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October 2016 Newsletter
Welcome to Small Business Matters. Each month this newsletter provides small business owners with information and resources that will MATTER to the profitable operation of the small business enterprise.
 
Your feedback and editorial contributions are most welcome. In addition, please forward this free monthly newsletter to anyone who will benefit from its content.
Special Announcement:  Tim's newest book "Small Business Matters...And All That Jazz" is coming soon. More information to come later this year. Stay tuned...
FEATURED ARTICLE

Employee Orientation: Are You Onboarding or Waterboarding Your New Employees?


From Webster's dictionary:
 
Onboarding : "The process by which a new employee learns the ropes and gets settled."
 
Waterboarding : " An interrogation technique in which water is forced into a detainee's mouth and nose so as to induce the sensation of drowning. "
 
Finding and retaining top talent has never been harder for small businesses. Research indicates that if an employee is going to leave your company, the majority of the time it will be in the first 30 days and it is due to a misconnection between what the employee expected in the new job and what actually occurred.
 
As a result, more companies seem to be focusing on employee orientation and making the first 30 days for new employees as positive of an experience as possible. The term most commonly used for this process is "onboarding".
 
In my experience, while these companies' intentions are good, the resulting experience for the new employee is less of an onboarding and more like waterboarding. The new hire is practically tortured starting on their first day and it just gets worse as time passes.
 
Let's look a little closer at both of these experiences for two new employees: Bill with Exceptional, Inc. and Sally with Torture Corp. Continue Reading.
PODCAST OF THE MONTH


Best-selling author Daniel Pink does a very interesting Podcast called "The PinkCast". Each podcast is usually just several minutes long. Here is one of my favorite episodes on using "pre-mortem" questions. This is a great tool for making tough strategic decisions. Try it out this week.
ARE YOU READY FOR GROWSMART?

GrowSmart is the nation's leading entrepreneurial training program. Here in Georgia, the program is offered through the local Small Business Development Ce n ter (SBDC) offices. I have had the pleasure of facilitating these classes for the past twelve years and look forward to leading more groups in 2017.
 
Visit GrowSmart online for more information and to register for this program.
WHAT IS VISTAGE?

Vistage is a 50 year-old international membership organization for CEOs, business owners, and company presidents. Vistage provides business leaders the tools to outperform both the competition and their own goals. A recent study has shown that Vistage member businesses outperform the Fortune 500 and S&P 500 and that our member companies grow 2.5 X faster than they did before joining Vistage. For more information on Vistage, visit www.vistage.com.
DID YOU KNOW?

 
I am in more than my share of meetings and need as much help as possible to look smart. These "tricks" might be helpful. My favorite is the "Venn Diagram". Which one is your favorite?
QUOTE OF THE MONTH

"If you don't have an Executive Assistant, you are one."  

Jack Daly, Vistage Speaker
Please let me know if I can help you in any way.

Remember, small business does MATTER.

TIM FULTON
President & CEO
Small Business Matters
(678) 427-9436
tim.fulton@vistage.com
www.smallbusinessmattersonline.com

"Dedicated to Increasing the Effectiveness and Enhancing the Lives of CEO's"

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