Tips and News Archives - Connor Business Resources

Manage Your Business Before IT Manages You

Managing a business is time consuming and often stressful. Exhaustion looms over the day and causes many business owners to allow their businesses to dictate their schedule, their mind, and even their life. Understanding how to properly manage your business before it manages you should be the number one focus before any other fundamentals can even be addressed.

Organization can help you to manage your schedule each day without error. Once all managerial tasks are categorized and easily accessible, less mistakes will be made. With less mistakes comes less stress. Upholding the duties left to the manager in a manner conducive to production, one can combat stress and focus on priorities.

Increase Revenue with a Sales Management System

A recent survey showed that 87% of executives believe sales and marketing are the most pivotal activities in accelerating growth. Therefore, your growth strategy must minimize expenses and maximize revenues and focus on creating systems to bolster and measure the effectiveness of your marketing and sales activities.

Setting Clear Expectations for Your Team

It is vitally important to whatever business endeavor you are pursuing that the team you have around you understands their mission clearly. Clear expectations at the outset of a project, be it a new product launch or building a new department in the company, provide a solid guideline and should form a cohesive vision for everyone involved.

To ensure success in any given project, it can be valuable to present a set of behavior expectations or work on one with your team. One way to develop this is a “team charter” or contract upon which all members agree. This code of conduct can help to guide the team through its growth, reminding members to be respectful of colleagues, contribute their opinions when they are solicited, and addressing conflicts personally on a one-to-one basis.

Picking Productivity – how to dull the shiny objects by Carol Williams

This is a core principle of productivity. It is the most simple concept, yet the most difficult to achieve. There are, quite frankly, too many diversions and distractions in life. This has been true thoughout history, and is “more true” than ever with the unceasing reality that is electronic connectedness. We are re-wiring our brains, and while I am not suggesting we revert to 1962, I am submitting that focused effort gets the job done.

NOTE: On November 2, I will be offering a webinar (you have to pay for this one) through Lorman.com. It’s called “Where Did the Time Go? 5 Ways to get a Lot More Done in a Day.” here’s a preview of the content: Click to view

Focusing Forward and Being Present

by Carol Williams

The REAL answers to your Strategic Stuckness are embedded in the question: “if it’s so easy, why aren’t we all doing it?” Let’s jump into some effective FOCUSING strategies!

This is for you if ANY of these feel true:

– You start out with a plan

– Your plan is a joke by day’s end and you’re asking “why bother?”

– You start out without a plan…responding to emergencies (which somehow don’t quit)

When Employees Discuss Pay by Paula Mathew

In 2014, New Hampshire passed SB 207, the Paycheck Fairness Act, that prohibits conditioning employment on a promise to refrain from disclosing wages or to waive the right to disclose wages, salary, or paid benefits, and prohibits retaliation for disclosure. In fact, even if you have employees sign a nondisclosure agreement, they still have the right to discuss pay.