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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” - Harry S. Truman
When is the last time you read a book to help you be a better business owner and leader? This week’s tip is to head to your local bookstore or library and pick up a book today!
A variety of topics within the business realm are available, from management to change innovation to marketing to leadership and more. By reading a book on these topics, you open up your mind to new ideas and processes for your company. In addition, as you become a better leader and manager through reading and applying what you learn, the better you will be able to lead your organization and team to continued success.
Seth Godin, business guru, has a helpful post about how to read a business book, including deciding before you even start that you’re going to change three things about how you work. By making a goal before you open the book, you’re less likely to read and then put it down without ever implementing the ideas and knowledge gained from the book. Reading without implementing would be quite a waste of your time!
We understand that your time is limited and you are likely wearing multiple hats. Therefore, we’ve found a resource that will help you pick a great book from the hundreds of business books available. Check out “ The 100 Best Business Books of All Time” for a quick synopsis of some of the greatest business books and how they can help your business. Find the ones that cover topics you need most and start reading today!
P.S. Happy Canada Day and Independence Day to our Canadian and American readers! (Canada Day – July 1, Independence Day – July 4)
Tags:
Employee Management
Leadership
Owning a Business
Productivity
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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As a candy store manager and/or business owner, you have a number of projects on your plate at one time. Therefore, this week’s tip provides some of our favorite tools to manage projects online. One of the benefits of using online tools is that you can access the information from nearly anywhere and team collaboration is amplified. Plus, the online tools below have accompanying smart phone apps, making access even easier.
- Trello – Trello is a simple and visually pleasing way to organize projects. Add images, checklists, due dates, attachments and more to keep your projects organized. You can have multiple boards, or projects, and organize tasks, or cards, within the boards in whatever fashion you choose. Additionally, assign collaborators to tasks to easily track who is responsible for different pieces of the project.
- Freedcamp – Freedcamp provides project templates to help you get started as well as a group wall to communicate with all users within your projects. The system also makes it easy to choose what your employees and clients can see with a fully customizable user permission system. Freedcamp includes a great dashboard providing an overview of projects, important tasks and recent activity.
- Teambox – Teambox has thought of nearly everything when it comes to project management. Keeping track of conversations, workloads, files and notes and documentation are just some of the features. Users may also view a Gantt diagram of a project’s status, share calendars and connect projects via email. Teambox is free for up to five users and utilizes a “pay as you grow” structure for more than five users.
- Evernote – Evernote is essentially an idea board for managing projects. It’s great for visually focused projects. For example, if you’re looking to redo your packaging soon, you may begin collecting photos, links, documents and notes about what you want your new packaging to look like and accomplish. Note that Evernote is great for you to organize projects and ideas, but to collaborate with others, you’ll want to use Evernote Business which is fee-based.
Now, pick one that works for you and have fun project planning and organizing for your company!
If you have additional project management tools you’ve used successfully, please leave us a comment below – we’d love to hear what they are and why they work well for you.
Tags:
Employee Management
Organizing
Owning a Business
Productivity
Technology
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Do you realize your front-line staff is asked a variety of questions by your customers? From how your confections are made to where the chocolate comes from, customers these days are more inquisitive than ever about how the products they consumer are made. Therefore, this week’s tip is to take time to train and educate your employees on how chocolate and your particular confections are made.
Below find a few ideas to help you begin creating a training program:
- Let employees get to know you, the owner, as well as the head candy makers (of course, oftentimes that is one and the same). If you have small company, consider a quarterly lunch with the newest employees to introduce them to how you came into the business and why you are passionate about it. Then, they will be able to tell your customers how and why the owner is passionate about quality confections which will help build trust and value for your company.
- Put together a list of required reading and do monthly or quarterly quizzes. The restaurant industry does this for servers – trainees have to take a test on the menu before they are allowed to be on the floor taking orders. You can create a variety of quizzes, from how your company’s confections are made to where and how cocoa is grown. Of course, you can make it fun with prizes, rewards, etc. for the top scoring employees.
- Utilize thestoryofchocolate.com. This website has great information and videos for your employees to discover the origins of cocoa and gain an appreciation for the farmers that grow the beans. Rather than expecting employees to visit this site on their own time, consider providing time at the beginning or end of the day that they can use a company computer to view specific videos, articles, etc. to make it a formal part of your training program.
As you educate your employees regarding how confections are made, they will be able to provide valuable information to your customers as they are perusing your store.
RCI Members: Peter Higgins of Purdy's Chocolates presented on the program they use to train their employees to be chocolate experts last fall at our Canadian Chocolate Tour. Access the session handout by signing in to the RCI website as a member. Then, click on Past Education under the Events & Education tab.
Tags:
Customer Service
Employee Management
Owning a Business
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Have you hired a new employee recently? How did your other employees react – are they proactive to be a part of the training process? Do you allow them to be a part of it? This week’s tip is to take advantage of the knowledge and experience of your current employees by assigning each new employee a designated trainer or mentor.
Mentorship programs will give your more experienced employees the opportunity to sharpen additional skills such as communication and supervising. Additionally, it helps new employees to build relationships with their new colleagues. There are a variety of ways to build training and mentoring programs for new employees. We’ve gathered a few articles and blog posts to help you create a successful mentoring program to onboard your new employees:
Do you have additional tips for creating a peer mentor training program? Please leave us a comment below!
Tags:
Employee Management
Owning a Business
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2020
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“Just by eating together it makes you feel psychologically closer.” ~ David Givens
This week we have some great tips to build community among your staff! And, yes, of course they all have to do with food.
- Trying to figure out what you’re going to do with those Thanksgiving leftovers? Why not have an employee potluck the Friday or Saturday following Thanksgiving? Remember, Small Business Saturday is the Saturday afterThanksgiving. If you have focused marketing efforts on this, it might be a great day for an employee potluck since your employees will hopefully be very busy. We all know that sharing meals together can create community and camaraderie.
- Or, host an Employee Chili Contest for staff. Post a fun flier or bill stuffer in their paycheck to announce the contest and provide a fun way to do informal voting among staff. Award the best chili maker with a store gift card or even paid time off.
- Host Crockpot Saturdays among staff and invite them to bring in a crock pot with an appetizer, main dish or dessert to share with staff on busy retail days. Post a sign-up for each dish in the kitchen for the month and ask employees to select a day to share a dish. Note, only staff who share a dish get to eat a dish on that day.
- Show your appreciation for staff and provide lunch for them on some of the busy retail days at your store. Swap lunch for chocolates with a local restaurant or caterer and thank your employees all at the same time. Or, start a new tradition and host an annual holiday meal for your team at the store even after December 25. Employers could also provide a snack basket for their employees like pretzels, granola bars, fun drinks, etc.
Do you have other ideas/tips for building community with your staff? We'd love to hear them in the comments below!
Tags:
Employee Management
Owning a Business
Seasonal
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Updated: Monday, May 4, 2020
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While “Jack of All Trades” might sound like a fitting job description for the position you are looking to fill, having a more specific title and description will help you find the most qualified job candidates. Additionally, an accurate job description helps both you and your employees to know what is expected of them and understand their roles within the company.
A job description includes:
- Job title.
- Job objective or overall purpose statement.
- Summary of the general nature and level of the job (no longer than three to four sentences).
- Description of the broad function and scope of the position.
- List of duties or tasks performed critical to the success (including principal duties, continuing responsibilities and accountability of the occupant of the position).
- Most important functional and relational responsibilities in order of significance.
- Description of the relationships and roles within the company, including supervisory positions, subordinating roles and other working relationships.
Be sure to check out the full-length article for what not to include in a job description.
RCI members can find more tips like these on the RCI business owners list serve, an email list of members that discusses issues business owners face. Click here to sign up today. Not an RCI member? Click here to join.
Tags:
Employee Management
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Posted By RCI,
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Updated: Monday, May 4, 2020
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RCI members and staff were recently in Florida for the RCI Spring Regional Institute event as well as a Mastering Caramels educational course. While networking, education and behind-the-scenes tours were key reasons for attending the event and course, we couldn’t help but notice that the attendees were also having fun while networking and learning.
Attendees want to walk away knowing they learned something new and maybe met new people or reconnected with other fellow candy makers, but when they can also say they had fun, they walk away with an added level of value from the event. Do your employees walk away from work with a sense of enjoyment and fun? Some studies have even suggested that having fun at work increases loyalty, productivity and job satisfaction.
We have gathered a few ideas to incorporate fun into your company’s workday:
- Celebrate employee birthdays – If you have too many employees to have a party for each individual birthday, you could have a monthly or even quarterly celebration. Get some balloons, provide some of your candies (of course!), and maybe even play a game (pin the stick on the apple, anyone?).
- Create a ‘fun committee’ – Charge the committee with coming up with a fun activity for the team or company once a month. Allow them the freedom and creativity to come up with something outside the box. And be sure you participate to show everyone you do know how to have fun.
- Company-wide competition – Why not intertwine fun and charity? For example, create a competition between departments or stores to see who can raise the most money for a charitable cause and reward the winning team with a fun outing or bring lunch or breakfast into the office for them to enjoy together.
If you have more fun ideas to share, please leave us a comment!
Check out ‘fun’ photos from Florida on the RCI Facebook page. Plus watch the RCI YouTube page for video recaps!
Tags:
Customer Service
Employee Management
Productivity
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