Make Your Next Move Your Best Move - Now It's On You

Of late, the topic of succession planning has sparked much concern. However, it seems few organizations have heeded the warning. According to a Human Resource Planning Society and Hewitt Associates study, fewer than 60% of companies have a succession plan in place. Below are some of the most common myths about succession planning. Myth #1: If there are no imminent retirements, succession planning does not need to be a top priority. According to a survey conducted by Capital H, nearly 22 percent of respondents expect to lose between 10 percent and 25 percent of their top performers to retirement within the next five years. These top performers play a significant role in a company’s success, often serving in high-level, supervisory roles. For successions to progress smoothly, the people chosen to fill these roles need to be prepared and adequately trained. That process takes time.  Myth #2: Succession planning is only an issue for big companies. 85 to 95 percent of all the companies ...

You are now a business owner, congratulations! You have everything you need right down to the business plan but one thing is missing. Customers. As you sit in the darkness of your living room at night, you wonder how you can afford to advertise and where. The next morning you drag out the Yellow Pages looking for a company that specializes in marketing or advertising, make the call and to your dismay the person that you speak to informs you of the prices for their services. They tell you that it will cost from several hundred dollars to as much as 15% of your total business. You have a little bit of money left from the loan that you obtained to get the business up and running, so you agree and set an appointment to meet later in the week. What is wrong with this scenario? Nothing if you have a lot of money to spend. The problem is that most small business owners have limited budgets to work with and expensive advertising campaigns are simply out of the question. So what is the alternat...

Q: I want to start my own business. I have tons of business ideas that all sound great to me, but my husband is not so sure. He says that we need to figure out a way to test my ideas; to pick the one that has the best chance of succeeding. I’m ready to just pick one and go for it. What is the best way to determine if a business idea really is as good as it sounds? -- Hannah C. A: Hannah, I know you probably don’t want to hear this, but your husband is right (first time for everything, huh): before you just pick a business idea and go for it, you should test the feasibility of your ideas to make sure they really are as good as you think they are. Every business idea, no matter how good it sounds while bouncing around inside your head, should be put to the test before you invest time and money into its execution. Success lies not in what you think of your idea, but what the buying public will think. Many entrepreneurs find out too late that the public’s opinion of thei...