Management

Leading From the Front In a small business being a manager can be a difficult role for the owner. For some owners it can be hard to stand back and delegate tasks and responsibilities to others. Others are absent or standoffish and provide no support for their employees. The key is to have trust in your employees and to communicate your goals to them.

Being a manager does not just include being there to offer guidance and help. Being a manager entails more behind the scenes effort as well to ensure the smooth operation of a company. Managers have to be active in Planning, organising, leading and controlling all aspects of the business both immediate and long term.

Planning Planning is important for a business as it serves as the connection of where the business is and where you want to take it in the future. Long term (3-5 years) as well as short term (-1 year) objectives in terms of policies, programs, budgets and procedures. Strong planning can make the process of growing the company with relative little ease.

Step 1: Establishing Objectives Step 4: Allocating Resources Step 5: Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Operation Key Objectives Step 2: Planning Key Objectives Step 3: Planning Subactivities

Organising The extent of needing to do this will vary according to the size of the business you are running. As the number of employees and sales grows the need to pull back and look at the larger picture is important to maintaining focused on your goals.

Leading Owning a business with employees requires a balance of the right skills. As a leader, it is your role to ensure that deadlines are met, customers receive good service and that your employees are motivated to do their best. The key to achieving this is effective leadership.

Leadership The approach people take as leaders depends upon the orientation or focus of the leader. Goal Orientated: focus on the completion of the task. People Orientated: focus on the process to achieve the task.

Leadership styles 1. Autocratic: This type of leader is extremely goal orientated. They tend to want to control things to ensure that they are done to their standard and tends to distrust the abilities of their employees. 2. Democratic: This type of leader tends to want to draw employees into the decision making process. They tend to delegate authority to make decisions and foster trust between employee and employer.

Collegial: Are a form of democratic leader. They tend to use consensus and a team based decision making process. This type of leader has a high level of trust for their employees and respects their skills. Laissez-faire: This type of leader tends to ignore goals and tasks and prefers to offer latitude for their employees to define the goals and the process to achieve them.

Good Type of Controlling This aspect of management refers not to the relationship you may have with employees. It is important as owners to have control of knowledge / facts. Inventory: products are in stock, stock is rotated Production: goods and service is maintained to a high standard, quality control Finances: cash flow, book keeping