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SMALL BUSINESS BANNER                                    March 2014
Discover resources offered by the State of Georgia: www.georgia.org/smallbusiness
Did you know...

GA ranks #2 for states experiencing the largest increases in entrepreneurial activity rates over the past decade (Kauffman).

Essential News for Entrepreneurs
 

Essential News for Entrepreneurs is the bimonthly newsletter published by the Georgia SBDC Network state office. Articles review trends in business management, profile clients, present research findings, and address many other topics of interest to Georgia's business owners.

 

What's Inside: CDC Offers Free Workplace Wellness Training, Giving Your Business a Boost Through Export Training and Certification, Strategic Planning Sets the Pace for Rapidly Growing Alpharetta Firm

 

To download your electronic copy of Essential News for Entrepreneurs, click HERE

 

Classes in Your Area...
Sponsored by the Small Business Development Center through UGA.
 
Hiring to Win
 
March 21, 2014
9:30am-12:00pm
Gordon County Chamber of Commerce
200 South Wall Street, Calhoun, GA 
$30 per person *each additional person is 1/2 off! 
 
Lunch will be served after the program. 
 
The hiring decision: Some estimate that a hiring mistake can cost up to 3 times an annual salary. 
 
Hiring to Win addresses the following: 
superior performance, average vs superior workers, the information gap, the hiring process and job matching. 

Click HERE to register today!
______________________________________________________________________
 
Maximum Marketing Series 
April 28th - May 27th each Tuesday
11:00am-1:00pm
Cartersville Chamber of Commerce 
$40 for the whole series! 
*Buy one get 50% off all additional attendees
 
This is an interactive course designed to familiarize participants with the basics of marketing, including: target market selection, distribution, promotion, advertising and sales. 
 
Topics include: pass or fail, fish where the fish are, big marketing for small budgets, polish your plan and the grand finale.
 
For more information call Kinsey at 706-622-2006 or visit www.maximumseries.com.
Time is So Much More than Money!
(a continuation from last month)
SBDC Corner

According to Drucker, time is the scarcest resource of the manager, but we know it is equally available to everyone.   How entrepreneurs manage their time can dramatically impact their business results and ultimately the quality of their lives - so what can we do to improve our time management?

 

Assemble an effective Team:

"It is almost impossible to grow a company of any size and worth unless you expand beyond yourself" - Rhonda Abrams

 

This quote from Rhonda Abrams sounds like nothing more than common sense - hire the right people (and enough people) to allow for your success.  While all new businesses have limited resources, they all need administrative, legal, bookkeeping, sales, and production/service workers to operate.  Many entrepreneurs try to balance this lack of capital and staffing need by doing everything (or as much as they can) themselves.  These "do-it-yourselfers" are overworked, over-stressed, and often under-perform in the areas where they don't have expertise (bookkeeping for example).

 

Think outside the box!  A better solution for the business without sufficient capital to hire employees to fill key roles may be to utilize contractors.  Bookkeeping firms may be able to keep up with your company's needs in much less time, much more accurately, and at a reasonable cost.  Payroll processing firms can provide the HR function for a small business, keeping it up to date with changes in state labor laws, and usually at a very reasonable cost per employee.  Outside consultants, sales agents, attorneys, and contract labor are all additional options which can help a small business create an effective team at a reasonable cost.   

 

Avoid making decisions for your employees:

In my years of consulting I have met many entrepreneurs who just can't let go of any control and they tend to micro-manage their employees.  This is doubly inefficient as they are paying someone to do a job, and they spend their own time (which is precious capital) in reviewing all of the detail of their employees' work instead of the effectiveness of the result.

 

When we hire an employee or engage an independent contractor, we are inherently giving up some control.  In my experience, the best way to get comfortable with letting go is:

 

1)Set up clear, well-defined duties and responsibilities 

2)Give each employee appropriate authority to meet their responsibilities.

3)Define a periodic reporting system that allows you to keep track of the function and evaluate the employee's (or contractor's) effectiveness.   

 

The mission of the UGA SBDC is to enhance the economic well-being of Georgians by providing a wide range of educational services for small business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. For more information, please visit www.romesbdc.org or call 706-622-2006.

Contact:
100 S. Hamilton Street, Dalton, GA 30720
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