One Next Step: Management Tips & Tools for Small Business Owners

We’ve all met people or heard stories of people who were the best in their field — earned lots of money, helped lots of people, and received lots of praise, but we later discover that their personal life was in shambles or they were burdened by depression. Every business leader listening to this podcast knows there is a psychological price associated with being in charge. Inc. Magazine once referr...

In this episode, we’re going to help you learn how to conduct a year-end review that focuses not just on financial performance but team performance and organizational culture. Experience doesn’t make you wiser. Evaluated experience makes you wiser. We’ll walk you through a few things you can do on your own or with your team to wrap up and review the year. Our goal with this episode is to help you...

At BELAY, our clients struggle with “finding the right people.” Being unable to find the right team member is one of the most common challenges business leaders have. Joining us in this episode is William Vanderbloemen, one of the best people to help because he knows how to get it right.  As the founder and CEO of Vanderbloemen Search Group, William and his team specialize in helping Christian org...

Andy Stanley says, “Unexpressed gratitude feels like ingratitude to the ones for whom you are grateful.” I don’t think most of us are ungrateful for our teams. However, it’s common for leaders to struggle with remembering to show appreciation for their team when they see them every day.  In this episode, we’re going to help you better communicate your appreciation for your team even if you’re work...

If you have any desire to grow your business, you’ll eventually have to develop more people capable of supporting the organization. You’ll need people who can confidently and competently step into leadership roles. In this episode, we will help you get more out of your team by developing them as leaders and give you a tiny peek into BELAY’s approach to leadership development. Joining us to talk ab...

Organizational culture is critical for our company’s success, but it’s often discussed like it’s a mysterious force that magically makes things awesome (think ‘Best Place to Work’ awards) or toxic (think ‘lots of bad reviews on Glassdoor’).  While culture is powerful, it doesn’t haven’t to be mysterious, and there are practical things you can do to shape the environment you and your team work in e...

Like it or not, people are judging us before they know us. That may feel superficial, but the reality is consciously or unconsciously, others assess your appearance, speech, energy, personality, and behavior all the time. From those assessments, they form opinions about your likely strengths, weaknesses, and capabilities, and decide if they want to further engage with you. In this episode, we’re g...

Your systems and processes do more than ensure quality; they save your organization time and provide clarity in expectations. If you are doing everything well as an organization, but you're not documenting what you do, your business is vulnerable and unable to scale. You are reinventing the wheel every time, counting on people to uphold an unspoken standard or pick up things through osmosis, overl...

Let’s be real. If you follow our podcast, you’re likely ambitious and driven to succeed. But, with that drive and ambition, it’s easy for demands at work to compete with priorities at home. At times, the pull of your professional and personal lives can make you feel like there’s no way to experience success in both areas. Today, we’re going to learn strategies to ensure winning at work doesn’t pre...

As you and your organization navigate or enter the season of annual business planning, we want to help you turn meaningful commitments into measurable financial outcomes shared with leaders and team members in the form of next year’s goals. An essential part of this process is budgeting. Budgets make initiatives real as you outline how these decisions should impact your revenue, expenses, and prof...

Every business leader eventually faces the challenge of reaching a crossroads and deciding then what to do next. This crossroad may happen with projects, products, or even your people. Those moments beg the question: Are we making sufficient progress to continue with the current plan (or person), or do we need to change direction? For some, the decision is easy because you have no choice but to ch...

Many small business owners, especially in their companies' early stages, are experts on the product or service they provide, not the financial numbers. Even experienced business owners may find themselves so busy making sure everything gets done that they rarely have time to sit down and dig into the numbers. We want leaders like you to understand the financial numbers in their business so you can...

It’s business planning season, which hopefully means you and your team will soon be reviewing recent performance, outlining future initiatives, creating budgets, and listing new hires. While leaders want to build a plan that provides clarity and specificity, the plan should also be so energizing and compelling that our teams want to implement it. It must also contain clear accountabilities, so the...

The number one complaint prospects have about salespeople is they talk too much. Also, business leaders' common complaints about salespeople aren't meeting their sales quote; it's typically related to things like a bad attitude, not being a team player, or being overly aggressive with prospects. Soft skills resolve all of these issues. However, most leaders focus on hiring new sales team members b...

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Small businesses have to maximize the effectiveness and contribution of every investment and every resource to grow. Acquiring new customers is a priority with or without a team member dedicated solely to sales or marketing. Sales and marketing cannot wait if you want to grow beyond where you are. So, what do you do if you’re short on time to do-it-yourself and don’t have enough money to hire some...

Focus can multiply the impact of an organization’s efforts. However, distractions divide and diffuse impact. One of the greatest sources of distractions in most small businesses is us — the leaders. It’s in our nature to see all of the things that can be improved and all of the trends we need to capitalize on, but it’s on us to keep our team focused on the main thing. Luckily, there are strategies...

Industry peers, work colleagues and business media tells us all the things we need to be doing to grow our business. However, even for growing businesses, there’s not enough time or money to do everything. So, we’re left with questions like ‘Where do we start?’ and ‘How do I hire first? In this episode, we tackle these questions and share a few tips on how you can fill the first three roles you ne...

For many small business owners, especially those just starting out, it’s hard to find your competitive edge against long-established companies already in the marketplace. Sure, they’ve got the marketing and the large budgets, but don’t count yourself out of the game too quickly. What many new business owners have on their side that many established businesses don’t is the scrappy desire to level t...

As business leaders, we’re still experiencing the effects of COVID-19 on the economy and we likely will for some time. It flipped hiring and recruiting things to an employer’s market, it pushed all events online turning the event planning and production companies into technology and digital media businesses, and it expedited the global era of remote work. Today, we’re going to learn how it’s possi...

As social issues related to inequalities and inequities re-emerge near the top of our national conversation, many business leaders are appropriately trying to leverage their influence to make a difference. However, you must first lead yourself well before you can lead others. Going a step further, we should lead our organizations well before our organizations attempt to influence and lead our comm...

Leading in 2020 has not been easy for anyone, but communication is a not-so-obvious reason why many businesses are dealing with challenges better than others. Winning organizations start with effective communication. They have strong communication capable of navigating the inevitable highs and lows of business.  In this episode, we’re going to learn how great companies communicate to create clarit...

It’s the leader’s job to chart the direction of the business. However, even with a clear vision, selecting the right goals can be challenging and overwhelming, especially when there are more options and opportunities than resources. Without specific goals, you and your team will struggle to focus and maximize the return on your effort.  Tracking progress often feels just as confusing. Even the mos...

Before our first official episode releases on Tuesday, July 7, we wanted to give you a preview of what’s ahead in the One Next Step podcast. In our podcast preview, BELAY's CEO, Tricia Sciortino, and COO, Lisa Zeeveld, share what you can expect from the podcast each week. You'll also learn how to submit your business questions to be answered on the podcast and hear a sneak peek into a few of the i...

The hosts of One Next Step – BELAY CEO Tricia Sciortino and COO Lisa Zeeveld – share their stories about how they came to BELAY, how their differences have made them work so well together, and how they plan on making this – wait for it – the most practical business podcast in the world.  Subtle and understated, right? We thought so, too. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.