With the vaccine rollouts well under way in many countries, the talk has turned to the reopening of the economies. One of the biggest issues facing many entrepreneurs, is the return to the workplace. At the start of the pandemic, millions of office workers were sent home to work remotely. Once the initial technical issues were resolved, everybody seemed to profess that they are never going back to the office and their future was a zero commute remote work environment. So confident that this new structure would be the new forever normal, many moved out of the big cities to rural or small communities, never expecting to commute again. Unfortunately, this might be a decision that they come to regret. Understandably, no one knew if or when a vaccine would be developed. However, in less than two years many countries are experiencing high vaccination rates and are slowly reopening much of their economies as life returns to some form of normalcy. So, what’s next? Well for starters, offices will begin to reopen, and people will be required to show up for work. Just wait for the howls of injustice, that after more than a year of remote work, employees will be required to be physically present at their place of work. But, the interesting thing is that this vocal group may be in the minority. Research Recent research from KPMG is revealing that the majority of employees want to return to the workplace stating they “miss the social interaction, the buzz, the creativity of being at work”. However, they do want some form of hybrid arrangement combining the opportunity of working remotely part of the week. Interestingly, another survey conducted by Accenture of financial firms in the US shows that 80% of executives want their employees to return office at least 4 to 5 days a week. Clearly there’s a misalignment between employee and employer expectations. Just to muddy the waters a little more, EY conducted another survey, whereby more than half the employees surveyed around the world would consider leaving their job post covid-19, if they are not afforded some form of flexibility in where and when they work. This juxtaposition could prove quite interesting for both parties. When you consider that most employers want people in the office, where exactly are those employees willing to leave their present positions going to go? Lots of discussion Apparently, HR consulting firms and employment lawyers have been exceptionally busy over the past 18 months. For the most part they been dealing with work from home challenges many businesses have had to manage, and it doesn’t look like it will subside any time soon. The new challenge is how to deal with the return to office post Covid-19. But, depending on the jurisdiction, employees may not have much choice as to where they work. According to some employment lawyers, employers have the right to expect their employees to return to the office as the pandemic was an aberration or a departure from the norm and didn’t change the employment contract. Granted, for some businesses, working from home may not be an issue and therefore will continue the practice. However, other employers will be less open to continuing the work from home concept. This is primarily because the pandemic has shown that communications, productivity, and creativity has suffered because of remote working. In SBM #89, Work From Home I related how IBM recalled 11,000 of their employees back to the office 18 months after sending them home to work remotely. They realized that they were missing out on the innovation that happened through in person interactions. So, I think there’s an opportunity to learn from their experience. Now what? So, the question to small business owners is what are you going to do? This question needs to be dealt with now and should not be put off, because once the economies reopen, you may be just too busy to give this the necessary thought. The best advice I can give any employer is to decide w...

Small Business Minute by Greg Weatherdon

SBM #99 Are You Ready?

There are lots of reasons start-ups fail, but one that I see far too often is the lack of industry experience. Industry experience can be summed up as having substantive knowledge working in the area of the planned start-up. As an advisor, I have met with hundreds of budding start-ups and one of my primary questions to them once they have explained their idea is, “what industry experience do you have?” Unfortunately, I never thought to quantify the responses, but suffice to say that a large percentage had zero industry experience. Interesting enough, this was not isolated to any particular industry, but ran the gamut from app development to the hospitality industry and everything in between. This lack of industry experience can be partially explained by the rampant promotion of entrepreneurship and the social media heroes that give false hope to their many followers, by suggesting that they only need desire or ambition to be successful. For those of us that know better, nothing could be farther from the truth. To be sure there are examples of individuals who have been successful in areas where they had little experience. For the most part these individuals had a lot of luck or a lot of money to support them while they learned, but they are the exceptions. The average entrepreneur has neither, but what the successful ones do have is industry experience. Knowledge deficit The authors of Age and High-Growth Entrepreneurship stated the following in a Harvard Business Review post; “We found that work experience plays a critical role. Relative to founders with no relevant experience, those with at least three years of prior work experience in the same narrow industry as their start-up were 85% more likely to launch a highly successful start-up.” History itself can be a great teacher and as Winston Churchill once said in a speech to the House of Commons “Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.” There are many examples from history that entrepreneurs can draw upon to support or justify why those individuals with industry experience have a greater chance at success. What most people overlook is that having industry experience is a massive competitive advantage. It gives you the knowledge to spot an opportunity from the inside that is invisible to an outsider. This is by no means a guarantee but having industry experience can minimizes potential missteps that are not clearly visible to the outsider. Klondike (Yukon) Gold Rush One of the most interesting comparisons that I can make to todays rush to entrepreneurship is that of the Klondike Gold Rush. Once the news leaked out that gold was discovered in Dawson City in the Yukon in 1896, the stampede was on. Much like social media does today, newspapers from around the world wrote extensively about the bonanza. So much so, that in one San Francisco newspaper it was front page news for over a year. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 people from around the world, regardless of their experience, quit their jobs, left their families, and headed out on the year long trek to claim their share of the riches. Sadly, many did not get far. Of the potential 300,000 who set out, only 100,000 thousand actually made it to the Yukon and only 30,000 of them got to Dawson City. It is interesting to note that of the 30,000 who made it to Dawson City, only 2,000 actually found gold and only a handful of those returned home with any. Access to Yukon in those days required the gold seekers to travel north via ships from ports along the Pacific west coast to Skagway Alaska. This was the jumping off point to the Yukon, but even if you made it this far, many Stampeders, as they became known, were in for a rude awakening and ended many a dream. Beginning in 1896 the Canadian government would not allow entrance into the Yukon unless the individual had a year’s worth of supplies to sustain themselves. This is one of the reasons that tens of thousands of people c...

SBM #98 Why industry experience matters

“Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think”. This often repeated quote is regularly but wrongly attributed to Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and philosopher Bertrand Russell, all big thinkers in their own right. The reason for this is that they all had similar thoughts on the on the capacity or desire of humans to think, because thinking is hard work and most shy away from it.… Read More

SBM #97 Think

For newly minted entrepreneurs, the biggest priority is to generate revenue, any revenue in an effort to transition from struggling to profitable enterprise. To those of us who have made the crossing, we have more often than not sacrificed our own financial needs in order to create a proper fiscal foundation for our business. Because so few of us ever get investor capital, we are left to our own devices to fund our enterprises.… Read More

SBM #96 Where’s Your Wealth?

A year ago, had you asked small business owners what 3 things could put them out of business?, I would have bet a pandemic would not have been on their top 10 let alone their top 50 things. But a lot has changed in just over a year. According to the CFIB (Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses), it is estimated that 1 in 6 small businesses won’t survive because of Covid-19.… Read More

SBM #95 What 3 things could put you out of business?

For some time now I’ve have taken issue with the advice given small business owners on social media platforms under the guise of motivation and advice. Sadly, much of this advice being spewed forth by many of these so called experts is, in my opinion, nothing more than hype to grow their popularity.But in order to balance my opinion and for research purposes, I have spent over 20 hours of listening to the audio version of the books of some of these more popular gurus and to be honest, my opinion hasn’t changed.… Read More

SBM #94 – Advice

 Pivot! Just pivot! That’s what your being told if you’re having challenges running your SME. It’s another one of those words that actually had value once upon a time. Now, it’s so abused that’s it’s nothing more than a throwaway statement by individuals who want to sound like they’re offering intelligent advice, but really aren’t. Realistically, most businesses can’t pivot.If we’re to be honest, most individuals have a heck of a time coming up with one idea that they can get excited enough about to take the plunge.… Read More 

SBM #93 Pivot

 This is a guest post by Dennis Geelen of Zero In.Take a minute and think of a few companies that pop into your head that were once seen as leaders in their industry but, for one reason or another, eventually came crashing back down to Earth.  Maybe they have since been surpassed and are no longer a household name.  Perhaps they filed for bankruptcy. … Read More 

SBM #92 The 2 Biggest Mistakes

 Money, it’s one of those personal topics that many people are uncomfortable discussing. Why that is, varies from person to person.Even inside a business that uncomfortableness exist, but that needs to change. Generally speaking, the only time the subject of money seems to ever comes up is in the heat of the moment in comments such as “Do you know how much that costs?”.… Read More 

SBM #91 The Money Business

 I’ve been wanting to golf at a rural course for a number of years now. The reason is that this golf course now sits upon farmland that was once owned by two of my uncles. I had spent a lot of time of these farms as a kid growing up and I had only played the course once many years before and my memory suggested it wasn’t a bad little course.… Read More 

SBM #90 Google Reviews Matter

 Work from home is not a new concept. People have been looking for any excuse to do so since the turn of the century. Initially, Friday’s was the defacto work from home day. It’s popularity was driven mostly to get a jump on the weekend, more so than trying to get distraction free time in order to get caught up. For evidence, just check the highway traffic on Friday’s afternoons during the summer, as people are fleeing the city.… Read More 

SBM #89 Work From Home

 For many Covid-19 has temporarily changed the way business is done and for others those changes will be permanent. This is both good and bad. The good is that for those that adapt, they will find news ways to do business. The bad is that for those who remain steadfast in their ways, they may not survive. This brings me to today’s topic, discounts.… Read More 

SBM #88 Discounts

 Those of you that know me and have either purchased my book or attended an event that I have spoken at, know that the advice I share is based on getting the basics right. By getting the basics right, you can grow your business and your leadership skills that allow you to attain a high level of freedom by removing the shackles of ownership.… Read More 

SBM #87 – Where have all the experts gone?

 Covid-19 is creating utter chaos for many small business owners. Fear is taken hold of many owners as they wonder what’s next? No one knows when or if they’ll reopen. Most don’t want to admit out loud what they are secretly thinking-bankruptcy. It’s just too difficult to fathom.Making any kind of decision while under duress is never a good idea.… Read More 

SBM #86 – Entrepreneurs in Crisis

 Conference CallsThe outbreak of Covid-19 has got the world on lock down and many employees have transitioned to working at home. With that, many entrepreneurs are holding daily conference calls to keep teams connected.The upside is many employees are having greater communication with their managers than they previously had. Unfortunately, many owners have never participated or hosted conference calls and in my conversations with participants, I’m hearing that many of these calls are bit chaotic and frustrating.… Read More 

Small Business Minute #85 – Entrepreneurs guide to conference calls

Practical advice from a Small Business Expert

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Small Business Minute by Greg Weatherdon

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