Belle Oberbrunner Great Ideas for your Small Business: Take Your Sexual Harassment Policy Seriously In june 1997, a federal jury awarded $6.6 million to a woman who was subjected to regular sexual taunts from her coworkers at a car dealership. Sexual harassment is serious business. That’s why even the smallest company should have a written policy in … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Deal Carefully with Issues of Workplace Violence What would you do if your sales manager walked into work one morning with a black eye? What do you say when your secretary shows up with a split lip and puffy, swollen eyes? Do you ask what happened? Do you pretend … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Offer Employees the Right Incentives If you think glitzy trips to atlantic city or Las Vegas are great sales motivators for your employees, think again. When offered the choice between a trip or money, 44 percent of the employees polled preferred the financial reward, while 39 percent said they … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Offer to Train Your Employees Spending on training and education pays off big for you and your employees. For a modest sum, your employees can learn a new skill, build confidence, and boost productivity. Subsequently, you and your business benefit from happier, healthier, and more energetic workers. Ask your … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Hire an Interim Executive Big and small businesses are turning to temporary executives more and more to fill important positions. While the number of traditional clerical temps is declining, the professional and technical segment of the temporary staffing industry is growing by about 5 percent a year, industry experts … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Work with a Great Labor Attorney “You will be assaulted, abused, or sued by an employee; it’s only a question of when and how,” declares Robert Millman, a feisty labor attorney and partner at Littler Mendelson in Los Angeles. “Small business owners, in particular, are being hit very hard … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Ask Good Clients to Meet Key Hires When it comes to hiring key employees like a new sales or account manager, marketing chief, graphic designer, or executive assistant, it makes sense to go that extra step. Introduce your top candidates to the clients they will work with if they … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Find Out How Disney Does It No one is surprised when an entrepreneur heads to Harvard, New York University, or USC for a management training program, but eyebrows raise when they sign up for a course at Walt Disney World’s Disney Institute in Orlando, Florida. More than 60,000 people … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Offer Classes in English as a Second Language It’s no surprise to me that two of the nation’s most successful entrepreneurs offer free, onsite English as a second language (ESL) classes to employees. David Giuliani, president of the Optiva Corp., and the Small Business Administration’s 1997 Small Business Person … Read more
Great Ideas for your Small Business: Tailor Benefits to Employees’ Needs In the small business world, one size definitely does not fit all. Every company has a distinct group of employees with varying personal lives, professional goals, and priorities. While big companies prefer to offer the same insurance benefits and options to everyone, small companies … Read more
