a boss you didn’t care for before, you’ll want to avoid making their mistakes. Be sure to preach what you teach and follow through on acting upon and embodying the values you want to see present among the workforce in your company.

With these tips, you’ll be a few steps closer to being able to put your entrepreneurial plans into action.

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