Your first business management job

Now that you have your first business management job, its time to sit down and decide what you need to do to be an effective manager. There are four main aspects in business management: planning, organizing, directing, and monitoring. To gain a better understanding, let's look at each aspect individually.

Planning
Like anything else in life, having a plan is the best way to succeed. Learn about your company before you start your management plan. Know how everyone's job plays an important role in the company. Find out what the company goal is and look at different strategies you can implement to help obtain the goal. Look at ways you can improve the office. Perhaps your staff needs a new printer, or repairs to computers. Find ways to make improvements that will alleviate added time to another person's shift.

Make a plan for different scenarios. Think of the worst possible scenario and devise different plans for resolving it. Talk to your staff about problems that have arisen in the past and how they were resolved, this will give you a little understanding as to how you can change the way you handle situations.

Key success factors for a manager

For many managers, they are looking for ways to be the best manager the company has ever seen! This is not only a lofty goal, but a great challenge. Think back to some of your first managers you had as an employee and pick out qualities that you liked and disliked. How can you find ways to be a successful manager? Here are a few tips for becoming a successful manager:

Trust
Establishing trust is one of the most difficult things a manager faces. Trust involves feeling that you can depend upon another person to achieve a common goal.

People will know they can rely on you if you show qualities of integrity and consistency. So how to you build this trust? Start by listening. Bring each member of your staff into your office and talk about their needs and concerns and what they think you can do to improve the office environment. Give each employee your full attention and make an effort to get to know them.

How to train your supervisors

If you have an HR department, now is the time to ask for their help. A trained human resources professional can teach certain leadership skills that supervisors need to know. Typically your HR department can discuss the relevant policies and procedures for different scenarios. They also will provide your new supervisor with policies related to training and development.

Discuss with your new supervisor what their role in the company is; here is a general description of a supervisor:

A supervisor is considered a junior level position and is a step above a general employee. The supervisor is in charge of the day-to-day performance of the small group and they guide the group toward their goals. If problems arise, they are in charge of solving them and making sure each individual on the team is productive.

How to motivate your employees

Now that you are a manger, you are in charge of several different types of people. Each of your employees has a different personality and responds differently to situations. How can you motivate your employees to work harder at their job? First, you need to gain the respect and trust of your employees. Here are a few tips you can follow to gain your employees trust:
- Be ready to listen to the employee's questions and concerns about the job.
- Treat your employees with respect, not as inferior people.
- Be polite to your employees.
- Recognize and reward your employees for a job well done.
- Ask for your employees' input in making decisions that affect their work.
- Gradually build trust in your employees by giving them additional responsibility or extra latitude in making decisions.
- Treat all your employees fairly and impartially.
- Be firm, but not tyrannical, when making decisions and disciplining employees.
- Apologize or admit to employees when you were wrong.
- Give employees credit where due.
- Express genuine concern for employees' problems.
- Keep your employees informed about work-related matters.

How to manage a family business

According to Family Firm Institute's Family Business Review, there are currently 24 million family businesses in the United States. Family businesses have been around for hundreds of years and many people enjoy the freedom of working for themselves. Running a family business is a time consuming job and often can be stressful if your relatives are your employees. Here are a few tips for managing a family business:

Keep Family and Business Separate
This is a hard area for many family businesses. Most people are good friends and have known each other from the time they are born. It is hard for some people to take orders from their uncle who was at their house last night for a BBQ. Make sure to draw a line between family and business. Set the boundaries at work that personal life is not to be involved in work life. People should not take it personally if they are chastised for their work by their father, mother, or brother who is their manager. It will help if you can have family members report to non-family members. Other employees at your company should be responsible for overseeing other family members instead of you overseeing them. This will help eliminate any personal bias you may have and alleviate hurt feelings or grudges that could arise.

Interview employees for a promotion

For an employer, promoting within the company has been an effective strategy for years. Internal promotion can boost motivation, morale, and fulfill employee's needs for increasing their status within the company. Selecting the right candidate for the job can be a stressful experience for a manager. Here are a few tips to help you interview employees for a promotion:

Conduct performance evaluations on each employee. Sits down with an employee every six months and discusses their performance. You can discuss goals with the employee for a period of time until their next performance evaluation. How well the employee measures up to these goals can help you determine if they are eligible for a promotion.

Provide employees a chance to declare their interest in a job promotion. Let everyone know there is a new opening for a position and everyone that would like to apply should talk to you about it.

Always give employees a chance to improve if they are not performing to the company standards. You may find an employee who is worthy of a promotion may be one that had some problems a few years ago. By maintaining records from past performance evaluations, you will be able to identify how the employee overcame their challenges and proved to be worthy of a promotion.

Non-profit business management

Most non-profit organizations have small staffs and small budgets to work with. Many non-profit organizations rely on private or public donations or grant money to support the cost of running the business. With small staffs and small budgets you are likely to have management and leadership problems. Most business managers look at a non-profit organization as a stepping stone to boost their managerial skills on their resume. Most business managers are over-worked and retain little career development, therefore causing turnover ratios to be quite high. Of course, this can be a large set back for a non-profit company who has had a manager with certain expertise and leadership skills. Let's look at a few ways you can be a better business manager in a non-profit organization.

Proper training procedures are the number one things a non-profit organization must have laid out for business managers. If someone is thrown into the company without any assistance or direction, chances are they won't last long, or they may go in a different path. The non-profit world is an entirely different world of business. Looking for funding is typically the primary concern for most business managers. Many non-profit organizations preach "devotion" to their cause and expect their employees to feel the same way.

A business manager should step into their role as a leader to the staff. Have a plan for the future set in place and make sure everyone at the organization is on board with your ideas. A good business manager learns to take on several different roles: human resources, marketing, community outreach, financial planning, and day-to-day business operations. As you can tell, a business manager in a non-profit world encounters many responsibilities and can quickly become burdened and over-worked.