Put Your People on the Same Team
Posted on August 25, 2012 by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey in Business Blog
No matter what kind of business you think you’re in, you quickly find out you are in the personnel management business. With careful hiring, mentoring, recognition, and compensation plans, your people can be your greatest asset. Recurrent, personnel issues can be a distraction to you and your staff. Some react to personnel problems by firing [...]
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Dress for Success (Especially in the Office)
Posted on January 9, 2012 by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey in Business Blog
Many companies these days seem to think that they are giving their office staff some kind of a benefit by letting them dress any way they want. Business casual has become casual and casual has become downright scruffy. What happens when Mr. Big walks into your company and your people are dressed in a way [...]
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Positive Company Culture is critical to Growth and Survival – Part 3
Posted on December 31, 2011 by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey in Business Blog
This is the third part in the series about the original Barefoot culture. Culture really sets the tone, boundaries, and expectations the team has toward your company, your mission and your product. We’ve saved the best for last because having a common cause and a common challenge forges, more than any other single factor, positive company culture. When [...]
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Positive Company Culture is critical to Growth and Survival – Part 2
Posted on December 23, 2011 by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey in Business Blog
A company survives and grows due to sales and the loyalty of customers and staff. Sales are based on price, value, dependability, integrity, availability and perception. The basis of perception is image, networking, and more recently, the transparency of the producer. Transparency is what the brand stands for, its authenticity, its identification with higher values, [...]
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Making Mistakes Right
Posted on December 1, 2011 by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey in Business Blog
Everybody makes mistakes, so why not take advantage of them? If your company culture does not give permission to make mistakes, your staff will hide them. They’ll want to ‘fix’ it fast and hope you never find out. They may be the only ones who know how to fix it, and they, or someone else, [...]
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Listen to and Learn from your Sales Staff
Posted on November 28, 2011 by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey in Business Blog
In the previous post we examined some of the ways your well-meaning office, marketing, production and accounting staff may come up with “cost-saving” suggestions than can actually hurt sales. When little things go missing or the package gets simplified in the name of production efficiency, you may hear “It hasn’t affected sales”…yet! Or, “Our [...]
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Beware of “Money Saving” Suggestions from Your Non-Sales Staff
Posted on November 20, 2011 by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey in Business Blog
Let’s start by realizing that there are really only two divisions in every company, Sales and Sales Support. Since Sales Support includes everyone not in Sales, Sales Support consists of Production, Accounting, Marketing, and so on. Without sales there is simply no money for Sales Support salaries. Still, Sales needs Sales Support to perform. The [...]
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Does Your Company Culture Give Rise to Great Ideas?
Posted on May 24, 2011 by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey in Business Blog
Some people think “culture” is what you get in your yogurt. So called “company culture” starts from the top and permeates throughout your organization. The attitudes, principles, philosophies and values of owners like you and your managers shape the decisions, actions, and motivation of your employees. The morale of your people and the impressions of [...]
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7 Tips to Attract and Keep Good People
Posted on April 28, 2011 by Michael Houlihan & Bonnie Harvey in Business Blog
Your people are your most valuable asset. When you are a start-up, they are critical. They represent your company to your customers, vendors and your associates. When your people interact well with each other, they will make your workplace productive and satisfying on many levels. Remember, most top producers aren’t found, they’re made. Most often, [...]
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