Being an entrepreneur myself, I understand the joys and trials of having, owning, and running your own business. There were plenty of highlights with owning my own business, but I never forgot my mistakes. Mistake number one is not living up to your own mistakes. As the boss, you’ve got to take responsibility of all things the business does, whether it be granting an employee pay option or filing taxes correctly. Making sure you are on point with your business is one of the key components to running a successful startup.
Here are management mistakes small businesses tend to make:
Take things into account and wise up to it
I had briefly talked about this issue in the paragraph above, but it really resonates with me. When hiring contractors and/or employees, you have to make sure you take into account three major things. You have to make sure the employee you have hired to the team can do the job he was paid to do. If it’s a worthwhile investment to send this new employee to go and receive reasonable training they need to do their work, then send them for the training. What he learns and brings to the table should be absorbed and used in your business practices. Every employee when hired should have the capability to learn and practice what they have learned to better their work in the job description they were hired for.
Egos and tempers can rise in any room, when business standards are not meet. As a person, in a managerial position working to maintain your team of employees. It’s your responsibility to make sure employees and your employers are given the necessary tools to accomplish their work, and that adequate support when needed is provided to them. After handling the performance issues, understanding whether or not the goals you had set for your employees is obtainable or not is the question you need to ask yourself next.
Once the standard has clearly been drawn, any employee who can’t meet the business needs or rather consistently fails at achieving their goals may have to be let go.
Misclassification of your employees is a big No-No
There are some small businesses that will hire an employee and misclassify them as a contractor, so they could save money on their taxes. This form of misclassification could have been done with negligence or intent, who knows? But the penalty for doing it can become costly. Back pay will be granted to the estranged employee and perhaps more, if brought to the judicial system.
Laws are different in each state, but the general practice of employing your employee stays the same. Misclassification of employees to hold back on an employee pay option, employee benefits, or hours earned (Part time instead of full time classification) is going to cause penalties to occur in your company.
Also, hiring a contractor whose work doesn’t legally meet contractual work is a critical error. It will lead to a penalty for your business.
On that note, make sure you follow human resource laws too. These laws will take into effect with a business who has more than 12 employees. Other laws will be taken into effect if your business has more than 50 employees. It’s critical to understand these HR rules, because they imply to disability, military leave, family leave, and other protected citizen rights.
Plan, and don’t be negative!
Having a negative attitude could hold back the performance of your team. Make sure you keep negative feelings to yourself. Address matters in a professional way. If there is a need for a conversation, don’t drag others unnecessarily into it. If the conversation demands you to bring more than person into it, make sure you do so illustratively. Introduce the conversation properly, thoroughly, and formally to those people. It’s important to stay optimistic in order to build team moral. When a team feels apprehensive in doing work, due to a negative shadow lurking over their shoulder, quality control in your business culture and work will become none existent.
Planning! Helps get rid of negative emotions, and stress. When you feel comfortable with your long term goals and strategies, then good. The rest of the team is relying on you to help gain results. When achieving results through proper planning, low and behold, moral increases. Moral doesn’t just increase amongst your team and employees, but it affects your employers too.