Archive for March, 2019

3 Reasons Why Starting a Business Can Improve Your Quality of Life

Posted March 26, 2019 By Frank Strona

Starting your own business can be one of the most rewarding and life-changing decisions that you can ever make. It will be one of the most challenging as well, but that is all a part of the journey. Becoming your own boss has a host of different benefits that can end up improving your overall quality of life. You might just realize that tapping into your entrepreneurial side is the thing that has previously been missing from your life experience.

Now to be fair – the first thing that will happen, in my experience, when you say “I am going to open my own shop”; is you will get one of two reactions. A “high-five” attitude, excitement from those that are keen to see you strike out and try something new. The other less fun will be the “but what if it fails?” group. These are folks that are trying to be supportive but allow the fear and emotions they have over change, share the excitement of your moment. So be prepared. In both cases, they are someone else initial reactions. Listen, hear and consider. You don’t have to respond or act on any comment. Instead, Alice’s “Chesire Cat” and smile a knowing smile, thank them for the thoughts and move forward!

Independence

Gaining a new level of independence is one of the most obvious and important reasons that you probably have considered going into business for yourself. The fact is that the independence that you will gain from becoming your own boss will be life changing and it can also be dramatically life improving as well. You will have a hard time not appreciating the fact that you no longer have to answer to anyone but yourself. This is the kind of independence that the entrepreneurially minded all seek.

Support

Obtaining support from your community in regard to your business is something that can not only help to grow your business, but it can also have a dramatic improvement in your quality of life as well. There are a number of community organizations out there such as your local chamber of commerce that help out local businesses and want to see them succeed. Another outstanding way to get support for your business is to become involved as the owner of a franchise. Going this route offers you an automatic support system and a built-in business methodology from a company that will be able to tell you how to run your franchise in order to attain success.

Having the proper support in your franchise group can mean the difference between success or failure as a franchise owner. You want to do your research and make sure that you are getting involved with a company that has a good reputation for supporting their franchisees. Your franchise group should want to see you succeed and should provide you with the resources to do so.

New Sense of Purpose

The fact is that if you have always felt that entrepreneurial itch, then you are only doing yourself a disservice by not giving it a try and going into business for yourself. You will be shocked at how much more your overall life makes sense when you follow your dreams in this manner.

These are just three of the many reasons why starting your own business can have a dramatic improvement in the quality of your life. It will be a lot of work, but you no doubt knew that before deciding you wanted to jump into an entrepreneurial adventure. If this is something that you have always dreamed about, there is no better time than the present to start making that dream become a reality for you.

For coaching and learning how to be the best entrepreneur you can be, let MentorSF guide you! Contact me for your free 30 min “check-in” session and see how we fit and what support I can offer you to make your dream a reality. You don’t have to go it alone or spend thousands of dollars to have support available. 

 

Resources:

Filed in #MentorSFCA, Engage! Post, Tips & Hints

Ever want to learn how to do your own video storytelling?

Posted March 22, 2019 By Frank Strona

Here is a chance; Half Moon Bay Public Library Hosts Free Digital Storytelling Workshop on May 3-4

You all know how I am a big fan of storytelling in any form. It is even something I include as one of the MentorSF programs.  So anytime I find training worth sharing about I will. Here is one coming up in May from one of my favorite programs.

The StoryCenter is hosting a two-day Digital Storytelling Workshops as part of it’s California Listens program with the California State Library as a way to capture those moments in a short film.

The workshop will be held:

Friday-Saturday, May 3-4, 2019
Half Moon Bay Library
620 Correas St.
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019

To apply, simply go to storycenter.org/halfmoonbay.

Each workshop has a limit of 15 participants, so apply now.  You need not be a resident of either city to participate.

In the workshop, you can expect to learn the StoryCenter’s approach to powerful storytelling, work in a group setting to craft your own story, compose and record a video narration, and assemble a 2-4 minute movie in WeVideo software.  You will get a full version of the software for a year as part of your participation, to use however you want.

Stories will become part of a statewide and local collection of digital stories in the program,California Listens.  Visit the site to see examples of stories from participants in similar workshops from around the state.  Your story will also be part of a community screening hosted by the Library in the Fall of 2017!

For more information, feel free to email Joe Lambert at [email protected] or visit http://www.storycenter.org

 
Filed in Engage! Post | Tagged: , ,

3 Ways to Promote Employee Growth

Posted March 12, 2019 By GuestSpot

When you hire people who are driven, they always try to grow their understanding, skills and responsibilities because they know that this sort of endeavor leads to more opportunities and higher salaries. A business benefits from the growth of its leaders, and in turn, they motivate younger employees who want to eventually attain leadership positions of their own. It’s your responsibility to furnish your employees with these growth opportunities. Here are some tips that can help.

Make Them Part of a Team

A business is only successful when everyone has a purpose, and the easiest way to let your employees know that they have an important role is by creating teams. According to SHRM, “Teams can execute more quickly, make better decisions, solve more complex problems, and do more to enhance creativity and build skills than an individual can.” During the early phases, you should keep your teams small because this tactic reduces costly inefficiencies. On a team, there should be one leader and several talented employees who fully understand how to tackle specific objectives. If the leader gives each individual one significant job, every team member will feel important throughout the project. This strategy also gives each employee a major responsibility.

In order to develop young team members into major players, you’ll need to give them more opportunities immediately after they produce solid results. By keeping your teams busy, everyone will constantly grow and develop new skills that could benefit the company.

Provide Peer-to-Peer Learning

Peer-to-peer learning is a process that can enhance how efficiently everyone tackles projects together as a team. According to Instructure, “When people want to learn new skills at work, most start by asking their bosses to help them — but the second most common way employees learn is from their peers.” If your business has seasoned employees and young employees, you should put these people on strategic teams together so that they can learn from each other. Your veteran employees can teach newer individuals about the importance of marketing using print materials. Whenever you run a digital campaign, the newer employees can work strategically with older employees in order to explain effective social media tactics.

Utilize Training Programs

Training programs can help employees grow by giving them opportunities to learn new skills. Some programs also help employees consistently maintain certain skills during periods of growth.

When designing training programs, according to eLearning Industry, “take time to define the parameters that will act as the foundation of your program — defining learner personas, goals, and success metrics.” For example, if you want to boost customer services by reducing disputes, design a workshop that covers the best ways to communicate with customers during various situations. This type of workshop should cater to employees who want a higher position in the customer service department.

Because business is driven by communication and teamwork, everyone must grow together. If you use these tips, you’ll scale your company and promote many employees along the way. For more help to create unity in a new team or for help mentoring an existing team in your business, contact me to schedule a session today!

Filed in Tips & Hints

3 Important Aspects of Developing a Strong Team

Posted March 8, 2019 By GuestSpot

A business starts with a vision that is communicated through a mission statement. When you hire the staff, you are asking them to live up to the promise of that mission statement. It is crucial that you develop a strong team that will remain focused on the goal of success. Here are three important aspects of developing that strong team for your company.

Pick the Right Members

Everyone can look good on a resume. It is how a candidate holds up under the scrutiny of a job interview that will give you the first indication of how he or she will fit in with your team. The key word here is “team.” You might find an extremely qualified staff member, but would he or she be a good fit for the team? You have to always think of the “sum of the parts as the whole” when it comes to strong team building.

Once you’ve assembled your team, you’ll want to play to their strengths. Some might be better at presentations whereas others are great at research. Identifying those qualities will help inform how assignments should be handed out.

Communication

Keeping the lines of communication open is vital for a strong company team. You want to create an atmosphere where your staff feels confident and welcome to ask for clarity. You never want someone feeling intimidated to ask for more instructions. This is especially important for the staff that might be working from home. Just because there isn’t a physical presence in the office doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be a regular flow of communication. For good team communication, you need to engage your deskless or remote employees. Emails and texts can work, but utilizing video communication links can prove to be more effective. Even when you sense some discomfort with the “video” aspect – you will find that once you build it into the norms of meeting you teams will feel more connected.  You might even want to check out a few of these reads on “Do’s and Don’ts of good meetings” and “Meetings that people don’t hate”.

Learn from Successes and Failures

When the staff members have met their goals, then it is time to celebrate that success. This doesn’t necessarily mean rushing out to happy hour on a Friday. Instead, consider how that success was achieved in specific details, and honor the team members that made it happen. Conversely, you should also examine the failures. This shouldn’t be used as an excuse to lay blame but as a good opportunity to learn from mistakes. You might just discover that you’ll be more productive moving on from the failures.

The team you build is going to be a reflection of your company. When team members work together towards common goals, then success becomes the only result.

Filed in Engage! Post, Tips & Hints | Tagged: ,