Small Business Toolbox

A library of business management info


Stress Management Keeping stress under control is critical to the success of your business. It's important to manage problems as they arise, and plan time for yourself outside of work. Also watch for signs of stress in your employees, and seek ways to help them balance their lives.
  • Small Business Owner's Guide to a Good Night's Sleep
    03/27/2008
    Everyone knows the value of a good night's sleep, but for small business owners it's especially important. Failing to get a full night's rest can make you short with employees and forgetful of your many daily tasks. Yet the small business owner's constant busy schedule sometimes makes it difficult to cultivate the habits that help sleep follow when your head hits the pillow. Read on for some practical ways to improve your sleeping habits and feel better the next day.
  • Five Tips for Optimizing Time Management
    01/23/2008
    Welcome to a new year and a new semester of classes. If you're like many entrepreneurs, you've set your business goals for 2008. And if you're like many students, you went back to school and received syllabus after syllabus, and wondered how you'd ever write all of the papers, read all of the books and cram for all of the tests you're supposed to take over the next four months.
  • Service Projects for Your Small-Business Team
    12/20/2007
    As an individual in today's society, there are probably causes close to your heart, such as housing the homeless, feeding the hungry or raising money for cancer research. And as a small-business owner, you employ a group of smart, energetic people who might just be willing to take up a cause with you. You wouldn't want to force your beliefs and community efforts on them, but by stressing community involvement in your small business, perhaps you could get volunteers from your team to make an even bigger difference than you could alone.
  • Developing Your Business Plan
    10/17/2007
    As we approach the end of the year and the fresh start of a new one, there's no better time for small-business owners to revisit and refresh their business plans. But wait—you may not even have a plan. According to Charlene Andersen, owner of Kamigo Marketing in Nottingham, N.H., most small business-owners know they should have one, but even so, many start their companies without one.
  • Saving a Disliked Employee
    08/06/2007
    When an important member of your staff doesn't get along with coworkers, all of the talents that person brings to the job pale in comparison to the animosity he creates. This situation is common and can be disruptive for any size company, but it presents special concerns for small-business owners. They can't afford to lose a skilled employee or ignore the complaints of their unhappy staff who can't easily escape their irritating coworker.
  • The ABCs of Surviving Change
    07/17/2007
    Change is rapid and, so often, bewildering, but with the right skills, you can survive it, learn to embrace it, even profit from it. Here are the ABCs of surviving change: 21 skills and ideas you can use to make change work for you.
  • Getting a Head Start on Your Day
    07/05/2007
    Getting up and getting started in the morning can be a real drag, right? Especially the day after a holiday from work. Early mornings can be a drag. But if you plan your mornings right, you can use those early hours to get a head start on the rest of your day.
  • Coping With Information Overload
    04/23/2007
    Every manager attracts information. The typical manager is constantly on the receiving end of information in various forms, including letters, memos, reports, publications, advertisements, telephone messages and e-mail messages. You name it, the manager receives it. The volume of information flowing to some managers borders on ridiculous, and the manager who tries to carefully go through everything may find there's little time left for anything else.
  • Taming Your Tight Schedule
    01/22/2007
    What does your schedule look like today? Is it so jam-packed that you don’t have room for lunch, family time or even a bathroom break? If this resembles the fast and furious pace of your day, rest assured: You’re not alone. Business owners often toil long hours, take little vacation time and work during their time off, according to a recent study by Staples, Inc., which polled leaders of small businesses on their work-life habits.
  • Staying Fit While Working at Your Desk
    01/12/2007
    Working a desk job can be hazardous to your health. Not only do you tend to gain weight and lose muscle tone from lack of movement and exercise, but you can also develop headaches as neck and back muscles tighten while you read or work at a computer.
  • Four Steps to Solving Your Problem
    11/30/2006
    How many times have you sat through meetings only to walk away wondering if your team could resolve any of the problems it faced? The ability of a team to identify and resolve problems is a critical skill. Many teams never learn how to do this. Those who do always outshine their counterparts.
  • Measure the Quality of Life in Your Workplace
    09/05/2006
    What's the quality of life like in your workplace? How welcoming, for example, is your place of business to employees, customers and visitors? How affirming is your workplace toward the needs and aspirations of the people you encounter each day? Just how positive is the tenor of your place of business?
  • Your Health and Your Business: Is There a Connection?
    04/17/2006
    The connection between the mind and the body has long been apparent; the connection between your health and the success or demise of your small business is also apparent yet seldom discussed. Business owners frequently push themselves to the brink on all fronts to make their business a success. Sometimes, the pressure and stress of running a business affects both the physical and mental health of business owners.
  • Juggling Your Schedule as a Business Owner and Student
    02/22/2006
    Having trouble being a student and business owner at the same time? Here are a few tips to help you keep a sense of balance.
  • Conquering Burnout
    02/09/2006
    It’s important to your success that you keep employees from experiencing burnout, but what happens when you fall into a rut? Whether personal challenges, business roadblocks or just boredom with everyday life are the culprit, anyone can go through a period of feeling unmotivated and disinterested in work. But when the boss becomes unmotivated, the entire business can suffer. Fortunately, if you’re suffering from burnout, there are a few things you can do to help yourself
  • Contracts 101
    02/06/2006
    Contract disputes usually happen when the final contract varies from what one or both parties intended. Even when both parties enter into an agreement with the best intentions, the final contract may not accurately or completely represent what they discussed and agreed upon before they wrote the contract.
  • 10 Time Savers
    02/03/2006
    In time management seminars I conduct, I show people how to get more done in less time with less stress, so they can have more time for the things they want to do in their business and professional lives. Recapturing a wasted hour and redirecting it to a more productive use can increase your productivity.
  • Do You Look Forward to Starting Your Workday?
    01/27/2006
    From time to time, most people go through a period during which it’s hard to muster up enthusiasm for work. This is normal, and usually a vacation or a little time off reignites your passion. When weeks drag by in such a state, you may need to take a closer look at why you’re not looking forward to starting the workday.
  • Getting Organized in 2006
    01/04/2006
    A disorganized workplace results in mountains of paperwork, overdue bills and other obstacles to a smooth workflow. Any solution you choose will have to fit your personality, work style and environment, but a few guiding principles will help you get your work environment in shipshape.
  • Wellness Programs Keep Health-Care Costs Down, Raise Morale
    07/12/2005
    Wellness programs in the workplace offer an excellent way to keep health-care costs down while also bringing morale up.
  • Small-Business Success Causes Change for Employees: How to Manage During Rapid Growth Periods
    07/11/2005
    During rapid growth periods, small-business managers face an array of challenges, not the least of which is making sure existing employees stay involved and satisfied as new employees are hired.
  • Tips for Successful Multi-Tasking
    06/27/2005
    Multi-tasking and small-business ownership are practically synonymous. This is especially so for small-business owners during the start-up phase, before extensive delegation has been set up or during periods of rapid growth when delegation is difficult.
  • Tips for Containing E-mail Overload
    06/09/2005
    Do you check your e-mail every 20 minutes? Do you read and reply to nearly every message as soon as it arrives? When you have a question for an employee, do you automatically e-mail him rather than pick up the phone?
  • How To Make Your Time Management Plan Stick
    04/05/2005
    Often, active professionals think a time management session is a quick fix for all of their organizational woes, but it takes a bit more to make the lessons from the sessions actually work. You need to take the time to organize your daily activities in the present for your time management knowledge to pay off in the future.
  • Time to Take a Break?
    03/25/2005
    If you're like many small-business owners, you serve as the proverbial "chief cook and bottle washer" for your company. While it's honorable—and often necessary—to manage and execute every last detail of your company's endeavors, over time it can leave you exhausted, frustrated and ultimately unproductive. In other words, it can leave you in desperate need of a vacation.
  • Working Solo, but not Alone
    03/14/2005
    If you spend most of your days working alone, you know the ups and downs of being a solo entrepreneur. The freedom of setting your own schedule and making your own decisions can be exhilarating; however, having to brainstorm new marketing ideas with a one-person marketing team can get tedious.
  • Getting Your First Customers: Strategies for New Businesses
    01/31/2005
    Once you've started your new company, put ink on all the documents, moved into your new space, installed your equipment and put your sign on the door, there's one all-important next step: getting your first customers.
  • Stress Relief Enhances Long-Run Productivity
    01/25/2005
    It's no secret that, compared with a few years ago, stress is up among American workers. Princeton Survey Research Associates concluded that today's workers experience more on-the-job stress than the workers of a generation ago. For many people, work is the number one source of stress in their lives.
  • Preventing Employee Burnout Can Save Your Business's Productivity
    01/11/2005
    One of the main causes of burnout is the negative stress that often accompanies the feeling of being overworked. It manifests itself as a feeling of listlessness, sluggishness and disinterest in work that can lead employees to be less productive or even to look for a new job.
  • Relieving Stress
    10/18/2004
    Despite the best plan, you will experience stress. A storm will knock out power for days, a political event will stop a customer from making a big purchase or your computer system will get a virus during a peak period. It happens. What's important is how you deal with it.
  • Prepare for Stress
    07/19/2004
    Starting and building your first company can come with increasing amounts of stress. The stress level will be directly related to many aspects of your life -- personal relationships, your marriage, your spouse's comfort level with you leaving the corporate world, starting a business or pulling money out of your savings that was intended to be a nest egg for home remodeling.
  • Using Lists to Manage Your Business and Your Time
    06/04/2004
    Most business owners know the steps they need to take to achieve their business objectives, but sometimes it's hard to prioritize. The starting point for getting organized is to create a to-do list. This simple and often-overlooked tool is one that will help systematize the sometimes-daunting list of tasks at hand.
  • Analyze Your Work Day for Better Efficiency
    05/28/2004
    "Where did the time go?" is a common refrain among overworked professionals. Although everyone has the same 24 hours in a day, poor management of that time keeps your business from reaching its full potential.
  • Balancing Act
    10/10/2002
    Find time for yourself when you live at work.
  • Be Prepared!
    04/03/2002
    Whether your area of the country is vulnerable to tornadoes, floods, hurricanes, or drought-induced wildfires, the risks are serious.
  • Avoiding Unwanted Interruptions to Your Business Day
    04/03/2002
    If you work at home, you've probably had trouble with unscheduled interruptions that cut into your work time.
  • Bad News Is Never Easy to Deliver
    04/03/2002
    While there is not a good way to deliver bad news, some ways are better than others.
  • Identifying Symptoms of Stress in Employees and Co-Workers
    03/28/2002
    Stress factors are now realized to play an increasingly important role in individual and corporate productivity, both because of lost work time and reduced job performance.
  • Business Travels with the Kids!
    03/28/2002
    With a reasonable amount of advance planning, a shared business trip can provide both parents and children with quality experiences.
  • Stress Reduction Not a Simple Resolution
    03/25/2002
    New Years Resolution: To reduce stress in 2001.