Working with small business clients we often see struggles between the owner and their employees. The owner is great at what they do, but managing others they often lack the training and skill-sets required. Managing others in conducting your business can be challenging if you let it. As a small business owner with employees you can improve the effectiveness of you as a manager and ensuring employees are productive, efficient and effective. Management/supervision can be summed up in three primary activities; 1. Set Clear Expectations; 2. Reinforce Expectations; 3. Be consistent. 

Setting clear expectations for what you expect from employees is the foundation for ensuring they understand and are able to complete tasks and duties as you want them to be completed. Never assume that employees fully understand your expectations without an explanation and better, a demonstration. For example; an administrative assistant is asked to create a spreadsheet of recent sales. Be clear in giving directions by starting with, "This is what I want it to look like" - showing an example or sketching it out on a piece of paper. "This is where the information comes from to complete the spreadsheet." When possible, demonstrate how to complete a line or two of the spreadsheet then have them complete one while you watch and coach them through the process. Always remembers that a majority of your employees will want to complete the work as you want it be completed, just make sure they fully understand what is expected. 

Reinforce expectations with employees that appear to deviate from the process, or fail to meet your expectations. Do this quickly, don't wait for them to completely fail before you become engaged with them. Use a coaching approach to help motivate the employee. This not only helps them do better, but you save time, money as you won't have to correct work that is not what you expected. Not taking quick actions to correct improper work allows employees to develop bad habits that will be more difficult for them to correct the longer they fail to perform their duties adequately. For example; one of business owners noticed that his receptionist would answer the phone with a nice and polite, "Hello" instead of providing the business name and asking, "How may I help you?". He approached her with a coaching mindset, "You are so polite in answering the phone. That's great. Remember when answering the phone to say "Hello" just like you are doing but remember to say our business name then ask how you can help them. He made sure to listen out for the next few calls to ensure she understood. 

Be consistent in setting your expectations and reinforcing them. Inconsistency is the common mistake managers make when working with employees. Being inconsistent in setting and reinforcing expectations sends mixed signals to employees, making it difficult for them to ensure they are working appropriately. In our training we warn managers and supervisors that being consistent with all employees, all of the time, not only reinforces expectations, it creates a happier work environment. What better job to have than to clearly know what is required to be successful.

Setting clear expectations, reinforcing them and being consistent will help you avoid disciplinary actions which are never fun for the owner/manager or the employee. Also, this will ensure that your business maintains a great presence with your customers.

There are many companies that advertise they will increase the visits to your website. Chances are you have received emails from "individuals' that have found issues with your website and they promise to increase the number visits to your website if you hire them. From our experience, the Pro's are they will increase visits to your website, the Con's are many of the visits are not real people, or not people interested in your business. In other words, increased website visits do not translate to sales.

It is important to understand some basic, key methods that web search engines employ for their users. 

Geography - Probably the most important is relevancy of any web search you conduct as related to your specific location. Maybe you search for car repair. Chances are the search results will be for car mechanics near you at the time you conduct your search. Of course this is of great benefit for the user as they don't have to search through car mechanics that in California when they are in Georgia on the side of the road. 

User information - Search engines also utilize information that is known about the user. This information includes geography, previous searches, and the type of sites you have visited in the past - which pages you opened the most based on a search. For example; yesterday you searched for "flower pots". Today you enter a search term, "10" pot". Chances are the results you receive from a search engine will be focused on flower pots instead of cooking pots, or crock pots. 

Algorithms - Using various algorithms, based on the user, search engines scour the Internet for websites with the most relevant content to what they project will be what the user is looking for. This is a great advantage for the user as search results are focused on the user. 

Getting additional traffic to your website is specific to the user conducting the search and the search engines interpretation of what the user is looking for. So if you sell flower pots, and you include keywords, site content specific to flower pots, you won't get web site visits for individuals looking for cooking pots. Employing a company to assist you in developing your website content so that users can find content specific to them is a great idea, but beware of companies that offer to increase your web site visits only.

Focus on your content, the text you use, and include location information if serving a specific area to help increase your web site visits by people that will be interested in what you have to offer rather than multiple website visits by individuals, or programs, that have no interest in your products. The goal is to have your website displayed in search results for users that have an interest in your products and services. A task that search engine providers are already working on. 

Outsourcing functions to operate your small business makes sense in some cases. As a small business owner, it is often difficult to let go of specific tasks, the thought of paying someone else to do something you feel you can do. Here are a few ideas to consider when trying to determine if outsourcing makes sense: 

• Lack of expertise in a specific knowledge area - One of our colleagues is a great graphic artist, creativity is her specialty. Unfortunately, and she admits to it, balancing her accounts is not something she enjoys, nor fully understands adequately. If you lack expertise in a specific area you will probably find yourself spending an inordinate amount of time working on that task which costs you money and worse, you are more prone to errors. 
• Cost effectiveness - We often think that doing something ourselves saves money. Not always true. One business owner had her employees assembling product packages. Something the manufacturer would do for an added cost. Her thinking? "I don't pay for it if we do it." When considering the cost per hour for employees and then compared to the added cost from the manufacturer, it was cheaper to pre-order product packages ready to go. 
• Improve your business operations - Not all outsourcing ideas will save money. They can greatly improve your business operations that make owning and operating a business much easier for you and your employees. Consider the time savings, and how obtaining expertise in a specific area can help grow your business. Consider it an investment, rather than a cost savings. 

These two ideas to consider make great business sense. Often small business owners continue to complete the work themselves. Here are some areas to consider for outsourcing: 

1. Accounting - Tax laws are complicated, ever changing. Hiring a competent accountant will help you with the daily financial operations, ensuring you maximize your tax filings, and will save you money. 
2. Virtual administrative assistants - Virtual assistants are a great benefit to consultants and businesses with only one or two employees. Chances are you don't need full-time assistance and with the various options available for virtual assistants you can pay for what time you need or use. Having someone answer your phone while you are at an appointment, making travel arrangements, and confirming appointments will also make your life much easier, allowing you time to focus on the work. 
3. Web and IT Services - Maintaining a web site to support your business can be challenging if you are not familiar with technology. Using "templated" websites, or "free websites" can negatively impact your business's reputation. Having someone to monitor your website, ensure it has a clean professional look, and they update it regularly will help keep your business looking fresh, active, and successful. There are services available for less than $25 a month.
4. Using cloud based services - Using cloud based services for email, business office functions is a passive way to outsource. Purchasing software products off the shelf may not always be the best option. Consider cloud based products to allow you anytime, anywhere access. Services such a G Suite is like having an IT professional on staff that is protecting your data, ensuring your software is always up-to-date and working properly. 

Outsourcing can make a lot of business sense to improve your business in several areas. Outsourcing will help you grow your business, increase customer satisfaction and provide you with time to focus on aspects of the business that are important to you.