7 Business Lessons to Learn from Criminal Enterprises

You never thought you’d sit down to watch The Godfather to glean some business knowledge from its tale of mob dealings, did you? Not that we’re advocating any of the criminal activities portrayed in such movies – it’s probably not a good idea to start laundering money or put a severed horse’s head in somebody’s bed – but believe it or not, there are some valuable lessons to be learned from them. Sure, there are plenty of dumb criminals out there, but there are also brilliant ones – and the most successful of them live by these 7 rules of business.

It’s just business, nothing personal. Don’t fret too much about whether you’re going to offend someone with the decision you choose to make, and don’t take it personally when other people make business decisions that aren’t to your advantage. Not that people aren’t out to get you – your competition would love to see you get whacked, so to speak.  But, if you leave your emotions out of your business dealings, you’ll likely be able to keep a clearer head.

Grease the wheel, make things easy. Make sure you’re always prepared for the worst – have a backup plan. Make plenty of contacts that can help you out when you’re in a bind. In other words, don’t get caught with a bag of money in the bank parking lot because you forgot to get gas before the heist.

Be flexible, go with the flow and find the market.  Stay open to all possibilities.  Having a plan is good, but you don’t want to set yourself on such a narrow path that you can’t go down a new and potentially profitable road when you happen upon one. If you’re not flexible, you could miss out on an important opportunity that can help you grow your business and rake in the cash.

Treat your employees like kings and you enemies brutally. Expect loyalty from your people, squash them if they betray you.  Your employees are essential to your business, and if they don’t feel valuable, they’ll go work for someone who treats them better, possibly taking your trade secretes with them. And on that note, while you don’t want to put your competition on the offensive, always be wary of them and don’t hesitate to act in the best interests of your business when necessary.

Secure your supply lines. The world’s richest drug kingpins keep on top of their supply, making sure they know the status of their goods at all times. So should you, with the supplies that are essential to your business.  Get friendly with the people who have the stuff you need, maintain good relationships with them.  They’ll put you first before their other customers and you might just score a deal, too.

Selling products that people NEED to buy is good business. Get your customers addicted to your services and products.  Make sure you’re offering the best of the best, at competitive prices, along with great service – that’ll help ensure customer loyalty.

When all else fails, order a drive-by. To check on your competition, that is.  Please don’t shoot anyone.

The Franchise Dream: When to Go For it, When to Stay Small

Some entrepreneurs go into business with a single-minded goal: franchising.  To them, it seems like the ultimate business dream – and indeed, it can be.  Growing your small business into a chain that will get your name out there and effectively start an empire is a goal shared by many.  But franchising isn’t right for every business, and sometimes it’s best to wait before going for franchisor status.

To determine whether franchising is right for you now or in the future, ask yourself these questions:

Should I franchise? Many business owners don’t stop to ask themselves this. But, the truth is, franchising isn’t always the logical next step. Whether or not you ultimately pursue franchising depends mostly upon your personal goals.  Where do you see yourself 5 years from now? What do you want your life to be like? How much control of your business are you willing to give up to others? Be prepared for the fact that starting a franchise is, in effect, starting a whole new business. You’ll suddenly be in the business of selling and servicing franchises, and that may not be what you got into this field for in the first place. And, finally, can your business goals be achieved through some other means? Franchising can be a risky move, and if you think you’d be just as happy making your unique business the best it can be, that may be the most advantageous route.

Am I ready? Does your business stand out from your competitors? Do you have a really strong customer base that indicates that more locations will meet a real need?  Are you confident that the average franchisee will not only be able to take your business model and make a return on their investment, but be successful as well?

What does the market look like? Never underestimate the importance of doing your research.  Will your area be seeing a growing demand for your product or service? Future trends are the key to a franchise’s success. You wouldn’t want to pour money into franchising only to find that people are no longer interested in what you’re selling.

Do I have the resources? You should take this question very, very seriously, because although franchising is known as a low-cost way of expanding a business, that doesn’t mean it’s free. You can expect $20,000 - $50,000 in legal costs, $20,000 - $100,000 in development costs, personnel costs and a budget for marketing each franchise, which can run $5,000 - $7,000 each.  Starting small can help make this process easier, but you’ll still need a lot of money up front.  You’re going to burn through money very quickly, and you’ve got to be okay with that.

Is my motivation strong enough? One of the most important qualities that a franchisor must have is the passionate drive toward achieving a single goal.  If you’re a waffler, perhaps you nix this idea. Changing your mind a lot will only make the process far more expensive and difficult to meet with success. You must be prepared for the fact that this will take up a lot of your time, and while overseeing the start of the new franchises you’ll still have to put 100% into your existing business to keep it strong.  The desire and dedication to see it through properly is the one thing that will help you make the dream real.

Am I setting myself up for failure? Some entrepreneurs are so focused on the dream of having a franchise that they allow the quality of their product or service to take a nosedive.  Take, for example, the case of the restauranteur who plans to build his business into a franchise from the very beginning.  He believes that in order to be successful, he needs to create a menu that’s cheap and easy to create, so it can be duplicated later on.  So, his restaurant serves food that’s entirely pre-packaged and the customers can tell it’s anything but fresh.  Skimping on quality takes away the potential to create something really special – something that deserves to be reproduced. Your business needs to be strong enough to stand on its own before it can support multiple locations.

The Paperless Office: Six Ways to Cut Costs and Save Trees

Memos, post-it notes, newsletters, hard copies, HR documents, receipts… a lot of paper floats around the average office, and it doesn’t just litter company desks.  It results in untold numbers of trees being unnecessarily cut down, and costs you plenty of money to boot.  Paper is expensive, and having hard copies of important documents can actually work against you in the long run.  Going paperless will give your important files more security, give your employees some breathing room at their workstations and lower your overhead costs.  Here are 6 easy ways to go paperless at your office.

Nix paper memos.  If you’re just sending out a memo asking employees to wipe up the microwave when they’re done cooking their Cup-O-Noodles, there’s no need to pass out sheets of paper printed with a sentence or two; it’s a colossal waste.  Email provides a quick way to communicate such info without wasting paper, since employees are likely to drop such memos directly into the trash can.

Store important documents electronically, and back them up regularly. You’ll need a dedicated hard drive to store the documents, and a good file backup system. We can’t emphasize enough how important it is to make frequent backups of your files.  Experts recommend using two portable hard drives, and using one to back up the other each week.  The backup should be taken to a secure offsite location like a bank deposit box.

Scan documents and send them as attachments rather than using the copy machine.  Use a dedicated document scanner and teach all of your employees how to use it.  Save the documents in PDF format, which is printable and keeps the document looking exactly as it does on paper.

Use an electronic calendar and appointment setting software, such as that built into Microsoft Outlook.  Such applications allow you to keep a running list of tasks and to-dos, share your calendar with others and set reminders.  In other words, they’ll do a lot more for your employees than the Kountry Kats paper calendars hanging on their cubicle walls.

Provide employees with digital pay stubs.  Just make sure your HR manager knows how to do it properly to avoid potentially catastrophic flubs like accidentally emailing your salary to the entire company.  Most payroll software has an option to automatically distribute virtual pay stubs to predetermined email addresses.

Have inbound faxes sent to your computer system, and send faxes electronically when possible.  Faxed paper documents aren’t usually the greatest quality anyway, and when you request electronic faxes from others, it might get them thinking about going paperless in their own offices, too.

Photo credit: Flickr user Kyle and Kelly Adams

OPERATIONS | Busy vs. Productive: Why do American Workers Waste So Much Time on Non-Value-Added Activities?

In nearly every workplace, no matter the industry, there’s at least one person who somehow manages to get paid to do nothing. Maybe it’s a pair of office schleps who play games all day to avoid filing paperwork, the lady in the cubicle down the hall who spends an inordinate amount of time working on scrapbooks full of cat photos, or the delivery guy who somehow manages to spend a few hours of every shift at the pub watching football. Goofing off on the company’s dime doesn’t just waste money – it unevenly shifts the workload to others, which can lower morale and start a vicious cycle.

Loss of productivity can break even a successful business. Workers waste time for a lot of reasons – sometimes it’s lack of a defined schedule or concrete deadlines, other times it’s a lack of motivation or a need to clear the mind for a little while. Either way, you can nip time-wasting in the bud by giving your employees regular breaks, putting accountability in place to make sure tasks get done, praising good work, and setting goals that allow employees to see their importance in the daily functioning of the business.

The first and most important factor in employee productivity is morale. If your employees aren’t happy, they’re not going to put as much effort into their work. Make sure you’re providing a work environment that makes employees feel valued – that means providing fair benefits, for one. It also means setting goals and making sure each employee understands their value in the overall scheme of the company. If they feel like their work isn’t important or appreciated, they’ll be more likely to waste time on the internet or talking on the phone, so praise is very important.

On that note, having deadlines – and being firm about everyone sticking to them – can be a big motivator. If employees know that work is due on a certain date and time, and that someone will be holding them accountable for their work, they’ll be far more likely to get it done. You may also want to set progress markers at certain intervals before the deadline to go over outlines or see how the project is coming along. Communication really is key – keep up with your workers and make sure their questions are answered along the way.

Take a close look at the company supervisors. Having bad bosses can be a huge obstacle to success in business. If the employees can’t get along with their boss, they’re not going to be very motivated to do a good job. Supervisors must offer praise, keep negative comments to a minimum, take ownership of their own mistakes and keep their promises.

Finally, you must accept that your employees aren’t robots. If you work them too hard, they’re going to burn out and do even less work in the long run. Have reasonable expectations and they’ll be far more likely to go about their work with a positive attitude.

Give employees regular breaks throughout the day – say, ten minutes at midmorning and/or midafternoon in addition to the lunch break – to get personal things done like phone calls and internet browsing, or to get up from their desks and stretch a bit. This also gives them a chance to re-focus if they’ve hit a difficult point in their work. All of these measures show your employees that you understand the need for a work/life balance, and that in turn will help increase productivity.