Operations

Q4 is here – and this what your competitors are doing!

Like a ninja in the dead of night, Q4 has crept up on us, again – regardless of the fact that it comes this same time every year! Yes, it’s Q4 and I’m in shock. Wasn’t it just New Years? How have 9 months gone by in the blink of an eye? As the shock slowly wears off, here are a few things that you should be doing for your business: (btw – your competitors are probably already doing them!)

Talk to your team – No, I don’t mean saying Hi on your way to the coffee maker, but check in with them, conduct Annual Performance Reviews, see if they have any feedback on how things are going and what can be done better.

Improve brand recognition and reputation – If your website is from 1999 and you have no presence on social media – it’s time for a rebrand. Make sure your mobile friendly on the social sites that your clients visit. If you have negative reviews, don’t ignore them, address them, and find out how you can fix the problems. If your competitors are ranking higher on Google than you, then you’ve got some work to do!

Set sales goals – Even if you won’t reach your sales goals for 2017 – make sure you set goals for 2018. If 2017 was too much of a stretch, make sure your 2018 goals are a little more reserved. If you blew 2017 out of the water, then it’s time to get realistic and set more challenge goals. You aren’t doing yourself any favors by setting goals that aren’t somewhat of a stretch.

Clean up your contact list – That customer who won’t return your call – probably is not going to buy from you. Clean up your list and weed out any prospects who aren’t interested. It’s just a waste of your time to chase them, and probably frustrating on their end to keep dodging your calls or emails.

Plan for Q1 – It’s all about preparation! If you want to start Q1 off with a bang, you have to be ready. You should always be planning at least a quarter ahead if not more. What’s in the sales pipeline? What’s your marketing & sales strategy? Cash flow analysis and updated business planning – all need to happen now for next year.

Even with the best laid plans and intentions, Q4 can be a very hectic time. As you close out the year, and prepare for a new one, don’t forget to appreciate your staff and all their hard work. After all, you couldn’t have done it without them!

Q4 is here – and this what your competitors are doing! Read More »

How to Attract Top Talent for Your Business

When your company is expanding, hiring the right people becomes more important than ever. In order to keep up momentum and reach the next level, every seat has to be filled with just the right individual for the job. If you’ve been recruiting for a while, sometimes it feels like there are slim pickings out there. Finding candidates that match EVERY requirement are hard to come by. And to make matters worse, sometimes the people you do hire prove to be not a great fit for your company culture in the long-run. So how can you leverage your current resources to find the right player for the team? Consider these tips!

Turn Mixers into Interviews
Use every networking event as an opportunity for recruiting. Tradeshows, mixers, and marketing events are common places to find professionals you want to partner with. As a hiring manager, go in with an eye-open for your next recruit. Having this intention in the back of your mind will encourage you to listen a little harder when the people around you talk about their experience. Find ways to plug their expertise into your business. In many cases, the people you meet may even know someone who could possibly be a good fit for your vacancy.

Create an internal referral program
If your employees know that you are hiring, they may be open to sending you recommendations for the gig. Who better to choose a good fit for the company than an individual who is actually involved in the day-to-day. By setting up a generous sign-on incentive you will increase your chances of finding a recruit via your current staff. To attract the best talent, add a clause to this program that says new hire must last 30-60 days in order to receive full incentives. This will ensure your employees remain selective.

Write a detailed job description
In many cases, we will still have to use online job boards to generate a nice pool of applicants to choose from. Make sure your job description is detailed and accurately reflects the culture of the company. Those small details will attract candidates who align with your values and discourage those that don’t. Take some time to craft a meaningful job description that gives applicants a precise view of what their duties will be. Spell out the requirements clearly differentiating between mandatory qualities and qualities that re just pluses.

Make the job worth it
The small pool of top talent has top notch requirements to match. Make sure the position has perks and a salary that is competitive and worth their time. Things like flexible work schedules, lenient dress codes and work from home hours excite applicants looking to feel empowered. The best of the best is not likely to settle for or even apply to a job that doesn’t make them happy. They’ve earned their right to be selective.

Last but not least, congratulate yourself on your business growth! By following these simple steps you’ll be one interview closer to building your dream team. Good Luck!

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Calling in Sick – When is enough, enough?

You get the flu, sprain an ankle, or have a sick child – these all fall under reasons you’d probably call out of work and take a sick day, right? But what happens when Susan calls out of work every other week because she has a hang nail, she has a flat tire – AGAIN, or she has a sniffle? According to CareerBuilder, about 38% of employees have called in sick when they felt perfectly fine. So, what can you do to curb employee sick day abuse? We’ve got a few suggestions.

  •  Create a combined PTO policy. Merging sick and vacation time under one Paid Time Off (PTO) umbrella may not seem like it will make a difference, but when constant sick time abusers realize that their excessive call outs may affect their actual vacation days – they may think twice about blowing through all their time by March.
  • Track the abuse. Is the employee calling out the same day of the week each time, or the same days of the month? If you notice a pattern, it could be traced to a sport schedule or perhaps their child’s school schedule.
  • Is it a medical or disability issue? An employee may have an issue at home that they don’t want to disclose, or an illness that requires a lot of doctor appointments or days when they aren’t capable of working. You’ll want to investigate whether it may be an American with Disabilities Act issue or an FMLA issue and you just aren’t aware.
  • Create a call out policy that requires speaking to someone. Employees are much less likely to call out if they must speak to their boss on the phone vs. leaving a voicemail, email, or text.
  • Talk to the employee! This ones seems obvious, but you’d be surprised how nonconfrontational some managers may be. Open the lines of communication and see if you can find out the root cause behind the behavior[/cs_text][cs_text]This next part may seem counterintuitive, BUT we think it’s pretty darn important at the Red Barn. Don’t discourage employees from taking mental health days if they really need them. Many employees struggle with work life balance and that stress can get overwhelming at times. If employees are starting to get burnt out – encourage them to take a day mental health day. Trust me – everyone will benefit from it, AND it will help prevent employee turnover. I’m not saying it’s OK to take one every week, but if they are working on a particularly tough project or account, taking one day a month won’t kill any.
    Curious what some of the most popular and ridiculous reasons people call out of work? Check out this list – there are a few good ones! CLICK HERE

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The Employment Offer Letter – When to Send it, and Why You Need it!

It’s been a long and grueling search to find the perfect candidate who’s not only qualified for the job opening, but also fits your company culture, embodies your Core Values, is within your salary range, and is ready to hit the ground running. So, what’s next? Making them an offer of course!

Most people will call a candidate on the phone and share the good news with them. It’s the perfect time to lay out what the initial offer will be and allow them to ask any immediate questions. Since you already know the candidate’s salary requirements, and most companies address the benefits of the job beforehand – there really should be any sticker shock on either end.

A simple, and easy way to follow up the conversation is to then let the candidate know that you will be sending a formal offer letter via email. This allows the candidate time to process all the information, review it with a spouse or trusted friend, and not be pressured to make an immediate decision.
While a handshake may have been the preferred method of acceptance in the past, you should require your new hire, upon final negotiations, to sign and return the offer letter back to you. Here’s a few items that we suggest you include in any offer letter:

  • Congratulatory/celebratory comments. Express your excitement about them joining the team.
  • The company/organization. Include the specific company name or department that the new hire will be working for along with their official title.
  • The job requirements. Briefly touch on the key requirements again for the position.
  • The supervisor. Who will the person report to, and what is their title.
  • Conditions of employment. If your company performs any drug or background checks be sure to indicate that employment is contingent upon the results of these checks.
  • The pay and benefits available. Is the position full time or part time, temporary or regular, and exempt or non-exempt? Make sure to clearly list these along with the hourly or weekly pay. Also include any guaranteed bonuses, overtime eligibility, and what benefits the employee may qualify for.
  • Hours and where to report. Clearly lay out the expected working hours and where the employee should report to for their first day of work.
  • At Will Employment. Probably the most important thing to include in your letter is a statement of “At Will”. You do not want the employee to believe that your offer letter is a contract for employment.
  • Conclusion: Let the candidate know what to do next. List the start date of employment and when you require the candidate to accept the offer by. Also provide them with instructions on where to return the signed letter and any next steps.

A job offer letter allows you to itemize the facts about the offer, outline the job’s responsibilities and highlight relevant details about the company. Candidates may be uneasy without an offer letter and might wonder about the organization’s commitment to them in the long run if they are not even willing to commit at the beginning.

Creating an offer letter doesn’t need to be a daunting task. Simply create a template so that each time you want to make an offer of employment you can easily fill in the specific/unique pieces for the candidate. By using an offer letter, you can convey to your new employee that they are joining a professional organization.

The Employment Offer Letter – When to Send it, and Why You Need it! Read More »

It’s all about the Ops…the Ops

“Help – I’m getting eaten alive by my competitors. I need a marketing intervention ASAP.” I’ve gotten this call, chatted with this person – more than once. When I first started out in the entrepreneurial world – I only offered marketing. Strategy, Traditional print support, that transformed into more digital work – but you know – Marketing “Stuff”. I quickly learned that if Sales and Marketing aren’t communicating or playing nicely in the sandbox together that my marketing will be less effective. So, we added in Sales training and support into the mix. We look at sales goals and capacity to ensure that our marketing endeavors are a cohesive match made in heaven.

But THEN…. I learned. I can have a kick ass marketing strategy and a rock star sales team BUT if there is no process to get the stuff out the door, or the supply chain is running a muck OR the servicing of the client is God awful – then Houston, we have a problem. You got it, all my fabulous marketing and sales guru stuff doesn’t matter because we have unhappy clients. Unhappy clients tell a whole lot of people how they feel.

So – we now start from the beginning. We focus on the operations, the leadership and the culture. Who are the people, what is the process and what is the capacity for growth and scale?

You see it really is about the ops – the operations of the business. The times my Spidey Senses said – “Cindy, this is an ops issue not a marketing/sales issue” yet the client was hell bent on the fact that they had rock solid ops, employees, blah blah blah – it failed. Every Single Time – my marketing and sales strategy failed. Why – because of everything I said above.

You must have a strong foundation before you can grow – or you will topple over. What if the pyramids were upside down? That’s a Jenga nightmare waiting to happen.

Here is how we do it – and you can surely do this yourself, but my guess is adult supervision is needed. (another thing I learned – business owners need to bring in experts to get S**t done sometimes)

1. SWOT of your business. What’s working, what isn’t.
2. Leadership – Do you even have good leadership?
3. Team – are they happy? Are they productive? Are they efficient?
4. Customer Journey and Experience – do you have happy customers? How do you “touch them” along the way?
5. Marketing – what is your “Why” – who the hell are you in the world? What is your story?
6. How will you tell your story – and how much money do you have to do it?
7. Who the heck is selling – every company has to sell something, I don’t care who you are.
8. Who is pulling it all together – who is running the ship, managing the process? PS – often the dude or dudette at the top isn’t the one. They are visionaries, not project managers.
9. How are you tracking successes and failures?

9 Steps – and trust me – you don’t want to skip any of them. Not my first rodeo, I’ve fallen off that bull just a few times and I’ve learned a few things along the way!

If you need that adult supervision –send us an email, send up a smoke signal or hey – pick up the phone and call us.

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Should you fire that client?

Don’t worry – any of my clients reading this you are all safe 🙂 I love you and appreciate your loyalty – hell, you guys are all just great to work with, and fun.

I often work with clients who are struggling with time management, revenue growth, and scaling. As you well know, one of the first things I do is dig behind the scenes. Who are the customers, who is the team servicing those customers, who is selling – the list goes on.

Sometimes the issue is…. the customer or customers.

I’m a huge fan of deciding what your Target Client Profile is – or TCP for short. Your magical client – the one you want millions of – ok, maybe not millions if you are the size of Red Barn. Let’s just say you want a bunch.

Now, I’m realistic. Not all your clients will be as perfect as your favorite client. Current clients don’t ask me who that is – that’s like asking a Mom who their favorite child is! Back to being realistic. You should identify the traits in your favorite clients and then STRIVE to find others who share those traits.

If you have a client who makes you and/or your staff miserable or is never happy no matter what you do – divorce them. Regardless of the revenue. Yes, I said regardless of the revenue. Why? Well, beyond making you miserable, which affects your culture, they also are preventing you from finding clients who are in your TCP.

Sometimes letting revenue generating clients go isn’t easy – it’s kind of like letting a good producing salesperson go. But if they aren’t playing nicely in the sandbox – rip off the proverbial band-aid. Sure, it will be unpleasant for a while, but in the end, you will be better off and happier.

A wise woman – aka Robin Bienemann from Crimson Rook – once taught me perhaps one of the most valuable lessons. Write this down – remember it.

ONLY – and I mean ONLY work with people who:
1. You can bring true value to and they must appreciate that value
2. Can afford your services. No haggling allowed.
3. You like, your team likes, and hey, you wouldn’t mind having a Friday afternoon cocktail with.

BTW- above is a pretty darn good formula for determining who is in your Target Client Profile.

Homework: Look at your clients. Which do NOT follow the 3 rules above? Are you ready to let go?

Another BTW – if all your clients are in the hate column then Houston we have a bigger problem. No worries – there is always a solution, but for this one you need to call me. A serious phone chat is in order.

Cheerio!
CD

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Is Work and Life Balance Really Achievable?

Here at Red Barn Consulting, we absolutely love our jobs — What could be better than working with fantastic clients, building a team of fearsomely good people, and sharing what makes your business brilliant with the world?

But, even we know you can have too much of a good thing. It’s why there’s no end of articles on work and life balance — Trying to spin the plates of work, home, friends, family, and commitments simultaneously, without losing your mind.

Honestly — we’re not sure that’s the very best approach. That’s why we think about work life balance a little bit differently (big surprise)!

Balance = Flexibility – To us, it’s all about flexibility — Knowing what you want to do and getting rid of what you don’t. It’s not about jumping the “work” hurdle and then the “life” hurdle, but about making those hurdles smaller. Then you don’t need to waste time worrying that you might stumble.

Why do we think this way? Well, employers are demanding, especially if that employer is you! (Yep, the self-employed are probably the worst at separating work and personal life…) Because of those demands, you probably will check email after 6 PM, work late to get the presentation out the door, and crunch through the weekend to put the proposal together.

For good or bad, it’s what’s expected — But think about this in terms of flexibility and removing the time-wasting stuff, and things get much easier.

If you’re an employer, be flexible in how you let your team work. If they need to work from home occasionally, give them the opportunity. If they’ve worked late and need to leave early to watch their child in a school play, give them the time off with your blessing. Provide your employees with autonomy and let them manage their days — They know what they need to do and when they need to do it, so build trust by letting them decide how.

As an employee, it never hurts to ask. Demonstrate to your boss how you’ve made their lives easier through the work you’ve put in. Ask about flexible working arrangements that will let you spend quality time with your family. If you can demonstrate good work, your employer will probably be open to your suggestions.

Remember, working is a give and take relationship — If both sides respect one another, it becomes less about work and life balance, and more about what works best for employer and employee.

Second to flexibility is getting rid of the stuff that’s just wasting your time. You’ve probably heard of the “Pareto Principle” — That 80% of results comes from 20% of actions. It’s time to find that 20% and cut out as much of the other stuff as you can. Keep a log of what you’re doing on a daily basis for a couple of weeks and ask yourself “Is this making the business better?” If it’s not expanding the business, making things more efficient, bringing in greater revenue, or enhancing how you work, get rid of it.

Be ruthless — Talk to your colleagues and your boss and get them to take on the same mindset. Look at the waste in the business — The processes that could be improved, the way that you and others work. Then, make a conscious choice to change, and encourage others to change with you.

And that’s really it — There’s no big secret to work and life balance, other than approaching it differently. Think of it as flexibility, and not some magical target you have to reach, and you’ll be much happier (trust us, we know!) Cut out the stuff you don’t want to do, be awesome at what’s left, and there will be no stopping you.

Is Work and Life Balance Really Achievable? Read More »

The one thing your business MUST have – but many go without…

You guessed it…Ah, the humble employee handbook — How little it’s appreciated. I’m often surprised when I begin working with a company and I ask to see their employee handbook and I get the “Yea, it’s on our to-do list – we are a small company though so it doesn’t really matter…..does it?”

It does.

Forget the obvious – you don’t have PTO days or holidays structured and in writing, there’s no written policy in case of harassment issues, or what the lay of the land is if an employee should leave or break a rule (that may or may not be written in stone).

Many companies that have an employee handbook, updated by HR every three years, given out in the introduction pack for new starters, and seldom referred to again, it leads a small and solitary life — It doesn’t have to be this way.

Used well, the employee handbook can become a vital resource for the way your business does things. Imagine having a living, breathing document that:

• Lays out reasonable, agreed upon policies in an easy to understand way.
• Shares the best ways to work to keep everyone productive.
• Has hints and tips on best practice.
• Keeps everything clear and consistent across your business.

That sounds pretty great, right?

And….you don’t have one. It’s o.k. we aren’t here to judge (not really) – we’re here to help you get started!

So, how do you go about creating this wondrous thing? Glad you asked…

Involve everyone in creating and rewriting the employee handbook. The best way to get people to care about your employee handbook is to involve them in writing it. Ask your employees about what they want it to cover, get feedback on your policies, put together a focus group. Let your teams know it’s a way to get invested in how they work day to day — They can have a direct impact on doing things better.

Talk through and get feedback on your business policies and procedures. Your policies and procedures impact everyone in your business. Encourage your employees to discuss and suggest improvements. That will encourage them to read through and understand your procedures and policies and help them feel accountable for any changes.

Make your employee handbook easily accessible to everyone. Save the trees! If you print out your handbook, it will just end up in the back of a desk drawer, gathering dust. Put your handbook online, on your intranet or a private website. Make sure it’s properly hyperlinked, has access to other resources and is easily searchable. Include a direct link to it on the front page of your intranet. Make sure that all of the language in the handbook is easy to understand and avoid jargon.

Ensure it’s about more than just policies and procedures. The best way to get people to use the staff handbook is to make it useful. Rather than just being about how you do things, how about having links to online training, best practices, explainer videos, or discussion groups? Make the handbook itself interactive — Get people to share their experiences and successes.

Regularly reference your handbook in communications. When you send out emails and other communications to your teams, reference the staff handbook. Highlight it as the central resource for your employees to source their information. Make people rely on it, and it will become their go to.

Your employee handbook is one of the best ways to influence your employees and encourage them to work better. When you use plain language, involve them in writing it, discuss policies and procedures, and make it truly useful, it’s better for everyone.

Oh, and yes we still believe employees should sign something that says “Hey, I read the handbook”. It might come in handy one day.

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10 Habits of Hyper-Productive People

I\’m Jenn (that\’s not me in the picture). I’m known at the Red Barn as the Ops Beast – and I didn’t get that name by procrastinating. I take pride in being efficient and quick while still maintaining the level of quality needed to do my job. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not perfect – but I’ve learned where I excel and how I like to work.
I’m sure you’ve seen articles before in your social media travels on habits of hyper-productive people – it’s a list of must-do’s to follow in order to conquer the world, your to-do list, and your inbox all before lunch. But let’s be honest – how many people follow all those guidelines – and I don’t know about you, but I’m NOT getting up at 4am.

So, lucky for you, I’ve created a condensed list, with my two cents of course…

Common must-do’s in order to increase your productivity.

Work backwards – no really, it works. If your end goal is to create a presentation for the Board, break down the timeline and task list into smaller, manageable subtasks with specific dates that will allow you to get the project done on time. You won’t feel so overwhelmed and you’ll be able to cross the subtasks off your list making you feel more accomplished!

Prioritize Your To Do List – Handle your most pressing issues first. I know it’s easy to get pulled into helping others or taking care of something that’s easy to knock off the list, but handling the Must Do’s first, will help ease stress and eliminate a last minute panic to meet a deadline.

Take a break – as often as you need to. I know this seems counterproductive, but your brain will thank you. Struggling to get through something that your brain just doesn’t want to do is basically torture. Take a break, get up and move around, and let your brain reset and refocus. You are bound to make less mistakes and use less time and energy in the long run.

Manage your energy – Your energy is just as important, if not more important than your time. If something on your to-do list requires a lot of energy and focus – do it when your brain and body are at its peak. For some this is first thing in the morning (like Cindy), for others it might be later in the day. This also works well for creative types – if you aren’t creative in the afternoon, don’t leave those types of tasks for when you don’t have any creative juices left in the tank.

Stop obsessing over email – if your inbox is flooded with emails every few minutes, stop checking it constantly. Set up a rule on how often you will check it. We think of email as a tool, but it can be ridiculously distracting. A good rule of thumb, if you can’t explain something in a few sentences or it will take multiple emails – just pick up the phone instead.

Stay healthy – Get enough sleep, exercise, and proper nutrition. This one is HUGE for me. I make sure I get at least 7 hours of sleep, eat fairly well, and have a set schedule of when I go to the gym. Unless it’s an emergency, I don’t compromise on these. They keep me sane and energized so I can embrace the Beast within!

Say No and Learn to delegate – These are NOT my strong suits – so I commiserate with you. It’s a process but learn to say NO if you simply don’t have the time to help others or take on additional tasks. Also, learn to delegate when possible. It’s hard to give up control, but if you don’t, you’ll burn yourself out.

Stop multi-tasking – trust me on this one. You are way more productive focusing on just one task at a time vs three. The time it takes you to bounce back and forth between multiple projects, is time that could have been used towards completing just one of them. Your brain needs to refocus and adjust each time you switch gears – plus it leaves you open to making more mistakes.

Plan for tomorrow– before you leave for the day, update your To Do List and regroup on what you need to accomplish tomorrow. When you get to the office tomorrow – you can get right down to work and crossing things off the To-Do list.

Create your own system – What might work well for me, may be a disaster for you. And that’s OK! It’s about progress, not perfection. Try making a few small changes each week and see how they affect your productivity. Remember, it takes at least 21 days to create a habit, so don’t throw in the towel after 21 minutes.

You’ve made it through the list, hopefully you’ve picked up a few tips and tricks and are ready to start down the road to a more productive YOU! I’d love to hear some feedback on what works, what doesn’t, and any additional tips you might have. Now get into Beast mode and start tackling that To-Do list!

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You’re Wasting Time

Productivity is your thing. You worked through the weekend…You wrote emails, put together a sales meeting agenda, and answered phone calls. So what if you were late for your friend’s birthday party and the lawn didn’t get mowed. You were still productive. Were you really? Research shows that working long hours actually saps your productivity in the long run. You might think you’re getting work stuff done by clocking in more than 50 hours a week, but the truth is you’re wasting time.

An interesting Stanford University study that looked at the productivity of females working in munition factories spread all over Britain during World War One proves the point.

The author of the study, John Pencavel, found that the output of the women who toiled more than 70 hours a week differed little than if they had worked 50 hours a week.

That’s right. All those long hours those women spent – Sunday was their only day off – loading gun cartridges didn’t matter to their output in the long run. In fact, the study found that productivity begins to fall after working 50 hours a week.

Yes, I know working piecemeal in a munitions factory during wartime in 1914 isn’t the same as working in an office, but the study proves that clocking in long hours in any line work is counterproductive.

Aside from zapping your productivity, working long hours can lead to fatigue, obesity, brain damage, stress, and even a news article. So how does one work less and still stay ahead of work obligations? There is plenty of advice out there. Business Insider ran a story highlighting entrepreneurs who manage to get things done by working fewer hours.

By working less you’ll get more and better work done, a Slate piece suggests. The thinking is that when your energy is depleted from working long hours you are prone to make bad decisions and mistakes.

So, next weekend, turn off your cellphone. Go for a bike ride, spend time with your family, take a yoga class. And mow the lawn.

Unplug…Have Fun…Get more work DONE!

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