THINKING ENTREPRENEUR
An owner’s dispatches from the front lines.
If there is an aspect of running a small business that doesn’t get enough attention, I think it’s pricing. Unfortunately, there’s a good reason for that: pricing is hard to do and easy to ignore. But that’s especially dangerous right now when there’s a good chance your own expenses are changing.

With most management decisions, your goals are pretty straight forward. Most of the time, you simply want to be the best at whatever you do. You want to have the best staff, the best service, the best marketing. But pricing is more complicated. You may say you want to offer the best price. But what does that mean? The lowest price for the customer? The price that will provide the best value for the customer? The price that will result in the highest profit for your company? The price that will result in the most sales for your company?

It can get even more complicated. To figure out the relationship between the price you charge and the profitability that results, you have to do some cost accounting. For instance, if you are manufacturing a product, you have to take into consideration reject rates, machine maintenance, insurance, rent, utilities and inventory carrying costs, just to name a few expenses. Maybe you own an auto parts store that specializes in carrying parts for older cars. You pride yourself on having the alternator for almost every car built since 1960. Surely that would suggest that you could charge a premium. But how much? What is the carrying cost of your huge inventory?

Even figuring out that inventory cost is not simple. If you finance the inventory with borrowed funds, is the carrying cost the interest you are charged? Or do you have to consider the other things you might have done with that money? What if you are at your borrowing limit and you could have spent the borrowed funds on something more profitable? What about the fact that some of those parts are never going to sell? That is called obsolete inventory, which will probably be calculated when you — or your descendants — sell your inventory during a liquidation sale, for pennies on the dollar.
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Here’s an example:  A company builds a terrific repository of information for employees to use.  It’s great because all of the information is online and accessible anytime.  But employees don’t use it.  Why?  Well, there could be several reasons:

• No one knew it existed.
• It’s easier just to walk around the corner and ask someone.
• The system has a lot of information but it’s not updated regularly.
• Information located in one section of the system doesn’t match information found in another section.
• And the list goes on.

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The MS Project was created to raise awareness for Multiple Sclerosis. Consisting of a book, a website, and an iPhone app these elements work together to bring more attention to the disease, teach people, and create a strong community.

World MS Day is Wednesday May 25^th and our goal, starting May 1^st – May 25^th, is 2500 downloads in 25 days.

The book – released on March 14^th, 2011, is a collection of stories written by people afflicted by Multiple Sclerosis, or who have loved ones afflicted. This book is meant to be informational regarding the disease as experienced by real people and to showcase the amazing strength people find when facing adversity. DOWNLOAD the e-book for .99 on Amazon or Smashwords.

The iPhone app – is a tool to create awareness for Multiple Sclerosis. Connected to The MS Project website the app will include a feed from the blog to provide access to the MS community and a wealth of knowledge. DOWNLOAD the app on iTunes for .99.

Not only will 2500 downloads raise awareness for the cause but profits go to the MS Society.

For more information go to The MS Project website at http://www.themsproject.com

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Growing up in an environment where it was required to address people as yes ma’am and no sir and to always respect my elders, I have always modeled my business practices and personal behavior as an adult around this embedded behavior from my upbringing. With this conservative upbringing it has always surprised me how open and honest and sometimes inappropriate, people are when hiding behind the cloak of email or other forms of electronic communication. It seems to bring out a lot of passive/aggressiveness in people.
While I think it is great to be transparent about who you are and how you feel there are some things that really should not be broadcasted to everyone. Especially if your audience includes people you don’t know very well. There are things to be kept private (for personal reasons) and others that should be kept to those involved for professional reasons. I find it highly inappropriate to use twitter, Facebook, Linked in, MySpace…whatever is may be, to comment on negative experiences with clients and/or vendors. Those clients and/or vendors are probably on your twitter, Facebook, Linked in, MySpace pages and will not only find you offensive but you can ruin the professional reputation you have worked so hard to build with them in short order. Additionally the use of slander, profanity, or blasphemy is again highly offensive and inappropriate. So let’s remind ourselves that we owe it to our followers to always be courteous and respectful. Likewise if you have issues with someone address it with that person and don’t go gossiping about it via technology.

Dr. Laina Molaski

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This time of year is one where many business’ that are seasonal in nature, tend to hire additional help for the summer to assist with the overflow of work. However, although you may not want to spend a lot of time training these seasonal workers (since they won’t be around long), for your business to run smoothly you must.
One seasonal workers first day, which was today so it hasn’t even been a full day, as a delivery person has already resulted in two issues. Getting lost and getting a speeding ticket. Both things that are not great for a delivery driver. As you can imagine the business owner is frustrated tremendously which has probably resulted in additional stress and lost productivity. This could have been prevented, or at least maybe cut in half, had there been a few things in place.
A thorough interview process based on a strong job description would have ensured that the employee had the basic skills required to do the job effectively. Informing the employee with a clear expectation of what was expected of him and the consequence of actions not resulting in the expectation.
So who is at fault? The employer for not having the basic expectations in place or the employee for not having the common sense the employer assumed he should have?
My answer? My grandma always pointed out to me what “assume” did. Enough said.

Laina

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So you’re a business owner or manager and you’re super excited to be responsible for the human resource (HR) function in your business. As you jump in to this area of managing your human capital there are a few basic things you need to know about HR.
Some of the most important aspects of HR are the organizational parts. You must have organized employee files, good time management, and attention to detail to keep all the HR balls in the air. There are many governmental regulations in regards to paperwork and you’re responsible for your employees pay checks and benefits. It’s not good when you have no idea what is going on.
You need to have a good sense of confidentiality and business ethics. You are in charge of your employee’s information. Some of which is sensitive i.e. pay, benefits, medical information. All situations should be handled appropriately and confidentially. Never discussed with any unauthorized person.
You need to be able to make tough decisions. You are in the lofty position of considering the needs of both the business as a whole as well as the management and employees. It’s your job to work in the best interests of all parties and this can often be a difficult task.
Your employees need to be able to trust you. This will make handing down difficult decisions easier for them to understand. But it can take time to build that trust and less time to ruin it.
Commitment to performance improvement. You need to be the coach to help employees improve to both professional and personal goals. This will significantly increase your bottom line.
You need to be strategic, you are a leader and need to make decisions today that will positively impact the business tomorrow in regards to employees, compensation, the whole package. You always need to be working on how to best move forward and take your team with you.
You must create a team atmosphere. Whether you have one employee or one hundred you must have the entire organization work together, cohesively, as a team.
Human capital, your employees are your most important asset.

Laina

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• Small Business Owners find Support with an Online HR Department– Your Partner In HR Launches (prweb.com)
• Engagement, Performance, Retention – Where do Your Employees Fit? (vasilestoica.wordpress.com)

The MS Project is a collection of things created to raise awareness for Multiple Sclerosis. Consisting of a book, a website, apparel, and an iPhone app these elements work together to bring more attention to the disease, teach people, and create a strong community.

The book – scheduled for release on March 14^th, 2011 is a collection of stories written by people afflicted by Multiple Sclerosis, or who have loved ones afflicted. This book is meant to be informational regarding the disease as experienced by real people and to showcase the amazing strength people find when facing adversity.

The iPhone app – is a tool to create awareness for Multiple Sclerosis. Connected to The MS Project website the app will include a feed from the blog to provide access to the MS community and a wealth of knowledge. The app is schedule for release March 14^th, 2011.

The website – is a social networking site where people passionate about raising awareness for the disease can become members and get to know one another. The goal is to create a community to provide support, awareness, and motivation to people within and outside the community. You can currently access the website athttp://www.themsproject.com.

The MS Project, the book, is now available for – purchase at  The MS Project website orAmazon.

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Having employees can often be one of the more difficult aspects of owning a business. However a good team of people working with you toward a common goal is invaluable. Following the rules of being an employer is even more important. By staying knowledgeable and compliant of current and upcoming labor laws you can make having employees fun or at least less stressful.
Be proactive and protecting yourself is key. At minimum please take the time to review and update your employee manual and policies yearly and if you don’t have an employee manual, or at least written policies and procedures, then get some. If you don’t have the time then hire a professional to do it for you. Make sure you have important things you want people to adhere to in writing. If it’s not in writing it doesn’t exist.

Make sure that your policies are in compliance with the current federal and state labor laws and that all federal and state laws are current. For example if your company must be compliant with the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) then do you know what the guidelines you should be following are? Do you understand the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)? Don’t wait until you have a problem to fix.

Look ahead and be strategic.

Dr. Laina Molaski

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• Employment-At-Will States: How Does Each Differ? (brighthub.com)
• FMLA and Holiday Pay: What Does the Law Say? (brighthub.com)
• Your Rights Under the FMLA (everydayhealth.com)