Beginning Business Blog

A s a certified Baby-boomer(circa 1949) retiree (2012), I elected to "retire" young to pursue a career that I had long desired, combining my love of science and my avocation of working with prospective small business owners and entrepreneurs. My decision is far from uncommon as is the decision by many boomers to continue to work beyond retirement age either staying on a full-time job, working part-time or starting a business.  Other research shows that taking retirement and actually retiring tends to shorten a retiree's life, and that staying active and involved lengthens it, as well as keeping a retiree healthier and mentally sharper. As more baby boomers reach retirement age, employers such as state governments face the likelihood of higher workforce turnover. For example, in the state of Missouri, more than 25 percent of all active state employees will be eligible to retire by 2016. Such large numbers of retirees threaten the continuity, membership and institution...

The question is: should family businesses always keep it in the family?  From the Murdochs to the Hiltons, families have long sought to keep their businesses in the bloodline. But new research shows that's not necessarily the best method of management. The recent study, published in the journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, shows that if the family business is part of a traditional industry built on quality and reputation, a family member would make a good CEO. But  if it operates in an industry that values innovation, and the firm has to stay on the cutting edge, it's best to look elsewhere for leadership. The study's lead author, CIBC Distinguished Professor of Family Business Peter Jaskiewicz, says that in industries that prioritize pushing boundaries over preserving tradition, an aggressive attitude in the marketplace is necessary to lead. "Because family CEOs tend to focus more on family values, while non-family CEOs seek to innovate, that mean...

This study brings up an interesting point, especially when combined with a reading of current research that documents that women generally make better small business owners and managers than do men ~ in that women operated businesses tend to be more profitable and live longer. Dance is stereotyped as a female activity, and some of the newest management training programs work at teaching those skills that women typically are stronger at.  Empathy, fostering teamwork, gathering a wide range of input before making decisions, and now dance.  Something anyone thinking of starting a business should consider. C ould managers gain a new kind of understanding about their interaction with colleagues and employees by ‘dancing’?  That's the question arising from new research. Management is usually considered a stiff and rational business, decisions made based on fiscal studies, profit margins and market forces. However, researchers have studied whether creative movement ('danc...

The question for many employers large and small is whether making social changes or physical changes lead to better productivity or lower absenteeism.  Or would a combination of changes have the best outcome?  According to this research, an employer is better served by either making social changes or physical changes - but not the two together. Here's the report: C hanges targeting the social or physical workplace environment have some positive effects on work-related outcomes —- but at least so far, evidence doesn't support a combination of the two approaches, a new report concludes.  Social changes such as  group motivational interviews led to improved work task performance, while the  physical change such as establishing specific areas for quiet work, meetings, and recreation was associated with employees being more fully concentrated and immersed in work tasks. Researchers evaluated the effects of changes to the social and...

A critical job performance evaluation can have a negative effect on any employee, according to research. By studying how people view positive or negative feedback a researcher has determined that nobody -- even people who are motivated to learn -- likes negative performance reviews. She is therefore developing ways to help managers improve the process for reviewing employees, and provides some pointers in her newly published article. Suggested Reading Click on image Culbertson and collaborators at Eastern Kentucky University and Texas A&M University surveyed more than 200 staffers who had just completed performance reviews at a large southern university. The research appears in the Journal of Personnel Psychology. The researchers first assessed employees' goal orientations: Learning goal-oriented people like to learn for the sake of learning. They often pursue challenges despite setbacks. Performance-prove goal-oriented people want to prove that they have competen...

L ying about performance on one task may increase creativity on a subsequent task by making people feel less bound by conventional rules, according to new research. Suggested Reading Click on image New research shows that lying about performance on one task may increase creativity on a subsequent task by making people feel less bound by conventional rules. "The common saying that 'rules are meant to be broken' is at the root of both creative performance and dishonest behavior," says lead researcher Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School. "Both creativity and dishonesty, in fact, involve rule breaking." To examine the link between dishonesty and creativity, Gino and colleague Scott Wiltermuth of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California designed a series of experiments that allowed, and even sometimes encouraged, people to cheat. In the first experiment, for example, participants were presented with a series of ...

Baseball great and world-renowned malapropist, Yogi Berra, and one of his best known comments. For so many small business people and self-employed entrepreneurs, their business is part of their self-expression.  So, they will dress in a way that fits their own mental picture of who they feel they are - without considering the first impression they give a prospective client or customer. In sales, it's standard practice for the salesperson to enter a room, greet the person they are meeting with, then to look away from the prospect and at their briefcase or other material for the count of ten before looking back at the prospect to start the meeting. Why?  Because most sales or client relationships are created in the first ten seconds based on the prospect's first impression of the salesperson.  Everything the salesperson says or proves from this point is pure window dressing. This is why it is so very important for you to project an image that fits in with y...