Small business strategy

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Ian is an entrepreneur, Founder and CEO of Ledgr , a national subscription corporate accounting service and business advisory company. When it comes to hiring, the old adage “you get what you pay for” couldn’t be any more true. Scaling isn't easy, and making the right hires will be the difference between true delegation and big challenges. The economics of paying someone $80,000 a year with a 75% chance of them being a strong candidate outweigh the economics of paying someone $40,000 with a 40% chance. In the first business I owned, we had the high turnover typical of quick-serve food. We were in the city center of a college town, and I could only reasonably expect two semesters out of a hire. This meant that we needed to hire constantly, but our desperation and urgency didn't set us up to make the best hires. We landed on a few gems—who I remember to this day over a decade later—but with a limited budget of only … [Read more...] about Talent Over Budget: Hiring Strategies For The Modern Leader

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin As in many relationships, the continuity of a client / advisor relationship depends on the strength of the connection. Working with a professional advisor who provides the professional guidance and expertise that it needs to perform at a high level could help catapult a business. Longstanding relationships are usually characterized by mutual give and take. However, businesses often face an interesting dilemma - navigating the unknown boundaries in a trusted client / advisor relationship. While some boundaries may be explicit, others can fall in a gray area and may require a conversation. Successful businesses celebrate business milestones differently . They may show their appreciation to the professional advisors who have helped them achieve their success in ways outside of the payment of the agreed professional fee. Many, especially family businesses whose advisors may have worked with the family for a long time … [Read more...] about Setting Boundaries: How Clients And Advisors Improve Their Professional Relationship

A chicken-frying robot performs its tasks at a Kyochon Chicken store in Dasan, Gyeonggi, on Jan. 25. [YONHAP] In terms of robotics, big Korean companies are moving from a focus on the industrial to service robots, where machines are taking over in the kitchen and at restaurants and at any place where humans can be swapped out of their customer-facing roles. Doosan Robotics is making machines that can fry chickens, make coffee and stack patties for hamburgers. One such robot can be seen at Robert Chicken’s Songpa branch in southern Seoul, where customers visiting the store can see a robotic arm that receives orders from delivery apps and cooks up the chickens while a store manager wraps up the chicken-to-go. The arm expertly dips the pounded chicken pieces into the vat of hot oil — six minutes for the boneless chicken, and nine minute and 30 seconds for chicken with bones — then they’re out, not even missing a second more or less. The secret behind the taste is to shake the … [Read more...] about Robot chicken is not a dance, it’s a big business strategy

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin CEO, Sodexo Engage . Passionate about elevating the employee experience at work and beyond through benefits, rewards and recognition. Throughout the past several years, many companies have added diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to their corporate strategies. A 2021 survey of HR and corporate leaders in Europe commissioned by Workday found that 75% have a “dedicated” budget for DE&I, and 90% are “carrying out at least one initiative” for having data “to drive a strategic approach of continuous improvement.” While there is still a long way to go, these numbers indicate progress—and this progress mustn’t stall, or worse, reverse, in the coming months. As much as I would like to remain optimistic, I worry that many companies will put their DE&I initiatives on the back burner due to the state of the global economy. As Ali Hanan, the founder and CEO of diversity, equity and inclusion consultancy … [Read more...] about Companies Must Continue To Prioritize Diversity, Equity And Inclusion, Even During Tough Economic Times

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Cesar Herrera is CEO and cofounder at Yuvo Health , a tech-enabled administrative and managed-care solution for community health centers. A company's mission is its north star. Every decision, big or small, should be anchored by the mission, which is why you need to make it achievable. The mission shouldn't be easy to reach because you need something to reach for , but it should be realizable. Before founding Yuvo Health, I knew what I wanted to do—help historically marginalized communities access affordable, quality primary care services. The work we're doing is making this happen, but it's not the mission of the company. Our mission is to ensure every community health center can provide compassionate care to their entire community. Rather than focusing on primary care, we wanted to focus on the longstanding, trusted organizations that provide primary care services along with other vital services like … [Read more...] about How To Align Your Company Culture Around Your Mission

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Dov Amar is the CEO of opyflow , a consulting firm specializing in the supply chain, with 25 years of experience. If your company has undergone multiple integrations, you know firsthand the struggles of aligning operations and crafting a top-notch network. Achieving optimal performance in a manufacturing network can be challenging, especially when the network consists of multiple sites with different systems and sometimes equipment. However, through targeted strategies and a collaborative approach, it is possible to drive significant improvements in efficiency and productivity. 1. Develop a global methodology. To do this, you can use a key performance indicator called Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE), which measures the performance of a manufacturing process based on availability, performance and output quality. OEE is a widely used metric in the manufacturing industry and provides a holistic view of a … [Read more...] about Creating A High-Performing Manufacturing Network: The Power Of Knowledge Sharing And Standardization

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Prashant Fonseka is a partner at early-stage VC, Tuesday Capital . At times of volatility in the markets, the historic norm in venture capital (VC) is to question everything and wonder if the world will ever be the same. Horror stories of startup failures, fund implosions, frauds, new ways of funding and more prevail during these times of low-key panic. Having been in the venture space for 10 years and two economic crashes, I’ve found that history tends to repeat itself. Things slow down, the market corrects and before you know it, we are back in the euphoria phase of chasing totally overpriced deals in companies that need to expand revenues 100 times in order to live up to their valuations. Barring some world-ending catastrophe, I feel confident that this cycle will look much like the rest: Over the next year or so, the market will correct, some startups will run out of runway or be acquired at a discount along … [Read more...] about How To Be A Great Founder Regardless Of Up Or Down Markets

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Stephen King serves as President & CEO of GrowthForce , a leading outsourced accounting and controller service provider for businesses. Many individuals who own and operate engineering firms started out as engineers before building their businesses up around the services they provide. When a business is built around a professional providing a service, the engineer must learn business leadership skills to become a functioning CEO as well as an engineer. This means you have to be an engineer, a business leader and business strategist while also understanding financial management practices for commercial enterprises. It's a lot of hats for one person to wear, but it can be done. Understanding The Basics of Cash Flow Cash flow refers to the net amount of money flowing into or out of a business at any given moment. A cash flow statement is a report that shows the cash flow (cash flowing in and its … [Read more...] about Cash Flow Best Practices For Engineering Firms

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Stephan Schambach is the Founder and CEO of NewStore , a turnkey omnichannel store solution. The events of the past few years disrupted everything brands thought they knew about retail. Backlogged supply chains led to widespread product shortages, while the pandemic accelerated a shift to e-commerce that had been gaining steam for years. Few retailers could have predicted the macroeconomic trends that would upend their plans in 2020. But unpredictability may be the only thing retailers can depend on moving forward. I’ve built three commerce companies on the simple premise that change is the only constant in retail. Over the next decade, I think preparing for persistent market fluctuations will be more than a competitive advantage—it will be a necessity. Three Titans Of Change Ultimately, I believe several global forces will reshape consumer behavior, transform the shopping experience and challenge industry … [Read more...] about Embracing Change: Readying Retail For The Next 30 Years

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin If you are an agency owner, business coach or consultant, here is a hard truth about growing your business: When you compare what your business is now to what you want it to be, you’re resigning yourself to a life of business unhappiness. That is the core principle of a great book, The Gap and The Gain . This principle really applies to all business owners. In their book, organizational psychologist Benjamin Hardy , PhD and entrepreneur coach Dan Sullivan, relate scientific concepts that help explain why we tend to focus on the future, and how we can train ourselves to focus on the past instead. Hardy and Sullivan argue that making this change to focus on past gains can drastically improve your quality of life and your business. In the book, they elaborate on the psychological concepts and discuss how empirical research has supported the book’s main ideas. Hardy says your ideal self is constantly changing, … [Read more...] about Discover The Growing Your Business Secret Born In A Cow Barn