You’ve probably heard of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia and the 8th most popular site on the internet.  The main idea behind it is that anybody can contribute knowledge by adding a new article or editing an existing one.  This idea has allowed Wikipedia to grow enormously quickly, with broader content and faster updates than traditional encyclopedias.

Have you ever thought of setting up a mini-Wikipedia within your company?  This is a great way to organize all sorts of information.  You can share it with other people, especially newcomers, and anybody can update it, so it’s easier to keep complete and accurate.  No more digging up old emails to find information that might be obsolete.

With an internal mini-Wikipedia, you can collaborate and keep information on almost anything:
- A checklist for the order-taking process
- Ideas for new products to carry
- A list of advertising opportunities
- Your quality inspection guidelines when receiving products
- A list of employee expenses to be reimbursed by the company
- A selection of customer testimonials for marketing purposes
- Phone numbers and email addresses for everyone within your company

Here are two websites that allow you to do this for free, while controlling who has access to the information:
- PBwiki
- Google Sites

Try it out, and enjoy improved information sharing within your company!

Business owners need to make a lot of decisions on a daily basis.  They range from small ones such as whether to do a questionable refund or not, to big ones such as how much money should they allocate for marketing.  For small business owners, it might be difficult to make the right call when these decisions are tightly tied to their own personal finances.  This is especially bad when the owners are faced with influential emotions like greed, stress, and pressure.

The easy way out is to maximize short-term profit in those situations.  Questionable refunds?  Just keep their money.  Marketing budget?  As little as we can afford.  Hiring for talent?  Just tell the current staff to do more.

When these situations are laid out on paper, most people are able to make a good decision that balances both the short-term gain and the long-term benefits.  The tricky thing is to make a good call under stressful circumstances.

Here are a few tricks that might help you in those situations:

1)  Stay calm. Try to detach yourself from any negative emotions so that you can make a more rational decision.

2)  Get away for a while. Remove yourself from the environment, even for just 5 minutes.  This can help clear your head.

3)  Remind yourself of what’s important. Your beliefs in the fundamentals such as integrity, customer satisfaction, etc. can help you get over greed and pressure.

4)  Set a policy. Make one good, level-headed decision so that you don’t need to think about it every time.

Do you have any stories to share where you had to make a tough business decision under pressure?  How did you handle it?

There are a lot of articles on the internet on how to deal with unhappy customers.  Usually, they involve tactics to help deal with that single problem.  Instead, you should look at unhappy customers as opportunities to improve your business.

Bill Gates talked about it.  He said, “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” We couldn’t agree more.  But what’s more important than learning is changing.

Big businesses are more sluggish in changing things in response to customer feedback.  This is where small businesses have the advantage.  If you learn how to improve your business to serve your customers better, you don’t need to go through all the different departments and management hierarchy like they do in big businesses.  You just do it.  Probably overnight too.

So, next time you need to handle an unhappy customer, not only should you think “how can I make this customer happy?”, but also “how can I make sure nobody will be unhappy in the same way again?”

What’s the best way to encourage people taking a mock test to do their best?  Should you pay them:
a)  2.5 cents per correct answer.
b)  Nothing.

2.5 cents is a lousy amount of money, but it’s better than nothing, right?  Wrong.  This was tested out in Israel, and it turns out that people do 10% better when doing it for free than when offered the small cash reward.

What’s going on here?  Test-takers in the two scenarios above had the following mindsets:
a)  What’s in it for me?  2.5 cents isn’t worth the trouble.
b)  I’ll help out.  If I do my best they can figure out if the questions are too easy or not.

It would seem reasonable that these mindsets could combine into something like “I’ll help out and earn a few bucks at the same time”.  But actually, it’s pretty much one or the other.  Scientists have even tracked the two mindsets down to different parts of the brain, and generally, only one is active at a time.

So when you need help with something, you should either pay enough to answer “what’s in it for me“, or ask for a favour instead (and return it later).  If you offer too little money, you just draw attention to the fact that it’s not enough.  Pay enough or don’t pay at all.

Nobody is right all the time.  Albert Einstein said, “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”  For important business decisions, the consequences of a major mistake can be costly.  A leader needs to form a safety net by encouraging colleagues to point out mistakes early on.

This is not easy.  Have you seen an insecure or hot-tempered authority figure get annoyed when challenged?  So has everybody else, and this makes people less likely to risk their boss’ wrath by speaking up.  Furthermore, pressure to go along with the group can make it hard for people to speak up, even when they’re obviously right.

What can you do to encourage a culture where people will feel comfortable speaking up?
- Set an example by regularly asking hard questions.
- Ask people what they think, especially when they look uneasy.
- Thank people when they speak up, even if you disagree.
- Take some breaks between having discussions and making decisions.  This will give people time to think and put their objections into words.
- Set up an anonymous suggestion box.
- Mention times when you have changed your mind or been mistaken.  You will gain more respect by showing your honesty and open-mindedness than by pretending to be infallible.

It takes a certain strength of mind - humility - to truly appreciate criticism.  This strength can’t be faked, but it can be trained.  Start forming your safety net now by talking to your colleagues and sharing this article.

We’re all busy these days, especially at work.  Team meetings, project deadlines, business travel, not to mention all your personal activities and errands.  Keeping track of your own schedule can be hard.  But to remember the schedule of everyone else in your team to coordinate better with them can be headache-inducing.  Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a centralized calendar you could share with your team?

Google Calendar is the answer.  It is an online web-based calendar that can be shared between you and your colleagues.  You can set events and send email invitations directly on it to streamline your meeting arrangements.  It will even email you reminders of the events if you want.  Best of all, it is free.  You can even keep a separate private calendar right on Google Calendar, so that you jot down your family get-togethers and errands all in one place, without sharing all these details with your co-workers.

Give it a try today.  Stop keeping everything in your head and save yourself some headaches.

Compare these two sentences:

“In the author’s opinion, it is in most peoples’ best interests when excessive verbiage is avoided by people who are engaged in the act of writing.”

“Don’t fluff up your writing.”

They say the same thing, but the second one is much more direct and memorable.

Whether you’re writing website content, instructions, or an important email - every word costs your readers time and energy.  If it doesn’t pay off quickly, you will quickly lose their attention and potential business.

Pack a lot of content into a few words.

If you’re not convinced, here are some illuminating resources:
- Mark Twain said “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.”
- Google cuts words mercilessly.
- If you add 100 words to your website, people will read less than 20 of them.
- A book On Writing Well

Everyone knows about globalization nowadays.  Developing countries like China and India are known for their cheap exports.  If you go to Wal-Mart and pick a random item off the shelf, chances are it’s made in a developing country.

Big enterprises have a vast network of foreign suppliers and professional purchasers to take advantage of the cheap importing opportunities.  As a small business owner, it might be difficult for you to find good and reliable foreign suppliers.  The good news is that the internet helps level the playing field.

Alibaba is an online business-to-business platform connecting buyers and suppliers, with an emphasis on suppliers from developing countries.  You can search by products, prices, countries, or even special deals.  If eBay is the trading place between consumers, then Alibaba is the trading place between businesses.

If you are curious as to whether you can raise your profit margins by finding cheaper suppliers, Alibaba might be a good starting point.