Do your employees know you appreciate them? Is the job more than just a paycheck to them? I’m often asked how to show you care. It often is the little things that make the biggest difference. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Having owned, worked-in and consulted with retail service businesses for many years, I’ve noticed some key differences between the businesses who struggle and those who seem to magically grow year after year. If your business seems stuck, take a moment to assess how you’re doing in these three areas.

Effective business processes can save you time, money and future hassles. The method I use for identifying and improving business processes is four steps: Investigation, Inquiry, Diagnosis, and Measurement

Investigation involves surveying everyone from your staff and management to your partners and customers. The goal is to not only discover the unwanted symptoms but to look deeper and find the underlying causes.

Andrea addresses some of the barriers with communication that she has seen in organizations. These include:

1. Perception
2. Body Language
3. Channel in which message is communicated

Andrea sheds light on the vicious cycle of trying to get employees to do things the way you want them done. She has found that taking one on one time to discuss your employees dreams and goals will not only make your employees feel cared about, but will motivate them and help them to feel more invested in the company.

Andrea reiterates the importance of making your employees feel respected and acknowledging that they indeed are a contribution to the company. Sharing where the organization is heading and asking for feedback will build trust. Communicating expectations regularly and helping to cultivate their development will surely help to create a happy and hard working team.

Andrea shares traits of her best clients. This includes clients who are willing to put effort in to get the desired result.

Andrea shares tips to reaching your goals. Most importantly she recommends visualizing and then writing them down. Next, devising a plan with reasonable goals for each step. Lastly, holding yourself to the plan.

Andrea explains that some of the challenges college freshmen face are things like dealing with their new found freedom and being able to manage that while relating to new individuals with different personalities. Also, freshmen must keep in mind that posting information on line could follow them in years to come. When they use the Internet, they also need to remember that copying information from the Internet and presenting it as their work is not acceptable.