Management Archives - Page 3 of 3

Top Reasons Every Small Business Must Perform Online Reputation Management

One of the biggest mistakes any small business owner can make is to believe they don’t need to engage in online reputation management, just because they run a small business.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, the very fact that you run a small business makes it all the more imperative to manage your online brand image for two reasons:

1. Customer referrals are the lifeblood of all small businesses

2. You don’t have the luxury of a large marketing budget to control negative reviews or restore a damaged reputation like a large business can.

Let’s look at the first three reasons why online reputation management matters to small business owners:

* ONLINE SEARCH

The massive growth in online media and the rapid decline in offline media has made it necessary for small and large businesses alike to change direction and focus on their online image.

More and more people the world over look for information on just about everything from the web and this applies to information about your local business.

Your target market is more apt to look for your business online through a Google, Yahoo or Bing search rather than leafing through a Yellow Pages Directory book.

* SPEED

The speed at which online media operates can make or break your business in a matter of minutes or hours.

A viral tweet, video, blog post or status update can be viewed by thousands if not millions of people in a span of a day creating a much more powerful effect in a shorter time than any traditional offline media.

Even a small local news story can be broadcast across the nation with a YouTube video.

If the news story was positive, a small business can get a lot of positive PR and increased sales, but if it was negative, it can literally destroy the business.

Plus we all know that bad news spreads faster than good news.

* EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Online media is largely an equal playing ground for both small and large businesses, so any business no matter its size can get exposure, criticism and accolades on the internet.

This means that even small businesses cannot afford to ignore online reputation management because the internet has made the world so much of a smaller place.

The emphasis placed on local search by dominant web players such as Google, Facebook, Yelp and others, has given more power and opportunity for small businesses to grow their presence online.

Yet this increased awareness has also made it critical for any small business to know how to handle the huge public exposure and scrutiny that is part of the package.

Here are three more reasons why small business owners must pay attention to their online reputation.

* ECOMMERCE

Ecommerce has made it so much easier for small business to grow beyond their town or city locale to nationwide or even international market.

Online shopping carts and payment processors have made this all possible, meaning that as a small business engaged in ecommerce, managing your online reputation is crucial to protect your online sales.

Negative reviews about your products, services and customer service can damage your online sales, which can be certainly be detrimental if your small business makes more money from ecommerce than in-store sales.

In addition, when you consider how certain towns, cities and states have had poor growth in the current economic recession, ecommerce can be the lifeblood of a small business trying to survive.

* SOCIAL PROOF

One of the biggest social phenomenons of ecommerce is social proof.

Do you know that an overwhelming majority of surfers do not trust advertisements but instead trust endorsements and reviews from people in their social networks or from ordinary people like themselves?

This is what makes consumer review sites so popular and how it is so easy to convince a new client to do business with you once they have read positive reviews about your company.

Therefore in order to protect your online reputation, it is important to know what people are saying about your business because this is the single most important influencing force behind a potential clients purchasing decision.

* ONLINE SEO

What many business owners fail to understand is how permanent a footprint bad publicity leaves on the web.

Once content has been published on a website, indexed by the search engines and shows up in the search results, it is extremely difficult to have that content removed.

It is not as easy as telling Google to remove the offending page because they have no power to do that.

It often involves contacting the webmaster of the blog or site where the content was posted and trying to convince them to delete the content, make the page invisible to search engines or to remove the page.

This is often quite difficult as they have ownership rights over the site.

Even if you resort to legal measures and they eventually remove the content, it is still difficult for that content to get totally off the internet radar especially if the content was widely circulated or went viral.

Online content is definitely very sticky and something that happened many years ago can haunt your business reputation for many years to come.

Cross-Cultural Challenges In the International Business Management

The company where I was working was taken over by a British multinational company in the mid 1990s. The newly appointed Managing Director from UK, during one of his visits to the plant, inquired how Gujarati people eat food at home. Having heard the response, he decided to sit down on the floor and have Gujarati food, along with all the senior colleagues of the plant.

What was the Managing Director trying to do? He was trying to appreciate the cultural norms of the new place and show his willingness to embrace. Such a behavior by the Managing Director obviously helped the local management open up more during subsequent discussions.

In the last 2 decades, cross-cultural challenges in the international business management have become prominent as the companies have started expanding across the territorial boundaries. Even leading management schools in India have started incorporating cross-cultural challenges as part of the curriculum of the international business management.

“Culture” being one of my interest areas, I recently had accepted an invitation to educate the students of a Diploma program on the International Business Management, on the topic of cross-cultural challenges. For my preparations, I browsed through many books on the subject. My knowledge-base got enriched substantially as the treasure of information contained in these books, was invaluable and highly relevant.

This article is an effort to present, some of the relevant issues related to the cross-cultural challenges in the International Business Management.

What is “Culture”?

Culture is the “acquired knowledge that people use to anticipate events and interpret experiences for generating acceptable social & professional behaviors. This knowledge forms values, creates attitudes and influences behaviors”. Culture is learned through experiences and shared by a large number of people in the society. Further, culture is transferred from one generation to another.

What are the core components of “Culture”?

Power distribution – Whether the members of the society follow the hierarchical approach or the egalitarian ideology?

Social relationships – Are people more individualistic or they believe in collectivism?

Environmental relationships – Do people exploit the environment for their socioeconomic purposes or do they strive to live in harmony with the surroundings?

Work patterns – Do people perform one task at a time or they take up multiple tasks at a time?

Uncertainty & social control – Whether the members of the society like to avoid uncertainty and be rule-bound or whether the members of the society are more relationship-based and like to deal with the uncertainties as & when they arise?

What are the critical issues that generally surface in cross-cultural teams?

Inadequate trust – For example, on one hand a Chinese manager wonders why his Indian teammates speak in Hindi in the office and on the other hand, his teammates argue that when the manager is not around, why they can’t speak in English?

Perception – For instance, people from advanced countries consider people from less-developed countries inferior or vice-versa.

Inaccurate biases – For example, “Japanese people make decisions in the group” or “Indians do not deliver on time”, are too generalized versions of cultural prejudices.

False communication – For example, during discussions, Japanese people nod their heads more as a sign of politeness and not necessarily as an agreement to what is being talked about.

What are the communication styles that are influenced by the culture of the nation?

‘Direct’ or ‘Indirect’ – The messages are explicit and straight in the ‘Direct’ style. However, in the ‘Indirect’ style, the messages are more implicit & contextual.

‘Elaborate’ or ‘Exact’ or ‘Succinct’ – In the ‘Elaborate’ style, the speaker talks a lot & repeats many times. In the ‘Exact’ style, the speaker is precise with minimum repetitions and in the ‘Succinct’ style; the speaker uses fewer words with moderate repetitions & uses nonverbal cues.

‘Contextual’ or ‘Personal’ – In the ‘Contextual’ style, the focus is on the speaker’s title or designation & hierarchical relationships. However, in the ‘Personal’ style, the focus is on the speaker’s individual achievements & there is minimum reference to the hierarchical relationships.

‘Affective’ or ‘Instrumental’ – In the ‘Affective’ style, the communication is more relationship-oriented and listeners need to understand meanings based on nonverbal clues. Whereas in the ‘Instrumental’ style, the speaker is more goal-oriented and uses direct language with minimum nonverbal cues.

What are the important nonverbal cues related to the communication among cross-cultural teams?

Body contact – This refers to the hand gestures (intended / unintended), embracing, hugging, kissing, thumping on the shoulder, firmness of handshakes, etc.

Interpersonal distance – This is about the physical distance between two or more individuals. 18″ is considered an intimate distance, 18″ to 4′ is treated as personal distance, 4′ to 8′ is the acceptable social distance, and 8′ is considered as the public distance.

Artifacts – This refers to the use of tie pins, jewelry, and so on.

Para-language – This is about the speech rate, pitch, and loudness.

Cosmetics – This is about the use powder, fragrance, deodorants, etc.

Time symbolism – This is about the appropriateness of time. For example, when is the proper time to call, when to start, when to finish, etc. because different countries are in different time zones.

Epilogue

“Cross-cultural challenges in international business management”, has become a keenly followed topic in last two decades. There are enough examples of business failures or stagnation or failure of joint ventures, on account of the management’s inability to recognize cross-cultural challenges and tackle them appropriately. There are also examples of companies having compulsory training on culture management or acculturation programs for employees being sent abroad as or hired from other countries, to ensure that cross-challenges are tackled effectively.

The world is becoming smaller day-by-day and therefore, managers involved in the international businesses will have to become more sensitive to the challenges emanating from the cultural and ethnic landscape of the countries they work in.

Ignoring cultural challenges while managing internal businesses is a risky proposition because the stakes are high. It is cognate to the “Hygiene” factor of the “Dual-factor Motivation” theory developed by psychologist Frederick Herzberg in the mid 1960s. In management of the international business, embracing the cultural diversity of the country may or may not bring success, but not doing so will surely increase the chances of stagnation or failure.

Reference:

“Cross-cultural Management – Text and Cases” by Bhattacharya Dipak Kumar

“International Management: Culture, Strategy and Behavior” by Hodgetts Richard M, Luthans & DOH)

“Management Across Cultures: Challenges and Strategies” by Richard Steer, Scnchez-Runde Carlos J, Nardon Luciara)

“Bridging The Culture Gap: A Practical Guide to International Business Communication” by Carte Penny and Chris Fox

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Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship

Owning a successful business is no longer reserved for a lucky few. It is because there are some rules followed by those successful business people in making the business people to climb the richness ladder with assurance and comfort ability although any business is about risking and that the higher the risk the higher the reward or profit.

When you want to startup a business you first must have an idea, example of business ideas are like opening up a hairdresser, opens a salon, a shop and much. Generally, people do make huge mistake. Just because they are thinking about the job and not the business. Only because you are a good chef does not mean you know how to run a restaurant. More important, it does not mean a restaurant would be successful in your market. So you have to clearly assess and evaluate your business idea before implementing it.

Business wise you have to make sure that what you are going to produce Is it a product or service they have fallen in love with. Again, just because you love something does not mean a profitable business will come of it. This is especially true for first-time entrepreneurs. Learning how to run a business is hard enough; you don’t need to make it any harder by doing something you love rather than something customers love paying you a good profit for or producing what you want instead of what they want.

There are some guidelines on how you are sure that your intriguing idea is also something from which you can truly make a profit? There are three essential considerations one has to bear in mind.

Make sure the product or service has a repeat buy. This is by far the most important aspect of long-term business success. You have to have a product or service that people will keep buying. It is better and more profitable, in my opinion, to have a pool cleaning company than a pool building company. Put another way, a business owner should focus on getting a customer once, but making a profit from that person for a very long time.

Be certain you have a high profit margin.

There are very few companies that can compete long term on a “we are cheaper” marketing platform. In any new business, you need to watch your cash flow–and if you are trying to work with low profit margins and make gains in volume, you will need to have a high level of working capital to keep you running through the lean profits early on. Having a higher margin is extremely important when you are growing a business so you can self-finance your growth.

Build a strong support team because a good idea is not enough. The idea counts most, yet a quality idea must still have a great team of people behind it to give it wings. Time after time, when people bring me a business investment proposal or an idea they want to take to market, I ask them who is on their team and they respond with something crazy like, “Oh, we have not hired anyone yet.” Get a board of advisers. Get a team of professional accountants, coaches, lawyers and bankers. A great team will greatly improve the chances for success of any business.

Now if I were going into business today, to be sure of the market what would I choose? I would start with one premise and some hot industries. Here the premise is, you do not make money panning for gold, and you make money selling pans. Get in the way of a buying frenzy, and you will be a success. Therefore the fastest way to make a restaurant profitable is not by having a great chef and great decor or big buildings it is by attracting a starving crowd with money so that they can eat the food in exchange for their money.

In other words look for an idea you can take national or, even better, global at some stage. Although it might be fun and a challenge to establish yourself locally right now, but eventually you’ll want to build something much bigger for the future and also expand you business.

Entrepreneurship and Project Management – The Missing Link

There has been a great deal of emphasis on entrepreneurship and the need for more and more entrepreneurs in the region to help create jobs for the future of the region. There is also a lot of enthusiasm and encouragement for new entrepreneurs – but are we forgetting something? It is great to have the “spirit” but is spirit enough? Do our prospective entrepreneurs know how to take their dreams from the idea into effective operation? Is business planning over emphasized or is it enough? This article will offer an opinion and try to answer these questions and offer a suggestion on what is missing. It is the author’s opinion that Project Management is the missing link that could make the crucial difference between success, challenge, and even failure.

The Need for Entrepreneurs

Various sources and global studies show that small & medium organizations/enterprises (SMO/SME) have huge contributions to economies around the world in term of gross national product and employment. Studies in the Middle East show that SME contributions in our region are lower than developed countries. However, many in government and private sector leadership recognize the need to change this in order to deal with the tremendous challenge of the needs for job creation across the Arab World.

All of private or government initiatives share in playing a role to promote the “spirit of entrepreneurship,” but is spirit the only thing that we need? What is missing? Let us say someone quit his/her job to become an entrepreneur, then what?

There are too many challenges facing an entrepreneur today – some of it is legal structure and regulations. Other challenges are related to the fear of failure and the stigma associated with that. Even if we overcome the fear of failure we will encounter the challenge of availability of capital. With capital resolved or at least somewhat resolved, do we have the right infrastructure to help the entrepreneur launch the business? Do we have the necessary support? How about beyond the launch? The support that is available (business / cash / logistics / management / etc.) is available for someone following a dream, but only to realize that realizing the dream is much more challenging than expected. How do we help the entrepreneur or the small business owner sustain and grow?

Business Planning

Most, if not all, venture capital, foundation, and other sources for funds — in addition to business schools and MBA programs focus on a business plan as an essential deliverable / requirement to seek funds or start a business. Here we ask once again: Is the business plan enough? It is our view that a ‘traditional’ business plan is not enough. Quite a few business plans, that we call ‘traditional’, focus on the business aspects with a heavier focus on operation of the business. The question is: Do these traditional business plans provide a proper focus on the venture (most call a “project”) from idea to launch of the business?

The Missing Link

It is interesting to point out that many call a new venture a “project”, as we mentioned in the earlier section. We like the word “project,” but most definitions of the word “project” mean something that is temporary. So is the venture temporary? We hope not! So is the word ‘project’ the wrong one to use? Yes and No. The business is not a project; it is a business, a venture. So to be academic, the word “project” is not the proper one to use for the new business. Let us call it venture or business. Yet to launch the business is exactly what we call a project – the launch project is to take the venture from the idea to operations. Our objective here is not to get into an English lesson; rather we aim to define the proper use of words in order to have the proper context and fully understand the missing link. So what is this missing link? Well if launching the business is a project, then how do we manage it? Where is Project Management in managing the launch? The next section will provide a methodology to follow in launching the business.

A Proposed Sequence

Our proposed model will focus on the venture launch from idea to initial operation, using the missing link – Project Management. Future articles could focus on the use of Organizational Project Management to help build and sustain a small business and grow it.

The proposed model, which is derived from Customizable and Adaptable Methodology for Managing Projects™ it isa project life span model that divides the project life span into three distinct phases; which we explain here.

Business Concept

The business concept is a crucial phase of the project that spans a period from the idea for the venture until an initial decision to go ahead and encompass a feasibility study. The idea owner is likely to be the entrepreneur who has an idea for a business that could be a passion, an income opportunity, filling a need, fixing a problem, among other drivers for the business.

This is the time for dreaming, but one has to be careful that the dream is realistic and it is possible to achieve. It is highly risky for someone to launch a new venture without proper understanding of the challenges and opportunities, although one could argue in rare cases that spontaneous action could also result in good profit.

Therefore, the entrepreneur (small business owner to be) has to study the feasibility of his idea, and for this we think that existing business planning techniques are very important to use at this stage. However, in addition to the focus on the financials, competition, market demand, operation and other factors, the entrepreneur needs to also think about Project Management including proper Project Management planning. Proper Project

Management planning includes understanding of the stakeholders and their expectations and requirements, setting realistic time and cost targets, have a fair understanding of the project and venture risks (threats and opportunities), in addition to other factors.

Development of the Business Concept

The earlier phase emphasizes the feasibility study and the requirement for business planning. With the business basics in place, Project Management will become more important and the entrepreneur becomes a project manager.

So what do we do now? The project manager/entrepreneur needs to think and act per two aspects, two sides of the same coin. On one side he needs to think about the project from idea to initial operations, but he cannot ignore post project completion, which would be leading and sustaining the business (operations).

For the project aspect, the project manager needs to put in place all of the requirements in details for launching the business, including defining the success factors, time line, required resources, licensing, legal, financial/funding requirements and alternatives, regulations, budget for the launch, time line, communication with stakeholders, procurement strategy, in addition to risks identification, assessment, and management. All of these activities focus on planning to taking us from the idea through project completion but primarily to produce a detailed plan that would give us the necessary information to make the final decision on whether we should continue with the venture or not. This detailed plan is used extensively in the next phase.

For the business aspects, the project manager needs to start planning for operation readiness; which means identifying all of the things needed once the business is operating; such as financial control, human resources, policies, operational processes, in addition to marketing and business development. If the venture is not for profit, it would still require most of these activities but may be with the addition of the needs for volunteers and volunteer management or the need for sponsors.

Project Delivery (Launching the Business)

With a plan for the project and a plan for operation readiness, it is time to start implementing the project leading to initial operations. In this phase we implement the activities that we identified in the detailed plan. For example, in the plan we specified we need a permit, then it is time to do the activities necessary to obtain the permit. In the plan we defined the need for a marketing plan, it is time to define the marketing plan and develop the necessary collateral, whether print or online.

Therefore, the primary purpose of Project Delivery is to perform all of the activities necessary to produce the required deliverables that would be critical for the successful launch of the new business and start initial operations.

Throughout this document we discussed “initial operations” and “operations” as two independent terms and this is intentional. We use initial operations to define the period of time that starts with opening our doors as a business or a not for profit organization. We call it initial operations because as we start to offer services we might recognize that forms need to be adjusted, some documents might be missing something, among other things that might not go as well as we planned.

Therefore, initial operations will allow us to make the necessary refinements before we go into steady and normal operations. In some situations, we might eliminate initial operations and go straight into normal operations. In other scenarios we might have a “soft start” as an initial operations period, which we might call also as a pilot period / trial period. Which approach to take, it all depends on the nature of the business and if it allows a trial period / initial operations or not.

Money Management Tips For Your Home Business

To help you avoid financial struggles or even the loss of your business, here are a few money management tips. Don’t neglect this crucial area, especially if you don’t have any previous experience managing money. Remember that making money, not losing it, is the main reason why you’re in business.

Money Management System

You probably don’t want to spend hours doing complicated record keeping, but you need to spend a little time setting up and following a system to manage the money coming in and the money flowing out. This would help you avoid future money management mistakes.

Money management ideas and skills are essential to the success of your business, so it should be one of your top priorities. Here are some basic money management tips that will help make this area easier and more effective:

Money Management Strategies

Software – A money management software program is the easiest way to keep track of your home business finances. You can track all of your checks, schedule payments and create a budget (Quicken by Intuit is ideal for a one or two-person business). Determine your business needs and choose the most appropriate software to match them.

Invoices – Word-processing programs like “Microsoft Word” or “Lotus AmiPro” provide you with templates to create your own invoices.

Business Account – Open one at a bank with your registered DBA. Don’t mix your business money with your personal money. To find a good bank, ask for references from other business owners. Depending on the frequency, you should update all your bank transactions once a week or once a month.

Cash Flow – It’s the lifeblood of your work at home business. To maximize your cash flow, you should collect on services or products when you deliver them. The easiest way to collect the money you are owed is by making credit card payments available to your customers. Occasionally, you may need to extend credit however, check out if your client is credit-worthy, and make a habit of following up on overdue payments without delay.

Create a Budget – A budget is a record of your planned income and planned expenses for a fixed period of time. You plan your finances and then track if you’re operating according to your plan. Compare your planned income and expenses with the actual income and expenses each month. Before making each purchase, ask yourself if it will help you improve your business or set you back. Budgeting is one of the areas that will give you more control over your money.

Cash Reserve – Every business has ups and downs, so you need to protect yourself from the “slow” times. A cash reserve will give you a cushion to survive these tough periods. Depending on your budget, you should have a cash reserve equivalent to at least 2 or 3 months of spending.

Money Management Advice

The management of money boils down to exercising discipline. Either you control the money or the money controls you. Good money management will greatly improve your chances of success. You have many helpful resources and articles online for money management tips to help you on this topic. Best of all, they’re FREE!

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