MVP Seminars - Dr. Larry Losoncy's Blog

Small Business Stress Management: Pay Attention to Local Standard Time

Small businesses are subject to local standard time (LST). Local standard time is how the people around you, the manager, tell time. When nobody comes to work until 9:15 that means starting time according to LST is 9:15. You can get your blood pressure up 20 points trying to make your people arrive at 9 am but they will find ways not to start working until 9:15.

LST is more forceful in proportion as the business is small. The smallest of businesses, office at home, is the most influenced. That is because households always run on LST. There is a correct time for meals, a right time for shopping, a right time for everything. The correct hours for working in your office according to LST are easily determined: they are those hours during which no one else in your home interrupts you with matters they have decided need taking care of right now.

Small businesses outside the home but local in nature also feel strong impact from LST because those who work for y

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June 10, 2007 Posted by Dr. Larry Losoncy | Untagged | Comment (0)

Multi Tasking in Small Business Settings: Managing the Stress

Estimates put the number of small businesses (companies with less than 500 employees) in the United States at about 20 million. A recent report from the State of Oklahoma estimates the number of small businesses with two employees or less to be nearly 300,000.It would be a fair guess that at least 10 million of the country's small businesses have 10 employees or less.

It would also be a fair guess that almost all of the managers of these very small businesses must engage in multi tasking every day. In this author's view there are only two types of multi tasking: enjoyable and horrible. One will most likely either love multi tasking or hate it. Multi tasking is stsressful either way but it is very stressful for those who hate it.

Those who hate it are most likely to be persons who have difficulty concentrating and staying focused. A simple test is this: do you enjoy and do reasonably well with such things as watc

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June 5, 2007 Posted by Dr. Larry Losoncy | Untagged | Comment (0)

The Stress of Success: Managing a Small Business

The "stress of success" only sounds ridiculous to those who have never succeeded. For anyone managing a small business the phrase makes perfectly good sense. In particular, the manager of a business that has grown from one person to ten or more employees will likely experience the peculiar stress that comes with succeeding. How can this be?

Consider what happens when your small business "takes off."

You become famous.That is to say now your neighbors and friends know about you. You are assumed to be successful because of getting the breaks, knowing the right people, stealing and cheating, selling drugs out the back door, inheriting money, playing the angles and presumably doing other unknown but shady or illegal deeds.

You become visible. The ad in your local phonebook or newspaper means you are no longer anonymous. Your customers know your address and phone number. There is nowhere to hide. You have become know

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June 3, 2007 Posted by Dr. Larry Losoncy | Untagged | Comment (0)

Managing the Stress of a Home Based Business

At first blush one might suppose home based business would be stress free. After all, look at the advantages: be your own boss, make your own schedule, work when you feel like working and there are no traffic jams to and from the office!

Let's look closely at these four factors, all of which I consider to be myths.

Be your own boss

Being the boss means now you, not somebody else, must take responsibility for all the tasks related to managing a business. These include checking for regulatory compliance, tax reporting, maintaining business checking accounts, planning and managing inventory, taking orders, accounting (keep the books) advertising, marketing, delivery, billing and reading the mail, to name but some of the tasks. It's not that any one of these and dozens more tasks are necessarily complicated. Some of them, in fact, might be boring, as in sifting through the junk mail to make sure you don't miss an imp

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May 29, 2007 Posted by Dr. Larry Losoncy | Untagged | Comment (0)

The Worst Forms of Burnout: Dead Wood and Helpless/Hopeless

When stress beats a person down long enough one common result is that the fight goes out of them. This experience is not something reserved for older people. It can happen at any age, given the right circumstances. The right circumstances include the conviction that a job must be endured to the bitter end. The end is retirement. And so when the worker burns out the strategy becomes one of hiding from the limelight (dead wood) or going into a helpless/hopeless mode that forces management to perform a rescue or make a decision for the worker.

The dead wood burned out person becomes highly skilled at achieving invisibility: never volunteer, keep quiet at meetings, do not argue, do nothing to ever get noticed, and in the case of votes always vote the right way. The "right way" is discovered by making sure which way the wind is blowing. The goal of achieving and contributing in the workplace changes to a new goal: hang in there until retirement, keep the paycheck coming,

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May 22, 2007 Posted by Dr. Larry Losoncy | Untagged | Comment (0)