LinkedIn is offering a new service that benefits small businesses and freelancers, reports INC. The new feature lets these users show they are “open for business” 

If you're freelance or the owner of a small business, it can be extremely difficult to get noticed by prospective clients--especially if the services you offer are offered by many other freelancers or small businesses.

Read the article on INC

Small business owners find their fears that the Trump Administration’s Immigration Policy will hurt them is waning, reports CNBC.

In early 2019, with the crisis at the U.S.’s southern border reaching a tipping point, immigration surged to become the issue that small business owners said they cared about the mostIn the first quarter of this year, more than a quarter of small business owners (27%) named immigration as the top issue, when only a year prior just 11% had said the same.

Read the article on CNBC

Small businesses that work with healthcare providers often don’t follow HIPPA guidelines which could have a severe financial impact should they be caught, reports Small Business Trends. 

The financial impact of HIPAA violations is especially burdensome on small businesses. This is why small firms have to take increased precautions to ensure they are not violating any HIPPA regulations. Whether you’re providing healthcare directly or support services, you are equally liable under HIPPA

Read the article on Small Business Trends

According to Gallup, the start of  the 3nd quarter found small business owners very optimistic. The Small Business Index Survey from Wells Fargo saw a 7 point increase. 

 Small-business owners' optimism has edged up over the past three months. In the latest quarterly Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey, conducted July 8-12, 2019, the overall index is +136, up from the +129 recorded in Quarter 2. 

Read the article on Gallup

 In business lending, a personal guarantee is a very crucial element. It is a legal promise by the owner or owners of a business that in case a business fails to repay a loan, they will personally repay the outstanding debt. Although a loan can help to fund your business, in most cases, personal finances can end up being dragged into the picture in the form of personal guarantee. The banking institutions or other parties that lend money often demand a personal guarantee from the borrower to ascertain that the loan will be repaid even if the company does not have assets that assure repayment on its own.  

A personal guarantee protects a lender in cases where businesses are unable to pay back their debts. It is therefore imperative that you understand what a personal guarantee is before committing to it by signing.

Business loans and personal guarantees

Every business-minded person hopes that he/she can get a loan that can propel their businesses to the next level. It is the hope of each one of them that they will repay their debts on time to avoid penalties. However, some misfortunes do occur, and some businesses end up failing to settle their loans on time. Because of this, lenders have devised mechanisms that ensure that they get their money back regardless of what happens. This is where personal guarantees come into play. This is basically a promise that the loan will be repaid even if the business does not have enough money to make payments. These guarantees are usually signed during the loan application process and come in different types.

Types of personal guarantees

There are two main types of personal guarantees:

1. Unlimited personal guarantees 
2. Limited personal guarantees

Unlimited personal guarantees

With this kind of personal guarantee, you agree through signing to allow the lender to recover 100% (all the amount you owe the lender) of the loan amount inclusive of any legal fees that are associated with the loan you borrowed for your business. In case you fail to honor the agreement, the lender has a right to go after your savings, your kids' college funds, and your personal assets such as a car among others to repay the loan, interest and legal fees. For example, if you borrowed $100,000 and default on it, and your lender incurs $10,000 legal fees to get a judgment on the loans you will owe the lender $110,000 that can be recovered from anything valuable under your possession. They are called unlimited since they offer a borrower zero financial protection if you or your business fails to pay.

Limited personal guarantees

As suggested by the name, limited personal guarantees set a limit on what can be recovered and what cannot in case your business defaults on the loan. These types of personal guarantees are used in instances where multiple business partners jointly take a loan for a single company or business. According to the SBA standards, a person who has 20% and more of the stake in the business should be among the guarantors. It sets a piece of debt that each individual is required to pay in case the business fails to repay the debt. As easy and sweet as limited personal guarantees may seem, it has its downsides. As such, you should check the terms carefully before signing. For example, you should be sure of whether you are either signing several or joint and several guarantee. A several guarantee gives each party a specific percentage of liability while a joint and several guarantee makes each party liable for the full debt amount.

Having known what personal guarantee is and the types of personal guarantees that exist, you should comfortably be in a position to choose the right one next time your business is in need of a loan.

Well-established companies generally provide their Sales and Executive team with corporate credit cards to use for travel expenses and networking activities such as dinners and Happy Hours. Company-issued credit cards allow employees to expense work-related expenditures without having to rely on their personal credit card alleviating the stress of incurring late fees. If you are looking into the benefits of a corporate credit card, there are a few things you should know before making a decision.

Not all businesses will be approved for a corporate credit card. There are standards that needs to be met. For instance, an organization will have to meet a certain revenue threshold to be considered for a corporate credit card and aren’t free. Just like a credit card with an annual fee, a company issued credit card has a fee per employee that goes towards maintenance and exclusive customer service for your business.

Assuming the criteria is met, it’s important to create a credit card agreement that appeases both organization and employees. These guidelines will inform an employee what instances and situations they’re allowed to use their corporate credit card versus their personal card.  This agreement will hold your employees accountable incase an issue arises and not hold the business liable for any misuse.

It is important that the agreement between the organization and the employee is clear and concise when it comes to do’s and don’ts. It’s wise to have a per diem amount on travel expenses to ensure employees are not spending the company’s money frivolously. Best practice would be to require itemized receipts for charges over a certain amount and clarify who, if anyone can fly business or first class when traveling. What happens if an employee doesn’t follow those guidelines? It is important to state consequences in the agreement if an employee fails to abide by the agreement.By ensuring the company issued credit card agreement is clear, fewer mistakes will be made, and fewer exceptions if any will have to be given.

Most corporations require their employees to submit expense reports. The agreement should detail what is expected to be submitted in the expense report. This can include the date where the event took place; the names of any clients that attended a dinner; which hotel an employee stayed at and Deadlines are also important to note in the guidelines, so employees understand when they need to submit their expense reports by.

Last but not least, it’s important to get the agreement approved by your legal department. Legal advice is extremely helpful when creating agreements. At this stage the legal department will be able to let you know if there are any issues with your agreement. They will be able to notify you if anything in the document is offensive, unclear, or could be construed a certain way. Legal will also be able to read through the document and give advice on what (if any) changes need to be made.

Having a solid credit card agreement between the business and the employees ensures that mistakes don’t happen and everyone is on the same page regarding expectations. There will always be issues that aren’t accounted for, but by providing as much information as possible in the agreement and getting approval by legal ensures that those scenarios will be minimal.  By taking these precautions, you are well on your way to decide if a corporate business card is right for you.

A promissory note is a crucial document for large transactions. It is used by businesses in consumer lending and other businesses. Some other examples of transactions where the promissory note can be used include home purchases and student loans. Owing to the importance of promissory note, it must be created correctly so that it serves the purpose for which it was intended. It must specify the method of payment and at the same time be simple but reflect the terms of the agreement. These components make the note legally enforceable. Below are some tips t you should consider when writing a promissory note:

1. Meet the needed elements of a legally enforceable promissory note

For a promissory note to be enforceable, it must contain some crucial elements. Without such components, collecting money loaned might be futile. These elements include:

• The amount you loaned -the amount borrowed or owed
• Date of repayment- The date which the payment must be made
• Interest rates – This is the rate which the lender will charge on the borrowed money calculated by annual percentage rate (APR)
• Amount after interest (calculated as principal + interest)
• Collateral or agreed security (goods or services used as a guarantee for debts to be paid)
• Terms for late repayment – What happens in case the agreed repayment made late
• Terms for defaulting – What will happen if the borrower fails to pay
• Signature

2. List down the terms of the agreement

The terms of agreement are the things that the lender and the borrower agree upon. These terms should cover the elements listed above. The terms of agreement should be specific and must contain the repayment schedule which can be weekly or monthly basis, etc.

3. Chose either secured or unsecured promissory note for repayment

In a secured promissory note, the borrower provides collateral in terms of goods, services or property which is to be taken in case he/she defaults repaying. Usually, the collateral’s value is equal to or greater than the debt’s principal.  An unsecured promissory note, on the other hand, involves no collateral.

4. Find proper security for your loan

For the case of a secured promissory note, the person borrowing cash has to agree to collateral which can either be property or services. To make sure that you get paid, you should consider filing a financial statement (Form UCC1) to collect loans if a debtor fails to repay or files for bankruptcy. The form should list down the value of the collateral and its description in full.

Ensuring the promissory note is enforceable

1. Making promissory note enforceable

The note must be signed to make it enforceable. If not signed, it is not legally binding and will not hold in a court of law in case of a dispute. It must also include:

• Legal names of the parties involved
• Addresses and phone numbers of each individual involved
• Signature of the lender, borrower, and the witness
• Purpose of the money borrowed

1. Inform the borrower of the right to transfer

The person borrowing the money has a right to be informed that the note is transferable to another party by the lender. However, the original terms of the agreement will remain effective although the debt will be payable to a different party.

1. The borrower should be informed of the right to cancel the note
2. Issue a release of a promissory note when the loan is paid back to signify the end of commitment for both parties. Such a release clause helps to prevent future disputes and lawsuits in the future. If collateral which secured such note exists, ensure that every lien is cancelled and terminated appropriately.

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.

In light of the recent mass shootings in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH you may be asking the question- would your company know what to do in an active shooter situation? If not, it might be time to put a response plan in place to give you and your employees the best chance at survival. According to the FBI, 45% of all active shooting situations occur in commercial places such as the workplace. While the likelihood of it happening in your workspace is low – an official policy should be standard protocol just like an evacuation plan. Diego Redondo, former FBI special agent and director of public safety and risk management at John Jay College of Criminal Justice recommends that every business should practice a response plan just as they do a fire drill or an evacuation route to ensure the best possible outcome.

Practicing isn’t the only thing your business can do to thwart an attack.  Below are a few steps your employees can take in an active shooter situation.

1. Know your exit

One morning when I was 17, my mom picked me up from a sleepover. On the way home she told me that there had been a fire at a nightclub in the next town over. The Station nightclub fire ended up being one of the deadliest fires in the United States taking the lives of 100 people – launching an investigation that would prompt the laws on fire safety to be rewritten across the country.  Subsequently, whenever I’m in a crowded place whether it’s a movie theater, arena, or a concert venue I always look for my closest exit. If the closest exit is the main entrance, I always look for an alternative way out. Chances area majority of people will try to exit through the main entrance since that is the way they came in. In an active shooter situation- the shooter could be blocking the main entrance.

2. Don’t Panic

While it may seem like common sense, in the heat of the moment your first impulse might be to panic. Don’t panic. This is especially important and one of the main reasons why every company should have an active shooter plan in place. When you equip your employees with knowledge of what to do in situations such as this - it lessons the chance that they will panic.

3. Hide

If you can’t get out of an active shooter situation because he is barring the door or your trapped in your office - it’s important to hide. If the shooter doesn’t know where you are – you’re less likely to get hurt. It will also help protect you from stray bullets. Encourage your employees to walk around the office, picking places that are inconspicuous and would be great for hiding out. Examples could be a closet, bathroom, under a desk or behind a door. While no hiding place is fool-proof it could save you or your employees lives.

4. Evacuate

Evacuation should be in your active shooter plan. If your employees can escape, they should at all costs. If the shooter is occupied in another area of the office and you can exit from a side door – you should. In an emergency always use the stairs.

When an active shooter scenario happens in your workplace the first instance might be to panic. Instead, equip your employees with the knowledge they need to get to safety. Whether it’s hiding in a closet or escaping from a side exit – it’s important that every workplace has an active shooter plan for workplace safety.

Starting a business is an exciting venture as well as a rewarding, fulfilling experience. However, it requires a lot of dedication, endless work, and constant attention that may be overwhelming to handle on your own. Entering into a business partnership may be a good opportunity to ensure you don’t get lost in the process of starting your own company.

Advantages To Business Partnerships

Business partnerships help to level-load the burden of starting up a business. With a partnership, there are two (or more) partners involved to share the work of getting your business organized, running, and hopefully off the ground. Business partners can divvy up the work and rely on each other’s expertise to strengthen the whole.

There is also another person as invested in the success of your business as you. Together, you can brainstorm, strategize, and direct the course of business. As it’s often said, “Two minds are better then one.”

Criteria For Successful Partnerships

Once you decide to enter into a partnership, there are some critical decisions to make and discussions that you must have with your business partner early in order to establish long-term health of your company. After the tough stuff, then you can decide if you are going to have a ping-pong or foosball table… Or both!

To manage the business partner relationship, here are four main actions to take, as follows:

1. Establish roles, responsibilities, and boundaries early. Are you forming an equal partnership? Is one person a majority holder with the other(s) minority holders? Decide on titles, too. Who is the CEO, CFO, Owner/Co-Owner, etc.?

2. Sustain direct communication. Face discussions head on; side conversations, hemming and hawing, or avoiding the discussion is just going to sew confusion between you and your partner(s).

3. Treat each other as business partners, not friends. Set up meeting times, communicate an agenda, state your purpose, and listen to your partner’s input.

4. Finally, get a lawyer and sign a contract. Few phrases cause more anxiety than these, but having a business attorney and creating a contract is critical to business success. Make sure that everyone is clear that the lawyer is there to help all of you establish a clear, fair arrangement. Spell out this arrangement in a contract in no uncertain terms. For example, who is investing and how much, who is receiving what portion of proceeds / profits, or how much is being plowed back into the company versus salaries.

Avoidance Will Crash A Partnership

Ignoring these critical tasks when setting up a partnership can quickly tarnish your vision and lead to in-fighting that will stop you in your tracks. Be aware that difficult conversations must occur; do not shy away from them. If there is anyone with whom you should entrust your ideas and opinions, it should be your partner!

Still, like any relationship, you need to foster the partnership. The goal is to support each other and build together, not keep things secret and collude against one another. Your goal is not a hostile take-over but a win-win for all.

“The people who need the most guidance on how to be successful in the workplace are often flooded with so much information, there’s no way for them to absorb it, let alone change what they do,” says business enablement expert Juliana Stancampiano, Founder and CEO of Oxygen.  In her new book, RADICAL OUTCOMES:  How to Create Extraordinary Teams That Get Tangible Results (Wiley Publishing; January 2019), she shows companies how to more effectively help their people do their jobs, to build more profitable and productive organizations.

Most business leaders recognize that success in today’s environment demands much more than exceptional products.  Companies must also create great experiences for their customers by leveraging the increasingly complex technology landscape.  To do this, employees need to develop new sets of skills on a regular basis.  Indeed, learning and development is now a $140 billion industry.  However, Stancampiano maintains that much of this money is wasted.  

“There is so much pressure to change, and seemingly so little time to do it.  As a result, decision makers make investments that appear to assume we live in a science fiction film, where all you need to do is send those salespeople, managers, or engineers to a five-day training course, and all of the company’s problems will be solved,” she writes.  Moreover, she says, enablement teams – the people in charge of creating the materials intended to help employees learn – often don’t understand the business results they are working to create.

In RADICAL OUTCOMES, Stancampiano explains how to bring an end to this wasted investment in “random acts of training.”  The key, she says, is to use an outcome-based approach.  This mindset demands focusing on measurable results – like proccess improvements or efficiencies, reduced costs, or increased conversion rates – first, and then identifying the tasks necessary to achieve those results.  “If you’re not always working backwards from the outcomes you’re driving and measuring, it doesn’t matter how many people show up to class or how many hours of training you put people through,” she says.

In addition, enablement teams must create training experiences and content that are easy to consume, highly relevant, and sequenced over a timetable that makes sense.  RADICAL OUTCOMES illustrates this process through the story of a fictional company facing a major challenge:  developing an entirely new way of ramping up hundreds of new hires to be able to reach quota in less time.  The key elements of the process include:

Creating An Ensemble -- It’s rarely one person who is able to achieve something all on his or her own.  Being part of a team is what the smartest, most successful people do.  At the same time, teams must find a cohesive way to work together – to become a “collaborative ensemble.”  This demands finding a common goal or mission, achieving role clarity, and establishing interpersonal codes of conduct.

Letting Go Of What You Know – “Many of the concepts we use at work today to engage, converse, produce, and develop are rooted in stale, decades-old theory. In some cases, we try to enable our people using methods developed during the Industrial Revolution,” writes the author.  But if you’re going to effectively help others to do their jobs better, you have to let go of some common beliefs.  For example, you don’t have to create perfect “stuff.”  “Even that which is polished is not perfect – and, it’s much harder to change. You’ll need to be agile. And you need to be relevant. But not perfect. Letting go of perfection, we have found, is a big relief,” explains Stancampiano.

The Outcome Is The Thing – Stancampiano and her team have found that leaders aren’t seeing the connection between their investments in enablement, the work that’s happening to create those programs, and the results generated by that work.  “There’s a BIG difference between an outcome and an output.  The “stuff” we create does not, in and of itself, constitute an outcome for the business,” she writes.  Instead, a “radical outcome” that moves the needle must: involve executive-level, cross-functional stakeholders; achieve results over time; and have measurable results.

Know Your Audience – The audience are the people for whom you are creating your enablement experiences.  If you don’t know them, and where they stand in their journey at work, how can you ensure that they have a good experience in consuming what you create for them?  Stancampiano says that there are three simple aspects about your audience that you must know:  their realities (such as what kind of environment they work in, how they get information, and what time constraints they have); their role (a front-line supervisor’s world is very different from the manager of a call center); and the time frame for their role (consider such questions as “What is reasonable to expect someone who is new to their role to be able to do in 90 days?“)
 
“If you’re frustrated by the obvious ways in which people are wasting their time or working at odds with each other, by the constant stops and false starts, re-dos and re-implementations, with no discernible progress, there’s a real alternative,” declares Stancampiano.  RADICAL OUTCOMES will give you the tools you need, so you can stop wasting time and money and learn how to enable your people to do their work better and get results faster.

Juliana Stancampiano, author of RADICAL OUTCOMES, is an entrepreneur and the CEO of Oxygen. For more than fifteen years, she has worked with Fortune 500 companies, both in them and for them. Her firm’s clients include Microsoft, DXC, Delta Dental (of WA), Starbucks, F5 Networks, Avaya, and Western Digital, among others. Her in-depth experience, along with the research that Oxygen conducts and the articles she has published, has helped to shape the perspective that Oxygen embraces.  

The fact that people are wired to react so strongly to stories should motivate business leaders to develop their storytelling skills. But what business situations call for a story?

You might have guessed the answer—it depends. It depends on both the situation and what you’d like to accomplish in the situation. The situation might be a staff meeting where you’re introduced to the people on your new team, for example. As their new boss, your objective might be to get them to like and respect you and to start dismantling the barriers of mistrust and uncertainty. Another situation might be that members of your team have lost enthusiasm for their work, and your objective is to restore their engagement and give them purpose, so they understand the “why” of what they’re spending most of their waking hours doing. Or maybe valuable members of your team feel unappreciated or don’t get the credit they deserve. In that situation, your objective may be to reinforce or highlight certain norms and behaviors with your stories and to draw positive attention to them.

Below are three types of stories that every leader should master. My hope is that they inspire readers to dig deeper into this topic and to identify and cultivate potential stories that can help you accomplish important objectives.

1. Stories We Tell Ourselves

We constantly assemble bits and pieces of information of what we observe around us and automatically turn them into stories that tend to reinforce our long-developed beliefs. If those stories are positive ones—you admire a colleague and tend particularly to notice the admirable things she does, you pride yourself on your own punctuality and pat yourself on the back whenever you find yourself (again!) to be the first person to show up at a meeting—these perspectives are often uplifting and empowering.

The problem comes when we tell ourselves negative stories. For instance, if I feel that the people around me are lazy and incompetent, the stories I create will be based on morsels of data that “conform” that belief. Or if I feel that I don’t measure up to others’ expectations, the stories I create will reinforce this self-assessment, prominently featuring my mistakes, my failures, and others’ expressions of disappointment in me. And so a vicious loop is created where negative perceptions—including of the self—determine the stories we tell ourselves, which in turn play out in full color to reinforce these perceptions.

Clearly these aren’t productive narratives, nor do they serve the people and organizations we lead. And while I’m aware that years of cognitive behavioral therapy may sometimes be the most effective solution to modify such beliefs-and-values–powered narratives, I’d like to suggest that we have the option to intervene any time we recognize (self-awareness!) the unproductive nature of the stories we tell ourselves.

It’s clear that the stories we tell ourselves have an impact not just on our own behavior, but also on our engagement with others and in turn on their perceptions of us as leaders, colleagues, and partners. By carefully examining our dominant narratives and making sure they contribute positive value to our and others’ lives, we’re one step closer to wielding real influence with the power of storytelling.

2. Stories We Tell Others About Ourselves

Whether you are a leader joining a new team, or a job candidate in the first round of interviews, or someone meeting a potential new client for the first time, the stories you tell about yourself often set the tone for how the relationship will unfold, if it does, that is. Which are the right stories in such scenarios? It’s hard to go wrong with stories that illustrate your humility, good judgment, integrity, and expertise and experience. As for what to emphasize, putting yourself firmly into the shoes of your audience should provide clues. The needs and expectations of the people in your audience will, of course, vary, depending on the context of the meeting and their future goals as they involve you.

For instance, if you are the new boss meeting the members of your team for the first time, you know they’ll wonder about your leadership style and how you’ll treat them. Acknowledge this and share a personal story or two that show you empathize—maybe from when you met your boss for the first time. Mention the lessons you’ve learned in managing others and make sure to highlight any mistakes from which you’ve grown. Share examples of how you’ve navigated new cultures in the past—organizational or regional—and what you’re hoping to learn in this next stage with their help. This shows humility, humanizes you, and reduces the power distance that can hamper the open and honest dialogue that builds trust.

If your audience—whether a group or an individual—is looking to engage you for your expertise, share stories that illustrate how you’ve delivered results or solved similar problems for others. Mention the challenges you encountered along the way and how you met them successfully—even if it took a few attempts to get it right. This is also an elegant way to share your strengths without bragging about your accomplishments.

When others want to get to know us, they aren’t just looking for the content on our LinkedIn profile. They want to know the real us to determine whether we’re trustworthy and whether associating with us will be of positive or negative value to them. That’s why recruiters and hiring managers no longer have qualms about digging into our social media pro les and online musings to evaluate our reputation and our judgment.

And judgment is key whenever we share personal information. Faulty judgment can result in some awkward moments if not lasting reputational harm.

Faulty judgment in personal stories isn’t always this glaring. But if you are unsure of how your stories might land, run them first by people you trust. In the end, with personal stories less is more and humility is better.

3. Stories We Tell Our Teams or Organizations

The type of storytelling that is intrinsic to successful leadership is the ability to tell compelling stories of the future, to articulate a vision, to both internal and external audiences. Leaders need to master another kind of story too—this kind is about organizational values.

Whatever the management goal, there are storytelling strategies that can help further it. A former Facebook director of engineering, Bobby Johnson, once saw the need for a cultural shift in the company’s infrastructure team. Although many of his engineers were drawn to exciting new projects and innovations, Johnson knew that other Facebook engineers, the ones who worked behind the scenes to ensure that the existing systems ran faster and better than before, also did critical work. He wanted to highlight these “unsung heroes,” both to honor them and to get more engineers interested in their less glamorous but nonetheless essential work. To accomplish this, he would take every opportunity—in one-on-ones, in meetings, and in group e-mails—to share stories of important fixes that these day-to-day engineers made and to publicly praise them.

Similarly, if you want people to speak up more in meetings and challenge each other, share a story of how a lone dissenting voice was able to change your mind about a decision you’d made, and how this wouldn’t have happened if the person hadn’t felt comfortable in challenging you. Or if you want to increase collaboration among teams, share a story about two teams who decided to join forces and whose combined creativity and brainpower led to important breakthroughs for the organization. And if it’s courage and risk taking you want to promote, highlight stories of risk-taking colleagues—and include their failures, to make the point that learning from mistakes is just another way forward.

As you can see in the three types of stories above, the formula for telling a story is simple. Decide which values you want to promote and which behaviors you want to encourage, and then make those traits the themes of your stories, and include characters who demonstrate the desired traits. Do these stories have to be true? It helps if they are, and it’s even better if your audience knows the protagonists. However, hypothetical scenarios can pack just as big a punch, as we’ve learned from neuroscience research and our own experiences from the myriad of stories that surround us.

Harrison Monarth is the CEO and Founder of Gurumaker and author of Executive Presence: The Art of Commanding Respect Like a CEO. An Executive Coach, he teaches C-suite leaders, senior executives, high potential managers and other top professionals effective leadership and positive behavior change for professional and organizational success. For more information, please visit, www.gurumaker.com and connect with Monarth on Twitter, @HarrisonMonarth and LinkedIn.

People are living longer, and as wonderful as that news is to many, there’s a possible downside: outliving your money in retirement. “It’s a very large fear many people have,” says Alexander Joyce, president/CEO of ReJoyce Financial LLC (www.ReJoyceFinancial.com) and author ofReJoyce In Your Retirement: Everything You Need To Know To Get Everything You Want.

“Most retirement plans have not incorporated the longevity risk. And without mitigating that, many middle-class retirees could exhaust their 401(k)s and be left with only Social Security and a little equity in their homes.”

The financial worries about retirement and the planning options can be overwhelming. One of the concerns people have is getting appropriate advice and finding a financial advisor who puts the client’s interests above his or her own. That type of retirement planner is defined as a fiduciary, and according to a survey by Financial Engines, 93 percent of Americans think financial advisors who provide retirement advice should be fiduciaries — legally required to put their clients’ best interest first.

On the other hand, 53 percent of those respondents mistakenly believe that all financial advisors are fiduciaries.

“Trust is imperative, especially where a client’s retirement is concerned,” Joyce says. “An advisor working as a fiduciary is held to a high standard of honesty and full disclosure to the client. And there are three critical aspects of retirement planning in which a fiduciary can help guide the client to both protect their retirement assets and prosper.”

Those three areas are:

Reduce sequence-of-return risks. This refers to the order of annual investment returns, and it becomes a concern for retirees who are living off the income and capital of their investments. “The danger comes when an investor receives lower or negative returns due to withdrawals made from their investment,” Joyce says. “The timing of taking those returns impacts wealth. A planner who’s a fiduciary has multiple ways to reduce sequence-of-returns risk by allowing the portfolio to stay ahead of inflation. You utilize other income-producing vehicles in the portfolio.”

Prioritize a tax plan. “Understand that in retirement you’re creating your own income from qualified money — money that’s never been taxed before,” Joyce says. “It’s vital to have a tax plan that can fit into your portfolio. For example, the Required Minimum Distribution at age 70½  is something many people are not prepared for in terms of tax impact. The RMDs have never been such a concern in our economy than they are now, because such a large percentage of baby boomers are over 70½. Having a reallocation plan or a Roth conversion conversation is important to avoid higher tax burdens.”

Create an estate plan. Procrastination is an obstacle for many when it comes to estate planning, Joyce says, and it’s important to differentiate between a will, which goes through probate, and a trust. “Understand how those things fit in the portfolio, and the difference between live-on money and leave-behind money,” he says. “You need to establish goals for the assets. A lot of people want to leave a legacy, but they don’t know how large, or how, or when. A fiduciary can help you leverage technology and look at a realistic rate of return, based on your  projected longevity.”

“Having all these planning tools under a full-service fiduciary roof is powerful,” Joyce says, “because the baby boomer generation doesn’t like change. They need a sense of security before reaching retirement; solid options to make their financial fears and uncertainty go away.”

Alexander Joyce is CEO and president of ReJoyce Financial LLC (www.ReJoyceFinancial.com), a full-service retirement income planning firm in Indianapolis, Ind. He’s the author of ReJoyce In Your Retirement: Everything You Need To Know To Get Everything You Want. Joyce holds the NSSA (National Social Security Advisor) and CRPC (Charted Retirement Planning Counselor) designations. He hosts informational and educational seminars as well as the radio show Retirement Halftime Show. He can be seen monthly on Money Monday as well as Your Money on the IndyStyle program, broadcast by WISH-TV, myINDY-TV and WTHR in Indianapolis.

It’s been a common occurrence in recent years: Company downsizing or restructuring has left skilled professionals looking for a job. Or, feeling constrained, they jump to a better growth opportunity.

But, with the era of lifetime jobs at a single firm or company long gone, many doctors, dentists, lawyers and other professionals also are opting to work for themselves, becoming entrepreneurs and launching their own start-ups.   

Some who already started small practices have expanded into several locations. As dentists and business partners Dr. Seth Newman and Dr. Efstathios Giannoutsos can attest, the learning curve of running and growing a business in multiple offices — while still practicing their profession — can be challenging but also rewarding.

“It was never my plan to run a practice, or even co-run one,” says Giannoutsos,  (www.asktheorthos.com), an orthodontist and co-author, with Newman of Giving It To You Straight: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Orthodontics But Were Afraid To Ask. “But then the financial crisis of 2008 happened, and a lot of the opportunities that had been available before were now gone.

“But we were able to flip those circumstances on their heads and use them to our advantage.”

“The biggest challenge initially was finding clients,” Newman says. “But we learned to use different resources and educate ourselves in the business side as we did in our chosen career.”  

Newman and Giannoutsos offer five tips for professionals transitioning to running their own business:

• Be passionate. Entrepreneurs tend to be extremely passionate about their work. They need to incorporate the same passion for running a business. “Think about how running your own business could transform your career, send it soaring,” Newman says. “That kind of spirit energizes you and all those around you.”

• Be bothered by inefficiency. Entrepreneurs don’t have a high tolerance for inefficiency, and the bonus is they don’t have corporate red tape to cut through. “You can fix problems that come up quickly because of your expertise and the freedom of not running into typical corporate obstacles,” Giannoutsos says. “If  you or your business partner are mired in work processes that are too slow, analyze the inefficiencies and consider the places you could implement solutions.”
• Don’t be afraid to take on more risk. One thing that sets many entrepreneurs apart from the average professional is their appetite for risk. “A business owner knows the risk-reward possibilities, and by taking well-calculated shots, bigger rewards can come,” Newman says. “Set aside time to strategize, and listen to the best-qualified people working for you to develop a precise plan.”
• Brainstorm more. Constant innovation is crucial to a business’ long-term success, so entrepreneurs have to take time to let their minds be loose and creative. “Set aside time each week for brainstorming sessions with your staff — and remember to have fun doing it,” Giannoutsos says.
• Don’t limit your dreams. “The most important aspect of the entrepreneurial spirit is being limitless – the sky’s the limit,” Newman says. “Many people are conditioned in the workforce to be realistic and practical, but dreaming big sets the mission for your company, and it’s why you became a business owner.”

“It can be daunting at first, performing the myriad tasks of a business owner,” Giannoutsos says, “but if you believe in what you do and those you’ve hired around you, it’s so worth the effort.”

Dr. Seth Newman (www.asktheorthos.com) is an orthodontist and co-author, with Dr. Steve Giannoutsos, of Giving It To You Straight: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Orthodontics But Were Afraid To Ask. He owns orthodontic practices in the New York City area. Dr. Newman completed his dental training at Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine, where he was a member of the National Dental Honor Society. He was a clinical instructor of the Invisalign system at the NYU School of Dentistry.

Dr. Efstathios Giannoutsos, or “Dr. G.” as he is commonly called, was born in Astoria, Queens, just outside of New York City. He graduated from St. John’s University in Jamaica, Queens, with high honors and a BS in Biology.  He is also the co-author with  Dr. Seth Newman of Giving It To You Straight: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Orthodontics But Were Afraid to Ask (AskTheOrthos.com). He completed his dental training at NYU, where he graduated with a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) degree. He was also accepted into NYU’s highly competitive orthodontic residency program. During that time, he also discovered a passion for treating children and adults with facial deformities. Coinciding his passion, his research thesis to attain specialty certification involved children with cleft deformities.

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.