This year, Small Business Week 2010, taking place from October 17th through to the 23rd, is dedicated to entrepreneurship.
Every year for more than 30 years now, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) organizes this thematic week to pay tribute to Canadian entrepreneurs.
Events are organized across the country through the Bank's network of branches and its partners.
One of the challenges confronting small business is employee loyalty. Here are a few suggestions for holding on to this precious commodity:
Communicate effectively. If you need to lay-off salaried employees for economic reasons, it's important to tell them it's not due to poor work performance.
Stay open to dialogue. Explain your strategy to ensure the continuing existence of the business. This attitude should unite your personnel and motivate them to maintain or increase productivity.
It is essential to talk to employees every time some new event has an impact on your business's finances. Proactive communication will stifle rumours and keep people concentrated on their work.
Always be ready to listen. Facilitate communications from employees by creating letter boxes for anonymous messages and questions. This will encourage shy or hesitant employees to communicate with management. Establishing suggestion boxes is another positive step.
Ask for help. Invite suggestions from your personnel regarding solutions to problems, new customers or even ideas for improving production procedures.
Reinforce positive behaviour by promoting employees or giving them extra days off. Never tolerate negative behaviour within the business.
