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Posts Tagged ‘Hiring’

Start Hiring When You Want To Grow Your Business

March 25th, 2011

Maria Helm

How much time do you spend each day going to the post office, inputting data or running errands instead of working with paying clients? Hiring your first employee will help you grow your company and free up extra time to grow yourself as person.

Ask yourself where do you see your business in a year? In five years? If you want to grow – serve more customers, create new products, make more money- you cannot do it all alone. Think about why you went into business. It probably wasn’t to do administrative tasks. With an employee – the right employee – you’ll spend more time on what you’re good at (and make money doing) and less time on grunt work. That’s just one benefit and here’s a few more:

Spend your time on money-producing activities
Produce more products or services
Serve more customers
Make money when someone else is working
Bounce ideas off someone else
Use your time on the things you do best and like to do.

How do you know when it’s the right time for you to hire? Perhaps like retail stores, restaurants, and many tech companies, you need employees the day you open your doors. Or you’re so busy that you turn away work or can’t handle routine tasks. It’s amazing how many self-employed individuals don’t have time to get out their invoices. If you’re thinking of hiring, consider the following.

Posted in Virtual Office

Tags: Hiring, Small Business, Tips, virtual assistant

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How Recent Tax Cuts and New Hires Will Affect Your Payroll Service

January 20th, 2011

Maria Helm

January started off on the right foot. The announcement that the unemployment rate had fallen to 9.4 percent was great news for Americans – especially small business owners.

The CBIZ Small Business Employment Index reported that the largest employee increase since June of last year was this past December. Phillip Noftsinger, a business unit president for CBIZ Payroll Services, explained that due to an increase in demand and consumer spending, small business owners were able to increase the number of employees hired.

“The results of this month’s report are consistent with the tone of other employment reports that we have seen throughout the month and encourages one to look to a brighter 2011,” Noftsinger said.

And the good news keeps on coming: Starting this month, workers will get a two percent pay raise thanks to President Obama’s tax cut. The tax cut entails unemployment insurance to be extended for an additional 13 months, a two-percent employee side payroll tax credit, and $40 billion in tax breaks for families and students.

However, Noftsinger included a word of caution for small business employers: “I expect a number of small business owners to remain cautious toward substantial increases in employee hires over the short term as the country’s economic seas have yet to calm completely,” he said. “Still, this positive trend should gain additional traction.”

If you are a small business owner getting ready to add a few heads to your roster, here are a few tips on how to maintain a low cost for payroll services:

Posted in Uncategorized

Tags: Hiring, Payroll, Small Business, Tax cuts, Tips

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Are You Ready to Hire a Salesperson?

November 30th, 2010

Maria Helm

To many business owners, hiring salespeople is a frustrating process. It can also be tremendously expensive. In fact, numerous business owners report they have hired their company’s “first salesperson” multiple times!

The good news is that there are several simple rules, processes and procedures that can give you the best chance of success when hiring a salesperson. Knowing when and if your company is ready is important. As is being prepared to both manage and train the new salesperson or salespeople once he/she is on board.

Are you ready?

Before bringing salespeople on board, ensure that the current staff can handle additional customers. First, seek to improve the company’s productivity by instituting processes and procedures, then by investing in tools and software that reduce man hours.

Be prepared

Failing to plan is truly planning to fail when hiring salespeople. Ideally, your company should be able to make all of the following five statements prior to hiring.

The company’s sales process is clearly and completely documented in an understandable, teachable way.
A training program for new salespeople has been outlined and formalized.
Cash reserves exist that are equal to six months of a salesperson’s total compensation
The company’s operations and/or service delivery is process driven, adequately staffed, and able to deliver
The company has created a sales management plan to devote adequatetime to the task of managing salespeople

So, do you think you are ready to hire a salesperson? If you are stay tuned for Part 2 – Finding the Right Salesperson for Your Business.

Photo Credit: hugovk

Posted in Sales

Tags: Business, Hiring, Planning, Salesperson, Small Business

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How to Lead for Exceptional Customer Service

August 20th, 2009

Maria Helm

Ever stop to really ponder about what business you’re in? Ask around, and you’ll probably hear things like: retail, food service, manufacturing, etc. If those are the kind of answers you or your employees would give, then you’d be only half right!

One question for you: If all your customers went away for good, would you still have a business? Would your employees still have jobs? Nope, of course not! The more important half of what you and your employees do is CUSTOMER SERVICE.

Everyone in your organization needs to know excellent Customer Service, more importantly need to practice it. And the leadership you provide plays a huge role in making that happen.

Here are some Customer Service Leadership tips:

Start with hiring the right people. Your selection process must be a part of your overall customer service strategy. During interviews, probe the candidate’s passion for providing superior service. Pose hypothetical situations and ask the candidate to describe how s/he would handle them.

State it in Job Descriptions. Make “Customer Service” a part of all job descriptions, no matter the level of function. Make sure that that each employee understands how he or she directly or indirectly “touches” the customer.

Expect it and Inspect it. Clarify your expectations and communicate them to everyone. Have follow-up meetings to make sure that they are clear on what is expected of them. Include “customer service” feedback in all performance evaluations.

Make your Employees Customer Service Experts. Help your employees become experts on the products and services you offer. Provide them with product manuals, sales tools, and appropriate training. The more they know, the better their service will be.

Celebrate Successes. Recognize employees who provide exceptional customer services. Share their stories internally and with your customers.

By applying these ideas and by focusing on the people who focus on the customers, you can help ensure that you don’t end up as one of the losers. You owe it to your customers, you owe it to your organization and you owe it to yourself.

“Motivate them, train them, care about them, and make winners out of them . . . we know that if we treat our employees correctly, they’ll treat the customers right. And if customers are treated right, they’ll come back.” – J. Marriott, Jr.

Posted in Customer Service

Tags: Business, Customer Service, Employees, Hiring, Leadership, Tips

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