​Running a business is no small feat. If you ask the U.S. Small Business Administration, they’ll tell you one-third of all new businesses fail in the first two years. If you let them continue, they’ll say half of all new businesses make it four years, and only 40 percent survive for six years or more.

So how do businesses survive? And more importantly, how do they thrive? We thought we’d take a break from industry topics today and focus on a broader business discussion that has undoubtedly touched every entrepreneur reading this blog.

Meeting and networking with new people can be a great benefit to business professionals at nearly any stage in a career and in any industry. But it’s also important when you’re a business leader. Did you know that a strong business network has been linked to a host of benefits, such as better company performance, higher firm value, greater innovation and even more favorable financing terms? It’s true.

Are you effectively growing and leveraging your business network? Here are five great ways to use networking as a business and career development tool:

We all want to be more efficient, right? Yet research shows that many business leaders are going about it the wrong way. Here are some ways that research suggests can help us be more efficient at the office.

Focus on one thing at a time. You may think that multitasking will make you more productive, but it rarely does. The research is clear: Our brains simply weren’t designed for effectively doing more than one task at a time. Focusing on one task — giving it your full attention — can produce better results than trying to get more than one thing done at a time. It’s important to give your employees your full attention when you meet with them. It signals that they are important to you and that what they have to say is important to you. both of which can results in more productive and loyal employees.

A quick Google search will confirm what you probably already know: When it comes to finding ways to make a workplace more environmentally friendly, there are more ideas than any one company could possibly implement in a week, or even a month.

In other words, greening the workplace is a marathon, not a sprint.

Starting today, we’re going to use this blog space to periodically zero in on a few ideas at a time. Today’s installment focuses on three S’s: stationery, screensavers and suits. Disparate elements, yes, but with two things in common: better environmental practice and savings.

​As students across the U.S. head back to the classroom this fall, chances are good that they’ll hear reminders about wearing masks indoors and maintaining six feet of social distance. After all, it’s good advice offered by Resolve to Save Lives, an initiative designed to prevent epidemics, headed by President and CEO Tom Frieden, the former CDC Director.

A recently released report from Resolve concludes that schools can and should be open for in-person learning this fall, as long as safety measures like social distancing, mask-wearing and proper ventilation are in place.

To that we’d add one obvious measure: handwashing.

​As life slowly returns to normal, employees return to their workplaces on a part- or full-time schedule and students return to their classrooms, there are certain steps employers and educators can take to make everyone feel safe post pandemic.

Key among these things is ensuring that the workplace and classroom are safe and sanitary.

​At Strive Workplace Solutions, we’ve always been able to say that our employees are good about washing their hands.

It’s that most basic function that we learn as toddlers at our parents’ knees: soaping up our hands, singing the ABCs and making sure that all the bad germs wash down the drain.

Each generation brings a new approach to the art of management. Generation Y — more commonly called the Millennial generation — is no different. Well, actually they are different in key aspects, and that turns out to be a positive thing in many cases.
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In the past few years, Millennials (generally identified as those born between 1981 and 1996) have become the largest segment of the U.S. population and now represent the largest portion of the U.S. workforce. They are on their way to becoming the biggest force in management today, leaving the Boomers and Gen Xers in their dust. So, what exactly do people in their 20s and early 30s bring to the world of management?

​Here are a few trends:

Feedback — in all of its forms — is critical to helping people identify their strengths and weaknesses. Delivered correctly, it can help foster professional growth and help companies become more successful.
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But most people don’t like getting feedback if it’s a mix of positive and negative. It’s human nature: Most people focus only on the positive aspects of their personalities and behavior and tend to ignore or gloss over the negative. Research also shows that many of us also tend to be more critical of the behavior of others than of our own behavior. Researchers at Harvard Business School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that in addition, we don’t always react well when people tend to disrupt our view of ourselves.