Workplace Flexibility Lets Mothers Thrive (Entrepreneur.com)

Workplace Flexibility Lets Mothers Thrive

Get creative with scheduling and tap into the experience and talents of women seeking a mom-friendly workplace.

By Lisa Druxman | September 24, 2008

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/startingabusiness/mompreneur/mompreneurcolumnistlisadruxman/article197268.html

Since I started my company seven years ago, a majority of my employees have been moms, women working the majority of their hours from home.

After I became a mom, I quickly realized that few workplaces understood the demands of motherhood and were supportive of mothers. I figured if I could offer supportive opportunities through my company, I could create a dedicated and loyal team.

It worked. I have created a flexible work plan so my employees can work within and around motherhood. We have seen each other through pregnancies, new babies and a host of different life experiences. I feel good that we can break the rules about what hours constitute a work schedule and where work must take place. But sometimes, our greatest blessing can also be our greatest curse.

Children often take precedence over work. Naps fall through, nannies cancel and tantrums get in the way of a typical work day. Plus, with most work being done outside of our corporate office, it's hard to get a feel for how our employees are doing. That's why I asked some of my favorite mom entrepreneurs for their tips on managing a mommy force.

Lesley Spencer Pyle
Founder of HBWM.com and Hiremymom.com

"I've found it very important to clearly communicate expectations and make sure those are realistic for the mom who will be working for me. I also try to give plenty of lead time, so there isn't a lot of stress or rush to the job or project," Spencer Pyle says.

"I do recommend moms have some type of outside help for their children if they work over 10 hours a week. I feel it is not good for mom, baby or business if you try to do it all without outside help." If moms go it alone while trying to work more than 10 hours a week, Spencer Pyle says, "it can create an atmosphere of stress and pressure instead of fulfillment for the mom who is looking to use her creative talents while bringing in some additional income."

Donna Bliss
President of Mymiraclebaby.com

"I've been in business for nearly eight years, and we now have four employees--all moms with homes, families and this job. I pay the girls a fair wage but cannot offer benefits. So I believe that giving them the flexibility to work when they want and when they can is as important as a 401(k)," Bliss says.

Bliss does have a schedule for her employees but keeps it very flexible. When they can't come in because of a class play or a brownie meeting, she just asks that they check e-mail and help with phones or follow up on issues with customers.

Julia Tanen
President of The Tanen Group

"When hiring a mom who works from home, make sure she has a good office setup, separate telephone line and office, as well as child care. Obviously you cannot get anything done when you are supervising your children. However, you need to make sure you say that. You never know," Tanen says.

"Second, let them set their own schedule and then tweak it to fit yours. After seven years of working with moms who work for me from home, I've found that people work best on their own schedules. Just agree on the number of hours per week. Then ask them for a schedule." Tanen's company keeps a spreadsheet of everyone's schedule and updates it weekly. "It works very well," she says.

She adds, "It is easiest if people work the same hours every week. However, if they cannot, they need to let you and the team know when they are available."

More than 5.4 million mothers put their careers on hold to stay home with children.

"That adds up to a lot of talented women with experience, education, skills and the motivation to find flexible work that can be done from their home office," Spencer Pyle says.

It's true that not many careers are supportive of motherhood. But as mom entrepreneurs, we have the opportunity to create those careers and change the status quo. What we might lose in traditional hours or work space, we gain from hard work, loyalty and talent. And the best part is: We have given children a chance to be with their mom and moms a chance to be with their children.

Lisa Druxman is Entrepreneur.com's "Mompreneur" columnist and the founder and CEO of fitness franchise Stroller Strides. Druxman is also a nationally recognized speaker and author, and is considered an expert in the field of fitness, particularly pre- and postnatal fitness. She hosts a free monthly webinar during which she answers questions from fellow mompreneurs. If you are interested in participating, contact her at lisa@strollerstrides.com.

Creating a Green Office (Entrepreneur.com)

Creating a Green Office

Think in terms of financial payback when considering and implementing your eco-friendly office.

By Bill Roth | September 18, 2008

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/management/greencolumnistbillroth/article197146.html

The sustainable or green action item with the highest potential for gaining CFO acceptance is conservation. Why? Because conservation is about savings and paybacks, which CFOs can relate to their calculations of cash flows and paybacks. It makes sense to start in your office when it comes to conservation.

But even with this potential affinity from such a key senior officer, most businesses still confront the question: how to conserve or adopt a sustainable business strategy? If you're struggling with that issue in your business, you are among the majority. Florida International University recently conducted an international survey of companies and found that 50 percent of companies don't have a green strategy or are in the early stages of drafting one. Only 21 percent of the companies surveyed were considered to be in the category of immediate or advanced sustainability. Now is the perfect time to get a green edge because 80 percent of the world's businesses are still trying to figure out how sustainability applies to them.

The typical first action to take in the greening of an office is to figure out how to use less electricity and possibly do something with all that stuff in everyone's waste paper basket. What many offices end up doing is replacing energy-draining incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs because they produce an approximately four-month financial payback in electricity cost savings. And there's typically an effort to recycle, but this often produces marginal results.

The businesses that are aggressively adopting sustainability in the office take a "systems thinking" approach that recognizes greening the office cuts across the organizational structure. It requires cultural change, and results must be financially measured just like all other activities within the company. It also requires recognizing that the office is not an island, but part of a supply chain involving stakeholders, keeping in mind that one oft-forgotten stakeholder is the customer.

The most important question to keep in mind is: How can your business's procedures help curb your customers' emissions? Not only is going green in your business marketable, but it could also soon be law in many states. For example, California is working on legislation that would require reduced carbon dioxide emissions and the state is also exploring the impacts of shopping malls, housing density and availability of mass transportation on the generation of carbon dioxide.

This systems thinking approach recognizes that lasting change engages everyone involved in the greening movement in your office, and is based on the same highly disciplined performance monitoring that's applied to the reporting of financial performance. This broader perspective expands the range of scope to include suppliers, work associates, management, waste handlers and customers. It implies that focusing on the low-hanging fruit--easy greening measures such as energy-efficient lighting or recycling what's in the waste basket--can only produce limited results. Success in greening the office requires the same cultural commitment, engineering design, management, leadership and performance monitoring as applied to the business's core operating criteria.

Starting an Online Business in a Down Economy (Entrepreneur.com)

Starting an Online Business in a Down Economy

As shoppers flock to their computers instead of driving to the mall, entrepreneurs with e-businesses can make a hefty sum.

By Melissa Campanelli | September 22, 2008

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/ebusiness/gettingstarted/article197198.html

We all know we're in less-than-stellar economic times. While there's no official "recession," every person you know is probably watching his daily spending and cutting back wherever possible.

Since money is tight, is it really a good time to start an online business? You bet.

To begin with, internet startups have low overhead and startup costs--as low as $3,000, thanks in part to inexpensive, yet robust e-commerce software and services on the market. What's more, the business can be set up in a home office and attended to at nights and on weekends, allowing new entrepreneurs to keep their day jobs. In addition, many budding entrepreneurs can set up their online businesses in less than one week.

Another reason an internet startup could be lucrative even in a down economy is that online shopping is growing. In the first quarter of 2008, revenues generated by online-based businesses (and the online aspects of traditional retail businesses) were $32.4 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That tally is up 13.4 percent from results for the third quarter of 2007.

In general, e-commerce is the bright spot in the retail world today.

"Online retail continues to grow at a pretty nice clip," says Jeffrey Grau, retail e-commerce senior analyst with eMarketer. "If you look at total retail sales, annual growth is in the low single digits. However, the online channel has been growing in recent years in the low to mid-20 percentile."

While Grau warns that the economic downturn is slowing e-commerce sales, online sales are still growing at triple the rate of store sales.

"It's still a very desirable marketplace," he says.

And more and more online shoppers are turning to the web instead of paying for gas to go to the mall.

A new poll conducted by RetailMeNot.com, an online coupon website, found that nearly nine out of 10 American consumers have changed their shopping habits as a result of high gas prices.

The poll found that out of more than 1,000 respondents who voted multiple times:

• 45 percent said they plan shopping trips together to use less gas
• 42 percent said they shop less
• 22 percent said they do as much shopping as possible online
• 11 percent said there was no impact

Whether or not the economy is bad, there are some best practices to keep in mind when opening an online business. Here are a few of Grau's tips:

1. Have a niche or focus on a specialty category. Since you're essentially competing with box retailers like Wal-Mart or Target when you enter the online retail space, "be sure [you're selling] something niche-oriented, such as fashionable maternity wear or urban street wear," Grau says. "Or focus on a specific category, like shoes, but that's all you do. But offer great custom service, such as making it easy to return shoes."
   
2. Offer an innovative marketing technology. A good example of this is Diapers.com, a small web retailer.
   
   "[The company is] very successful in part because it has an innovative referral program where if a Diapers.com customer refers somebody else to the company, that customer gets a discount. That is one way it has built up its customer base."
   
   Grau also says Diapers.com uses innovative packaging that enables it to cut down on shipping costs. Finally, the company is innovative in its focus on convenience; it makes it easy for young parents to have diapers delivered to their door without having to make a midnight run to the store because they are out of diapers.
   
3. Keep pricing in mind. Even if you are selling a niche product, always keep pricing a priority.

"You are never going to compete with big box retailers on pricing, but perhaps there is a promotion or value-added program you can offer that helps people deflect that or takes their minds off of pricing."

A unique product, an innovative marketing technology and a promotion to help customers deflect prices are important business strategies during a recession because people have less discretionary money to spend.

"[Entrepreneurs should] focus on strategies that keep their customers coming back," Grau says.

Melissa Campanelli is a leading expert in small business e-commerce and author of the books Design and Launch an Online Boutique in a Week, Open an Online Business in 10 Days and Start Your Own e-Business.

4 Advantages to Buying a Big-Name Franchise (Entrepreneur.com)

4 Advantages to Buying a Big-Name Franchise

With borrowing leverage, purchasing power and marketing prowess already in place, big franchises handle much of the legwork.

By Janean Chun | October 06, 2008

URL: http://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises/franchisecolumnistjaneanchun/article197470.html

Hardy Grewal may not be as internationally known as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Howard Schultz, but his business is as much of a household name as Apple, Microsoft and Starbucks. Grewal went from corporate accountant to business mogul in one simple step: buying a Subway franchise.

That giant leap plugged Grewal into the power of a big franchise, yes, but, more importantly, into the bigger powerhouse that is franchising itself. Franchising added $880 billion, more than 140,000 new businesses and 1.2 million jobs to the nation's economy from 2001 to 2005, according to the International Franchise Association. IFA president and CEO Matthew Shay predicts growth will continue, even during the current economic downturn.

Grewal took full advantage of that power potential. Though he looked into other franchises, including smaller chains, he ultimately decided to buy a Subway location in 1989. Grewal figured a large franchise offered more sustainability in the long run and made expansion possible for an everyman like himself.

Two years after buying his first franchise, he says his "accountant brain started working," and he realized that by acquiring units, he could multiply his earnings by five, 10, 20 times. That's when he gradually started buying more units--at first, one to two a year, then two to three, then five more, then 10 more, until by 2004, he owned 25 stores.

Today, having sold all but three of his locations, Grewal serves as Subway's development agent for Los Angeles County and Orange County, a territory that earns the most sales in the entire system. In other words, he now helps others start their own franchise empires.

Grewal notes four big advantages to buying into a big system:

1. Capital. This is simultaneously the greatest asset and the greatest obstacle to starting a business in this economy.
   
   "If the brand is established and you can show net profits, the banks will lend money, even in this environment," Grewal says. "Even now, people are getting funds and buying and opening new stores."
   
2. Purchasing Power. Forget stocking up at Costco. Subway purchases food, forks, knives, etc., for its more than 29,000 stores.
   
   "That quantity gives you the advantage over someone who owns, say, five stores," Grewal says. "And those savings are passed on to franchisees."
   
   That's particularly crucial in a food-related business, as food inflation puts more restaurants on the edge.
   
   "We have purchasing co-ops run by franchisees, with locked contracts," Grewal says. "Prices have gone up, but not as much as they have with other [restaurants]."
   
3. Competition. "In downturns, the brands with the strongest financial positions and reputations are more in demand," Grewal says, pointing out that even being the No. 2 brand in a category may not be enough to survive in a tough economy.
   
4. Marketing. Subway dominated this year with its well-timed "$5 footlong" promotion. Grewal says it was an idea some entrepreneurial-minded franchisees started in their local market--the corporate advertising board got wind of it and took it system wide, and now "the numbers are mind-boggling."

Those numbers balloon in a big, corporate system that can afford national primetime marketing on all networks. "The parent company develops new products, does all the studies and focus groups to make it a stronger franchise company," says Grewal. "And the franchisees pool [advertising] money and can buy more."

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Janean Chun is articles editor at Entrepreneur, where she has been covering the franchising beat for more than 15 years. She can be reached at jchun@entrepreneur.com.