Embrace your inner deviant??

When you hear the term “deviant workplace behavior” what do you think?  Do your thoughts immediately go to visions of employees stealing inventory from a retail store?  Do you picture an employee deleting files from their company computer?  Do you see bookkeepers taking a little extra pay via sticky fingers?  While these are deviant workplace behaviors they are not the only kind.  What if I told you the employee who defends a co-worker is demonstrating deviant workplace behavior, would you believe it?

The word deviant means, in loose terms means away from the norm.  Therefore, if the norm of the business is corrupt, the deviant would be honest.  For example, Enron was a profitable business that employed numerous people.  The standard at the company was dishonesty and illegal activity.  When the whistleblower came forward that person was considered the deviant. 

Deviant workplace behavior does have a negative connotation to it, but the deviant behavior is not always a bad thing.  If a business owner is going down a path that is negative, such as cheating customers or defrauding the public than the deviant within the organization would be a positive voice within the public.  The deviant is always the one that is away from the norm of operations.  Could you be the deviant if you were in an organization that was corrupt?  Do it.  Embrace your inner deviant and be the voice of positive impact in a less than positive workplace. 

 

Servant Leadership

Leadership is a process that can be handled in a variety of ways.  Some leaders lead their followers with an iron fist, while others are very hands off.  The key is to find the right leadership style for each leader.  No one leadership style will work with every leader.  It is for this reason numerous leadership models have been developed. 

“Psychological theories view leadership as a social influence process in which leaders use interpersonal behaviors to motivate followers to contribute to group goals”(Kaiser, Lindber McGinnis, & Overfield, 2012, p. 119).  The way in which a leader gains influence is dependent on their leadership model.  Models such as Servant Leadership are centered on the idea that the leader is to be of service to the followers and their development (Greenleaf, 1977).  This idea of a leader being focused more on the development of the follower than the actual project goal is a founding concept in servant leadership.  While this idea may seem too out of line for a leader, it has assisted in the development of other leadership theories such as Value-Based Leadership.

Value based leadership, which is found under the concept of partnerships, is maximizing the effectiveness of a group or organization by finding common values within the group members (Baloglu, 2012).  The characteristics of valued based leadership are things such as vision, trust, respect for others, and integrity.  These same characteristics are found in the servant leadership model.  The similarities between servant leadership and value based leadership are very important to understanding their commonalities.  The difference in these two models of leadership is the simple fact that servant leaders take a larger interest in their followers and the mentoring of the followers.  While value based leadership appears to have grown from servant leadership it does not focus on the development of the followers, but merely the partnering of followers.

References

Baloglu, N. (2012). Relations between Value-Based Leadership and Distributive Leadership: A Casual Research on School Principles Behaviors [Journal]. Educational Science: Theory and Practice, 1375-1378.

Kaiser, R. B., Lindberg McGinnis, J., & Overfield, D. V. (2012). The How and the What of Leadership [Journal]. Consulting Psychology Journal, 64(2), 119-135.

Attention to Detail

The one thing that is important in business is attention to detail.  If you lack attention to detail make sure that you surround yourself with others who have it.  Simple mistakes can be perceived as carelessness in the eyes of the consumer.  Do you want to be known as the business owner who developed an entire marketing program around a spelling error or do you want to be known as the business owner with the clever ideas?

Stand out in a crowd

What makes your business different from the competition?  How do you differentiate yourself?  The answer to these questions is critical to your business success.  You need to know how you are viewed in the marketplace and you need to understand how to market yourself in a way that makes you stand out in a crowd. 

While there may be a number of businesses out there that do what you do, do they do it as well as you?  You need to look at your business and see what you are doing that your competitors are not.  For example, in my business I offer bookkeeping services to small businesses.  Bookkeepers are everywhere you look.  So how do I make my bookkeeping service stand out in a crowd?  The 2 E’s.  Education and Experience.  All of my bookkeepers hold degrees from accredited universities.  Most bookkeepers do not have a formal education and are working on their experience.  While there is nothing wrong with that, why would you pay $50.00 for a bookkeeper without an education when you can pay $30.00 to $40.00 an hour for a bookkeeper who holds a bachelor’s, and in some cases even a master’s in business or accounting.  This is my advantage in the marketplace. 

How can you create an advantage in the marketplace?  The first step is to shop your competition and see what they are offering.  You cannot compete with something you know nothing about.  So go out and find a minimum of 5 businesses in your area that provide the same products or services.  See what they are doing and how they are doing it?  Be objective when you compare your business to theirs.  You might just find that you have an advantage that you didn’t know about. 

Once you see your advantage…..Market it!!

Customer Service = Repeat Business

Are you trying to figure out how to create repeat customers and new business referral?

One of the best ways to generate return business and new business referrals is with great customer service. Many businesses in today's marketplace are not focusing on their customer service and it shows. I talk to consumers in order to better understand what they are looking for in customer service. What they are looking for are businesses that are interesting in building a relationship with them and not just transact business and walk away.

Customers want to know that they can contact you with questions. They want to know that you are there to help them. Customers like to centralize their needs. They want to know that they place where they bought their computer will also be the place that can answer any questions they may have. There is nothing worse than buying a product and not having a local face to face place to get answers. A help line phone number that directs the customer to an outsourced call center is not their idea of customer service.

Be a better business owner. Know your products and services. Offer your customers more than just the initial transaction. Let your customers know that you are there for follow up questions, for recommendations, for any of their other needs. Be your customer’s prime source. When the customer knows that they can call you, that create repeat business and when the customers are happy they will send you referral. Customer service is the key to growth.

Top Ramen today... Top Sirloin tomorrow

If you are a new business owner working to build your business while supporting your family, then you know what top ramen tastes like.  As a new business owner you are investing a large amount of your time and your money in to making your dream of business ownership a reality.  You are making financial decisions every day that affect your business, but they are also affecting your family.  Operating your own business requires the ability to balance your family budget as well as your business budget.

The higher your personal or family bills are, the harder you will have to work to build your business.  It is for this reason that you need to sit down and calculate your family or personal budget before you start your business and look for ways to reduce your bills to their lowest possible point.  This will remove some of the financial pressure from the startup phase of your business.  While this may be a hard thing to do and to convince your family to do, you need to remember that Top Ramen today, will bring top sirloin tomorrow.

Back in my young married days my husband and I talked about starting our own business.  At the time we were newly married, about a year into it and expecting our first child.  I was working full time as a payroll manager and he was working full time as a contractor.  We were making good money between the two of us and lived in a nice 2 bedroom apartment in Los Angeles.  We wanted to start our own business, but we had a baby on the way and we were not sure if we could handle it financially.

The first thing we decided to do was reduce our monthly bills so that I could stay be a stay at home mom.  This meant that I had to sell my beautiful new car to get out of the monthly payment and purchase a used car with cash.  This was the first step and it was painful to say the least.  I had worked very hard in order to reward myself with that new car and here I was less than 2 years later getting rid of it.  My husband also had to sacrifice.  He had to sell his car and purchase a very used truck that was better suited for construction work.   He also had to give up smoking 2 packs a day and drinking 4 espressos a day. 

We had managed to cut our bills down by roughly 20%, but we were still looking for another big savings before the baby arrived.  The only thing left to reduce was our housing expense.  This meant that we would have to find a cheaper apartment to live in.  The hunt was on for an apartment in the same area for that was at least $100 to $200 less.  As my belly got bigger the search became more frantic.  Finally, in my 9^th month of pregnancy we found an apartment 4 blocks away that was $150 a month cheaper.  We moved into the apartment on my due date.  I do not recommend this to anyone.  It was not a fun experience to say the least.  I was as big as a house, I had to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes, I could not lift anything, I couldn’t bend over to see what was in what box, I was always hungry, the baby was kicking and moving all day, and to top it off it was raining too. 

The point is….we lowered our bills as much as we possibly could in order to become a one income family on our way to being small business owners.  You need to be willing to make adjustments in your personal life in order to create a business life.  When we were finally ready to start our own business we cut our bills down even more.  How is that possible you ask?  We moved again.  We took our little baby girl and moved out of Los Angeles and relocated to a small beach community in Ventura where we rented a 1 bedroom guest house in that backyard of a retired school teacher.  We wanted our own business and we wanted to be able to stay at home with our child. 

On the day we started our business our rent was $450 per month and we operated the business from our garage.  In total I think our bills, personal and business, were $1000 a month.  This was the absolute lowest we could get our bills without being unhappy.  You never want to be unhappy about your sacrifice or it leads to problems in your household.  We ate top ramen, but we knew some day that we would eat top sirloin.

We stayed in that guest house for a few years until we had a second child and hired an employee.  At that point there were just too many bodies in that small space.  While those times were very tight and our family budget was minimal, I have to say that those were some of the best times of my life. We worked hard and we grew our business at a steady pace without putting too much financial pressure on ourselves. 

So what does all of this mean to you as a new business owner?  It means that your family budget directly affects the amount of time and energy that you need to invest in the start-up or expansion of your business.  You need to communicate with your family the need to lower your monthly expenses and cut out the fat from your budget.  You need to explain that the sacrifices you make today will make it easier for you to build your business for tomorrow.  This is a critical step in your quest for establishing or expanding your business.   Everyone in the family must be will to make the sacrifice and understand that you will only be eating top ramen for a little while and you will get top sirloin one day.

Perception. 

The world is filled with talented people with diverse skill sets.  As a small business owner you need to be on the lookout for people that you can add to your team that will add value to your business.  When you are looking to add to your team what are you looking for?

You need to open your mind and your eyes to potential.  Closed minded business people can lose out on innovation by having a fixed perception of what an employee should look like.  Employees will come in all shapes, sizes, colors, races, and sexes.  The key to finding the right employee for you is to open your mind to what the person has to offer to your products and services.

The world is changing at a fast pace and only the business owners who stay ahead of the change will keep pace with the market place.  Get past your perceptions and judgments and open your eyes to talent and innovation.