Posted by admin on June 20th, 2008 — Posted in Management Stuff
The day you decide to take the plunge and work for yourself will be one of the most life-changing choices you ever make, whether starting a company large or small or as a freelance; from the very first moment of being self-employed, you and you alone will stand or fall by your decisions and actions. You will be responsible for steering your business through all its ups and downs, good times and bad times with no guarantee that everything will turn out right in the end.
When you are in charge the buck stops at one place. There is no management line to help with complications; no colleagues to share the blame for mistakes, there is only you to deal with any problems that crop up, only you to decide how those problems are dealt with, and only you to face the consequences of your decisions whether they turn out to be right or wrong. Whilst there are many pitfalls and worries in running your own business, there are by contrast also times of extreme satisfaction, personal achievements, financial rewards and periods when everything runs to perfection - it’s not all doom and gloom but it is most certainly very hard work.
There are important issues to be considered by anyone thinking of becoming self-employed and all of them should be given very serious thought. Assuming at this point that you know your chosen field of expertise enough to go it alone, sufficient time to plan the setting up of your business is vital. This part of the process may be a tedious and drawn-out exercise but it is necessary to try and ensure the smoothest possible start to your venture.
The most immediate priority is of course money. When you start working for yourself it is recommended that you have enough funds to support you (and your family if applicable) for at least three months, by which time you should hopefully be generating an income from your business. However, saving this amount of money would not be an easy task and so a great deal of forward planning and patience is an absolute must if you want to make it a viable alternative to a bank loan, especially if you have already borrowed money to start the business.
It is worth bearing in mind that a vast number of companies have a ‘cheque run’ on a designated day of every month to pay their suppliers. If you miss this day because you did not send your invoice soon enough you will not get paid until the next cheque run. Experience has taught me that companies will rarely if ever deviate from this rule. It is in your best interests to send invoices as soon as possible; too late and you may have to get by for a month with little or no income.
A must-have for any business is a good accountant. How you choose one is usually a matter of pot luck or a referral from someone you know, the latter usually being the best way to find one. Whilst accountants are not exactly inexpensive, they will save you money in the long term. It would be a huge mistake to think that you could do their job better or cheaper than they could - unless of course you are an accountant yourself.
Many a person has tried to do without one to save money and have found themselves having all sorts of problems with the Inland Revenue because they have not filled in their return forms correctly or have made glaring errors in their accounts. It is worth noting however that there are also the odd few small businesses whose financial arrangements are so straightforward that they can get by without an accountant although this is generally not the norm.
Opening a business bank account can be a helpful factor in running your new enterprise. It would be a wise precaution to keep personal finances separate from your business ones and a business bank account will enable you to do that. There are no sinister motives here; it simply makes sense to track and maintain company transactions from a dedicated account rather than having to identify and separate them from a statement that contains your personal banking details as well.
A useful point to bear in mind is that a good working relationship with your bank manager is an asset to any business large or small. A new business will find help and advice from their bank manager invaluable. There must be give and take though; you do have to be honest with the bank. If you are experiencing financial difficulties in business, don’t try to hide it - inform the bank as soon as possible, they can then decide how best to go about solving the problem quickly.
With your chosen accountant acquired and your business bank account open, two key components of your enterprise are now in place. Other things to think about are premises, equipment, supplies or maybe staff. As the principal character in your new company only you will know what other requirements are needed to complete your set-up in order to commence trading, and no doubt have been giving a serious amount of thought to these particular matters.
Apart from the points already mentioned there are a myriad of other considerations involved in setting-up your business. All of them must be addressed at some point but obviously in order of importance. At times all this may seem like an insurmountable task, but the very fact that you made the decision to work for yourself means that you possess the determination and drive needed to see it through.
This article is the property of the author and may only be reproduced in its original form.
John Sheridan is a professional proofreader of hard copy items and website copy. He also writes web copy and occasionally accepts small copy-editing assignments. He can be contacted at: john@textcorrect.co.uk website: http://www.textcorrect.co.uk
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Posted by admin on June 6th, 2008 — Posted in Management Stuff
Disaster struck the southern United States in August, 2005 as Hurricane Katrina did major damage to New Orleans and southern parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. We don’t yet understand the full impact of the storm in terms of lives lost, families disrupted, and the impact on the American and global economies. But we know that a key part of our responsibility as executives and managers is to anticipate disastrous events like Katrina and be ready for them. Here are some of the things I’ve observed about the Katrina experience that are applicable to the business arena, especially in the areas of business continuity planning and disaster recovery:
1. No one wants to follow the mediation plan if it’s an inconvenience, but everyone chastises you afterwards for not pushing harder.
If Hurricane Katrina had swerved at the last minute and missed New Orleans, then I can guarantee that the press would be having a field day telling everyone how stupid it was to evacuate so many people. This is one of those “damned if you do and damned if you don’t” situations that make it so hard to be in a position of responsibility. No matter how well you do, it isn’t good enough in the eyes of some people. And if you’re perceived as over-cautious in a situation where nothing happens, then the criticism will be just as fierce.
2. Pre-disaster exercises don’t help if you don’t apply what you’ve learned.
FEMA (the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency) conducted a week-long exercise in 2004 to help Louisiana emergency officials plan for the possibility of a hurricane very much like Katrina. But some of the processes used in the exercise were ignored when Katrina hit, including a process for the large-scale evacuation of people who don’t have their own transportation.
3. Your contingency plans need their own contingency plans.
Part of the New Orleans contingency plan was to use the Superdome to shelter people who didn’t have anywhere else to go. But the Superdome had to be evacuated when toilets backed up, the air conditioning broke down, and high winds ripped a hole in the roof.
4. No matter how much you plan, you still have to improvise when the disaster strikes.
There is no amount of planning that will anticipate every possible outcome, and there comes a point where additional planning makes no sense. You have to be prepared for surprises, and make sure that you have the right people in leadership positions to make the on-the-spot decisions that are required.
5. Insurance policies don’t begin to make up for the loss of business and goodwill, and obviously don’t make up for the loss of life.
Don’t let an insurance company be your disaster plan. Think of an insurance policy as a safety net if everything else in your plan fails.
6. Contingency plans need to have a defined and published trigger event, and the contingency plans need to be executed when the trigger event occurs.
I believe that more lives would have been saved if each area of the coast had an evacuation plan with a timetable. For example, “If a category x hurricane is headed for this area, then y hours before its scheduled arrival, everyone must be evacuated except designated critical personnel. Here is how that will happen ….” Without a trigger event, everyone holds out a little longer before acting, pushing beyond reasonable limits. This happened on a large scale with Katrina, as both federal and state agencies delayed before taking any action.
7. Any disaster has secondary and tertiary consequences that are difficult to anticipate.
Katrina caused localized gasoline shortages throughout the Southeast United States as panicked car owners rushed to fill their tanks. It’s still not clear how badly the storm will hurt the U.S. economy, but there is a potential for an economic recession as a result of the hurricane.
8. Disaster planning is all about compromises.
That’s hard to deal with emotionally; it’s kind of like the idea of “acceptable losses” in an army battle. On the one hand, we don’t want to give up anything if disaster strikes. On the other hand, there is a cost of being ready for a disaster, whether or not the disaster ever occurs. Making compromise decisions is tough.
9. Risk and Hazard aren’t the same thing, and our business continuity plans have to take the difference into account.
Risk communication consultant Peter Sandman sums up the risk reaction in an equation: Risk = Hazard + Outrage. The idea is that the perceived riskiness of something is not just based on the probability of the bad thing occurring (what Sandman calls “hazard”) but also on the level of outrage that is felt when the bad thing happens. For example, car crashes have higher probability but lower outrage, while plane crashes have lower probability but higher outrage. That’s why planes are considered “riskier” than cars by most people. And that’s why Hurricane Katrina, which destroyed the city of New Orleans and killed hundreds (maybe thousands) of people, is getting so much press coverage: people are outraged that something like this could happen.
When we do business continuity planning, we typically include a list of risks in our project plan. But we don’t usually factor in the emotional “outrage” side of the equation. As a result, we focus our attention on the things that are more likely to go wrong, and not on the things that are more likely to get a bad reaction from the public if they go wrong. Guess which type of event hurts your company more in the long run.
© 2005 MakingITclear, Inc. This article was originally published in the September, 2005 issue of the MakingITclear® Newsletter, a free monthly email newsletter published by MakingITclear, Inc. MakingITclear is a registered trademark of MakingITclear, Inc.
Harwell Thrasher is an author, speaker, and coach specializing in the human side of Information Technology. His workshops show IT people and their non-IT customers how to work together to make more effective use of technology. See more on Harwell’s web site at http://www.makingITclear.com And join Harwell’s free monthly email newsletter that’s focused on making your IT organization (or any organization) more effective.
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Posted by admin on May 23rd, 2008 — Posted in Management Stuff
Your managerial success is tied to your team. Teams are the most
valuable resource of an organization. The times of lone
leadership are over with Alexander the Great. These are the
times of the team leadership. If you can build a successful team
and work as the leader who is just a little more equal than
others you may be able to pull off everything you do with great
success.
Successful team building requires a lot of focus and effort.
Here are a few tips to build teams that are effective and
deliver results.
Define the Objectives: Does the team members understand clearly
the expectations from them? Have the performance challenges
clearly been defined? Do they know what the expected outcomes
are? If there is a misunderstanding on the results expected from
each member as well as that of the team, you may as well write
off the team. Great Team + Challenging Objective = Extraordinary
Results.
Define the vision: The teams realize that they may be able to
survive only by delivering the bottom line results. However they
need something more than the key results defined to them. They
need a vision, something higher than profits and results. A
higher ideal fires up the team’s creativity and passion.
Empower to Create Ownership: Empower your team to be independent
decision makers to accomplish tasks and team objectives while
defining their boundaries. Empowered teams and members carry out
its objectives faster as they do not need to wait for the leader
to decide for them. Empowered teams own up their responsibility.
Train, Train and Train Some More: A leader has a large stake in
the success of each team member. Members of teams require
different skills and the leader needs to be a trainer rather
than a driver. Identify skill gaps in soft as well as areas of
expertise and keep training them to produce better results.
Fostering Right Interpersonal Relationships: Make the team
understand that there would be differences. Difference in
gender, culture, thought process and approach to work symbolizes
the dynamic and diverse members who have come together to
achieve common goals. Respecting the difference and valuing
others experience and thoughts enable the team to function with
the right relationships.
Rewards and Compensation: As they say, first share the cash then
the compliments. Everyone talks about the value and benefits of
team work. However benefits to individuals must be clear along
with the benefits to the organization. Set down the right
monetary rewards and incentives for so that the achievement and
benefits for the individuals and organization are balanced.
Lead by Example: A leader always leads from the front. Set
example of discipline, performance orientation putting aside
personal ego to the team’s superiority. Give credit to the
others even though you may have contributed more. This nurtures
the right team atmosphere and spirit of togetherness.
Celebrate Success: Finally don’t forget to celebrate success. It
must become a habit to celebrate every achievement though small
they may be. Constant celebration boosts the team morale driving
it to perform at higher levels and aim for bigger achievements.
Many of the business cultures and managements celebrate the lone
hero leadership much more than the team leaderships. In the
modern interdependent world it is the teams within the
organizations and multiple teams all collaborating and
contributing to the common corporate objectives that really
differentiate the dynamic growing organizations from the lone
cowboy leaderships that may collapse the moment the leader is
not available to lead.
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