With the very competitive job market, it can be hard to keep your small businesses properly staffed, reports USA Today. One way to ensure you can get employees is to streamline the hiring process.

Read the article on USA Today

According to Forbes, small businesses can save time and money by automating some processes, such as using a payroll service, and automating personalized email follow-ups.

Read the article on Forbes

Micro-influencers, those on social media with a small but highly engaged following, can serve as a good targeted marketing platform for small businesses, reports Small Business Trends.

Read the article on Small Business Trends

Rumors are swirling that Amazon is set to purge thousands of small businesses from its site, reports Inc.

Read the article on Inc

Small business credit cards are becoming an increasingly popular option for business financing. This is particularly useful for small businesses which do not qualify for traditional loans and lack access to funding organizations.

Regardless of the industry of your business or the number of years it has been in operation, a credit card can be of great help as long as you use it wisely and shun buying items which are not needed or cannot be afforded by your business. Small business credit cards differ in various aspects. For instance, while some have higher spending limits and generous rewards programs and promotions on the transfer of balance, personalized concierge service and other benefits, others have an annual fee and require excellent or good credit to qualify.

Owing to the importance of credit cards to any business, it is often challenging for many business owners to get a single solution for their credit card needs. At the same time, switching between credit cards and the expenses that come with using many of them are the luxuries that small business can’t afford. Therefore, separating your personal account from the business account should always be done to minimize the misuse of funds and ease the transparency of expenditure.  It is always good to find a single best credit card that addresses all your business needs and keeps your spending transparent. The best business credit cards have bonus schemes for business expenditure and rebates which cannot be offered by typical credit cards. Here are a few options of business cards you can choose from for your business:

Ink Business Preferred Credit Card

 This solution from Chase is known for value for its annual fee. It gives you three points per $1 spent in popular categories such as travel and allows one to select business purchases. Once you reach an annual cap of $150,000, you can still earn a point for every $1 you spend. For new cardholders who spend $5,000 within the first three months from account opening, they are given 80,000 bonus points. If these points are redeemed, they can amount to $1000 in travel or $800 for cash back. It also has advanced fraud protection which is crucial for any business.

Capital One® Spark® Cash for Business

Capital One Spark Cash for Business is an all-rounded solution that a small business should have at hand. First, it has no annual fee for the first year and after that, you get charged only $95 a year. Employee cards are free and the welcome offer is amazing. The combination of perks and features make this solution an amazing small business credit card. The one-time $500 cash bonus when one spends $4,500 on a credit card within the first three months of account opening makes it even better. The user is also awarded a 2 percent unlimited cash back on every purchase carried out with the card.

The Business Platinum® Card from American Express

This card offers business owners a comprehensive number of benefits despite high annual fee and inability to carry the balance beyond a given cycle. As a start, the customer is given up to 75,000 membership rewards which can get them started. If the customer feels that the points are not enough, they can have an opportunity to earn more points. This card also offers various premium benefits and travel perks. Apart from this, if you spend an additional $10,000, you are given 50,000 membership reward points and after spending an additional $10,000 you are given another $25,000. With an annual fee of $595, the employee cards can be added at no additional cost. You can as well earn 1.5 points on any eligible $1 spend on a purchase of $5,000 or more and a point for $1 on any other purchase. Membership rewards can be used to pay for first-class flights with any airline available through American Express Travel and you can be rewarded 35 percent of the points back.

The solutions above are just a few among the best credit cards for small businesses. However, there are many other credit cards which have different advantages that can be beneficial to your business.

When it comes to financial planning, most Americans take a do-it-yourself approach. In fact, various surveys and studies over the years have shown that anywhere from 60 to 70 percent or more don’t have a financial advisor. But does that mean the remaining minority who do hire someone are more confident about what the future holds for them financially?

Maybe. But maybe not.

Most of those people say they don’t completely trust that their advisor is always acting in their best interests, according to a poll by the American Association of Individual Investors.

That distrust could even be part of the reason some people decide to forgo using an advisor at all.

“People see headlines about shady practices that exist in the financial word, and as a result they become leery of working with any financial advisor because they no longer know who to trust,” says Chris Hobart (www.hobartfinancialgroup.com), a financial professional and financial commentator.

It was the shady practices of one such advisor that put Hobart on the path to a career in financial services. His grandmother placed her trust in an advisor who “advised her right out of her life savings,” he says.

“I think it’s important for those of us in the industry to demand more of ourselves, because investors deserve more from us,” he says. “We must call out questionable practices when we see them.”

But what can the average person do to improve the odds that they are working with an advisor they can trust? Hobart suggests a few questions to ask yourself about the person you rely on to handle your finances:

Is your advisor honest when discussing how they are paid? Financial professionals are paid in a number of ways, but the financial industry hasn’t always been forthcoming about compensation, Hobart says. Some are paid on commission. Some charge fees. Some work based on a combination of commissions and fees. It’s important to know just what you are paying for the services. “Clients often are hesitant to ask how their advisors make money,” he says. “Don’t be. A trustworthy advisor will have an honest, open conversation with you about this.”

Does your advisor encourage questions? “Any good relationship is built on open, two-way communication,” Hobart says. “It’s your money. You deserve to know exactly how it’s being invested and why.” But a good advisor will do more than answer your questions, he says. They will also proactively provide information to your about your accounts, whether you ask or not.

Does your advisor know you? Everyone is different, with their own goals and dreams about the future. “The right financial plan for you isn’t the right plan for anyone else,” Hobart says. “Your advisor should offer personalized financial planning that fits your life, not cookie cutter advice that’s the same for everyone.”

“Now, more than ever, investors are demanding honesty from not only individual advisors but also larger financial institutions,” Hobart says. “There is no longer space within the industry for financial professionals who are motivated only by their own financial gains.”

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Chris Hobart (www.hobartfinancialgroup.com) is CEO and founder of Hobart Financial Group. A graduate of the University of North Carolina, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration, Hobart is a nationally-recognized financial commentator, an Investment Advisor Representative (IAR), and a licensed insurance agent. Senior Market Advisor Magazine named Hobart one of the nation’s top independent financial advisors. He’s been a featured guest on CNBC and Fox Business and a regular guest on WCNC’s “Charlotte Today.” Hobart has also appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Associated Press, MSN Money, The Charlotte Observer, Men’s Health, Kiplinger, Market Watch, The Street, The New York Times, USA Today and Forbes.

Every small business owner gets bogged down and behind at some point. However, the one business practice that you must consistently perform is reading financial statements. To really understand the position of your business, you need consistent reviews of your balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow.

These statements work together to answer to the question, “How am I doing?”

If you don’t ask the question, you may find yourself sunk before you know it. The review gives you time to pivot and react to any problems before it’s too late. Or, a review may reveal when it’s time to scale and propel your business.

The Purpose Of The Reports

Each statement provides a picture that together form a mosaic to give you the full sense of your business’s success / struggles.

• Balance Sheet. A company’s balance sheet is the financial statement that gives a snapshot of your business’s health at that moment. It reports assets and liabilities at the point in time of the publication.

• Income Statement. The income statement is where earnings are reported; this is a critical line to understand the health of your business. An income statement represents a slice of time, a given period, and can tell the story of your business over the past year, quarter, or even month.

• Cash Flow. The cash flow statement is critical as it shows the use of a company’s cash. In the business world, cash is king, and improper use of cash, or failure to bring cash into the company, can lead to the demise of the company even when the other financial statements look good.

The Nuts And Bolts: What To Review

A balance sheet is broken down into two sections, which must balance in order to have an accurate statement. If the liabilities are greater than the assets, there is a problem to address. So, the goal is to continually check the balance between Assets (Current (short term) Assets; Cash, Accounts Receivable, and Inventory, and Long-Term Assets; Land, Buildings, Equipment, etc.) and Liabilities (Current (short term) Accounts payable, short term loans, and Long-Term Liabilities, usually only long-term loans).

An income statement shows net sales and cost of goods or services, yielding a company’s gross margin so that you can calculate the percent-of-profit for the reported period. Below the margin line, other operating expenses such as Selling, General, and Administrative (SG&A), depreciation, interest (positive or negative) are listed to show the income before taxes. Then, after taxes are calculated and deducted, the company’s net income (or loss) is shown.

The cash flow statement tracks cash into and out of the company over a set period. The cash at the beginning plus-or-minus all lines in the statement lead to the cash at the end of the period, which is then transferred to the top line of the next period. Cash flow tracks cash receipts and payments, including salaries, payments to suppliers, and receipts from customers; equipment purchase or sale (listed in whole on the cash flow, but may be depreciated on the balance sheet); and draws on loans or loan payments.

Consistent Review Is Key

Together, these financial statements reveal how your business is doing. Without consistent review, you may find yourself out of cash, full of liabilities, and out of business.

Depreciation is perhaps one of the most complex terms for small business owners to grasp. With many rules associated with it, it becomes even more complicated for anyone except for the professionals in the finance sector. The most important way you can ensure you understand this concept is to avoid being intimidated by big words employed.  You can achieve this by focusing on how depreciation affects us in our daily lives.

What is depreciation?

Depreciation is the phenomenon where the value of items reduces over a given period of time.  For example, assets such as furniture, computers, buildings, office equipment, machinery outdoor lighting cars, etc are assets which last for approximately three or four years. It is known that these assets will not last forever. As time goes by their value reduces. During each accounting period, -say monthly, quarterly, yearly etc, a given portion of these assets gets used up. This portion is normally shown on the income statement as depreciation expense. Primarily, this entails allocating the cost of the firm’s tangible assets in its useful life to be used to account for declining value.

Usually, firms depreciate long-term assets for the purposes of taxation and accounting. For tax purposes, for example, businesses may view the cost of the tangible assets that they buy as business expenses and deduct them. However, IRS rules must be considered while depreciating these items as well as how and when the deductions can be taken by the company.

Depreciation can be calculated and reported using two principles. These principles are:

Cost principle: With this principle, Depreciation Expense needs to be reported on the income statement and the amount of asset based on its historical or original cost. The amount of the asset should not be based on the current market value.

Matching principle: With this principle, the cost of an asset should be allocated to the Depreciation expense of the asset’s lifetime. The asset’s expense is matched with the same period of accounting as the revenues that the asset helped to generate. Simply put, matching principle requires that revenues that are earned in a given accounting period be matched with the expenses related to that asset.

The methods of depreciation for achieving matching principle can be categorized into two: Accelerated depreciation and straight-line depreciation.

Straight-line depreciation is known for its simplicity and as such, it is widely used in the US.  With this matching depreciation method, a company charges an equal amount of the cost of assets in each accounting period. The formula of this method is:

(Historical cost of the asset – its estimated salvage time)/useful life of the asset

For example, assuming that the cost of purchasing a car is $10,000 and has an estimated value of 5,000 and a useful life of say 5 years, the depreciation expense for the first year is $1000. (10,000-5,000)/5.

Accelerated depreciation on the other hand is mainly used for income tax purposes or accounting which allows more deduction in the asset’s early years. Contrary to the straight-line depreciation method which spreads the cost of assets evenly throughout its life, accelerated depreciation allows higher deductions to be made during the first years after the assets purchase and lower expenses as the asset ages.   

Regardless of the difficulty you may encounter when calculating depreciation of your assets, the most important thing is that the IRS provides tables which simplify the calculation. Also, quite a majority of accounting software some of which you might be using in your business come with a program for calculating depreciation. It will therefore be easy for anyone to calculate depreciation if they know the basics.

Within any story, whether it’s fictional or real, everyone knows the main character—be it the CEO of a company, the lead in a movie, or the inventor of the latest technology. In business, it’s the executive who innovates and exceeds expectations who gets the spotlight.

In reality, behind that successful front person and their achievements is a highly collaborative team – one that has set the context and expectations for how they want to work together, and has established strong, interpersonal codes of conduct. They have spent time figuring out and agreeing on how they act and how they don’t act.

Although a team’s code may vary depending on its work or industry, high-performing teams have a lot in common. Here are five tenets that the best teams in business share: 

The ability to say “I don’t know”  

Complex situations rarely have easy answers, yet we’ve been taught that we are supposed to show up to a discussion or conversation with solutions. This is not realistic in a world with so many moving parts and variables. Articulating the truth of the matter–that one person doesn’t have the answer–unburdens the individual and makes team members more powerful in their ability to collaborate and brainstorm. These teams show up to meetings ready to contribute, saying things like, “I don’t know the answer to this—here are some of my thoughts.” Or, “I’m not sure I know, and here is what this makes me think.”

Sentences like this create space for others to chime in with their thoughts and, especially when a team is responsible for a high-value business outcome, the best ideas are born from collaborative work, not the Herculean efforts of one person. 

Authenticity

High-performing teams recognize that each member is human and everyone is different. They know that each person has strengths and weaknesses. When teams acknowledge this—and enable one another to show up authentically, without posturing or posing, it enhances the communication between the team members.  No one pretends to be something they’re not. Having this authenticity also encourages people to lean in and help.

Transparency

The best teams and their leaders know that, as important as work is, everyone is juggling their business priorities with the rest of their lives. Businesses have often discouraged transparency and put work first at all costs, but high-performing teams allow for individuals to communicate up-front about responsibilities outside of work. For example, giving team members the space to take a family member to a medical appointment or handle a business-hours-sensitive errand (as long as it’s communicated up front and ahead of time) allows the rest of the team to cover and engenders good will from the individual who needs to step out.

When teams have this kind of transparency, they can coordinate coverage and set expectations for clients and colleagues up front, rather than scrambling right before a deadline when someone suddenly is out and can’t be found. Transparency breeds proactive planning and discourages secret-keeping.

The ability to ask for help

Especially in today’s increasingly complex world, teams must be able to ask each other for help. A rule of thumb to consider when stuck: don’t spend more than fifteen to thirty minutes thinking about something before reaching out to a teammate and saying, “I’m stuck, can you talk through this with me?”

Even the small act of verbalizing a problem usually results in an individual figuring out a way forward in far less time than if they’d been operating alone. It can feel intimidating, but it works. 

The ability to say “Yes, and...”

These high-performing teams also foster a culture of improvisation through the use of “yes, and..” instead of “yes, but…” when they are dealing with differences in opinion. The human brain hears “but” as a negation of everything said before it, as opposed to “and” which implies a willingness to collaborate without putting listeners on the defensive.

When teams work well together, they know that it took everyone to pull off the achievement. They’re stronger together when they are committed to collaborating and adhering to a code of conduct.  

Katherine Shao is Executive Creative Director at Oxygen, where she develops programs to help senior leaders better understand the changes that are occurring around them, and how to improve communication up and across their organizations. Before joining Oxygen, Katherine worked at Forrester Research for 10 years where she covered Forrester’s CIO Leadership Board, co-founded the Sales Enablement practice, and held positions in business development and consulting. Katherine’s diverse background includes 15 years in Information Technology.  A graduate of Bowdoin College, she has a Master’s degree from Indiana University School of Music.

Rob O’Such is a principal at Oxygen where he helps clients accelerate execution of their growth strategies.  A transformation specialist, he has more than two decades of systems integration, business process outsourcing, and management consulting experience. Rob holds a degree in Management Science Decision Support Systems from Virginia Tech and is a certified Project Management Professional.

As you can imagine, stand-up comedy can make you a better presenter. After all, it’s one of the hardest forms of public speaking you’ll ever do (aside from effectively teaching second graders), which means if you can do okay in stand-up, all other types of business presentations will seem easier. But stand-up comedy can also make you a better leader.

The majority of my leadership training has come from two places: 1) the internal leadership development program at Procter & Gamble, and 2) stand-up comedy. The first is expected, after all, P&G is a promote-from-within company, so they have to have good leadership training. The second is surprising, but has been just as valuable in my career development.

Here are five important ideas leaders can learn from stand-up comedians:

1. Start strong.

The most important part of any stand-up set is the first 30 seconds. It is in that small timeframe that an audience decides if you are worth paying attention to.

Those first 30 seconds are just like the first 30 seconds of any recommendation or proposal you give at work. Some people know this concept as “headnodding”–get people in agreement early on (e.g. make them realize you’re funny), and they are much more likely to agree with you later.

In standup, a good introduction relates to something the entire audience can be a part of (such as a joke about the city, something a previous comic said, or the ridiculousness of your own voice…) In the business world, that may mean starting off a presentation by establishing that you are all on common ground. If you are proposing a solution to a problem or “opportunity,” confirm with the audience that you all agree that there is, in fact, a problem, and you agree on what it is. Then, once they’ve settled in and have already been nodding along (not nodding off), you can transition into the meat of the meeting.

2. Deliver with Confidence.

Comedy is a mixture of both content and delivery. Yes, the material itself has to be good, but so does the delivery. In fact, delivery can often make up for weaker material--just look at Dane Cook’s early career. The jokes weren’t mind-blowingly funny, but his delivery of it was.

The same is true for leading others. If you’re not confident in what you’re doing, it will be much harder for people to follow you. As Adlai Stevenson said, “It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.”

The key to improving your confidence as a leader is the same as developing it as a comedian: through practice and repetition. The more often you do something, the easier it tends to become and the more comfortable you get.

3. Seek feedback.

Comedy, in a way, is simple. How do you know something is funny? It makes people laugh. The only way for a comedian to know if people will laugh at the joke is to try it out and see. The immediate feedback they receive on stage is invaluable as a performer.

Similarly, feedback to a leader is crucial. Stopping to ask for ways to better connect with each of your direct reports, improve a presentation, or what went well in a particular meeting can guide you in finding what works and what doesn’t. Then you can start working on the right things–working smarter and not harder.

One key thing to note is that feedback doesn’t just have to come from other people. Comedians record their performances so they can go back to evaluate a performance. Checking in with yourself periodically or tracking your daily progress can help you find what is and isn’t working for you.

4. Give credit where credit is do.

The cardinal sin of stand-up comedy (just after murder) is stealing material. Taking someone else’s jokes and pretending they are your own is like buying a Coke, putting your own label on it, and selling it as Joe’s Soda. After all, jokes are the primary product that comedians “sell.”

In management, to take credit for what other people have done is not only dishonest, it’s limiting for both you and your team. Your team doesn’t get the proper recognition they deserve, and you don’t showcase your ability to inspire your team to great results.

Taking credit and stealing material may help you get ahead in the short-term, but in today’s world, the frauds and the thieves tend to get found out and left behind.

5. Respect people’s time.

The second biggest sin in comedy is going over your allotted time (called “blowing the light”). Nearly every comedian imagines they could entertain the crowd for hours upon hours, but (thankfully) shows typically limit the amount of time each comic has, often based on their skill-level or connection to the show. To go over the amount of time given is to tell the show producer and all of the other comedians, “I think I’m more important than you” and “I don’t respect you.”

When you, as a leader, hold people longer than the scheduled time, or consistently show up late to meetings, you’re saying the same thing: “I think I’m more important than you” and “I don’t respect you.”

Respect people’s time and they’ll respect yours (and you) for it. If you need help keeping meetings on track, you can always do what comedians do: give people a notification when their time is almost up and then cut the mic if they go on for too long.

Stand-Up Leadership

Becoming a stand-up leader isn’t easy, but following some of these principles from stand-up comedians can certainly help. Plus this is the perfect excuse to finally give stand-up comedy a try or at least watch some of your favorite comedians online. You won’t just be having a laugh, you’ll be on your way to becoming a better leader as well.

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Andrew Tarvin is the world's first humor engineer, teaching people how to get better results while having more fun. He is the author of Humor That Works: The Missing Skill for Success and Happiness at Work and CEO of Humor That Works, a consultancy for human effectiveness. For more information, please visit, www.humorthatworks.com and connect with him on Twitter, @drewtarvin.

In the wake of open office spaces and hot desking, another trend is making its way to the forefront: personal devices as work tools. Mobile tech has removed the barriers between work and personal lives. Before mobile devices, a clear division existed between personal and professional life; today, work emails are answered at 1 am and Facebook updates are sent from employees’ desks.

We’re Always Connected

Now that everyone is connected, no one wants to disconnect. It may be more accurate to claim that in today’s world, it’s not possible. There are no more neat borders between work and personal lives. These segments of our lives have joined, and at the junction is our tech.

So why not let employees use their own devices to perform work tasks? Should your company have a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy in place and truly create a free-form work space? You have to weigh the risks and rewards:

Upside Rewards of BYOD

• Easier Tech Deployment: If the company has proper safeguards in place for Cloud data storage, the access point may not matter. Any device may access the data if the password and protocols apply. Rather than purchase, track and deploy devices, it’s only a matter of registering users.
• Reduction in Costs: The costs savings would be huge. No more giant tech budget—set criteria for the devices to ensure they’re up to spec for doing business, and then that’s it. No more responsibility for tracking, upgrading, or inventorying tech.
• Improved Personnel Satisfaction: As ties to a formal, personal workspace break down, BYOD would allow employees some measure of personalization. They may not care where they work if they have their own devices customized to their habits and uses.

Downside Risks To BYOD

• Liability Control: If employees use their own devices, then the company loses oversight. You could enact policies to limit this liability, but the device belongs to the employee and entitles them to a degree of privacy that doesn’t exist on a corporate-issued device.
• Data Security: Company protocols for handling data may not get followed. Access and storage on the Cloud is one thing but downloading is another. You may be unable to account for devices holding corporate information or control who possesses the data.
• Loss Prevention: Corporate-sponsored devices are easier to replace in the case of loss. If an employee loses a personal laptop or phone, there is no guarantee they can efficiently or satisfactorily find a replacement.
• Accounting Challenges: You still pay technology allowances, but now there’s a blurry line for determining reimbursement. It will be harder to distinguish between business or personal use.

To Do Or Not To Do

Companies handling sensitive data or some sectors of business (i.e. healthcare) may be best to opt for a more traditional and regulated information system. Others that may be under less stringent regulation could opt for BYOD, but only do so with measures in place to ensure security and policy enforcement.

 

 

When you own your own business, there may come a point when running your company requires you to spend a good chunk of change. Most start-ups and even successful enterprises may not have enough liquid cash to afford the price tag of equipment, goods, or real estate up front. You may need financing.

Avoid Credit Card Financing

As a small business, there are options for financing that you should explore well before you pull out a credit card. It’s too easy for the high interest rates associated with credit cards to run amok and sink your business.

First, the allure of 0% interest may sway you and seem like a no-brainer, but this is a mine field of explosive APRs that could trip you in the end. That 0% is usually an introductory offer that ends after a period of several months; after that introductory period ends, that APR can balloon. Most importantly, if you miss a payment, these types of deals often include a penalty APR that skyrockets into the upper 20%, as high as 29% in some cases.

Cash advances are another risky type of short-term loan available with a credit card. You can pull cash, like an ATM, from the account, but again, your interest rate on the re-payment will be sky-high compared to other financing options.

Better Financing Options

When it comes to financing, explore some of the lower-interest and safer means to get cash fast.

Loan. Loans are a good way to receive a lump sum of money quickly that allow time to pay back the principal with interest. You can also shop around to find the lowest interest between banks or credit unions, and sometimes, you may even find family members or friends willing to loan you money -- maybe even interest free. In some cases, you may even negotiate with the lender to help you with payments or re-finance your loan for a lesser interest rate.

Microloan. Intentionally designed as a resource for small businesses, a microloan can offer entrepreneurs and start-ups a real leg-up. These loans offer the advantage of borrowing small amounts, as little as $500, to meet the needs of new businesses trying to pay for fees or other expenses. However, they can also be larger, up to $50,000, for capital expenses. Also, microlending organizations offer lower interest rates and better repayment plans than the larger, traditional financial institutions.

Invoice Factoring. Depending on the type of your business, you may be eligible for invoice financing, or asset based lending products. If you have slow-moving accounts receivables, you can opt to sell those. Your business receives the cash up-front from the sale of an asset rather then accepting money for repayment with interest like a typical loan.

It is very typical for a small business to require a sudden influx of cash but consider your options carefully so that you don’t find yourself worse-off once you receive the money. Avoid credit cards and opt for financing options that work for and not against you.

If you’ve ever gone on vacation and returned feeling renewed, then you’ll understand the popularity of a small business retreat. The concept of leaving the office behind and bringing the team to an off-site, special destination follows the same vein as a vacation. A retreat offers the chance for a team to refresh and return to work in a better state of mind.

Unlike a 1:1 in your office or a conference center townhall, informal retreat meetings break the mold and give the team a chance work outside the confines of roles and titles. The more relaxed atmosphere of a retreat promotes better communication and team bonding, allowing your employees to let go of office politics and embrace a shared experience. Even with nothing in common at the workplace, everyone on the retreat can find common ground through the experience of the get-away.

Reap the Benefits of a Small Business Retreat

The benefits of a retreat appear in employees’ increased productivity. Like the advantage of a vacation, retreats are a break that lets employees relax so that they can come back with more energy. Also, taking their work to a new environment brings fresh perspective to the job and can inspire more contributions back at the office. Finally, retreats improve communication by opening channels between management and employees and developing informal networking between teams in ways that just aren’t possible at the office. The more relaxed retreat atmosphere fosters connections, even between those who may not normally interact, and improves communication overall.

Not Your Traditional Retreat

Though beneficial, there is a cautionary tale from the 2000s to be told about using retreats as rewards without value. Tradition saw executives splurge on retreats while employees watched from the sidelines as these lavish paid vacations catered to the top tier management. Back then, a retreat was a sign of executive largesse, excessive and reserved only for the C-Suite & Friends.

Value-Added Experience

Today, a retreat offers much more meaningful value to the business and pertains to all levels of employees. The ability to remove the team from distractions of the workplace is an opportunity to really focus on an initiative. If you do it right, you can use the time to focus on training, brainstorming, and team building in ways that the office just doesn’t allow; you have the space and atmosphere to shake employees from the routine and explore new ground.

Investment With Returns

There are costs to a retreat, but more than just the price of doing business, this expense is an investment. Spending the money to develop your employees only comes back to you in droves when the work gets done better and more efficiently by employees who feel valued and more committed.

March is the perfect time of year to schedule a retreat since you can take advantage of the quarter’s end and Spring Break season. Use the time to evaluate the years’ progress thus far and set goals as well as minimize the bite from budget with seasonal travel discounts and packages available.

No matter what industry you’re in, there’s always an unknown element when it comes to job security. The economy, who happens to be President, natural disasters, and a host of other life events could take a stable job and turn it on its head, or you may be one of the lucky few who enjoys a 30+ year run at the same organization. Yet with as much innovation as there is in today’s job market, it’s tough to say with certainty that we won’t all end up getting replaced by robots at some point in the future.

On a more serious note, however, it can be difficult to plan ahead if the foundation of your career is uncertain. While there are steps that people can take to help secure their future, it seems that the roadmap to success is always changing. According to a recent article in USA Today, it is possible to create your own destiny in the career world, and it’s as easy as taking two little steps.

Evaluate Your Employer

All too often, we think about changing jobs because of our dissatisfaction with our own position. Perhaps we want more money, different responsibilities, or our coworkers are flat out terrible to be around. But how regularly do people take a hard look at who’s running the show and try to predict where things are going? Probably not as often as is needed.

Whether you work for a small corporation or a multi-national group, try taking an objective look at the future. Are the people in charge innovative? Do they have the foresight to adapt to a changing marketplace? Will they survive and thrive, or will they fall by the wayside as other newer brands make them irrelevant? While you may not be able to control any of the factors that help to answer these questions, you can watch for red flags that may indicate it’s time to look for other opportunities.

Put Yourself First

Time and time again we hear that making yourself valuable is incredibly important in the workplace, but many people don’t really take this message to heart. No matter the industry, you should create a personal mission of always continuing your education. Being someone who is on the forefront of upcoming changes, new ways of doing things, and contributing to the vision of your organization puts you on the short list of getting a raise, promotion, and at the very least, not being the first one to get laid off.

Even more important is the time and energy you put into building your own reputation separate from your company. Online review platforms often associate you with the place you work, making it hard to create a name for yourself within your given industry. However, at Completed.com, you can put all of your networking skills to good use and develop a profile that demonstrates how valuable you really are.

If and when it comes time to make a change and you’re looking for another job opportunity, you can consider your Completed.com profile as an extended resume, highlighting qualities that will help you to stand out from the rest of the crowd. At the very least, it’s a tool that every career-minded individual can benefit from, even if their current corporation is on the path to success.

Young leaders typically go too far or not far enough. They are born to take chances but when the time comes, many retreat to what they have been told by elders or those with more experience.

There is something to be said for brash youth, its penchant for breaking the rules and coming at problems from an entirely different mindset.  But sometimes those rules are there for a reason, and going completely against what has been done before leads to a road to nowhere.

Before young leaders head out to conquer the world, Phuong Uyen Tran, author of Competing with Giants(https://www.thp.com.vn/en/) and deputy CEO of THP Beverage Group, Vietnam’s leading beverage company, says they should dig deeper into their beliefs, actions and goals in order to chart a successful path.

“Young leaders bring passion but sometimes it doesn’t make up for a lack of wisdom,”  Tran says. “Before they set sail, there are a few questions they need to ask themselves to increase their chances for success.”

Tran says the six questions are:

• What are your core beliefs?  To be successful, a young leader needs to be grounded in some fundamental beliefs. Understanding and writing down core beliefs will guide you through stormy times.
   
• What is the mission statement of your product or service? - The mission statement reflects every facet of the business: the range and nature of the products offered, pricing, quality, service, marketplace position, growth potential, use of technology, and your relationships with customers, employees, suppliers, competitors, and the community.
   
• Have you done your homework? - As a young leader, it is imperative that you  do plenty of research.  Older leaders can sometimes go by their gut feelings, but young leaders don’t have that luxury.  You need to be over-prepared before moving forward.
   
• Do you really believe in you product or service? Great leaders truly believe that whatever their product or service is, that it is the best option among all the competition.  If you don’t believe in your product, it is hard to lead your troops into battle.
   
• Are you ready to set sail or are you moored to the dock? - Sometimes you have to take chances. Are you ready to take risks and not be tied to what has always been done in the past?
   
• How will you handle success or failure?  One of two things usually happens - you will succeed or you will fail.  How will you handle success - are you ready to pull all the levers you need to get to the next level?  If you fail, how will you handle it?  Will you go into a depression and blame others, or will you learn from your mistakes?

Tran says young leaders can overcome many obstacles by taking some extra time to  ask themselves those questions.

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Phuong Uyen Tran, author of Competing with Giants (https://www.thp.com.vn/en/), is deputy CEO of the THP Beverage Group, a leading beverage company in Vietnam that was founded by her father. She is responsible for the company’s marketing, public relations, and CSR programs nationally and across Vietnam’s 63 provinces. She also leads THP’s international marketing programs across 16 countries where THP’s products are distributed including Canada and China.

As a small business owner, only you set the tone or appoint direction for the enterprise. Therefore, the onus to stay abreast of relevant business practices falls to you. You must learn as much as you can to stay ahead of the game.

Though it isn’t always possible to take a refresher course in business or to pursue your MBA, you can – and should—continue learning. Sometimes, it’s a matter of shifting your perspective and other times, it’s a matter of learning about a new method that will help your business.

Resources Aplenty

There are some great books available that can motivate, inspire, and teach you. Reading one or all these titles just might make a hill of difference when it comes to walking an easy path to success versus a rough trail full of hard-knocks.

Far from an exhaustive list, the following are entertaining and relevant business books that will give you fresh insights into management, strategy, and methods for running your business (sometimes, a kernel of knowledge turns into a whole new way to think, and these moments of revelation can become breakthroughs that take your business to the next level):

The Art Of War, by Sun Tzu. Not all business books are about business. In this ancient book written in the 6th Century B.C., you’ll find a treatise on human nature and conflict that will guide you through any meeting. The Art of War gives you timeless knowledge about practicing strategy to win that still matters and applies to the world at large but much more specifically to the business world of today.

The Goal, by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. An influential and timeless tome for the business world, this book delves into The Theory of Constraint and will change your thinking about the goal of your organization.

The Goal: A Business Graphic Novel, by Dwight Jon Zimmerman. The ultimate comic for a professional, this graphic novel brings the concepts of The Goal to life in story-form, demonstrating the management paradigm in a fresh, captivating format.

Switch, by Chip & Dan Heath. The one constant in life is change, yet it’s a struggle for most people to accept and react accordingly. What causes obstacles to change? How can you navigate change in your life but more importantly, in your business? Switch combines thought provoking tales with a step-by-step method for managing change in your organization and beyond.

An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything, by Chris Hadfield. As inspirational texts go, this one certainly provides new perspective beyond the 30,000-foot view! Lessons of life and work from Hadfield’s career translate to any situation, particularly for a small business owner who is attempting their own launch sequence to get a business off the ground.

Taking advantage of these resources will make the process of entrepreneurship easier. Gain wisdom from those who’ve gone before you, learned the ropes, and took notes so that you can follow suit.