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Spring-Green Blog

How to Create an Effective Employee Development Plan

Most employers understand that it takes time, money, and effort to recruit the right employees, and once found, the good employees are worth keeping. An increasing number of employers have come to acknowledge and accept the need to provide those individuals with opportunities for ongoing training and development, both as individuals and as valued members of the organization. Wait a minute, isn’t all that training and development stuff for bigger businesses? Absolutely not. If your small business is big enough to have one or more employees worth keeping, then you […]

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3 Ways to Motivate Employees Without Spending Money

A common dilemma among small business owners revolves around how to motivate employees. While some business have bigger budgets and can do more to motivate their employees, there are also ways you can motivate employees without breaking the bank. While it’s true that the best employees are easier to poach if they are underpaid, it is also true that money only goes so far when it comes to motivation in the workplace. This we know from experience. Well then, if money isn’t the silver bullet of team motivation, what are […]

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7 Tips to Write an Effective Job Description For Ideal Candidates

A good job description should accurately describe the position that will attract the right candidates – in both qualifications and fit. Although job postings are not as comprehensive as a full-on position description, a well-written job description will help measure job performance as well as what is expected in the workplace. If it seems like we’re asking a lot of a written job description, you’re right, we are. But that’s okay because a properly-written job description will deliver on all counts. Here are 7 tips and best practices to help […]

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The Do’s and Don’ts Of Weekly Team Meetings

We’ve all heard the meeting jokes, some funny and others not so much. “One of these days we need to hold a meeting about all these meetings we’ve been having”… “Jones thought he’d gotten widespread agreement at the last meeting when he saw all those bobbing heads, but it turns out was just everybody fighting the urge to fall asleep”… “We reached a unanimous decision at Monday’s meeting—everyone agreed that the meeting was unnecessary”… And so it goes. Why have meetings earned such a bad rap and sometimes dreaded by […]

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3 Tips to Effectively Manage Your Staff’s Projects

Managing one’s own projects is a subject about which many books and articles have been written. Managing the projects of others, however, is a subject unto itself, as many small business owners will quickly learn as they begin to grow their staff. What’s the secret to managing employee projects without taking them over as your own? For most small business owners, this is a matter of combining effective employee management with basic project management principles. Depending on your own level of experience and skills at each, this can be somewhat […]

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Customer Service: Empowering Employees to Please Customers

Many people have an easier time defining poor customer service than they do good customer service. That is, they can’t always articulate what quality customer service is, but they could write volumes about what it isn’t. Why do you suppose that is? Has customer service become a lost art? Some people believe so. Here’s why customer service still matters for businesses and how you can empower employees to please customers. Why Customer Service Matters Your Window Is Open In any industry, a company’s front-line employees—those who interact directly with the […]

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How to Set and Achieve Winning Business Goals for 2019

As another year draws to a close, our thoughts turn toward 2019. A whole new year filled with endless possibilities stretches out before us and it’s hard not to be enthusiastic. Wouldn’t it be great to keep that enthusiasm going long enough to convert some of those goals into reality for your small business? You absolutely can! Here are some ways to set new goals for 2019 and improve your chances of achieving them. Successful Goal Setting For Your Local Business Take Stock of Your Present Situation You cannot effectively […]

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Working Together: How to Make a Family Business Work

The vast majority of businesses in the US, roughly 90%, are family owned or controlled. There is something promising about going into business with your spouse, siblings, kids, cousins, or other family members. There are, however, many inherent challenges to successfully starting and growing a family business. Predictably, these challenges fall into two categories: issues pertaining to the family and issues pertaining to the business. Let’s look at the pros and cons of a family business, exploring some of the leading issues as well as the potential ways to resolve […]

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Unplugging From Technology: Benefits of Taking a Device-Free Day

We live and work in an age where the flow of news, information, and communication are instantaneous and continuous. Social media allows us to engage customers and vendors as well as old schoolmates in ways that would not have been possible in the past. And with very few exceptions, thanks to the current technology, we are always plugged into the data stream—unless we choose not to be. The practice of periodically removing ourselves from technology high-tech devices has become known as “unplugging” and it seems to have gained popularity in […]

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Should You Convert Your Green Industry Business to a Franchise?

You’ve spent years developing your own business and building a loyal customer base that looks to you as the local green industry expert. And rightfully so, as you have amassed the kind of local knowledge that can only be acquired through years of experience. For any number of reasons, you may have considered converting your local business to a franchise or expanding your service offerings by adding on a specialty franchise. Would converting your business to a franchise be a good move for you? The answer to that question must […]

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