Small Business Tools

But Can You Run a Company Without Performance Reviews?

In my years in business Ive seen performance reviews from several angles, good and bad. As my employee numbers grew past a handful to several dozen, the reviews seemed more necessary than they were when we were smaller.

One of my earlier employees took the job offer only on the condition of two reviews per year.

But I was never comfortable with them. My management style was working shoulder to shoulder with the people, when we were a smaller team. It was hard to suddenly get into a boss-subordinate mode and deliver a report card.

The people who worked for me would tell you, I often put it off, and I didnt do that good a job when I did it.

On the other hand, people need and want reviews because they want to have some sense of how theyre doing. And as your company grows, it needs management too, as well as leadership. And reviews help people keep on track.

I caught an interesting post called Should Performance Reviews Live — or Die? posted by the Summers Hospitality Group earlier this week. I

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Tags: Performance Reviews, Reviews

CH2M Hill held an open house on Nov. 3

The CH2M Hill Corpus Christi Office held a Nov. 3 open house for their new location in the downtown Tower II building. At the event, CH2M HILL awarded a $15,000 Dollars for Doers Grant to Friends of the Billy Sandifer Big Shell Beach Clean-Up. A $1,000 grant also was presented to Jeremy Barnes of the Boy Scouts South Texas Council. CH2M HILL encourages community volunteerism from its staff and awards Dollar for Doers grants to non-profits.

Tags: Ch2m Hill, Nov, Open House

The Dos and Don’ts of Business Christmas Cards

What type of Christmas cards should you send? What should you write inside the card? What’s the proper way to address your business Christmas cards?

And what’s the deadline for having Christmas cards done and in the mail? For cards that are being sent nationally, December 15th, according to Canada Post. See their Holiday Mail Inside Canada Deadlines for other dates.

Tags: Business Christmas, Business Christmas Cards, Cards, Christmas Cards

Phil Fernandez of Marketo: Conducting The Orchestra

Breaking through the noise requires coordinated communication to attract prospects, turn them into leads and ultimately convert them into buyers. Phil Fernandez, CEO and co-founder of Marketo, likes to think of marketing automation as the orchestra conductor and he firmly believes in that old saying, “It’s cheaper to keep a customer than to acquire a customer.”

In this interview, Phil spoke with Brent Leary about how the sweet music of marketing automation can simplify the process for even the smallest businesses.

Small Business Trends: Can you tell us about your background and Marketo?

Phil Fernandez: For the last 20 years I have been working on the intersection of technology and marketing. I have seen the need for technology to support modern marketing and the great opportunities to develop products for companies large and small. We st

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Tags: Marketo, Phil Fernandez

Playing Xbox and 5 More Reasons To Consider College At Home

How can college at home be worth it? Almost every stereotype about higher education requires us to imagine a sunny multi-ethnic campus, possibly with an out-of-control frat and a vindictive dean. That’s because every stereotype about college misses the point of the place. Universities aren’t meant to be co-ed dance parties where all the education can be taken care of in a quick montage jammed between 90 minutes of extended party scenes. College is about actually learning things, and that is something you can do at home.

Studying from home has a host of advantages. You can set up your environment to work the way you want to, without commuting or queueing or finding that the book you desperately need has been checked out of the library for a month solid because exams are coming up. If you have an Internet connection you have everything you need to complete college at home. You don’t even need a printer – a memory key and a local printing shop will allow you to get hard copies of what you need.

A major benefit of college at home is flexible timing. You’re

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Tags: Home

Coming to Terms with Being the Boss

Every November, as we start winding down another year and reflecting on what we accomplished, what worked, what didn’t and what we should be planning, I yearn for some time and space to really have some good, deep thought about where we are going and how to get there. I also yearn to reconnect with that girl on fire who started my ad agency 17 years ago.

I started this business with a passion for my field but, like a few other other small-business owners Ive met, with little knowledge of how to actually run a business. Along the way I learned some things about management and leadership, but it was the creative juice that kept me, and the agency, humming.

And yet, the skills that worked in starting the a company were not the ones I needed to sustain and build it. The more we grew, the more my role evolved into operations, and the less I was in touch with what fed my soul. Weighty human resources decisions replaced font choices and creative copy writing. I kept plugging away in a role that still feels like a shirt with too tight a collar and cuffs a boxy yet essential operations role. I

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Company Health Programs On The Rise – Company Insurance Costs Dropping

Companies nationwide are looking to trim their health insurance costs by combating chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity and depression in their employees, corporate and government officials say.
The need for such steps was amplified again Tuesday as a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that health insurance premiums for families of four increased 9% this year.
The upward trend in health care costs can’t all be blamed on growing doctors’ bills. So, employers have started to provide on-site medical visits, access to gyms, chronic-care plans, smoking-cessation programs and even discounts for those who buy a banana rather than a cookie.
For an employer, costs can be as much as 40% higher in one year for someone who is overweight because of all the issues associated with obesity, including diabetes, back problems, asthma, depression and heart disease, said Kenneth Thorpe, who co-directs Emory University’s Center on Health Outcomes and Quality.
Between 8% and 20% of health care costs is due to the persistent rise in obesity.
As an example, he cited a study he published in the journal Health Affairs about an evidence-based program that reduced type 2 diabetes cases by 71% in Medicare beneficiaries older than 60. Read more…

Tags: Costs, Insurance Costs