b2bTRIBE v5 preview

PLUS: Puppies, Pigs & Pawsitivity

Features

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table of contents

Good Stuff Inside HR

Considerations as

You Grow Your Team

DO 1 Eight HR 2 Considerations as You Grow Your Team

8 Roles.

This is the ideal time to take a strategic look at everyone’s responsibilities.

Growing the team can leave current employees feeling anxious about job security and their value to the organization. Reviewing job duties based on the expansion of the team can help reduce or eliminate the desire to be protective of duties and instead embrace new challenges. These shifts and changes are best detailed in the position description.

(Sub)Culture Fit.

Many organizations have two cultures: the one the owner and leaders present when they are recruiting and the unspoken one. As business owners and leaders, we tend to describe our organizations based on our visions and what we are willing to accept and address, not necessarily the way our staffs perceive things. For example, the owner might tell candidates that the organization is family friendly, which seems enticing. However, the subculture may dictate an expectation of working late and being available on weekends to return calls and e-mails. Subcultures tend to work counter to the actual culture and can be problematic when it comes to engaging and retaining employees who may feel misled during the recruiting process.

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Special Qs What have been your most effective processes or methods of landing a sale?

By April Simpkins Growth is good. Many entrepreneurs work long days and make big sacrifices in an effort to grow their companies and see their visions come full circle. One factor in growing an organization is growing your team. This can be very rewarding or introduce headaches you probably could live without. Here are eight points to consider as you grow your team and reach the next level with your business.

Regulations, Regulations, Regulations.

............ 12

3

Many Department of Labor regulations are based on head count. Regulations like E-Verify, the Affordable Care Act, and the Family Medical Leave Act are based on the number of W-2 employees. As you consider your growth strategy, take into consideration that you may have to update or change your company policies.

The best course of action to ensure you are complying with current regulations is to consult with a certified human resources professional or an employment law attorney.

4

If you couldn’t do what you do now, what would be your second choice business and why?

Retention.

Growth can slow productivity while new employees learn the business and their roles and responsibilities.

It’s imperative during this time to incorporate a strong retention strategy—one that focuses on key ideals like generating trust, accountability, engagement, and communication. Using tools like employee surveys, small focus groups, team building exercises, and other programs that enforce key ideals reinforces value and strengthens retention.

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How do you celebrate an awesome day for your business?

24

.............. 54

What comfort food do you turn to on an awful day?

KNOW

................ 57

Overcoming Crisis and Picking Up the Pieces

Departments ................ 6 Editor’s Note.................... 8 News Briefs..................... 9 Publisher’s Note

34

18 Book Review................. 61 Also Do.................................

The TRIBE

b2bTRIBE® LIVE Recap

.......................... 62 Save the Dates............... 64 TRIBE Index.................. 65 Ad Index...................... 65 Eye Candy.................... 66 b2bTRIBE Manifesto..... 67

Meet Fourteen Members of the TRIBE

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FEEL

®

Puppies, Pigs & Pawsitivity

On the Cover: CRISIS

“Crisis” on a cool teal background represents the potential for healing and even triumph following a disaster.

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PLUS: Puppies, Pigs & Pawsitivity

publisher’s note

Welcome

to the fifth biannual issue (v5) as we at b2bTRIBE® magazine share the authentic lives of entrepreneurs and small business owners in the greater Charlotte area.

Life Happens!

This issue focuses on the many levels and forms of crises we have endured and thrived through as small business owners.

The editorial team shed tears of both compassion and joy as we heard the stories. This is an inspirational issue. The journeys taken often seem unfair or outright awful. However, nothing is more powerful than hope. Whatever you are going though, the twenty-three business owners who shared their stories also shared how they survived and thrived through personal hells. Stories from this amazing TRIBE of phoenixes begin with our cover story on page 24.

Ignorance Is No Excuse

Crises and complexities happen when least expected and most often when you have no clue that particular crisis was even an option. For many business owners, it comes at us like the perfect (awful) storm. I’ve been swirled into a few of them over the past eighteen years. A notable one for me: I was still recuperating after a major surgery; was having production issues with my team in place at the time; was in the process of bidding my sweet father-in-law farewell in the last weeks of his life; and then my payroll guy was diagnosed with a late-stage cancer. He urgently introduced me to the firm that would be taking over his accounts.

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I signed on with the firm. I needed something to go smoothly, and the owner assured me he had an entire team handling payroll for many large clients. All was very choppy for the first several payrolls, but my staff was getting paid. I complained but didn’t delve into it. I was busy with everything in motion with my health and my father-in-law’s last days. After his funeral, too much seemed wrong with the payroll company.

I hadn’t even received an invoice.

I very painfully changed payroll firms. Combining the records of two non-responsive firms was a task in itself. It finally all seemed taken care of—W2s were issued and end‑of‑year taxes paid. Then fines and past‑due payment requests came hurling in from Social Security and state and federal revenue departments. The old payroll firm paid nothing the entire time.

I paid all the penalties and amounts due. Then two years later, the IRS kicked back all the tax returns with tens of thousands of dollars of more money owed and penalties due from my return and from the entire staffs’ personal returns (all of whom had since been “released to find more suitable opportunities”).

It’s taken a total of four years to clear everything up with the IRS. I’m currently working with a large national payroll firm that I won’t be transferring from anytime

Fabi Preslar soon. I trusted blindly while in a time of need. I signed off on all the transferred information and tax forms without requesting to audit my payroll. I didn’t know I needed to. I thought everyone I hired was doing his or her job. Now I have a financial data entry person, an accountant, a national payroll firm, a budget planner, and a CFO. Onward!

Connect and Collaborate

The b2bTRIBE® mission to connect, collaborate, and cultivate are in full force with the Charlotte‑area small business owner community. YOU are helping small business owners have a more unified voice. More than 140 of you attended the LIVE mini‑conference in July. Check out the quick recap on page 62. Thank you for allowing me to meet you and find ways to make business ownership a better journey. Let’s keep the magazine growing!

If you have comments or feedback, please contact me directly at Publisher@b2bTRIBE.com.

Thanks for letting us play while giving small business owners a voice in the Charlotte area!

With Gratitude,

editor’s note

Refining Our “Why” Apparently, we at b2bTRIBE haven’t quite been as clear as we intended about b2bTRIBE’s mission, vision, values, and goals. Significant chunks of our core audience still don’t understand what we’re about. So we’ve been working with our advisory council and branding committee to get some clarity.

Mission, Vision & Values

Our mission is to provide a platform to help diverse and engaged small business owners and entrepreneurs in the Charlotte area connect with each other, collaborate with potential partners, and cultivate opportunities. What kind of opportunities? The win-win kind. But you can’t create such opportunities without first learning about one another and discovering how your goals, ambitions, and values overlap and complement each other. It’s sequential.

That’s where the magazine and events come in. We want to create meaningful connections far deeper than what you experience at most networking events and in mainstream media.

An organization’s vision is aspirational. Our vision is to unite and amplify the voices of small business owners in the Charlotte region—a big ticket considering Mecklenburg County alone has more than 30,000 small businesses. But as Horton Hears a Who fans, we know that every single new member of our tribe exponentially amplifies the call.

Our values are best expressed in the Manifesto (see page 67). Each individual within a tribe has a role or purpose that benefits the whole, something that employs their unique traits and skills. So diversity is essential to a well-functioning tribe—the differences help in implementing the tribe’s shared purpose. We will always strive to reflect our community accurately within these pages.

How Completing Your Profile Relates

Many of you have already completed your profile, so thank you! For those of you who have not yet, here’s why it’s important: we can’t remain true to our values without knowing more about you, how you are different, how you are the same. When we’re looking for experts on particular topics, more complete profiles help us find the right people, likewise when we realize an important voice is missing from an issue.

How Did We Do?

Do you understand what we’re all about now? If you’re still fuzzy on the why, check out our new video on the b2btribe.com home page.

(Many thanks to Frank Schwartz at LEC Media for his help producing the video!) If you have questions or thoughts about any of this, email me at editor@b2bTRIBE.com.

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b2bTRIBE® magazine v5 > Summer 2016 Fabi Preslar, Publisher Melisa K. L. Graham, Editor Larry Preslar, Creative Director Genna Baugh, Pixel Princess Sofi Preslar, Production Assistant and Photographer Jim Denk, Design Boy Dani Saunders, Production Angel Wall, Office Manager Bonnie Dodson, Proofreader Extra Special Contributors Sam Boykin Adrienne Craighead Noelle DeAtley Faye Fulton Michael LoBiondo Design and Production by SPARK Publications SPARKpublications.com Advertise advertising@b2bTRIBE.com or go to b2bTRIBE.com/advertise Provide feedback & suggestions publisher@b2bTRIBE.com To submit content subscribe at b2bTRIBE.com/subscribe and then watch your email for each issue’s “call for content.”

2116 Crown Centre Drive, Suite 300 Charlotte, NC 28227 704.844.6080 b2bTRIBE.com / b2bTRIBE b2bTRIBE® is published semiannually

by SPARK Publications and distributed in the Charlotte region. Subscribe online at b2btribe.com. Acceptance of advertising does not mean or imply the service or product is endorsed or recommended by b2bTRIBE® or SPARK Publications. POSTMASTER: Send corrections to b2bTRIBE, Address Change, 2116 Crown Centre Drive, Suite 300, Charlotte, NC 28227. ©2016. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher.

Q

What have been your most effective processes or methods of landing a sale?

“Determining what their needs are by asking them questions first rather than overloading them with information they don’t care about regarding what I do. I ask questions like, ‘What problems are you looking to solve?’ or ‘What aspect of your life would you like enhanced?’ From there, I can make a determination on how to help them directly.”

– Ashley Reynolds, A Culture of Wellness, ACultureOfWellness.com

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“In my opinion, the best way to land a sale is to be truthful, honest, and straightforward.

You must be confident and well versed in what you are selling.

If you are not confident in your own product or honest about it, you will not be successful.”

– David Wakefield, Chaski Courier Service, chaskicourier.com

do

8 HR

Considerations as

You Grow Your Team

1 2

Roles.

This is the ideal time to take a strategic look at everyone’s responsibilities.

Growing the team can leave current employees feeling anxious about job security and their value to the organization. Reviewing job duties based on the expansion of the team can help reduce or eliminate the desire to be protective of duties and instead embrace new challenges. These shifts and changes are best detailed in the position description.

(Sub)Culture Fit.

Many organizations have two cultures: the one the owner and leaders present when they are recruiting and the unspoken one. As business owners and leaders, we tend to describe our organizations based on our visions and what we are willing to accept and address, not necessarily the way our staffs perceive things. For example, the owner might tell candidates that the organization is family friendly, which seems enticing. However, the subculture may dictate an expectation of working late and being available on weekends to return calls and e-mails. Subcultures tend to work counter to the actual culture and can be problematic when it comes to engaging and retaining employees who may feel misled during the recruiting process.

16 b2bTRIBE.com

By April Simpkins Growth is good. Many entrepreneurs work long days and make big sacrifices in an effort to grow their companies and see their visions come full circle. One factor in growing an organization is growing your team. This can be very rewarding or introduce headaches you probably could live without. Here are eight points to consider as you grow your team and reach the next level with your business.

Regulations, Regulations, Regulations.

3

Many Department of Labor regulations are based on head count. Regulations like E-Verify, the Affordable Care Act, and the Family Medical Leave Act are based on the number of W-2 employees. As you consider your growth strategy, take into consideration that you may have to update or change your company policies.

The best course of action to ensure you are complying with current regulations is to consult with a certified human resources professional or an employment law attorney.

4

Retention.

Growth can slow productivity while new employees learn the business and their roles and responsibilities.

It’s imperative during this time to incorporate a strong retention strategy—one that focuses on key ideals like generating trust, accountability, engagement, and communication. Using tools like employee surveys, small focus groups, team building exercises, and other programs that enforce key ideals reinforces value and strengthens retention.

OVERCOMING CRISIS

Picking Up The Pieces

By Melisa K. L. Graham Photos by Michael LoBiondo Photography

I

magine for a moment that you’re at a standard networking event. An acquaintance asks you, “How’s business?” No matter what is actually happening in your business, you probably answer, “Oh, it’s great!” or “We’re just trucking along!”

You never mention the horrible client who went over budget and is ninety days late on payment.

You studiously avoid all discussions of not paying yourself so that you can make payroll. And you never ever never discuss the lawsuit that is keeping you up at night. You have an image to project. You are an island unto yourself. You can handle it all.

With all due respect, dear tribe, that’s a load of crap. It’s time to get real—time to share some hard truths and allow some vulnerability among your peer group. Isolation rarely serves your best interests or those of your customers or employees.

Talking with other people who share similar priorities and have been through similar situations is how this tribe can learn, grow, and prosper. b2bTRIBE talked to small business owners and entrepreneurs who shared some of their lowest moments and how they climbed out or are still working toward recovery. In this article, three in particular talk about pulling their businesses through major crises that could have shut them down. But they prevailed.

We also talked to several legal experts who shared their perspectives on how small business owners can prepare themselves to prevent or better weather a disaster.

(Disclaimer: any legal perspective shared in this article does not create or constitute an attorney-client relationship nor convey or constitute legal advice.)

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Ruth Kent 36

Lawrence Cruciana 37

Holly Pasut

Cheale Villa 38

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John Kucera 48

Donald Grothoff 47

Pamela Howard 46

The TRIBE These fourteen small business owners and entrepreneurs have survived and thrived through a variety of crises. For some, the crisis led to a new business. Others were able to take the lessons and improve processes in their existing businesses. Their stories prove (once again) that in every challenge lies an opportunity, particularly for an entrepreneurial mind.

Cindy Greer 40

Pierre Zenie 41

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45

44

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Christine Mason

Gardine Wilson

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Keisha Rivers Shorty

Julie Bee

43

Stacey Randall

pawsitivity

feel

Puppies, Pigs & Numerous studies have proven that petting a friendly animal can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and provide a variety of other physical and mental benefits.

That’s why 20 percent of US workplaces have pet-friendly policies (according to 2014 research by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association). These office pets are providing a valuable service to their humans and office mates.

Laura Neff gets a little “egg-stra” help around the office from her youngest hen, Sassy. Sassy is a golden comet chicken, a hybrid breed that lays lots of eggs. Laura wants to assure readers that chickens are not roaming around her house. Her home office is located in a separate outbuilding.

Laura C. Neff, Coaching & Consulting for Emerging Leaders, lauraneff.com