Seven Sure-fire steps to Incentivise the Modern Employee

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Everyone is born with the toolset to improve workforce productivity: Golden steps to managerial success and organizational gains. All too often, executives and managers focus on implementing lean practices, cutting waste and investing in new capital to boost workforce productivity. And all too often, the easiest and most cost effective method to increasing output is overlooked: incentivising employees.

Link

http://www.businessreviewcanada.ca/business-features/operations/seven-surefire-steps-incentivize-modern-employee



http://www.businessreviewcanada.ca/business-features/operations/seven-surefire-steps-incentivize-modern-employee

Do More with Less

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New communications and PR tools offer marketers less costly (and equally effective) alternatives for building brand and product awareness. Tough economic times are forcing many companies to cut back marketing and advertising budgets. According to figures released by the Publishers Information Bureau in January, consumer magazine advertising pages dropped nearly 12 percent in 2008. While cost cutting may be necessary to remain solvent, forcing your marketing department to go on a crash diet can cause companies to lose the momentum and brand awareness they've built up through long-term campaigns.

Link

http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/publicrelations/prcolumnistrachelmeranus/article200452.html

Undeniably original

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Crispin Tweddell is chairman of Piper Private Equity. When investing in companies he asks: is it different and better?

Link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10653797

The inside story. The life of an ethical hacker

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In his former life Jason Hart hacked into websites for a living. Today he is Senior Vice President of the security firm CRYPTOCard. Here he gives an insight into the life of an ethical hacker and what companies should do to protect their websites from invasion.

Link
http://www.bme.eu.com/article/The-inside-story/

In the driving seat

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Sports car manufacturer Aston Martin is synonymous with luxury, exclusivity and, of course, fictional British spy James Bond. To discover what’s going on under the business bonnet of this luxury marque in 2010, we hear from Bradley Yorke-Biggs, Director of Strategy and IT.

Link 

http://www.bme.eu.com/article/in-the-driving-seat/

National Insurance tax holiday

. . . to begin on September 6, HMRC says

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The Treasury is aiming to launch a one year national insurance contributions holiday for start ups worth up to £5,000 for each of the first 10 staff hired in a new venture's first year. A one year national insurance holiday for start ups is set to begin on September 6 but some sectors as well as regions of the country will be exempt, the Government has said.  

New businesses setting up within the agricultural, fishing and coal sectors will not be able to claim the tax break, worth up to £5,000 per employee.

Link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/yourbusiness/7973724/National-Insurance-tax- holiday-to-begin-on-September-6-HMRC-says.html


 

Julian Knight: Welcome to the 'anti-bank', but it's only for the few

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Amid much fanfare, customer-friendly Metro opens its doors – just the one branch so far, and that's in London. It promises a whole new approach to banking – provided, of course, you live in central London close enough to pop into its solitary branch or self-styled "store".

Link

http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/julian-knight-welcome-to-the-antibank-but-its-only-for-the-few-2040524.html

Small Business Profile: Tracey Jefferies

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Tracey Jefferies started her own business in 2004. 

"It’s a bit of a cliché”, says Tracey Jefferies, “but turning 40 back in 2004 really is what prompted me to start my own business. However, my first problem was in deciding what I could sell that customers would want to buy.” In business, there are only two things that you can sell: a product or a service. And as Jefferies had no product to sell it became a matter of deciding what would be her service and who would be her customers. But this could be no “lifestyle” or “hobby” business – the mortgage had to be paid every month which meant that income had to be regular from the outset.

Link

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sme/small-business-profile-tracey-jefferies-2054209.html

David Koch builds business

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Starting out as cadet reporter on The Australian newspaper, David Koch has a long and impressive career in finance and business journalism and publishing. But you probably know him best as the male anchor on Channel 7’s Sunrise breakfast program.

Link

http://www.dynamicbusiness.com.au/articles/articles-entrepreneur-profile/david-koch-kochie-dynamic-business-1234.html

PayPal co-founder Max Levchin remembers the company's beginnings

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Long hours and late nights are familiar to most entrepreneurs.
PayPal co-founder Max Levchin found himself working so much, it was easier not to go home at all.

He kept a sleeping bag with him in those early days and would often bed down in the courtyard of PayPal's building - the so-called 'lucky building' at 165 University Avenue. "We started out with people having an office each," recalls Levchin. "And then we had two people per office. And after five people per office, we really were just quite out of space."

Link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/business-11036924

It's all in the Pitch - Part 2

Stop, look, listen – and then speak!

Pause a long time before you open your mouth to speak in front of your business associates or in your case potential investor. Let everyone else see that you are thinking. This will give them the impression that you have control over what you have heard and that you are about to impart some intelligent feedback on the subject. Speak when the suspense is at its peak. The pause makes whatever you say more serious than it would be had you blurted it out. The pause helps underline the importance of what you say.

Consistency is the key to speaking well

It is unbusiness like to be inconsistent. You must learn to be consistent when you speak to your colleagues. Even in a conversation that is informal (and why would it be informal when meeting with an investor?) you must not change your mind in midsentence. Remember that contrary to what you may have thought, all speaking is public speaking, even if the public in this case is one solitary individual.

Speak softly and be heard further

I learned a trick of speech from one of my college tutors from many years ago. When he would hear students mumbling in the back of the lecture hall, he would deliberately lower his voice almost to a whisper. He knew that his soft voice is the one that everyone tunes into.

Always speak the truth about yourself

You may choose to lie sometimes when you are talking to someone, there are all kinds of reasons to do so in the game of business conversation. But always speak the truth about yourself. If you fail to tell the truth about yourself, your own body and body language may give you away. Do not pretend to try to cover up something about yourself.

Speak formally and avoid contempt

Familiarity, especially in business speech certainly does breed contempt. When you are speaking in a business like way you keep your diction as formal as you possible can. You can make a pretence of informality by your manner, but never let your diction lapse from the precise and accurate. Informality tends to make your grammar and diction sloppy. Never allow this to happen. Sharpness and clarity of speech make your image business like and crisp.

Listening is the first step in speaking

Be sure you learn to listen as you continue to learn to speak. The more you listen the more ammunition you will acquire when you speak and the more ways you learn how to express yourself persuasively and project the kind of business image you want. When you listen, listen creatively, working along with the investor who speaks to you so that you can almost guess what words he or she will say next.

You aren’t a comedian

Telling bad jokes is probably the easiest way to turn most people away from you when a serious discussion is under way. Leave humour to the professionals. It is the one way to otherwise ruin an impressive performance as a person with good commercial and business sense, trying to make people laugh. If you do they will think you are trivial.

Avoid obscenity like the plague

One of the worst habits is that of swearing and using speech with four lettered words. This unfortunately has become more and more common. You don’t know what the sensitivities are of your investor and although he or she may be very tolerant of this sort of thing, it isn’t worth taking the risk to try and find out. Nobody in their right mind is going to be offended if your communication is not littered with four lettered words.

Avoid euphemisms like the same plague

Another thing to avoid at all costs is the use of euphemisms. Call a spade, a table a table, things as they really are. Euphemisms appear around us every day. They are invented to obscure speech to avoid offence, to deaden pain. Sometimes pain should be tolerated. Simply use the proper term for what you talk about. A window is a window and not an ‘environmental access panel’.

Avoid slang, jargon and gobbledegook

One of the most difficult jobs anyone has these days is reading bureaucratic pamphlets or news releases. Nevertheless business, education, the law, medicine and all areas of endeavour manufacture jargon day after day and sometimes without even realising it. Always go for the real word, not the jargon that masks it from view and pretends it is something else.

Link
http://www.go-betweenuk.co.uk

Entrepreneurs

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Inventor Ehsan Yazdani shows off his portable mini gym for fitness fanatics on the go.

Link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tft2r/Dragons_Den_Series_8_Episode_5/

Playing the name game in a recovery

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At the beginning of any economic recovery, new businesses will be trying to make a name for themselves. That is where traditional sign writer Wayne Osborne comes in. Self-employed Mr Osborne, 36, who set up his business in a shed at the back of a Sussex pub 16 years ago, hand paints everything from shop fascias and pub signs to vehicles and glasswork. And his work provides a weathervane for the economic wind.

Link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10126807