GOOD BOSS/BAD BOSS: WHICH ARE YOU?

You're the boss. Sounds like fun, but it's not (and can be very difficult) when you’re a boss who is not respected, ineffective at managing staff, or is even actively disliked. How do you get your staff to be the best thing that ever happened to you? By being the best boss that ever happened to them.

Whether you manage smaller, more casual setting or a big corporate environment the following tips will set you straight on how to be a good (or at least a better) boss.

·      Management Succeeds Because of the Workers:  Just because you're in charge doesn't mean you deserve all the credit for the work being done. Your staff is responsible for the bulk of the work. You are leading them and motivating them, but at the end of a project it is your staff that put together the details that made it successful.  Make sure to give them credit for that.  The boss who presents a project to clients or management taking all the accolades for his or herself without acknowledging the staff that worked on it is not fair minded.  The opposite is also true.  Have you ever been in a situation where mistakes were made and your boss points to the team and says it was their entire fault, not mine?  If you are the boss and a leader you have to be there for the good…and the bad.

·      Delegate Responsibility and then Trust Your Staff: Micro-managers are never appreciated. Once you've trained someone to handle a task, allow them to do it without interference. Different people have different approaches, and someone else's way of doing something may be just as efficient as the way you would do it. Before you step in and force your way on anyone, give an honest evaluation to the method, and if you find it works just as well, even if it's different from yours, let it be. Constantly correcting your staff undercuts their confidence and does not allow them to exercise their own style.

·      Know Your Employees And You’ll Know Your Strength: Watch your staff, get to know them as individuals and understand what motivates them.   Know their strengths and weaknesses.  Doing your best to understand them allows you to enhance, adjust and align their motives with your goals. The cream always rises to the top, and it's your job to figure out which employees do what is ‘required’ in their jobs, and which employees do ‘all they can do’ in their jobs. There is a huge distinction.

·      Don’t Be Threatened By An Employee Who Does A Good Job: The truth is, the best boss trusts his or her staff and appreciates that they can be relied on.  If you are threatened by your staff you really have to look at yourself and figure out why.

·      Empower Your Staff To Make Decisions…Don’t Second-Guess Them:  If you've done a good job of training your staff, then you must believe they are doing their best to act in your (and the company's) best interest. Even if they make a wrong decision, or handle a situation in a way you would not have, don't second guess or berate them. Instead, use it as yet another training opportunity. Hear out their reasons for their action - most of the time, when taken in context, there was a logical basis for what they decided to do.

·      Allow Them To Work Out Issues Without Your Intervention: Sometimes one or more of your staff may experience friction with others. If they come tattling on one another, listen to them carefully and encourage that they work it out with the other person. If someone is not fulfilling his or her own responsibilities or is mistreating another employee, you'll need to step in and resolve the conflict. But if you're satisfied it's only an issue of competition or a simple personality clash, urge them to settle it between themselves. Don't interfere unless they bicker in front of customers. Put a stop to anything like that instantly.

·      Listen To Your Staff: Any boss who is terribly busy totally understands the statement,  "I don't need all the details. Bottom line it for me."  You don't have to be so blunt that you insult or disrespect the work that was done.  Get to the bottom line, but set up another meeting where you can give the staff your undivided attention and listen to all the details and effort that went into the successful completion of the project.

·       Don’t Discipline Your Staff In Front Of Others:  When issues come up discuss them with your staff and listen to them in private.  Don’t react without understanding.  Yelling at and insulting staff, especially in front of their co-workers, is inappropriate and negatively effects the work environment and the attitudes of all staff.  Meet with problem staff individually and try to understand their issues.  Help them come up with a plan to correct the issues.  Make them feel that you are there to help…not berate …them.

·      Tell Staff How Much You Appreciate Them:  Never hesitate to pat your employees on the back, Compliment them and always thank them for their excellent service.  Letting customers know how much you value your employees actually gives them more faith in the services your business provides. When your staff feel valued and appreciated, their job means more to them than simply a paycheck. When your customers know that you, as the manager think highly of your staff, they feel confident that they're in good hands.  A simple thank you makes for a happy employee and a satisfied customer.

·      Show Your Appreciation: They go the extra mile for you so do something nice for them.  A staff luncheon, an afternoon snack…even a dress down Friday shows the staff that you really appreciate them.

·      Be An Effective Listener:  Your employees deserve to be heard when they have concerns. Allow them to finish talking before you speak; do not assume that you know what they are going to tell you before they finish talking; do not form objections in your mind while they are talking. Instead try to be fully engaged while they are talking without making it about your rebuttal. Acknowledge their points, which does not mean that you agree, but does mean that you understand their concerns. Repeat their points in your own words to confirm, if necessary, that you understand what they said.   You may not need to take any action, but hearing them out is important to their sense of empowerment and significance. Often, simply saying, "I appreciate your telling me this" is all that's needed to make them feel they were heard.

Always remember that as a boss you are only as good as your staff.  When they feel appreciated and respected by you, they are going to work harder and do a better job.

11

BRANDING: DO CONSUMERS KNOW ABOUT YOUR PRODUCTS

Simply put brand awareness is a marketing concept that measures the consumers’ knowledge of a product (or brand’s) existence. This basically means, marketing your product so that it’s recognizable everywhere, like Apple, Coke and Walmart. Take into consideration that these multi-million dollar companies spend a fortune on advertising every year to maintain their brand awareness and to build loyalty from their customers. But for the everyday person who is starting a business, building brand recognition seems to be a daunting task.

Brand recognition does take time and effort, but it is not impossible for a small business owner to achieve and really essential to building your business.   Listed here are a few suggestions that will help you in creating a successful brand.

1.    Sell Yourself First. Brand building can be as simple as being yourself.  Often when a consumer is faced with choosing between two very similar products the decision hinges on whether they like the company or business owner.  Building a brand isn’t just about the product you’re selling, but it’s about the perception of the brand. Do people like you? Do people speak highly of your business? Because if they do, they are more likely to purchase from you and tell their friends.

2.    Use the Product Yourself. As a small business without much start-up capital brand development can start by simply using your own product! You would be amazed at how simple this marketing concept is, but is sometimes overlooked.  Whatever your business is you are the best (and cheapest) way of getting the word out.  Whether you are a savvy fashion designer who wears her own dresses, a web site designer who designed their own website or even a restaurateur who is seen nightly eating at his restaurant…every small business should have an online marketing strategy which includes multimedia (videos, images, audio, etc.) of the owner using their products. Allowing potential customers to see the owner standing behind their own product will convert into sales and referrals.

3.    Follow Up and Stay Accessible. Brand advertising and development is on going. Most people rarely purchase a product the first time they see it online. Potential customers will bookmark the product, come back, get outside opinions and then make a decision after careful consideration. Your direct marketing strategy should always include following up with a prospect, since it usually takes 6-7 exposures to a product before someone actually buys something. Always take every opportunity to answer questions, respond to emails and phone calls because this can mean the difference between making the sale or not.

4.    Article Marketing. Writing articles will help you build credibility and brand visibility.  This marketing strategy is time consuming, but extremely effective in branding your product. By writing short 400-500 hundred word articles for trade or mainstream media or blogging consistently makes your product and website more visible.

5.    Smaller Niche Markets. Brand awareness isn’t just for larger companies who can afford to hire top dollar marketing consultants. There are many small businesses thriving because they narrow down their market by being more specific about what they are selling.  So instead of concentrating on building a brand around women’s apparel, it might be more profitable to concentrate on bohemian style blouses to start.  Successful brands realize the importance of starting small while building recognition.

6.    Social Media. Since the emergence of social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, branding experts have come to realize that these free social outlets can greatly contribute to brand development and potential sales.  Social media marketing strategies can include building a following for your customers to stay informed, offering coupons and incentives and providing direct one-on-one contact with your customers.  Social media is critical to building brand awareness for small businesses especially if you have limited funds and brand experience.

7.    Make a Bang with Multimedia. Every day start-ups are looking for the biggest bang for their advertising buck. The best way to create a buzz around your brand is using multimedia – specifically video. One of the biggest innovations of Internet marketing is online video. Once a company starts creating real videos, with real people using their products they become more accessible to the consumer.  This can be done simply you’re your iPhone or a small video camera and posting it on your website or even YouTube.  The reality is that no matter how many brand development techniques you implement, people want to see real people using the products or services that you are selling.

8.    Build an Email List. List building is one of the most important marketing strategies that you can utilize.  It is easy to create an email list (or database) by asking visitors to your website to sign up for a weekly newsletter or for more information about your product.  You can make it more inviting for people to sign up by offering some sort of perk like a discount coupon or some sort of exclusive access to the website if they sign up. Creating an email list, will essentially give you direct marketing access to people who are interested in your products. When there are new additions to your website or a special insider sale, you can reach your customers directly and potentially make more sales.

9.    Send Regular Emails. Brand creation doesn’t end once you have captured a long list of names and emails. Brand loyalty occurs whens when you keep in constant contact with your subscribers. As an entrepreneur, you should be sending emails regularly, around once a week (you don’t want to be annoying). These emails should include additional information about your products, news and articles during the week they may have missed.

10.Research Keywords.  Keywords are the specific words people input into Google (BING, Yahoo or whatever search engine you use) to search for or locate information on the Internet. For example, if I am looking for a Greek restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn I would go to Google and type in ‘Greek Restaurant Williamsburg Brooklyn’ and the most popular options will show up first. If you are the owner of a Greek restaurant in Williamsburg Brooklyn you would make sure you use ‘Greek, restaurant, Williamsburg, Brooklyn as the keywords that appear on your website (within the page title and body text) and perhaps even in some article titles for article marketing.

The brand building process is on going. Even after you have implemented these marketing strategies, there is always more that can be done. Developing a brand that is successful both on and off line is a lot easier than most people think. All you need is time, energy and a brand-building strategy.   Is your brand recognizable?