After about 25 years working for non-profits or not-for-profits, I have some useful observations about how to do manage them well and how to help them succeed. Follow the links.

MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS

• Similarities between nonprofit and for-profit businesses
• How to avoid common nonprofit mistakes
• Reasons non-profit leaders fail
• How to write a nonprofit mission statement
• How to get the board of directors to play a hands-on role in your nonprofit

HANDLING VOLUNTEERS

• The skills required for leading volunteers
• How to more effectively recruit volunteers
• Saying no to a potential volunteer

OTHER

• Fresh ideas for fundraising
• The value of volunteering

Dealing with the death of an employee will be the most difficult task a manager will ever face. There are no numbers, no dollars, no memos, none of the day to day trappings of business. It is all about human relations.

This death affects the employee’s co-workers, direct reports and managers. It will affect the customers he or she had contact with, the vendors, even the delivery guy from Fed Ex. This death will ripple outward in the community that is the business and dealing with the ramifications will be important.

For more on this topic, please see my article on Helium.com.

More at the link:

The management mistakes that a larger business may survive will ruin a small business. A larger business often has resources or access to resources that a small business does not. Avoiding common management mistakes may mean the difference between success and failure in a small business.

Governmental regulations are the first pitfall for small business managers.

Short of cash or short of time, it is very tempting to put off complying with the burdens imposed by governments at all levels. It may be something as simple as a city certificate of occupancy for your rental property or remitting withheld payroll taxes to the IRS. The temptation to postpone paperwork or payment may be overwhelming but the penalty is far more so. The government will come in and shut down the business, and the company may not be able to survive that.

Chuck Simmins