Small Business Management

Running a small, start-up business has it share of ups and downs. When I launched my company nearly nine years ago, running my own small business has been both rewarding and challenging. It has enabled me to establish greater balance in my life as I have reduced the administrative burden that corporate America places on each of its employees and replaced it with more time spent on developing content for my clients.

Given the choice, running my own small business is the best option for me at this stage of my life. I can work out of my house, see my kid on a regular basis, focus my work effort on content, rather than administration, and yes golf a tad. That being said, I am asked continually by others "what is it like to be in business for yourself?" as they contemplate the leap from corporate to sole proprietorship.

While it is not for everyone, here are some of the points of consideration that one should mull over before making the jump to starting your own small business:

One Stop Shop: One of the benefits of being a small business owner is the autonomy of "calling the shots". You are the boss and clearly can steer your company as you see fit. Many think they relish this set-up but in reality, when it comes to being the self-motivator that is required to be successful - the "guy" to go to - lots fall short. Before you read any further, ask yourself if you are cut out to be the "go to guy". If not, you can save yourself a lot of time and frustration. Simply stay in the corporate world.

Develop A Business Plan: So, why is business planning so crucial? In a word, it provides "clarity". Investing time to develop a plan provides precise clarification of the company vision. In addition, it provides a mechanism to gauge the results of the business and provides the foundation for future growth plans. In the long haul, it enhances the company valuation through fiscal responsibility, which provides the story of opportunity to any future investor or employee. Business planning is one-part strategy and one-part tactics - but where the sausage actually gets made is in the execution. Execution comes in the hard work necessary to carry out a plan and the accountability for your activities by tracking them.

Understand Tax Burdens: Regardless of the political rhetoric surrounding the tax code and its impact on small business, the fact of the matter is that these entities are levied with a myriad of taxes. I am shocked by how many budding entrepreneurs fail to understand the taxes that small businesses pay. My company has essentially one of the easiest business operating models that a small business can have. I invoice a few clients per month; receive a few checks a month; pay a few bills a month; and have very little inventory and/or depreciation of capital assets. Despite that, my tax return was 84 pages last year. Filing as an S-Corp, my outlay on taxes is between 25% and 39% of federal taxes; North Carolina state income taxes ranging from 6.0% to 7.5%, social security and medicare (twice as a matter of fact for employer and employee) of 15.3%, so nearly 50% of all income goes to taxes and fees.

Replicate Yourself: Given the fact that you are a one stop shop, a small business owner needs to replicate themselves wherever possible. Tools such as social media and the acceptance of telecommuting through online collaboration have enabled small business owners to be in many places at one time. In order to be successful, small business owners need to tap these tools to maximize their exposure to potential clients as well as reaching customers outside of their immediate trade area. Prior to these tools being readily available, my business was limited to the state of Illinois (where my company was originally based). Since I have utilized these tools to replicate myself, I have had clients in thirteen different states.

Navigate Third-Party Challenges: A small business owner wears many hats and relies on third-party entities for key alliances. When Go Daddy had their website and email server outage in September, roughly 5.3 million small business websites and emails were knocked out. Small business owners rely on these support companies and at times, are held captive when issues arise. While my company does not conduct a lot of commerce via my website, many small operators lost online revenue due to the outage.

Be Wary Of Scams: Lastly, where there is a small business owner, there is a criminal waiting to prey on the unsuspecting operator. In fact, this past week, I received a letter from a group claiming to represent the State of Illinois. Having been in business nearly nine years, I am keenly aware of all of the annual expenditures that my company pays. As an Illinois corporation (operating in North Carolina), I received a letter stating that I needed to send in a $125 fee for my "Annual Minutes Records Form". I didn't recall ever doing this, and when I contacted my CPA, he shared the following press release with me:

In short, starting and running a small business may be the best decision you may ever make. Having the facts in advance of that decision are critical to ensure that you are positioned for success. Once you fully vet your decision-making for starting your small business, the rewards can be amazing...

John Matthews is the founder and president of Gray Cat Enterprises, Inc., a strategic planning and marketing services firm that specializes in helping businesses grow in the restaurant, convenience and general retail industries. With more than 20 years of senior-level experience in retail and a speaker at retail-group events throughout the U.S., Matthews has recently written two step-by-step manuals, Local Store Marketing Manual for Retailers and Grand Opening Manual for Retailers, which are available at http://www.graycatenterprises.com.

Management Consultant for Primary Market Research

Primary Research is a form of research where the data is collected directly from a respondent. Market research is done to understand an area in-depth. Understanding the marketing environment is a must. Market research helps in finding out how the market is. Being aware of what's going on in the market is called Market Intelligence. The areas that are considered a part of market intelligence are-

- Product Position- The position they have in the market favourable, unfavourable or neutral? Primary Research answers these question, so that the marketing efforts can be designed based on the position to brand, product or service.

- Market segmentation- Understanding the market segment is a must, the product or service needs to be positioned accurately in the dynamic market. Research finds out if the product should be marketed to seniors, working professionals or teenagers. This also helps in tailoring the message.

- Consumer Behaviour- Understanding a consumer's behaviour is a must, their personality, their attitude, motivation and other intrinsic factors. Primary Market research is one on one research.

Management consultants help with primary market research. As a type of research primary market research takes a lot of time, by hiring a management consultant they would be able to conduct an in-depth research which would provide conclusive and empirical results.

Primary market research has several steps, this steps need to be clearly defined at demarcated, the following are the six major steps-

- Defining the problem statement- The problem must be clearly stated i.e. what are you trying to find out or prove. An example could be finding out the sales forecast for a period of a month. The time and place needs to be clearly defined.

- Method of data collection- The method needs to be defined and followed spot on. Whether the method adopted is going to be a survey or an interview. If a survey is selected, is going to be a telephonic interview or an online survey. The method needs to be defined in the beginning, so that the questions can be devised.

- Sampling technique- Defining the sampling technique is a must, random, stratified, cluster or some other technique. A mix of techniques must be avoided, for primary market research the company must use stratified sampling. As a technique for data collection, stratified sampling the researcher divides the entire target population into different subgroups, then selects the final group or sample. This method is adopted when the population size is vast, complete enumeration cannot be possible when the sample size is large.

- Analysis of data- After the process of data collection, the data must be interpreted through statistics. The researcher must define the software they are using to interpret the data. The statistical measures they are going to use to prove the problem statement.

- Error checking: This step is very crucial, the researcher must check if the data is entered accurately, if a hypothesis is stated it needs to be proved or disproved at this stage. The data or evidence must be corroborated at this stage.

- Research Report Writing- All the chapters of the research must be combined, the charts, tables and other forms of pictorial representation must be written at this stage. The Interpretation of the research findings is finished at this stage.

Management consultants can conduct in-depth works of research. Market analysis in general takes time and primary market research is more tedious, companies must hire management consultants to carry on this task. The steps are many and each step takes a lot of time, the end result is that market research answers many questions that companies are asking.

MBA & Company is a company where business management consultant offers primary market research services for you projects.They have highly accomplished researchers who provide tailored market research services. For further details you can visit http://www.mbaandco.com.

Leadership Ultrasound: Listening To The Heartbeat Of Your Team

Does anyone really listen to the heartbeat of their team? If you do, what are you doing about it?

So many employees are frustrated because the feel they don't have a voice and when they do speak they feel like they are not being heard so why bother?

An ultrasound is usually not partnered with the word leadership, but it really give it a different perspective when you look at them together. An ultrasound is a cyclic sound pressure wave with a frequency greater than the upper limits of human hearing. So for a leader to hear the heartbeat of their team you must really focus and pay attention.

Leadership ultrasound is effectively listening and being able to hear the waves of issues, concerns, or problems on their team. Leaders must listen not only to what is being said but also what is not being said. It's one thing to listen with your ears but quite another to listen with your heart.

With so much going on in the world and the election is right around the corner there is so much noise it's easy to miss something. You can get caught up in action plans, goals, assessments, meetings, conference calls and lose touch with your teams pulse. Your team needs to know that you no only know what's going on but that you are actively involved in making things better.

An Obstetric ultrasound is a sonogram used to see the fetus and determine the sex of a baby. It does a few things,

1. Checks for movement.
2. Assess growth.
3. Check for abnormalities.

A leader should be able to hear below the surface of what's happening on the team just like a sonogram.

1. Check for Movement: Leaders must know the direction the team is moving so that you can redirect if necessary or push further ahead. Leaders must know the pulse of each member of the team to know if they are committed, compliant or just complainers. You need to know if your team is healthy or hurting and the movement of your team or lack of movement can help you determine this.

2. Assess growth: How do you measure the growth of your team? Results are usually the first recourse of measurement and they should be but what other methods are you using to measure your teams growth? Are you measuring morale, engagement, commitment or loyalty? These usually get overlooked since they are intangible results but they are very important measurements.

3. Check for abnormalities: No one thinks there is anything abnormal about their team. You must be aware of what is not right on your team or with specific employees. When you listen to the heartbeat of your team you know when there are abnormalities.

It might be time for you to conduct a leadership ultrasound to know exactly what the movement is on your team, how you are growing and if you have some abnormalities on your team.

It's time to INgage,

Becky A. Davis

You can start the process of INgaging your employees to help improve performance. We focus on leadership transformation. We have three free coaching calls that will teach you how to lay the foundation for long-term engagement. Visit the website at http://www.mvpwork.com.

Please sign up for our free tele-seminar by going to http://www.mvpwork.com and register now. You will learn the four style of motivation and the one that will get you the best results.

8 Time Management Techniques For Business Managers

Time management is the most essential area of managing. We would all be great leaders if we had endless quantities of time to organize work weeks, mentor as well as appraise staff, handle Head Office email messages along with aid our colleagues. The reality, nonetheless, is that all of us find ourselves with a lot more tasks and jobs and not nearly enough time. Never fear! We have eight time management tips that will help you conserve those valuable additional minutes.

1) Educate your employees - This really is an obvious but typically forgotten aspect of management. Instruction essentially equates to empowerment and typically the greater encouraged your staff actually are the more they're going to have the ability to do. The more your staff can do, the less impositions they will be placing on your time.

2) No reporting to workers! - Your personnel are there for you to assign to. Do not let them hand all issues over to you personally. If a customer problem arises don't instantly take it over and leave the member of staff standing idly by whilst you devote your priceless time to carrying out their work for them. Demand that they think of solutions on their own and allow them the freedom to implement said ideas.

3) Designate members of staff client grievances and concerns - If a consumer has got an issue that falls within the category of "typical course of business" don't be afraid to allocate it to an employee. You are paying them to cope with problems not send them in your direction.

4)Under no circumstances accept the phrase "we aren't paid for that " - This particular expression along with its sister saying "it's not in our contract " is the beginning of an epidemic which involves staff deciding just what they may be ready to do and what not. They are basically paid by you to accomplish anything and everything permitted by law. If they are not satisfied with this then they should look for alternative employment.

5) Give your staff zones of responsibility - Whether it's a retailer, diner or vehicle wash you might be running, give your employees certain sectors of responsibility. Virtually any area of responsibility that's not designated will in the end become the manager's burden. Each and every place you assign will reduce your time and energy invested in clearing up after them.

6) Don't constantly over rule your employees - All the above will not do the job until you enable them to make errors. Provided that they comprehend the consequences associated with a judgment they make (desirable or undesirable), they ought to be enabled to go forward with it.

7) Don't pay employees to cause you problems - You pay for problem solvers not problem creators. When, in the standard course of business, an error is produced, get the employee responsible to get it sorted out. If they are unable to comply then they may be in the wrong role.

8) Document everything - Regardless of whether you utilize a piece of paper or perhaps a stylish piece of computer software, preserve a record of current problems and whom they're assigned to. Obtain progress reports every single day from your staff and motivate them to get these kinds of issues fixed!

Follow these time management tips and keep in mind that one of the most critical elements of time management is definitely the way a boss interacts with his/her personnel. Don't permit their issues to develop into your own issues. Aid them and also advise them but remember who assigns tasks to whom and who produces requirements on whose time.

If you are interested in the 8 Time Management Techniques? check out our site at http://www.modernmanagementstyles.com

Can Adults Be Subjected To Bullying?

So, you got passed over again for a big promotion. Maybe, even it was a small promotion. Either way, you were undermined by a manager to pick someone they are personally tied to. Possibly, not even a current employee. Perhaps, a golf friend, or an old football buddy. Did you think of this as bullying? Being passed up over and over again, and never knowing why.

Face it, managers and supervisors need to know that as adults, we are not affected by the same type of bullying that younger generations are. I know in government and state agencies, it is given the term "politic". Often times, he who politics the hardest reaps the most benefits. The downfall is, all of the important jobs are taken by people due on popularity, not skill. So, much like the problems with bullying, it makes the other parties feel poorly about themselves. When someone is selected strictly based on education, and put in the position that certain specific skills should be prerequisites to do the job, the employee with the knowledge and skills, but not as much education, has just been bullied out of a job.

Do we as adults stand up to these bullies? Probably not, because we do not see it as such. It is time we stand up. The good ol' boy system never worked before, and has long faded with the creators. If your company or department has loyal, dependable, deserving employees trying to promote, then why hold back the production of the agency? Instead you risk losing valuable knowledge (because eventually they do leave), and get stuck with someone in an office who knows nothing about the job they were hired for. Any effective leader should automatically know it is better to promote morale, and show other employees the benefits of being loyal and hard-working. Not everyone is a natural leader, but if someone is placed in a leadership position, they should be guided into the right direction. Unfortunately, non-leaders are stuck following other non-leaders, and it creates havoc.

Any large successful corporation will tell you that maintaining a low turnover is the best way to be productive. You should keep the employees that are valuable and beneficial. Don't promote the trouble makers, or reassign them to cause trouble in another aspect of the company. Remove them, and put someone in a leadership position that can be a leader. Reading books won't in itself teach leadership skills. One must be shown how to lead. A natural leader knows how to lead his army into a war, and still,maintain all of their trust! Would your subordinates go to war for you? If you are in doubt, then reevaluate your leadership and maintain the good employees already available to you!

Victoria Greyson is author of Room One Thirty Eight and Time Lost. You may find information at http://www.victoriagreyson.com, for other topics.

Revenue Cycle Management and Services, Part 3

Without the correct information; whether an appointment time, place, patient demographic information, pre-op, procedure or insurance information you could actually lose revenue. I would consider this function critical to the overall success of your facilities revenue cycle.

Every hospital or physicians practice focus should be on the front end, so you don't have to pick up the pieces later for incorrect billing, appeals, self-pay collections, and bad debt just to name a few. Your organization loses a lot of money working accounts on the tail end when just a little more effort up front would resolve most of your revenue cycle issues.

All information obtained by central scheduling from any physician's office or referral source must be accurate and verified as such. You should create a hospital form if you don't already have one for all of your providers. I know they want to use their own but really when you think about it the information will be used in your facility or practice so it should make your process easier. I'm attaching a sample form:

Phone: Logo Fax:

PRE-AUTHORIZATION INFORMATION FORM

PRE-AUTHORIZATION EXPEDITED REQUEST

HEALTH PLAN/Payer __________________________ Pre-Auth Phone #_______________________________

Patient/Coverage Data
Date: ______________ Requestor's Name: _________________________ Phone #: ________________________
Fax #: _________________ Tax ID #: ___________________________ CMO #: ___________________________
PCP, Phone and ID #:___________________________________________________________________________

Requesting Specialist and ID #: ___________________________________________________________

Member ID #: _________________________________Proposed Date of Service: __________________________
Patient Name: ________________________________ DOB: _________Social Security #: ___________________
Patient Address: __________________________________ Patient Phone Number: _______________________
(Please provide a current copy of the patient's driver's license, front and back of the patient's insurance card(s) and demographic form, if available)
Provider Name/Physicians Name: _______________________________________________________________
Physicians Address: ___________________________________________________________________________
Inpat. ___ 23 Hr. Obs. ___ Outpat. ____ Surgery ___ Radiology ___ Wound Care ___ Sleep ___ PT/OT/ST ___

Clinical Data

Diagnosis: _______________________________________________________ ICD 9 Code(s) _______________
Procedure _____________________________________ Outpatient Procedure Code(s) (CPT4): ________________
Describe specialist services requested and number of visits authorized: ____________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
Please submit clinical history (signs/symptoms, tests, previous treatment, and/or progress notes for ALL pre-authorization requests).
______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Please describe, if applicable, any special circumstances which (which includes but is not limited to disability, acute condition or life-threatening illness) may require flexibility in the application of screening criteria: ______________________________________________________________________________________________

Pre-authorization number: _____________________ Number of Visits: _______________________
Referral number: _____________________________ Expiration Date: ________________________

You can place this on your website they can fax it or email it to you. Make it convenient for them.

Don't be afraid to use your information systems scheduling module if you have one. I've seen too many facilities and practices not use a piece of their information system because they didn't understand it or it seemed too cumbersome to use.

During the scheduling process you need to ensure the patient knows:

1. What the costs are for their service, procedure or test?
2. What they have to pay at the time of their service, procedure or test after you verify and pre-certify their insurance?
3. What they have to bring with them?
4. What are the requirements for my procedure, no water for 24 hours, no food, etc.?
5. How long their service, test or procedure will take?
6. Any other pertinent information, physician's instructions, special instructions, etc.?
7. Finally PRE-REGISTER the patient. It saves time for everyone when the patient arrives at your facility or practice.

During the scheduling process you need to ensure the physician or referral source knows:

1. Time and date of the service, procedure or test?
2. If any of the insurance or demographic information has changed for the patient?
3. Of course after the service, test or procedure, the results.

Referral, Notification and Pre-Certification

Most health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and point-of-service (POS) plans require a referral, notification and/or pre-certification from the patient's primary care physician (PCP) or specialty care physician (SPC) before they obtain services from a facility or practice. If they do not obtain the necessary approvals, the insurance plan may not provide coverage and the patient may be responsible for the full cost of these services. Therefore referrals, notifications and pre-certifications are vital to your revenue cycle and overall financial stability. Verify all patient insurance information prior to any service, test or procedure and notify the physician's office of any required referrals or pre-certifications that aren't already present at the time of scheduling.

It's up to you to get it right up-front!

If you would like any further information about this article, to receive a copy of the first 2, revenue cycle services, revenue cycle management or a copy of the form in this article please contact Lynn J. Cheramie III, Compass Health Systems, LLC at 1-800-597-1066.

Next Up: Revenue Cycle Management and Services, Part 4, Charge Capture.

Compass Health Systems was created by healthcare professionals for healthcare professionals. They provide outstanding AR Audits, Billing, Business Office Management, Charge Reviews, Coding, Collections, Extended Business Office Services, Financial Audits, HIM Management, IT Management, Interim Assistance, IT Services, Mentoring, Permanent Placement, Transcription and Revenue Cycle Services, Consulting and Management for physician's practices and hospitals. Call 706-286-7930 or visit http://www.compasshealthsystems.biz today!

Eight Strengths of Effective Organizations

One useful distinction to consider is between an effective organization and organizational effectiveness. There are a wide variety of ways in which to view organizational effectiveness and effective organizations can achieve effectiveness in several of these ways. We view each effective aspect of an organization as an organizational strength and identify eight strengths that can often be seen in highly effective organizations. Various permutations of these strengths are combined to synergistically create overall organization effectiveness.

1. Human Resources Development and Talent Management (Engagement)

Organizations that are effective recruit, develop, and utilize a workforce that is aligned with the organization's mission, vision and objectives. The organization builds and maintains a climate and culture that encourages performance, participation, meaningful work, and personal and organizational growth. They provide training and resources to promote these.

2. Information Systems and Decision-Support (Mindful)

Effective organizations determine what information is essential to its efforts and carefully determine how it will be collected, analyzed, and reported throughout the organization. Information is made useful, delivered efficiency and retained; it supports building knowledge and learning from experience. This knowledge is critical to decision-making and is used to support key organization processes and the organization's performance management system.

3. Leadership (High Standards)

In effective organizations leaders involve all employees in creating and sustaining organizational values, organizational vision, organizational direction, performance expectations, and customer focus. By incorporateing important values and clear expectations into the organization's management and leadership approach, a system that stimulates high performance standards is created. These standards include how the organization addresses its responsibilities to stakeholders and how it continuously learns and improves it processes.

4. Performance Results (Clarity)

Organizations where they have a clearly defined bottom line and every employee knows how they contribute to the success of the organization are generally highly effective. Employees are kept informed about the organization's progress toward its goals and objectives and how they are contributing to it.

5. Process Management (Coordination)

The effectiveness of organizations is systematically built by continually studying its processes in order to improve them. Process management areas that might be considered for improvement include such things as: Product or Service Development, Product or Service Delivery, Marketing, Procurement and so on. Various processes are linked and managed to ensure that they are mutually supportive and drive the execution of organizational goals.

6. Stakeholder Service (Responsiveness)

Highly effective organizations place great emphasis on customer, shareholder, and employee relations and make a variety of decisions about how to satisfy these stakeholders. They make concerted efforts to determine and meet or exceed stakeholders' expectations and respond speedily to the changing needs of stakeholders.

7. Strategic Planning (Alignment)

Effective organizations create and communicate a resilient strategic plan that helps to align the efforts of departments and individuals establish priorities and determine resources are allocated. Well defined goals and objectives assist management in assessing advancement of the organization's mission and progress toward its vision.

8. Structure (Agility)

An effective organization is structured so that it is able to do such things as: (a) respond quickly to environmental changes, (b) intelligently build and use the knowledge, skills and abilities of its employees (c) capably meet its mission, (d) establish decision-making at the most appropriate organization level, (e) support broad communication and information flow to enable employees to do a good job, and (f) connect work units so that they can support each other as their organizaitonal roles and relationships shift.

Employee engagement, mindful action, high performance standards, goal clarity, excellent coordination, responsive service, strategy alignment, and agile operations each contribute to the overall effectiveness of an organization. An organization's unique combination of strengths together enable it to effectively meet its particular challenges.

At Empowering Effectiveness, Frank Papotto enables clients to identify, develop, and implement action plans and strategies that lead to more effective organizations. He offers support for executives and managers to help in instigating and influencing the changes that improve OE.

Find additional information about how Empowering Effectiveness supports clients' solutions at http://empoweringeffectiveness.co.cc.