Negotiations are a major part of the day-to-day running of a small business. Whether you’re dealing with your employees, suppliers or customers, the same basic principles apply.
The key is to start with a clear understanding of your desired outcome and your chances of obtaining it. Be realistic. You’re unlikely to get everything you want – so be clear in advance about what your priorities are, as well as the concessions you’ll offer in return.
Getting this groundwork right is half the battle, but you also need to make sure that as many aspects of the negotiation as possible are stacked in your favour. Choose a time and place that suit you. If appropriate, bring along colleagues with expertise in the areas being discussed. And always pay close attention to what the other party is saying. Look for clues as to their bargaining priorities. Which issues might they make concessions on? Which issues won’t they budge on?
Supporting downloads (requires login/registration):
Ten Ways To Improve your negotiating skills
Negotiating a Sale
Negotiation
This Q&A looks at age discrimination, maternity and adoption leave and the monitoring of employee emails.
Q: Will it be illegal in all circumstances to treat employees of different ages in different ways when the new age discrimination rules come in?
No. The new rules, which take effect on 1 October 2006, make it clear that in general you should be treating all your employees equally, irrespective of their age. However, you can still treat employees differently if it’s objectively justifiable to do so. For example, it may not be safe for your youngest or oldest employees to carry out certain tasks.
Q: Are adoptive parents entitled to the same paid leave as biological parents?
There are some differences. While all pregnant employees are entitled to 26 weeks’ leave with statutory maternity pay, an adoptive parent must already have worked for you for 26 weeks before getting the same period of leave with statutory adoption pay. If there are two adoptive parents, only one is entitled to the 26 weeks’ paid leave. However, the other person (whether it’s a man or a woman) can claim paid paternity leave. Note that the length of paid maternity and adoptive leave will rise to 39 weeks in 2007.
Q: Am I allowed to monitor my employees’ use of email and the internet?
Yes, but this is a very sensitive area, so proceed with great caution. In general, you should inform your employees (in their employment contracts, for example, or in an internet policy) that you intend to monitor email and internet usage. Many employers log details of the addresses that emails have been sent to and from, rather than email content. In limited circumstances, you can check the contents of emails without an employee’s consent. These include ensuring that no laws are being broken and checking email when staff are on leave.
Supporting downloads (requires login/registration):
Discrimination
The Rights of Working Parents
An Internet Policy for Your Employees
Employment Law
More and more small businesses are using the internet to manage their finances. According to a recent BBA survey, more than two-fifths now use online banking – more than twice as many as three years ago.
The proportion of small businesses using online banking to manage their business finances continues to increase. That’s the message from the latest annual survey of small-business banking from the British Bankers’ Association (BBA).
By March 2006, 42.5 per cent of small businesses were using online banking, more than double the figure of 20 per cent recorded three years previously.
Commenting on the increase, the BBA noted that the flexibility and convenience offered by online banking is particularly important for anyone running their own business. Owners and managers often spend the whole day doing other things, so they have to leave financial and other admin tasks until they get home.
The BBA survey also points to an apparent improvement in the cash position of small firms, with an increase of eight per cent in money held in deposit accounts. However, on the borrowing side, term lending grew strongly by 10 per cent – although this is well down on the increase of 18 per cent recorded one year ago.
Dealing with change is an integral part of running a successful business. Have you developed the leadership skills required to get the most out of your people?
Running a successful business involves getting to grips with a whole host of tasks. But as well as getting the day-to-day details right, make sure you keep an eye on the big picture. You need to develop the leadership skills to deal with change and growth as your business develops.
Change is an inevitable part of every business, and growth is a desirable objective for most business owners. Common catalysts for change include strategic shifts, organic expansion, mergers and acquisitions.
Change and growth need to be managed carefully. There’s a delicate balance to be struck – between continuity of the drivers of your success so far and flexibility to make sure you can exploit new opportunities that arise.
As well as plotting the trajectory of your business development, leadership involves bringing your employees with you. Without their buy-in, it will be a struggle to move your business forward. Again, you need to find a balance.
On the one hand, you need a strong company culture that everyone can identify with. But on the other hand, you should encourage initiative and creativity, because these can be invaluable sources of business growth.
Supporting downloads (requires login/registration):
Leadership
Managing Change
The Internet accounts for an increasing share of small-business sales activity. It presents huge opportunities, as well as many challenges. If you start receiving enquiries from overseas, are you ready to start exporting?
Most exporting businesses set out with a clear sense of the markets they’re going to sell to and when and how they’ll go about it. But thanks to the Internet, an increasing number of businesses find themselves having to start exporting before they’ve had time to develop an export strategy.
What should you do if overseas customers start placing online orders with you? You can always refuse to accept overseas orders, of course, but you should consider carefully whether doing so would sacrifice a potentially lucrative source of revenue.
Assuming you want to accept and build on your first export orders, you’ll have some planning to do. There’s a link to an introductory guide to exporting below, but for the moment here are some of the key things you’ll need to consider:
- Paperwork: your exports need to be recorded on your VAT returns, and exports to outside the EU need to be declared to HM Revenue & Customs.
- Logistics: you’ll need to consider how you’re going to have your goods transported overseas.
- Finance: depending on your level of export activity, you may want to talk to your bank – exporting may alter your cashflow patterns, for example, or expose you to foreign exchange risks.
Supporting downloads (requires login/registration):
The First Steps to Exporting
Research Your Export Markets
Export Finance