Here’s How to Stop Dreading Employee Reviews

Employee Reviews: An Opportunity to Connect The employee knows he or she will hear about the good and the bad, and the supervisor will finally have to discuss those issues.  It’s another chance for open communication and feedback lost. Don’t miss out on an opportunity to connect with your employees. Instead, try these tips: Hold occasional employee check-ins. To improve the process, consider holding performance appraisals more frequently, perhaps even quarterly. This can help make the appraisal less of a “special event” and more of a routine exchange of information. It also means your feedback is more directly related to
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Set Goals and Revisit Them Often

Set Goals and Build Ownership You set goals, and you want to meet those goals. In our previous article, we looked at setting End Goals and supporting them with Process and Performance Goals. This helps everyone to feel ownership, and to have clear ideas about where they can improve, so they do achieve. In this article, we will discuss a simple way to build ownership in goals and to give each person a clear and effective way to revisit goals and to improve their own performance and to meet their goals more certainly. Improving Performance This method is known by several
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Set Goals and Revisit Them Often (Part I)

Set Goals for Increased Profitability and Productivity Business owners who set goals and visit them often usually see: Higher productivity overall. Lower unnecessary costs Shorter timeframes between starts and finishes. Greater profitability. A Potential Problem Setting goals is one thing, knowing how to revisit them is another. Goal-setting and performance monitoring should be everyone’s responsibility. If goal-setting stays with the business owner, revisiting them often stays with the business owner too. By encouraging everyone to take ownership of goals success becomes more certain because everyone can revisit their own goals. The Solution Use two simple and effective ideas that have
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Out of This World Customer Service: A Strategic Approach to Surprise and Delight

Customer Service…and Beyond Surprise and delight has become a popular concept in marketing and customer service. It’s all about providing unexpected experiences that exceed expectations. After all, who doesn’t love a treat that comes from out of the blue? Big companies do it, and advocates say it builds brand loyalty and powerful buzz. On the other hand, surprise and delight tactics can backfire unless you’re strategic so keep these points in mind. It’s a supplement: It’s called surprise and delight, not apologize and try to change the subject. Treats are not a replacement for competent and courteous customer support. You
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Personal Routines and Business Procedures: What Works and What Doesn’t

The Importance of Routines and Procedures Not everybody loves routines and procedures. But everybody has them. When you wake up in the morning, you probably have a routine or a ritual that you go through in order to wake up and get ready for work. This might be a routine that someone taught you when you were a kid. Or it might be something that you’ve arrived at over the years because you feel that it works for you.  Sometimes, we just go through these routines and procedures without thinking about whether they really work for us. It might take
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7 Productivity Tips

Increase Your Productivity With These Tips!  Know your priorities Have a vision Do you have a 5 year vision? Do you keep a vision board? If yes, how often do you look at it? What you focus on expands – Google images, words such as health, fun, travel, etc. – a visual of what you want Goals are essential Divide them into 90 day chunks Write them down – be accountable If you aren’t achieving your goals, then check your vision & get clear direction Planning beats willpower Willpower will fail you – don’t rely on it Rely on planning
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Systems: The Key to Having a Successful and Profitable Business

Putting Systems In Place to Grow Your Business  Most accountants don’t have a systemized way of running their business.  They wing it and do things off the cuff. They are constantly in reactive mode (putting out fires) instead of being proactive (growing their business).  Being reactive is very costly due to repeated mistakes, lost sales and clients, and minimal profits. Implementing effective systems can change that. Systems are the key to getting more done.  They are the solution to getting the results you want.  It takes intensive work and focus to build effective systems in your business, but investments of
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Out of this World Customer Service

In the current marketplace, successful businesses survive by providing “Out Of This World” customer service. This type of service starts with a friendly voice full of knowledge that can adapt to any type of clientele. To attain a successful business status, recognition of employees is a must. All employees are the “company” to clients. With the front line people being the first contact, they possess the ability to gain, retain, or lose valuable clients.   Everyone appreciates being valued, especially those making the “first impression” to clients. If excellent customer service is the goal, then employees must feel valued the same as your clients. The owner and management team are responsible for providing an atmosphere oozing with this appreciation.  Along with value, the success
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Grow Your Brand and Your Business in 10 Seconds

Perfect Your Elevator Pitch We have all been standing or sitting next to someone who looks at you and says: “What do you do?” or “What business are you in?” or “Not seen you at this event before; what made you come?” This is an invitation to make a great impression and perfect your elevator pitch. This person may need exactly what you’re in business for, or they may know someone who does. Their question gives you two choices, you can: Say something obvious, that produces an “Oh, thanks.” Or you can say something that makes them sit up and
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