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In This Issue
Welcome Our Newest Professional Contributor
Federal Facts III: Changes to FMLA
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Why Not Laugh...
February 2008
Welcome to Staying in Step with Step 1!
 
I hope you enjoy this newsletter.  Every issue features current thoughts and best practices in leadership, business management and core competencies from recognized experts.  Feel free to send me your thoughts on the content and layout -- I'm always open to great ideas, no matter where they come from.
 
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Don't forget to read and contribute comments to the Step 1 Management blog "In Step With Small Business Management".  Adding your voice to the mix greatly enriches the conversation!
Coming Events
Save February 29, 2008 for a special event: "How to Manage Your Former Peers".  This premiere Step 1 seminar, providing insights and tips any manager who has been promoted from within should know, is taken from our proprietary management training curriculum titled Practical Management Magic.
 
This event is being held on February 29 at the Radisson Hotel in Greentree, PA from 8:30AM - 10:30AM.  Registration fee is only $89.  Go to our website to register and pay by credit card.
 
www.step1management.com/step1
 
February 29, 2008 - Leap into being a better manager!
Jeff Canter image
 

My Turn:

Unconventional Wisdom--Accelerate Into the Turns

So, we are told, the long anticipated recession is finally upon us.  Buckle your seat belts, boys.  We're in for a rough ride.  Consumer confidence is down along with retail consumer spending.  Manufacturing will trail this slowdown but will come nonetheless.  Soon after will come the inevitable atrophy of the services industries that are among the primary employers of American youth and low income households.  The Federal Reserve and the Congress and the White House will try to soothe our fears by passing us back a little bit of our own money, hoping that we'll turn around and spend it, instead of paying off some of the debt we've accumulated while propping up the economy for all these many quarters of continued expansion.

In the business world, particularly within the small-midsized market, executives and department managers are undoubtedly beginning the process of examining where and how much they can cut costs in order to survive the economic "winter" just ahead.  In my experience, this is where the flaws of what can only be called the conventional wisdom (lower sales must equal lower costs) begin to cause damage.  The two areas most frequently earmarked for spending cuts are marketing and employee training.  For whatever reason, these two vital business functions are regularly reduced to discretionary spending status whenever cash flow is threatened.
 
This is where I get lost--perhaps I should have paid more attention in Stats class.  Why is it viewed as responsible or wise to cut back on two functional areas of business that have such a powerful impact on competitiveness and brand identification, arguably two critical virtues of any firm likely to survive?  If the marketplace is going to make fewer buying decisions, doesn't that demand that management do everything it can to guarantee that the brand which is the first to be thought of by the customer is theirs?  How can that be supported if marketing programs are whacked at the first sign of threats to cash flow?
 
Similarly, training is almost always a casualty of a slower business climate.  Training is really seen as discretionary whereas marketing is accepted as such grudgingly.  Yet, the most frequent reason cited for not sending employees to training during boom times is that they can't be spared to be away from their jobs for too long.  Isn't this what they call a Catch-22?  In my view, a slower pace at work is the ideal time to send your staff through that training you've been putting off.  Keeping employees' skills sharpened is what helps to insure that you remain competitive during the down times and that you can recover quickly when the pendulum of the business cycle starts to swing back toward prosperity.
 
I well understand the challenge of managing cash flow during unpredictable and turbulent times.  I've had to manage that way through much of my career.  But just because it is the norm doesn't make it right.  If managers are going to truly practice sound decision making they should be thinking of the long term rather than the near, because that's where they're headed.  Find somewhere else to cut. Why not start with planned overtime, lavish or unnecessary client entertaining (careful--it isn't the same as marketing, no matter what the field sales reps say) or unproductive employees?  Honestly, we aren't doing the business any favors by protecting these sacred cows.
 
Someone once told me that, when driving for sport, you always accelerate into the turns rather than slamming on the brakes.  If you don't a spin will surely follow.  I can't think of a better analogy for what we as business managers must do to survive the current malaise and prepare ourselves for the next growth phase.
 
-- Jeff Canter    
Federal Facts with Kim KisnerNew Banner with tag
 
I'd like to welcome back Kim Kisner as a professional guest contributor.  Kim is a human resources and employment attorney in Pittsburgh with offices located at 6393 Penn Ave. # 306.

 
Kim's expertise is featured on a recurring basis. For this issue I am pleased to include another topic in the "Federal Facts" series, this time on changes to the Family & Medical Leave Act.  You need to know about this, so take the five minutes required to read this article thoroughly.

 
Federal Facts III:
 
Changes to FMLA
 
by Kim Kisner
 

On February 5, 2008, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) turned 15.  Since the passage of the Act, the FMLA has been hailed by proponents as a milestone in providing employees with job security but maligned by many members of the business community because of its confusing regulations and the costly administrative demands placed on  small business.  While many business owners embrace the important benefits afforded employees under the Act, they also have encountered challenges in administering FMLA.

 

In recent months, Congress has shown an increasing interest in the FMLA.  For example:

 

  • Last month, the first expansion of the FMLA was signed into law to provide additional leave for military families.  Already, the FMLA gives covered employees up to 12 weeks off each year for birth or adoption of a child, to deal with their own serious health conditions, or to care for an ill child, parent, or spouse. Now, employers must also provide leave to employees with spouses, children, or parents who are now serving on (or who have been called up for) active duty in the military. If those loved ones become seriously ill or injured while on duty, employers may be required to extend up to 26 weeks of unpaid leave each year.
  • On February 11, 2008, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) issued proposed regulations which attempt to address some of the most common criticisms employers have about FMLA regulations.

 The highlights of the new proposed regulations include provisions that:

 

  • rework procedures regarding required notices, medical and fitness-for-duty certifications, and designation of leave;
  • clarify the eligibility requirements for employees who are jointly employed;
  • clarify when an employee's inability to work overtime exhausts FMLA leave;
  • allow employers to deny bonuses to employees who don't qualify for them because they took FMLA leave;
  • allow employers to require employees to comply with the terms and conditions of their paid leave policies to substitute paid leave for FMLA leave; and
  • allow employees and employers to voluntarily settle claims of past FMLA violations.

 

The proposed regulations offer employers a degree of certainty that was previously lacking because of the fact that courts across the country had reached different conclusions on many of the issues addressed. Perhaps the biggest improvement is that the DOL has reorganized the regulations to make it easier for employers to find all of the provisions that relate to a given issue. The result should be far less confusion in administration than under the current regulations.

 

 

Kim Kisner isfounder and principal of Kisner Law Firm.  She has been a litigator and counselor in the area of employment law for more than a decade. Kisner Law Firm helps employers minimize risks while growing their businesses, by preventing workplace disputes from escalating into costly litigation.

 
You can contact Kim at kim@kisnerlawfirm.com or at 412-242-7787
 
Why Not Laugh...
Boot Fishing 

Traditional Marketing

Mc Kinney - Improve Your Business With Traditional Marketing

 

 by Jim Olivero

 

Traditional marketing is about 'branding'. Traditional marketing, just like any other marketing mechanism, requires a good and effective strategy. Many small business people struggle in marketing their product and services because they use ineffective methods when launching their traditional marketing campaigns.

 

Although it is essential to have a professionally designed, customized website located in a high traffic Internet location, it is also important to understand the differences between conventional marketing and electronic marketing. 

 

Only by understanding the differences between traditional marketing and Internet marketing can the businessperson turn website visitors into website customers.

The traditional marketing approach sees the product owner using a mix of advertisement and PR to help get the message to the target audience. 

 

Consumers represent the cohort that traditional marketing considered to be the entire market; passive receptors who will follow the latest trend like the herd. Effective traditional marketing includes ads, brochures, flyers, direct mail, open houses and signs. Internet marketing follows the principle of focused marketing generally using the web2.0 marketing strategies. Both Internet marketing techniques are equally effective if employed in the right way.

 

However, some highly effective traditional marketing methods can spell disaster in the electronic world.  Other marketing techniques that are not cost effective in traditional marketing terms can be highly successful when the entire world is the audience. At the forefront of E-Marketing we need to look at companies like Dell computer, Land's End and other major retailers.  These companies use their traditional print marketing to drive customers to their Web sites.  This is classic traditional marketing with an "E" twist.

 

Traditional Marketing Works

 

Direct-mail marketing works in nearly all types of businesses. Direct-mail marketing advertising is extremely effective in shaping public opinions. It is very similar to the marketing used by both businesses and politicians. Its aim is to get you to do something or, in this case, convince you to think. Its job is to shape public opinion and direct-mail marketing advertising can work for that if it is done properly.

 

Trade shows are a useful traditional marketing method that target mass audiences in an effective way for company or product branding. However one should have careful research, planning, adequately staffed booth and a well-designed display to have maximal impact.

 

Other traditional marketing techniques, for example, ads in magazines, business networking, telephone calls and building business relationships, all work. One most critical factor is the sales copy. What does each ad say? Are you tracking the results of the ad? Did the ad generate revenues for you? Unless you address these issues, it could be costly to run the ad again using different copies until you find the one that gets the result you want.

 

You don't have to live with these sales and marketing troubles. Start implementing the effective way of traditional marketing and you will see the rewards from your efforts. Your sales and marketing plan will help you to send the right message to the right people while proactively moving them to the right time.

 

Magic Logix is a professional graphic design and traditional marketing in Mc Kinney. We also provide web development services in addition to Network support and IT consulting. Visit us today for your search engine marketing consultation.

 

Article Source: http://www.reprint-content.com

 

 
Jeff Canter
Step 1 Management Services LLC
412-216-0842
 
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