by Christopher Freeburn. As any small business owner knows, dealing with people is a crucial element of your business’s success. This applies not only to customers or business partners, but to your employees as well. Creating a productive and well-functioning workforce should be a top priority for every small business. Unfortunately, the more employees you hire, the more complicated things get. Even for very small companies, managing personnel can be a very demanding task. Managing...

How to keep your best and brightest recruits shining long after you've hired them By Max Berry As a small business owner employing a recent college graduate, you find yourself in one of the most potentially rewarding roles a businessperson can inhabit: that of the mentor. Without a stratum of mid-level managers between you, you'll have plenty of contact with the most junior members of your staff, and chances are they'll be looking to you for guidance. So be humble, but don't be intimidated;...

When, if ever, does it make sense for an entrepreneur to stop taking a salary? By Reed Richardson It's a long-held rule of running your own small business: don't forget to pay yourself. However, in an upside-down economy that continually provides exceptions to all the old rules, many entrepreneurs are finding that paying themselves is yet another piece of conventional wisdom worthy of reconsideration. But before you go cold turkey on salary, it's important to ask yourself several questions to...

By Reed Richardson "Have you heard the latest?" Every day, this phrase or one similar to it, can be found in nearly every workplace, whether it's written in the subject line of a discreet intra-office email or spoken in hushed tones across the water cooler or behind cubicle walls. What follows this conspiratorial come-on is more often than not unverified, unsubstantiated, and occasionally unseemly information, the type of office chatter that can appear, on its face, as harmless speculation or...

Great interview questions that get to the heart of a job candidate's capabilities By Reed Richardson Be prepared You would never run right from a conference call into a job interview if you were trying to get hired, so you shouldn't engage in the same, careless behavior if you're going to be the one doing the hiring. Instead, spend at least 15 to 30 minutes before an interview going over a job candidate's resume so you can prepare some intelligent questions specific to their background and...

By HRExpert Nobody likes to talk about it, even though it is happening in workplaces all across America - employees who have decided it is time to fly the coop. Departure lounges are overflowing with these types of employees - all waiting for their final boarding call. Employees rarely start a job thinking they will tour around the company for a while and then seek greener pastures, and yet it happens all the time. Here are five things you can do to prevent employees from taking flight:...

How To Make a Difficult Task a Little Bit Easier By Christopher Freeburn There are few tasks less pleasant than firing an employee. There are bound to be hurt feelings and often emotions can run high. As difficult as losing a job is for the soon-to-be-former employee, however, informing him or her of that fact can be profoundly upsetting for the employer as well, particularly in a small business setting. Worse, terminating employment can produce more than simple emotional risks. Wrongful...

By Chris Freeburn Setting your employees' salaries can be a challenging task for first time employers, or even established employers who are recruiting for a newly created position or trying to keep the employees they already have. Salaries that are too low will fail to attract new qualified candidates, and may cause current employees to begin to look to your competitors. Conversely, salaries that are too high will put a strain on the business's budget and may disgruntle other employees, if...