Cutting Costs without Cutting Labor

by Nathaniel Davis

Eliminating jobs does not result in immediate cost-savings. You have to consider severance packages that have to be financed as well as unemployment benefits to satisfy. The morale of the employees left behind always suffers.

There are strategies that can save money immediately, keep unemployment insurance rates down, and even maintain or improve employee morale while saving jobs. You should always consider alternatives before implementing involuntary reduction of staff. Below I have listed a few.

Temporary Staffing: Temporary staffing is not a part of the human resource budget that is reserved for regular employees. You can save many dollars here due to your organization not having to pay unemployment benefits if this staff is reduced. 

Part-time Employees: Sometimes you will have part-time employees scheduled to work 25 hours per week but are working upwards of 40 hours per week. Take a look at actual hours worked versus just full time equivalents. Look at the actual dollars and hours versus just focusing on head counts.

Job-Sharing: Allowing two people to work part-time hours for one full-time position allows for seamless coverage of the position. The client and the organization work with the team as if they were one person. 2 people getting the job done and the organization benefits by enjoying 2 heads instead of one.

Telecommuting Increase: This doesn’t directly affect labor costs, but it can reduce costs in the amount of office space utilized as well as office equipment. You can take advantage of allowing multiple employees to use one office on specific days when they are not working from home.

Organizations need to be flexible and look toward long-term cost cutting measures. Lowering employee morale and gutting the talent pool can negatively alter the organization over the course of years. Not focusing on just cutting labor can find the organization benefitting more in not only the short-term but looking forward into the future.

How Companies Can Cut Costs Without Cutting Jobs

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1667960836001/how-companies-can-cut-costs-without-cutting-jobs/

The Importance of Financial Responsibility

By Molly Wider

It is well known that when people fall into debt, lose their job, or experience financial difficulties for any reason, emotional trouble follows financial trouble with the same certainty sunset follows sunrise. Relationships are strained, bankruptcies are filed and dreams are dashed. For a period at least, the feeling of failure burns not only one's credit, but one's self-esteem - deeply.

Recovery is consequently something one must initiate as soon as possible, both financially and psychologically. Although it may take time and be painful, this process can also be an eye-opener, a hard lesson one can use to build a more solid and safe future based on financial responsibility.

Nothing long-lasting, in fact, is built on the spur of the moment, but it is the result of hard work, dedication, and resilience. The widespread belief that "having a lot of money" is what makes a person's future safe does not, in fact, hold true in reality.

Big lottery winnings, for example, can be just as disastrous for a person as falling into debt. This is quite surprising to many, but lotteries' sudden "millionaires" end up filing for bankruptcy and divorce, have their homes foreclosed and their dreams and families shattered with alarming frequency.

Reading some of these life stories, although saddening, can be indirectly soothing since it debunks the myth: "if only I had more money".

What makes a person's future safe is not the amount of money in itself, rather making the concept of financial responsibility an integral part of life: the skills, endurance, and willingness to manage one's finances wisely.

Once that is accomplished, money becomes truly effective and so does borrowing. This is why banks and financial institutions rely on your credit rating: they use your credit score to determine if you have achieved a satisfactory level of financial responsibility. In the end, that is their true collateral.

But how can one get there after having experienced serious financial trouble? If your credit is not satisfactory, sometimes, this means that even if you have collateral you may be denied credit, or have to pay very high interests for it.

Fortunately, there are other options to get you back on the saddle when you're ready to start your path to financial recovery. As soon as you have acquired an inner understanding of how finances should be run, one of these options is to rebuild your credit through a secured loan such as a car title loan. These loans are approved based on the value of your car are truck and can be obtained regardless of your credit rating. Reputable financial organizations that offer these services are ready to give you another chance at building a truly safe financial future.

Pros and Cons of Entrepreneurship

To everything in life there are advantages and disadvantages; entrepreneurship is no exception. As a matter of fact, entrepreneurship involves a lot of risk taking. Yet, it can pay off very nicely as well, with rewards such as profits and the opportunity to be your own boss and make your own decisions.

Here are some pros and cons to consider:

Pros
• Excitement: Due to its high capacity for risk, there is a lot of adventure.

• Rules and regulations: Work in a current job is difficult to do because of all the "red tape" and consistent administration approval needed.

• Originality: Some people feel that they can offer a new service/product that no one else has offered before.

• Competition: Employees feel they can offer their current company's product/service at a lesser expense to the public.

• Independence: Some people wish to be their own boss and make all the important decisions him/herself.

• Salary potential: Generally, people want to be paid for the amount of work they do in full; they do not want to be "short-changed."

• Flexibility: Entrepreneurs can schedule their work hours to spend quality time with family or any other reason.

• Rational salary: They are not being paid what they're worth and would rather work on their own and earn the money they should be earning for their efforts.

• Freedom: Entrepreneurs can work whenever they want, wherever they want, and however they want.
Cons
• Salary: Starting your own business means that you must be willing to give up the security of a regular paycheck.

• Benefits: There will undoubtedly be fewer benefits, especially when considering that your business will be just starting off.

• Work schedule: The work schedule of an entrepreneur is never predictable; an emergency can come up in a matter of a second and late hours will have to be put in.

• Administration: All the decisions of the business must be made on your own; there is no one ranked higher than you on the chain of command in YOUR business.

• Incompetent staff: Often times, you will find yourself working with an employee who "doesn't know the ropes" as well as you do due to lack of experience.

• Procedures: Many times during your entrepreneurial life, you will find that many policies do not make sense, nor will they ever make sense.

The Importance of Treating Employees With Respect

by Aaron Marquis

 

Motivation

Treating your employees with respect is vital to maintaining motivation. For example, if you do not respect the time of your employees, be it from long, unnecessary meetings or poor project planning, your employees will be less motivated to put forth the extra effort needed for productivity. Additionally, if you do not respect the work of your employees or the energy they used to complete a task, they will be less motivated to complete tasks with the same quality next time.

Loyalty

Employees who feel as if the company does not respect their work or them personally may lose their loyalty toward the company. Loyalty is critical to employee  longevity and productivity within a company. Without longevity, companies waste valuable resources recruiting, training and acclimating new employees to the processes of the business. Employees without loyalty toward the company may go to work for companies that directly compete with their former company, further adding to intellectual loss.

Company Culture

A lack of respect for employees creates a company culture in which respect is not held in high regard. Management and decision-makers may experience this lack of respect when trying to implement strategy within the company. For example, if a manager wants to focus on a new product or  marketing campaign he thinks will move the company forward, employees may not respect his judgment because they do not respect him. Treating employees with respect is a circular process that affects everyone in the company.

Legal Repercussions

Employees with certain religious, lifestyle or cultural differences that do not receive respect from their managers or peers may pursue legal action in court. The workplace is typically a diverse environment filled with people of different backgrounds; everyone working in the office deserves respect. For example, if you disrespect an employee's religious beliefs by ignoring holiday requests, that employee could sue your company for discrimination. If disrespect is a widespread practice in your company, employees could opt for an even more expensive and costly class-action lawsuit.

LinkedIn for Consultants: Mind Your Manners

Michael Zipursky 

 

Not a day goes by that I don’t get an invitation from someone around the world to connect with them on LinkedIn.

Right now I have 39 invitations…!

Of the all the connection requests I receive, I only accept maybe 10% of them.
Why, you ask? It’s not because I’m unfriendly nor is it because I don’t like to make new connections. On the contrary.

It’s because 90% of the invitations I get are non-personal. Here’s a typical one I just received…

"I’d like to add you to my professional network. - Ross”

I don’t know Ross from Rocky. Who is he? Why does he want to connect? Why should I connect with him?

If Ross can’t take 30 seconds to personalize his message to me there’s no way I’m going to take even 5 seconds to look at his invitation. I’m simply going to delete or ignore it and move on with my day.

Just because YOU ARE ABLE to connect with someone through this technology doesn’t mean you should take it for granted.

You wouldn’t just walk up to someone without introducing yourself and say “Hey, let’s connect!” would you? Of course not.

You’d walk up and say something like:

“Hi I’m Ross, a consultant from Brisbane that works with doctors. I really like the work you’re doing Michael and would like to learn more, blah blah….”

Come on people! It’s time to get professional!

LinkedIn is a great tool for business, use it properly.

I’ve said this many times before, one of the easiest ways to stand out in the marketplace is to be a real professional. Because so many other “pros” handle themselves and their communications like young school kids.

BTW, if you want to connect with me on LinkedIn, if you take the time to make it personal I’ll be more than happy to connect with you.

Why You Can't Succeed Alone

Michael Zipursky

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Myth or truth: Professionals don’t need help because they are professionals?
This is common myth.
It’s understandable why people fool themselves into thinking this. If you’re such an expert in your area why would you need the help of someone else…you know it all already!

That’s just not how it works.

Here’s Eric Schmidt, Google’s former CEO on coaches:

Almost every expert in the world has a mentor or coach of some kind.

I know business consultants making millions of dollars every year that can’t talk highly enough about their own coaches!

These are coaches that have coaches!

Everyone can benefit from a support network. There is always something you can learn from others that have experience.

That’s because we all have different experiences.

Two highly skilled strategists will have slightly different skill sets, will have worked with different clients, and will have different experiences that they’ve gone through.
Sometimes you’ll sit down with your mentor or coach and talk to them about an issue you’re having. It could be about a challenging client situation, the trouble you’re having landing new clients, or dealing with a proposal you’re working on.
You’ve been having a lot of trouble with the issue. You see some solutions but you’re not sure which would be the best one to go with.
You talk with your coach and something magical happens. He explains the issues in a different way. He talks about the options with a slightly different angle to them. He suggests different approaches.
Now it all makes sense.

That’s what a support network is for. That’s how a coach can help you.

You don’t have to do everything yourself.

Achieving success in this business isn’t easy.

It becomes a lot easier when you have people there to help you.
Regardless of your current level of success and experience, getting help can make all the difference.
Getting help doesn’t show your lack of smarts, it demonstrates how smart you are!