Does your business need a website?

Does an offline business need a website? Surprisingly, the answer is yes! Even if your startup is completely offline, you need to have an online presence. What is the reason behind this? Let’s explore the details a little.

According to the Internet World Stats, 2,405,518,376 people use the Internet regularly. If the statistics are to be believed, more than 2 billion individuals use online resources to look up products and services.

If you are not on the web, you miss the opportunity to get noticed by the huge online crowd. If you are on the web, but not in the right manner, the same happens. It is important to be on the web and with the right attitude.

Website characteristics

Let’s explore the characteristics that make a website befit your business. Suppose you have a store, not in the virtual world but in the real world, that sells baby products. If you have a website with all the details about babies and baby products, people would find relevant information from there.

If the website only provides information about the products you sell, it is still relevant. However, if it has a lot of information on a completely different topic, for example, on beauty care, it makes no sense.

Not all websites need to provide tools for online transactions. You don’t need to have a website via which you sell the baby products. Your website may showcase the location, accessibility and the products in your store. But it needs to have appropriate information.

It needs to be relevant

Relevance is, therefore, an important point to focus on. Your website is just the beginning; you need to utilize other online sources too. If you are an established business, you are sure to have a good base of loyal customers. You can use this base to generate favorable feedback about your business in the Social Media platforms.

What if yours is a new business?

• Use the online platforms to create a buzz about it
• Join a discussion forum, enlist on a business directory
• Comment on something relevant and take other steps to make this a success.

Online platforms can give you the ideal place to meet people and turn them into contacts. This can later translate into a potential customer base. But keep in mind that too much of something is not good. Pay attention to the online platforms that matter.

Variety

Variety, with regard to the online platforms you focus on, is significant too. How do your customers buy the baby products? They can visit your store to do this. The problem is – it is only open for a certain part of the day; and then there are the holidays and the off-days. There is no way the customers can access your products at these times.

How can a customer know about the products you sell? Well, they can visit the shop. However, again there is the question of time limits. A website can solve this problem with ease. It is like a shop window that a shopper can visit any time!

A properly designed website offers all information that consumers look for; if they want to know the exact location of your store, they can check out the Location and Accessibility page; if they want to view the products, they can check out the Products page.

Think local before you go global

Accessibility is, again, another important trait that a website needs. Suppose your store is located in the Kensington neighborhood in San Diego, California. Do you really need to have an online presence to impress the Internet users worldwide? The answer is simple – No.

It is important to concentrate on the local target market before you think national, let alone international. Conduct adequate research about the local market before you create your website; this would help you attend to their needs, wants and demands.

An interactive website works best. However, this doesn’t mean that you have to transact business online. Make sure your website has a section that makes it possible for the visitors to contact you.

With a little thought, you can do it on your own. However, it is not always a good idea to try your hand at things you are not proficient at. Appoint a professional to create and design your website; it may be a little more expensive than a DIY but it would be worth it.

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For iTunes, it was at last an announcement of iTunes Radio, designed to try to compete with the likes of well-established streaming music and radio services like Spotify and Pandora, each of which were launched several years ago. In regard to the operating system changes to the iPhone, here is the lead sentence that Wall Street Journal writer Greg Bensinger used to describe them: “The software has new fonts and more colors and will feature the new service called iTunes Radio.” New fonts!

iTunes

Sticking with iTunes for a moment, a few weeks ago a business periodical cited the case of a recent college graduate who had amassed an iTunes library of more than 3,500 songs.  Interestingly, in the last twelve months she barely touched that library she had paid about $3,500 for ( at 99 cents a song).  Instead, she now pays $10/month to Spotify, where she listens to her recently-selected 665-song playlist she has access to from her phone, tablet, pc, and her home entertainment system.  Also she can download it for when she is offline.  She can refresh/increase that playlist any time she wants…all for $10/month.

Apple’s iTunes service opened in April, 2003, and until the past few years, it has been a raging success.  Driven by the incredibly successful iPod, and later iPhone, iTunes truly became the Internet’s de facto music store, accounting for 69% of digital U.S. music sales at its peak in 2010.

In the past few years, iTunes’ share of the U.S. digital music market has been in decline, an in a threat to the entire digital music market, services like Spotify, Rdio, and Rhapsody have enrolled millions of subscribers who take advantage of their streaming services, a feature that iTunes doesn’t have.  While 99 cents a song is cheap, for listeners who regularly want new music, like the example of the recent college graduate cited above, it can be much more expensive than the low monthly fees at the music streaming websites.  How could Apple, the LeBron James of technology for the past several years, miss streaming?

Additionally, Ted Cohen, a recording industry consultant and former digital chief for EMI Music, believes that an additional problem for iTunes is the website has become outdated and boring, commenting “ There’s no emotion; there is nothing on iTunes’ store today that gives anyone the impetus to buy something.”

There are some very important principles in this Apple story that leaders often have big problems adhering to:

# 1. Never miss an inflection point

An inflection point is a set of new technologies, or some significant changes in consumer habits or practices, that dramatically alter the landscape of what your organization does.

Besides the Apple example above, missing streaming music and radio, there are many others. While Kodak had all the early patents on digital photography, and did a lot of testing to learn what was possible, they missed taking the lead in the marketplace in developing a business model that would enable it to jump out in front and become the digital photography leader.  Blackberry committed the same sin.  They basically brought the smartphone to the marketplace, but then failed to exploit the inflection point represented by touchscreens and downloadable apps.

# 2. You may have to be cannibalizing yourself

With a serious inflection point, either you seize it, or your competition will.  Yes, it may throw you current business model or business practices into a tizzy, but the option of doing basically nothing will lead to disaster!

# 3. Beware of experienced people

People who have worked in an area for a long time develop real pride in their skills and what they have accomplished.  The likelihood is very low of such folks leading the way to exploit an inflection point that dramatically changes their work.  Self-confidence and success in an area often ends up being a security blanket that an individual fears giving up.

Apple’s failure to innovate is surprising, and it is becoming quite clear that Apple’s leading edge reputation is beginning to seriously atrophy due to the leadership change driven by the death of Steve Jobs.

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You can’t take a holiday from social media, it is an always on job. For those using social media to market a business with a global audience, there is even more pressure to have round the clock activity on your social media channels. So what do you do when you need to take some time out, how do you manage your social media channels when that well deserved holiday comes up.

Here are some tips that might be helpful;

Use Apps

Download the blog app on your phone or iPad and try using it a few weeks before you go. If you are taking a real holiday you shouldn’t need to update the blog while you are away but it might be useful to have the option just in case there is breaking news back at home that you should be writing about on your blog. 

Delegate

Trust someone else to look after your social media channels while you are away but don’t throw them in at the deep end. Make sure they have all of the knowledge and experience that they need to manage your social media channels. It is a good idea to use a colleague or employee that is already working on your social media channels in some way. If they need extra training to do the job make sure they have completed this training well in advance of your holiday and let them try it out for a few days while you’re still around so they can ask you questions. If there is no one in your organisation that fits the bill, consider outsourcing the role to a social media agency but only choose one that you have worked with before and that you can trust. Ensure that they understand your social media policy to avoid any potential problems.

Prepare A Social Media And Content Plan

This is really important if you are expecting someone else to work on your social media channels while you are away. Prepare a plan that shows what content is to be shared via each of your social media channels for each day that you are on holidays. Then all they have to do is follow the plan.

Schedule Some Tweets

If you don’t already use Hootsuite to schedule tweets now is a great time. Be careful not to over do it, don’t schedule in more tweets than you would publish in the normal course of business. Don’t schedule Facebook page updates as they won’t have the same EdgeRank as updates posted manually to your Facebook page.

Schedule Blog Posts

Posting blog posts with regular frequency is really important to maintain your readership and blog traffic. The best way to maintain the momentum of your blog while on holidays is to have some posts prepared in advance and schedule them in for publication while you are away. WordPress allows you to schedule posts but you should test this feature in advance to make sure the scheduled posts feature is working on your blog.

The one thing that you can’t schedule is your reply to comments on the blog posts that are published while you are away. If you are only away from a week or two and usually answer comments regularly, a once off delay won’t cause a problem but you might want a colleague to keep an eye on blog comments while you are away in case the comments contain questions from customers that need to be answered straight away.

If you want to keep an eye on comments you can always set up your blog to email you when a comment is posted so you can have a quick check of the comment via your phone and decide if you need to answer or if it can wait until you get home.

Use Your Holiday To Create Great Social Media Content

If you have a lifestyle business then you can use your holiday to take great photos to share via your social media channels either during or holidays or when you return. Only upload photos that are really relevant and interesting to your audience. Be careful not to share photos that should only be for friends or family.

So what do you do with your social media when you go on holiday? Leave your comments below.

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Are you a Hands On Soloist that that loves the skill and craft of what your business provides or are youThe Manager/CEO type, a great mentor and leader that delegates important tasks to employees, or perhaps you are The Classic Entrepreneur that thrives on the adrenaline of a start-up environment.

What type of business owner are you? Take our two minute quiz and find out.

If you like this Infographic download as a PDF here.

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This blogpost will outline a framework or template to assist in the writing of a job description for yourself as you set out on the entrepreneurial journey. I suggest that it should be at most 2 pages and should contain four elements: Job Summary; Duties/ Responsibilities; Objectives; and Skills/Experience. But before I look at each element in detail, I want to pose three questions?

# 1. Should you be your own boss?

A few years ago Brian O’Kane, Oak Tree Press wrote a fantastic book called ‘Could you be your own boss’. This blog post may touch on some of those issues but this is not the focal point of this post. I would like to take up the mantle after you have decided that you want to pursue your startup concept.

# 2. Who is the boss?

At a recent startup workshop, I asked participants to consider the question, ‘Who is the boss in a startup situation?’. The answers ranged from: Customers, the Market, Investors, Banks, other team members, and your immediate family. Everyone agreed that while ultimately the buck stops with you, you are most definitely accountable to other people.

# 3. What is the ‘role’ of the startup promoter?

Every business is different. Every startup promoter is different. But there are certainly common challenges to be faced by startups.  Ash Maurya emphasizes that the ‘role’ of the startup promoter will evolve over time and depends on the stage of development of the business. when discussing ‘The 3 Stages of the Startup’ in the book ‘Running Lean’. This point is echoed by Steve Blank, co-author of the Startup Owner’s Manual.

The ‘Entrepreneur’s Guide to Customer Development’ outlines 4 startup steps. These help to clarify the role of the team leading the startup at each step in Steve Blank’s Customer Development Model.

In the early stages:

• Customer Discovery and Customer Validation, a business is searching for a scalable business model. During Customer Discovery, the Business Model is outlined – assumptions regarding the 9 building blocks of the Lean Canvas. The focus of Customer Discovery is to establish that the business can deliver a product that solves a problem for an identifiable group of users. This requires development of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product).
• Customer Validation proves that the business has a repeatable, scalable business model that can deliver the volume of customers required to build a profitable company. During validation the company tests its ability to deliver a product, set pricing, and acquire customers on a larger scale. A Sales roadmap is then created and field tested by selling to early customers.
• The latter two stages; Customer or Company Creation and Company Building, is where the company builds on its early Sales success and transitions from a startup into a company with a formal business structure with the creation of functions required to manage a larger business to include: Sales & Marketing, Customer Service, IT, R&D, Finance, and Operations.

Writing your Job Description

A job description sets out the purpose of a job, where the job fits into the organisation structure, the main responsibilities of the job and the key tasks to be performed.

# 1. Job Summary

The job summary will echo the raison d’être of the business – its core value and mission. It will set out the core objective of the Founder’s role. From the lean startup movement this core objective should focus on building a scalable and repeatable business model. This section should be encapsulated in one short paragraph (3 lines).

# 2. Duties/ Responsibilities

This section may contain up to ten bullet points. The duties will generally embrace the management of: Product Development; Marketing; Finance; and Building a Team. The key point for a startup is to embrace ‘learning’. For example, under the marketing heading I would include a duty to identify and engage with early adopters. The primary responsibility is to test and validate the assumptions contained in the Business Model.

# 3. Objectives

This section will overlap somewhat with duties and responsibilities. It should be goal oriented. For example, the early adopter goal might specify a number of customers to engage with. The objectives should help identify the ‘key metrics’ to judge the progress made by the business over a defined period.

# 4. Skills/Experience

This section, normally associated with Recruitment, is equally important in the startup context. The startup team needs a balanced mix of sectoral, technical, commercial and startup skills. The startup promoter needs to specialise in at least one of these areas – few people can be strong in all areas. The founder’s interpersonal and team management skills are also important. It is good to document the skills, qualifications and track record of the team as these will be required in any business plan seeking external funding or support.

Related: When Your Small Business Isn’t Ready For You To Be CEO

Conclusion

I believe that the process of compiling a  job description has several benefits for the startup promoter:

• Self Assessment - provides an opportunity to determine if you are the right person to set up this business. More importantly, an honest assessment will more than likely identify gaps in skills, qualifications, experience or contacts in your own profile that you can fill over time.
• Organisation – In defining their own role, the startup promoter is prompted to assess all members of the team and again identify gaps to be filled. It is good practice for a business to establish a culture where every member of the team has a job description. In the early stages there may be significant overlap in job roles and this will also have to be managed.
• Performance appraisal - the starting point for setting goals to be reviewed on a regular basis. You will know it is time to update your Job Description when you have achieved your goals and the business is moving to the next stage in the Customer Development Model.

I believe that a ‘Job Description’ is a very useful business planning tool for every startup. I would be delighted to hear what the Tweak Your Business Community thinks, particularly from people with direct experience of starting a growth oriented business.

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When it’s time to let go…

Nobody likes firing an employee but, unfortunately, sometimes you need to. If you are thinking it may be time to let your sales manager go, but wondering if you really should, take a look for some of these signs as it may help your decision.

• If you see that things have stagnated and nothing new is brewing because your sales manager has become lackadaisical, it may be time for a new one. Those in this position can’t really ever rest, even when a project is complete, they need to stay in touch with it. If you see your sales manager letting things go, it could be a red flag.
• You are getting calls from customers that he’s not doing what he should. If the customers are expressing concern or dissatisfaction, you need to think about replacement.
• The rest of the team are suffering. Your manager should hold everyone together, and if the team is falling apart, well…
• You are spending a lot of time wondering if you should let him go. If this is a thought that keeps coming into your mind, it’s probably what you need to do. Look at in a professional not personal way, and do what needs to be done.

What you should look for in your new sales manager…

• Enthusiasm and follow through. You want an employee, especially one in sales, who will be excited about the company and/or product and express that enthusiasm to the customer. You also want someone who will follow through on every aspect, from the beginning to well past the end of the deal.
• A positive attitude. Sometimes things get rough in the sales world, but a great manager will keep his or her team upbeat through setbacks and rejection. You want someone who will keep the team motivated and ready to work.
• Skip the micromanager. If your sales manager has a team, you should trust that the team is efficient as well. Your manager should keep them abreast of what needs to be done, and be there to help, advise and guide, but keep the micromanaging out. It only insults and frustrates the rest of the team.
• Look for someone who will stick up for his or her team. Sometimes customers can get irate and go on the attack. You want a manager who will handle things calmly, represent the team and find a solution at the same time.

It’s a tough job to find the right team, and managers are a huge part of that. You want someone loyal, trustworthy, approachable and motivated and that person should also be enthusiastic and well versed in not only your product, but also in personal relations. Not everyone is cut out for that, he or she has to wear a lot of different hats, but the right manager will be a huge asset to your company.

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In this article, we will discuss the important proposal writing guidelines.

Determine the plan of the proposal

Consider these 3 questions: -

1. Who is your client?
2. What do you want your client to get from your proposal?
3. How can you make sure that your client understands what you want to say?

Decide on content

The client mentions in RFP what he/she wants to get in the proposal. Thus, read RFP carefully. Take note of repeated words, as these words give a clue for what actually matters to that client. Write how you have understood the problem of the client and the solution to that problem; do not just repeat the information given in the RFP.

Decide on style of the proposal

The writing style of the proposal is just like any technical piece of writing.  I have collaborated the guidelines below, for effective corporate proposal writing : -

1. Use the language which is understandable for everyone.
2. State your purpose at the start of the proposal.
3. Use short and clear sentences.
4. Ensure that the client gets all important information which is required to take final decision.

Do’s & don’ts in business proposal writing

To make corporate proposal writing a success, follow these dos and don’ts: -

• Don’t assume that the reader will consider your solution as best – You write the proposal to convince the reader that your provided solution is the best. However, you shouldn’t be over-confident that you will get the contract.
• Research thoroughly – Provide the reader with all essential facts and examples. This makes the proposal more convincing and meaningful. For this, research well to find different business proposal templates to have a clue on how to write your proposal.
• Don’t copy from previous proposals – Provide the client the information which is customized for him/her. Don’t copy the information which you have written in your earlier proposal. Of course, you can copy the appendix where you have described your product/service and introduced your personnel.
• Write about yourself if the client has asked you to do so – Some businessmen make a mistake that they write about themselves even when they are not asked to do so. This is wrong. Write about the problems of the clients and the solutions only.

So, you just have to take these guidelines seriously, implement them in your next business proposal and you will clearly see the impact it would have on your business.

New tips and suggestions from our readers are always welcomed. So don’t forget to share your comments and suggestions below.

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• There are few guarantees in life but I can guarantee you that it will be far more costly to deal with these types of problems after they arise than to take some simple steps to prevent them from occurring in the first place.
• I hope you find this guide useful but please remember that everything in it is general information only and nothing in this guide is legal advice.
• One bit of advice that I will give you is that when it comes to something as important as your business, you should seek expert help in managing risks before they ever become problems.

Managing social media risks: a legal guide for your business

How is Social Media different from traditional media?

Traditional broadcast media is one to many. Social media is one to one and many to many. In social media everyone is a publisher, everything that happens online happens in public, in real time and leaves a permanent trace.  Social media is about people, the clue is in the name.

How do people use Social Media?

Some people don’t understand social media and don’t use it properly. It isn’t a form of one way broadcast: issuing press releases and news items from a Twitter account or Facebook page might get a certain amount of attention but for things to really work in social media there has to be a two way engagement:

• This is the essence of it and the beauty of it. People develop real relationships via social media which can be a very strong bond with your business.
• However this is also the riskiest aspect of it from a business owner’s perspective as it is not something that can be readily controlled as it happens in real time. And because you have real people on both sidse of the interaction, if the person representing your business doesn’t have a clear understanding of what they can and can’t do and what does and doesn’t work, there is potential for serious damage to be done in a very short time.

How not to use Social Media

Let’s looks at one example of how not to use social media: Anthony Wiener, US Congressman and an early user of social media. He had a considerable Twitter following and you would have thought he knew what he was doing on the medium.

For anyone not familiar with Twitter there are basically two ways of sending messages – public or private.

• Mr Wiener took a photo of his groin in a certain state of arousal and sent it via a message on Twitter to a female follower. He meant to send it as a private “Direct Message” but he pressed the wrong button and it went as a public Tweet. The consequences for him were catastrophic.
• His first reaction was a common one on social media, he claimed his account had been hacked. However, overwhelming evidence of the contrary was provided by a huge number of helpful Twitter users and Mr Wiener had to come clean. He ended up resigning and making a tearful apology on American TV.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is an example of someone who should have been familiar with the medium and who was in personal control of his own social media content who made a drastic error of judgement combined with a simple technical mistake – he pressed the wrong button.

I cannot think of a better example to highlight the importance of taking appropriate measures to set clear boundaries, to manage social media use when businesses consider letting others, either inside or outside their business, control social media content which impacts directly on that business’s brand and reputation.

Law is playing catch-up

Users aren’t the only ones who sometimes don’t get social media or use it appropriately. Lawyers and the courts have also been slow to really come up to speed and understand how social media works and what is the most appropriate means of dealing with matters when things go wrong.

What have been referred to as superinjunctions in the UK have shown up how the law has had difficulty in dealing with the problem presented by social media use.

• Superinjunctions in the UK have generally come to refer to the type of injunction taken out in advance of a story being published to prevent it getting out. Here the reasoning goes that if the court application for the injunction itself was reported that would defeat the effect of the injunction and therefore the superinjuction prohibits any report of the fact that it was applied for in the first place.
• But these injunctions sought by lawyers at extraordinary expense have proved, in the case of some individuals, to be a complete waste of money. The injunctions involved are extremely high powered and expensive legal devices, but in these cases were singularly ineffective in achieving the desired result. It seems to be a clear case of not understanding the medium when considering a legal course of action with a view to achieving a desired objective.
• So those familiar with the medium have come spectacularly a cropper on it and even the most well paid lawyers have failed in protecting some individuals from their own folly on social media – so does this mean that you shouldn’t use it for your business, absolutely not.

What you should do is understand the risks associated with the medium and manage those risks effectively.

What are the risks and how do you manage them:

1. Defamation.
2. Employment Law.
3. Privacy and Data Protection.
4. Third party agreements – third party postings and suppliers/outside consultants.

# 1. Defamation

It is a sign of the change in communications that I as a lawyer am writing a general guide for business owners on defamation. Just a few years ago this would have made no sense other than for those in the publishing business. However social media now means that all businesses are publishers.

So let’s take a look at what we’re talking about:- 

In simple terms defamation occurs when a false statement is made about another person that damages their reputation. However it has to be communicated to someone else.

• If you have two people together and one says to the other “you are a liar and a cheat” there is no defamation. There may have been a punch thrown but there won’t be a legal action out of what is said.
• If someone says to someone other than the subject of the statement “that man is a liar and a cheat” now you have the start of defamation. And if someone stands up in front of a room full of 150 people and says “he is a liar and a cheat” well then you really have defamation. Although the first practical rule of defamation proceedings is that the person responsible has to be worth suing in the first place, and I’ll come back to that in a moment.

When we’re standing up in front of a room full of people we’re usually pretty careful about what we say because we feel the glare of the public place.

Posting online can feel a lot less inhibited as Mr Wiener found out to his cost. And defamation does not have to take the blatant form that I have chosen here of calling someone a liar and a cheat, it need just be a statement that is untrue and causes harm to the reputation of another. Defamation can now also be suffered by a company and not just an individual.

So where can it be an issue in social media?

• Posting by you or on your behalf on social media sites: e.g. Twitter/Facebook/blog
• Posting by you or on your behalf on review sites: e.g. Tripadvisor
• Comment posting by third parties on your Facebook page or blog.

How do you manage it?

Understand it!

Make sure everyone posting content on social media about your business understands it. You need to have clear policies in place with employees and contractors to govern content creation and appropriate usage. You also need to have clear policies to govern how postings by third parties are to be managed.

• Have a clear understanding of how to react appropriately when a potential defamation situation arises. Have access to advisers that understand the medium. The critical time in defamation is the period immediately after the statement is made or the item published. Whether the matter ends up in litigation or not may depend on how this is handled.
• The crucial documents in a defamation case are not the complicated pleadings and affidavits when the matter is winding its way through the courts, the crucial items are the statements made and letters sent in the immediate aftermath. They will in all likelihood determine the ultimate outcome.
• How this is managed in the heat of the moment is critical – no amount of lawyers afterwards are going to be able to undo that and any amount of them are going to have an interest not to. And this is not the time to start developing new relationships, this is a time at which you will need someone who you trust and who understands your business and the medium you are working on to help you to prevent this from happening in the first place and to mitigate things as much as possible if it does happen.

Launching the legal Exocet missiles may sound impressive and may be all that some have to offer but unless the objectives to be achieved and the most appropriate means of doing so are clearly understood by all involved, it may, as in the case of the superinjunctions, be utterly counterproductive. Better avoided if possible.

Consequences for business:

• Damages – the largest ever award in an Irish court in defamation was €10M and the publication concerned was merely a press release sent by a private company rather than a publication by a major news outlet.
• Costs – significant unless nipped in the bud. There can be no incentive to minimize costs if there is no long term business relationship with the adviser.
• Impecuniosity of the other side – the target in a defamation case must be a mark – but the party bringing the action need not be – therefore successful businesses are exposed to risk and they cannot hope to recover costs of unsuccessful cases brought by those unable to pay.
• Insurance – check your policy of insurance to see what you are covered for. Some business policies cover it for the more traditional situations such as shop lifting when someone may claim they were defamed when accused of a criminal offence in a public place.

# 2. Employment Law

This is the critical area in which the practical management of your social media content will occur. If this is not managed properly and proactively there really is potential for disaster, but the good news is that it can be managed effectively and relatively easily with a bit of foresight and planning.

Issues:

• Clear agreements with employees setting agreed boundaries.
• Clear policies on content and usage integrated into agreements.
• Practical management of resources.
• Policies to protect against inappropriate behaviour by employees impacting on other employees – acceptable usage.

Clear agreements with employees setting boundaries:

The employment agreement with the employee who is creating social media content needs to address this aspect of the role specifically. It needs to define clearly what is and is not acceptable and consequences that will arise for failure to observe those standards.

• You do not want to have a situation where an employee runs amok online and you are left with both damage to your business and no clear remedy against your employee.
• When a problem arises is not the time to start thinking about how you might deal with the situation. Set the ground rules in advance and incorporate them into the contractual relationship to prevent this happening in the first place.

Policies on content and usage:

Your contract of employment is only going to be able to deal with things at a general level. The internal policies which govern your content creation are really going to define the nuts and bolts of what can and can’t be done. The policies need to be in clear straightforward language and tailored for the organisation. Cutting and pasting something is only going to be of limited value because it probably is not even going to be read.

The policy document needs to be one that your organisation really takes ownership of and reflects what actually goes on. Ideally it should be prepared in-house with some guidance and advice to ensure it covers all the necessary aspects. Some piece of legal boilerplate that no one understands or ever refers to is practically pointless. If anything does ever arise you are going to want to be able to refer to something that was actually used in practice.

Practical management of resources:

This is perhaps the most important common sense aspect – make sure you have control over your own social media. This does not mean you micro manage every aspect, precisely the point of everything we are talking about here is that you can’t and you shouldn’t. But you should have control over the infrastructure.

• You need to control what accounts are opened for your business and make sure that they are associated with your profile and that you are the administrator.
• On sites like Facebook a great deal of value can reside in the profile, i.e. the number of likes to a page or friends to an individual. If the practice evolves where the employee sets up the account and then leaves, this can cause enormous problems. If they leave in acrimonious circumstances these problems can be insurmountable.

We all know how inflexible Facebook is and how difficult/impossible it is to get any satisfaction from complaints. Therefore you must make sure you’ve got a handle on this. Again it should all form part of a coherent written resources policy.

Acceptable usage policy:

One aspect of your policy document is to provide a structure on your relationship with your employees, but how your employees conduct themselves towards one another is equally important and acceptable usage is an important part of this. The classic example of what needs to be covered here is the accessing and circulation of inappropriate content in the workplace. Failure to provide the appropriate structure may leave you liable; not to the employee responsible but from others in the organisation who are exposed to that employee’s unacceptable behaviour.

# 3. Privacy/Data Protection

This area warrants its own entirely separate guide (check back here soon) but you need to have it covered. Customer contacts and other details that you may be gathering for marketing purposes are personal data and have to be handled in accordance with the strict statutory regime. You must have a clear written policy in this area and it must be understood and followed. Particular care must be taken when data is being transferred abroad.

# 4. Third party agreements/Intellectual property

Again this subject warrants a whole guide in its own right but it is one to bear in mind when dealing with outside consultants. Similar considerations to employees arise in relation to securing control of the set up so that you are not held to ransom or left high and dry if there is a parting of the ways.

In the case of external consultants there is the additional issue of ensuring that you secure the intellectual property rights (copyright etc.) in anything created by them and this should be covered by the consultancy agreement. Anything created by employees will be deemed to belong to the employer’s business unless there is agreement to the contrary but this should be covered by the employment agreement in any event.

Final Thoughts

The one big takeaway from all of this is that while there are issues associated with effective implementation of social media that is no reason not to do it. You need to identify the risks and manage them to acceptable levels with effective systems. However, if this isn’t done in advance the potential for largely avoidable problems does exist.

Don’t let the first time you take the right legal advice be when you first encounter a problem as by that time it may well be far too late.

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There is what you want to be and then there is what you have to be. One of my clients knows he would be a great chairman but his business isn’t ready yet for him to step away from actively leading his company through its current growth stage. Another client tells me he hates doing his administrative tasks but there isn’t enough money to hire a much needed administrative assistant. Just these two stories are typical of so many small business owners who are using the CEO Mindset but have limitations regarding just how much they can act as the leaders and strategists they know they truly are.

Before we go any further, what is a CEO?

The role of CEO and small business owner parallel each other quite a bit. They both are responsible for:

• Setting the vision and tone of the whole company
• Designing the strategy of how the business will develop over time
• Seeking talent through hiring, outsourcing or collaborating with complementary professionals
• Keeping self and others accountable to the stated business goals
• Knowing “cash is king’ and keeping revenues are stable, growing and making a profit

As we take a closer look, it is clear that a CEO and a small business owner are more synonymous than we give them credit for.

Related post: What is a “Real” Business Owner Part 2

Signs when your small business isn’t ready for you to be CEO

In your head and heart, it is time for a more sophisticated role. However, there are warning signs to signal when to stay put in your current role.

You are feeling uncertain about how to be leader and manager for your business’ next stage

Your company, even when you are a sole trader, depends on your ability to manage yourself — monitoring your own emotional responses, developing confidence in your own authority, communicating effectively while integrating your work and personal life.

Inconsistent or lack of detailed knowledge of the company’s financials

This topic alone could be a stand-alone blog post but, simply put, a lack of a stable foundation, a shortfall of expected earnings or poor accounting can stifle business growth and keep you from stepping into the role of managing director.

There is no clear written plan shared with others

Your small business will never be ready for you to be the CEO if the plan is in your head. Without a clearly communicated and written plan shared with your staff, it is hard for you to focus on business development, attracting investors or increasing visibility through networking, speaking engagements or conferences and trade shows.

Lack of personnel

Sole traders already know that if they don’t do the work, it doesn’t get done. In addition, there are microenterprises that need everyone to do the work of product/ service development, marketing, customer service, administrative tasks and more. Controlling the pace of growth and weighing the quality of current opportunities will support a positive workplace and avoid adversely affecting stress levels.

If you are noticing these signs, it is time to stop, regroup and review. There are times when a small business must focus on the basics to stay viable while, at other times, there must be careful management to avoid growing too fast without the right supports in place. The review (which could include a SWOT analysis) spells out the current state of the business and what needs attention.

Related post: 10 Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail

When what you want to be and what you have to be are at odds

For many small businesses, there can be a combination of difficult external and internal circumstances slowing or stopping business growth. It is not unusual for small business owners to find themselves chafing at the thought that “this business could be so much more if I could (fill in the blank)” instead of ploughing through the everyday must-do’s. With some pragmatism, grit and perseverance, you can prepare your small business for the time when you can be CEO.

6 ways to prepare your business

# 1. Learn to manage yourself

Regardless if you are trying to stay afloat, rebuild your business or shepherd a big growth phase, the way you manage the emotional side of your business is a key factor. Not handling your stress level well can hurt your ability to analyse information, make decisions and act effectively. This also includes using good (and personalised) time management skills and avoiding procrastination.

# 2. Develop an informal or formal group of advisors

You can make yourself crazy going round and round trying to analyse choices, particularly when you don’t like any of your options. A formal or informal advisory group can help expand any possible tunnel vision, refer you to other resources or keep your spirits up.

# 3. Use a living business plan

Review your business plan on a quarterly or even month-to-month basis so you see developing problems earlier, identify the strengths of the business and make more pinpoint adaptations as needed.

# 4. Keep track of finances

When things are tight or in flux, it becomes more important to review where the revenue is coming from as well as the expenses. This includes tax planning, establishing (or maintaining) reserve capital and a line of credit.

# 5. Learn from more experienced business owners/ executives and develop new skills/ knowledge

While this might refer back to my recommendation regarding advisors, advice can come from veteran business people when you least expect it. Read books, listen to podcasts, watch videos or attend free or low-cost classes to fill in your skill gaps.

# 6. Identify what staffing needs you have and what you want them to do

Before you jump into the “I need to hire someone”, write down what you want this person to do, skills needed for the position and the ideal type of personality. It will help pre-qualify the type of talent that would fit in your small business. On the other hand, you might discover you already have the best candidate on staff and can delegate the work straightaway. The written exercise helps clarify what you are thinking as well as what you want.

It isn’t the end if your business isn’t ready for you to be CEO

As one of my clients is learning, you might be able to start separating yourself from being the number one subject matter expert but you may need to do it in stages. He gives some responsibilities to staff members, takes secondary roles on teams and advises project managers. He finds himself straddling the CEO role and the subject matter expert role as his business launches a product. He can see the projections that say this launch will be a winner but he still has to take things one day at at a time.

There are a myriad of reasons why your business may not be ready for you to be CEO.  It may even feel frustrating or worrisome but it is not forever. It is an opportunity to get those ducks in a row. Prepare yourself and your business so, when you do become CEO, it is smooth and logical.

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Since then telecommuting has grown 433 percent. Much of that growth came in the early years – the last big jump came from 2007 to 2008 – but the fact remains that more employees than ever are working outside the office. Chances are your small business employs workers who don’t even live in the same state. Yet they can be just as productive as, if not more productive than, in-house employees.

Anyone managing remote employees needs to understand that their needs are different than those of in-house employees. Remote employees enjoy a more flexible lifestyle and tend to take advantage. It’s not up to them to conform to the rules of an office in which they do not work. It’s up to the manager to ensure everyone is on the same page. That’s why these five crucial tips will come in handy for anyone managing remote employees.

# 1. Get them on Skype

It might not seem becoming to recommend one specific communications tool, since there are dozens upon dozens of them. But from experience, Skype is the way to go for communicating with remote employees. Just think about the factors you desire in an instant messaging platform:

• Dedicated to work (not shared with friends and family)
• Ability to quickly share files
• Video chat capabilities
• Group chat support
• A record of archived chats

Go through every major instant messaging platform, and only Skype really fits the bill for all points. Google Talk comes close, but too often people keep both professional and personal contacts on their lists. That’s the easiest way to become distracted and miss important points.

The downside is that while Google Talk and all of its features are free, Skype Premium, which adds group video chat and other features, does cost money. But you’re managing a business, right? And isn’t a communications platform important to your business? You can justify the small expenditure with the large benefits.

# 2. Set regular check-in times

Perhaps the most important reality to keep in mind when managing remote employees: they don’t act like traditional office employees. To manage them in the same way as office employees is to fail at managing remote employees.

Managers must understand that remote employees tend to spread out their days. They will take mid-day breaks to run errands. They will move to the couch when the desk chair becomes uncomfortable. Sometimes they’ll take off for hours during the day and make up that time at night. To tell them they can’t is to misunderstand their situations.

Yet as managers, we need to stay in contact with employees near and far. So how can we adapt our styles to fit those of our remote employees? By setting regular check-in times. It doesn’t have to be for long, either; just a couple of minutes per day will do. It also doesn’t have to be at a regular time. “Regular check ins” means regular on a daily or weekly basis.

Meeting regularly might not cause any great improvements in workflow. What it will do is prevent slip-ups. The biggest changes are the ones we don’t see. Setting up regular check-ins with remote employees, at a time that works for both manager and employee, will help keep everything above board.

# 3. Use a collaborative task manager

When you manage employees in an office, task management can take many forms. It can come from an email, from task management software, or even a memo dropped onto the employee’s desk. Because you know where they’ll be, it’s easy to follow up and follow through. That becomes a bit more difficult with remote employees. Managers need a set way to assign and check in on tasks.

When I started working from home, my boss used 37 Signals’ Basecamp to assign tasks. It worked well enough. I could view my tasks, and then upload the completed work. Yet there was always something clunky about Basecamp that didn’t work for me. It might work for many managers out there, and for them I encourage it. But there are alternatives.

Sensing a need in the market, many developers have created collaborative task managers to help when managing remote employees. There are intricate solutions, such as Producteev, that can help managers who oversee a dozen or more employees. For smaller projects, something like Toodledo can provide minimalist task management.

# 4. Ensure mobile compatibility

Most small businesses cannot afford to supply their employees with smartphones. The service and upkeep costs are just too high. Yet many, if not most, employees of small businesses will carry smartphones of their own. Almost all remote employees will have a smartphone; it’s tough to run errands mid-day without one. To the manager, this means one thing: ensure compatibility.

That isn’t to say that the manager should ensure all employees are using Android, or all employees are using iPhone (or even BlackBerry). That’s a bit unrealistic today. I use the Google Nexus 4 on T-Mobile, while some of my employees use the iPhone on Verizon or the Samsung Galaxy S3 on AT&T. That will never change. What we can do is use software with cross-platform compatibility.

We can circle right back to Skype with this. It is available on all smartphone platforms (coming soon to BlackBerry, at least). We can communicate that way, whether we’re at our computers or on our mobile phones. The same goes for task managers like Producteev. We can share notes with Evernote. The key is ensuring that all software we use, we can use on any device. It helps keep all employees and managers on the same page, since we have all relevant information with us at all times.

# 5. Arrange for in-person visits

For the most part, companies have accepted remote employees. They work one place, we work another, and with the power of communications tools we get the job done. But anyone who has managed remote employees or who has worked as a remote employee knows that the lack of personal connection can be grueling.

Employees sit at home all day, escaping to coffee shops for a touch of human connection. They love the flexibility and freedom of remote employment, but still need people in their lives. Managers type to remote employees and sometimes see their faces in video chat, but still yearn for that personal connection, as they do with all employees.

The solution – one I’ve experienced first hand with great success – is to convince the big boss to sponsor trips for remote employees. Get them a flight and a place to stay, and let them spend a week a year in the office, interacting with the regular employees. This might not be feasible for, or even attractive to, everyone. But for those willing, it can provide insights that you just can’t get over an internet connection.

Are you a remote employee? Do you manage a team that includes remote employees? What are some things I missed that you consider best practices?

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