September 6th, 2011 
Maria Helm 
As a follow-up to my previous post “How to Motivate Clients To Do The Right Thing,” I thought that it will be beneficial for small business owners to motivate their employees to do the same. After all, employees are considered your business’ most valuable asset, right? You want your employees to put in a good day’s work, stick around and help build your business Even better, you want them to want to. So, here’s the carrot approach to consider.
Recognition. Although a raise is always nice, you may be surprised to hear that a little recognition and TLC will go a long way. People don’t always know what the carrot it. A lot of companies think they have to give more money. The real carrot is often announcing at a meeting that this employee has done something special, or a handwritten note from the CEO or owner will do the magic.
Food, glorious food. Food and drink go a long way toward making people feel taken care of. Stock up on snacks like microwave popcorn, chocolate, and flavored water.
Time will get them on your side. A lot of businesses close between Christmas and New Year’s. That works out to three to five bonus days a year. It’s usually a dead time for most businesses anyway, so consider giving your employees a chance to recharge their batteries at the end of the year.
Fit the perk to the workplace. Obviously a policy that works great in one workplace can be a disaster in another. For example if your company is a children clothing manufacturer consider allowing new parents to come to work with their babies; you may find that this practice actually increases productivity of your staff.
And the stick? if an employee is dishonest or consistently deliver poor performance and you think that you’ve given the proper training/coaching, then it’s time to to let the employee go. Before the ultimate decision to terminate is made, company management should spend a few minutes discussing the proposed termination with the company’s general counsel, outside labor counsel or the company’s human resources department. These professionals will see potential pitfalls that the management team may have missed and they can provide a reality check on the reason for termination.
Photo Credit: Bruce Thomson
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Flexible, dependable, creative, efficient, honest and optimistic define my personal brand. To help me transition from being an employee to a business owner, I used a brand value proposition document, which I developed years ago to supplement my resume and tell employers why they should hire me. The core values stay the same, while attributes change as you gain experience. The key components of it are your positioning statement, what differentiates you from others; value drivers, things that support your positioning; proof points, accomplishments you have made that uphold your claims; and brand characters, your personal attributes. With the document and a clearly defined brand, it was much easier for me to craft my elevator pitch, improved my confidence in terms of what I wanted, and for the most part it made me fearless in terms of “I offer something of value and here’s why we should partner.”
