How to increase revenue and work with other contractors to sustain volume?

I am a copywriter.

FIRST DILEMMA:

Although I have been quite busy and booked with regular clients, I am somewhat bothered by the percentage of my revenue that each of the three large clients represents, so I have vowed to take on new clients and diversify my revenue stream, without giving up my large existing clients.

While that certainly means marketing myself and cultivating new clients, this for me is the easy part.

SECOND DILEMMA:

The hard part is figuring out how I can work with other contractors. My current workload actually has me at full capacity. I continue to cultivate other freelance writers and editors with whom I can collaborate. I also try to find ways to work more with my excellent paid student intern – which means figuring out which parts of a project I can pull him in on, how he can help me with everything from organizing notes to locating and scheduling interviews with sources to fact-checking stories. I have to find the right balance, where the hours of work he saves me, minus the time I spend explaining to him what I need, answering his questions, monitoring his work and incorporating his work back into mine, equals a net gain in time for me to do other work. Or to sleep, as sleep is what I’ve been missing out on lately as I try to handle an increased workload.

CEO keeping company afloat and drilling for quicker results from staff.

My partner feels major pressure to see results turn around and impulsively walks in to the office barking orders.

We have objectives set in place for our team and I see how his knee jerk reaction is not helping the work culture at all.

So many times, senior management sat with him to explain how his behavior affects the staff.

However, when under the gun, everything goes out the window. Then I have to walk in and massage the situation.

Thoughts?

Morning Tid bit on Team Building Ideas

Employee Rummaging the Home Based Business Fridge

I run a small home based business with 2 employees (one is my sister who resides at the home and the other is an outside employee). And I have had some incidents where the employee has helped herself to anything in the refrigerator. I realize by working from a home this creates a very casual informal environment but this has become a bit uncomfortable for my sister and she has addressed it with me. I am a bit stuck on how to address this issue as it is very delicate and I do not want to make this person uncomfortable. I actually enjoy the fact that she feels that she is “part of a family” but don’t know how to set stronger boundaries without hurting her feelings. Suggestions???

Having a hard time getting my employees to meet deadlines

I’m in the business of property management and was advised I cannot work with contractors and need to have employees. The problem with paying these guys salaries is that they are not making the deadlines. What can I do to encourage them to make the quota on time?

Management Headaches Interview with Small Business TV (SBTV.com)

While at the National Association for Women Business Owners Conference, Valeska Jacques discussed the purpose of how Management Headaches helps Business Owners.

Click here to check it out.

Projects are late and tired of putting out fires every day

We are slammed with projects and our team are not completing the items considered priority. Our project managers cant come up with any more excuses as to delays. Each day we are putting out fires and shifting our priorities based on which client is upset.

Where we are:
We are currently in a stage where each week we find ourselves with more than 5 projects in sensitive stages every week.

Where we want to go:
The goal is to minimize the amount of projects that are in the “sensitive stage” each week with client’s projects. I would like to move in a transition of finding ourselves focused working on time or ahead of time each week rather than catching up on projects every week.

Question: What steps can we take to get there? If you have any thoughts on this, please leave a comment below.

Why Smart Executives Fail

The scene: a CEO is celebrated on the cover Fortune. Soon after, the company is in the midst of a financial fiasco. What went wrong? It seems that top management made some incredibly stupid mistakes. But the people responsible are almost always remarkably intelligent and usually have terrific track records. “Why Smart Executives Fail” relates the stories of great business disasters and demonstrates the ways many businesses make themselves vulnerable to failure. Leave a comment below to TELL US WHAT YOU THINK!

Why do I feel I have to do everyone’s job?

I find myself having to pick up where my assistant left off b/c this individual takes forever to get it done sometimes. Despite that I prioritize what’s important, my assistant starts to fall back on what’s important and everything starts to pile up. I deal with a very competent individual and do not think firing is the solution. I wish I can see these assignments get knocked out without having to get involved. Any suggestions?

I am experiencing a lack of respect from my team

I am the youngest member of my team but recently took over the group’s management responsibilities. I got along with all these people before but I don’t feel they listen to me now that I am their direct boss. They tend to openly question me during staff meetings and always go to my boss when they don’t agree with a decision or directive. I was not sure if I was being too sensitive so I asked a colleague to observe some of our interactions and she confirmed my thoughts. I’m not sure what to do at this point.

On another note, I feel very uncomfortable in having disciplinary conversations with my team. I know some of them very well and socialize with some of them outside of the office. I read some management books but didn’t feel they offered any practical suggestions. Any help would be appreciated?