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Business Owners – Your business will benefit from time spent on the sales floor and in your office

I recently spoke to a group of independent toy store owners at the NETS (Neighbourhood Toys Stores of Canada) annual conference in Toronto. During the Q&A part of the presentation, one of the attendees asked about my guideline for time spent working in the office and on your business, versus the amount of time spent working on the floor and in your business.

The best way to answer that is that there really is no set rule that you should be striving for. You don’t need to strive for a 50:50 ratio of time spent in the office to on the floor. In order to run and grow a business property, you need time in both areas, and it can really fluctuate, depending on the season, time of week, etc.

It should be the goal of any business owner to have staffing, systems and processes in place so that they can be (almost) completely independent from having to work on the floor. I suggest that your goal should be to have it so that you actually never really have to work the floor. You should do it regularly to stay connected to your customers, your community and your front line staff. However, you should always have the freedom to walk away from the floor at any time you feel it’s beneficial for you to step back, and work on your business instead of being forced to be on the floor working in your business. (more…)

Identify the qualities of a great effective leader with integrity, intelligence and energy

How do you identify top leaders within your company, your community and within yourself?

I saw a lecture by the great Warren Buffett, Forbes magazine’s world’s wealthiest man, the other day that I found incredibly interesting and insightful. He was speaking to a group of MBA students. He started off his lecture by defining the three qualities of a great leader. (more…)

The way you portray leadership qualities and instil confidence directly affects your employee’s performance

During good times and especially in bad, do you portray leadership qualities in your daily interactions with your staff? As leaders, we always have to conduct ourselves in a manner that instils confidence in the eyes of our team. Employees look to management for leadership during turbulent times. And in today’s economy this is more important than ever.

Okay, so you believe that you do instil confidence in the way you conduct yourself. Well, what about those little personality quarks or habits that come out when things aren’t going so well? Do you have a “tell”? That’s the poker term that used for habits of physical ticks that gives away someone’s hand when they’re trying to bluff. You may be wondering, what are some of these tells? (more…)