myRetailer.ca

Make performance reviews top priority in your organization and help prepare your employees for top sales performance

I was talking with a few of my retail colleagues recently and they all mentioned that they’re heading into the dreaded performance review period – the time of year when they feel they have an obligation to do performance reviews on everyone in their companies. Like many small business people, performance reviews are often seen as a chore that needs to be done once a year.

But what if you turn it into a great opportunity?

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How Small Businesses can Fight the Economy

With an economic recession upon us, what strategies can an independent retailer do to help their viability and success?

This year should be a challenging one for many retailers across Canada. We seem be getting hit at both ends, credit is not as available as it once was and consumer confidence is down resulting in more price conscious customers. So what is a retailer to do?

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How Small Businesses can Benefit from the Canadian Budget

In efforts to stimulate the economy, the Canadian Government has included a number of changes in the 2009 budget to help small businesses. In fact, there’s so much in the budget that I had to write a second posting in order to touch on a few other facts that I found beneficial.

Now I haven’t read through the entire budget word for word, but from my quick overview of the sections that I thought were most relevant to small businesses, here are my top ten points all small business owners should be aware of:

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Home Renovations Tax Credit

There are big opportunities  in the 2009 Canadian Federal Budget to help retailers boost their business. In the 2009 Canadian Federal Budget announced on January 27th, The Honourable Jim Flaherty, Finance Minister, included a Home Renovations Tax Credit (HRTC).

How the Temporary HRTC Will Work

The proposed HRTC will provide a temporary 15-per-cent income tax credit on eligible home renovation expenditures for work performed, or goods acquired, after January 27, 2009 and before February 1, 2010, pursuant to agreements entered into after January 27, 2009. The credit may be claimed for the 2009 taxation year on the portion of eligible expenditures exceeding $1,000, but not more than $10,000, and will provide up to $1,350 in tax relief.

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Consistent employee communication is crucial in building a successful company. I recently had a not-so-great experience with a member of my team that I’m sure would sound a little too familiar to many of us. Have you had a new employee join your team, show up eager to work, perform extremely well for the first few months, and then something starts to go wrong?

Their work starts to slide, they start showing up late, their performance starts to go down hill, and they seem to start losing interest in their job. You may blame the employee and think he or she is just not ambitious enough for you or your company. But is this a fair assessment?

When a person comes to work on their first day, they usually want to do a good job. If you’ve done a decent job at hiring the right person, they’ll be eager to learn and to contribute to the company. This is what you get on the first day. Now it is up to us to nurture this. So how do you do it? I suggest you take a look at your orientation process and your performance review process.

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