Thursday 26 January 2012

Be wary of moaning about work on your social media

I find it interesting the number of people who moan about their place of work on social media such as Facebook.

Let's face it, Facebook and Twitter are great places to get things off your chest, and moans about work are something many of us have often wanted to get off our chests. With so many like-minded friends, family and followers linked to our Facebook and Twitter accounts, we're bound to get a sympathetic hearing.

But do we remember all those people we friended on Facebook? Your colleagues, your staff ... your boss?

You might not get such a sympathetic view from them.

And even if you're not connected to colleagues from your current place of work, one day you might need to use your connections on Facebook and Twitter to get yourself a new job. But, browisng through your historical comments, they might not take too kindly to someone who's often moaned about their place of work.

Is there anywhere you can really let off steam? The pub? Even walls have ears.

Friday 20 January 2012

Non-communicative businesses look like scams

It is frustrating that we all get junk mail and spam email, and it shows no sign of decreasing.

Equally frustrating, I find, are businesses who cannot communicate. These are businesses who may write to you (by post) or email you, but when you reply to them, there is no acknowledgement of your communication at all.

This is happening to me at the moment with one organisation, so much so that I am beginning to believe that it is actually a scam operation, despite its headed note paper etc.

Until they reply to my communications I cannot believe that they are a true operation and if they are, what does it say about them when they can't even reply to my emails?

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Can you suggest more back-office systems?

As a small business owners, we sometimes neglect those small, yet significant, tasks that bigger companies have whole departments for.

I'm thinking of back-office systems.

I'm sure we've all got things like our accounts under control, including our invoices and our purchase orders, but what about the other back-office systems?

Things like:
  • Work enquiries
  • A list of clients
  • A list of suppliers
  • Staff holiday management
  • Work applications (e.g. speculative CVs sent through to you)
  • Staff sickness management
There must be loads of others; things that I haven't thought of because my business is too small.

Can you suggest some other back-office systems for me?

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Use the excitement of 2012, not the gloom

The Prime Minister gave a "downbeat" message yesterday about the business and economic prospects for 2012. There is little doubt that it will be a hard year, especially for those with low incomes.

For small business owners, the year will also likely prove to be a tough one.

However, for small business owners, there is little choice but to plough on and make the best of it. We cannot go on strike; we cannot moan about "fat cats" somewhere higher up the company ladder. In many cases of single-person businesses, the owner is the potentially striking "worker" AND the would-be "fat cat"!

At least there's a reduction in fussing and fighting, my friend.

Small business owners will probably be using much of January to plan how they will improve their business prospects for the year. 2012 promises to be an exciting and complicated year and business owners should try and tap into such events as Euro 2012, the Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympics. How could you use those to your advantage?

The smart ones will work out how, make the best of it and come out the other end of the year saying what a great year it was.