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Are you stuck trying to grow a high-performance team for your business so you can focus on your business owner responsibilities? Welcome to the show that helps small business owners hire, grow, and develop a radically-engaged team that will run the business for you, reducing your stress, boosting your profits, and letting you fully enjoy being the business owner. Tune in to discover how to attract and hire top talent, transform your team into a powerhouse of engagement, and shift from being ...
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In each bite-sized episode, we solve common business challenges using Microsoft Teams. Tune in for quick, actionable solutions—usually about six minutes per episode! If you’re short on time (like most business owners and managers are), feel free to jump directly to episodes that promise solutions to problems you’re having this very moment. Microsoft Teams is more than a chat and meeting platform. It is a problem-solving beast!
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People Behind the Business: a show for small businesses with small teams & huge ambitions
Rosemary Richings
People Behind the Business is about the challenges and rewards of running a small business right now. The point is to bring together small business owners worldwide to tell their stories about how/why they started their business, along with personal issues that impact how they do business. E.G: living with a mental or physical illness, hearing the word "no" a lot, and finding practical solutions to the challenges of establishing a loyal community of colleagues, customers + friends. My goal i ...
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So you want to be an open-door manager and ensure your employees know you will listen, but hate how those meetings disrupt you when you're "in the zone?" Today, hostess Annie Rynd tells you how to use the Microsoft 365 app Bookings to batch open door meetings and free up time to work on your most important managerial work. Bookings comes free with …
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How clear is your vision for the future of your business? In this week’s episode, we dive into a crucial yet often overlooked aspect of leadership: crafting a compelling vision that inspires your team. As a business owner, steering your company toward success is paramount, and having a strong vision acts as your guiding handlebars. By tuning in, yo…
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If you're like most leaders in the business world, you like the meeting functionality of Teams, and perhaps the chat feature, but other than that you aren't very happy with the results. That's a shame, because Teams has transformed the inner workings of organizations where it has been properly deployed. In this episode, we tell you how to successfu…
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Have you ever wondered if your team could fully operate your business without your daily involvement? This week’s episode of The Ultimate Business Tune-Up Podcast dives into this crucial question for small business owners like you. Host Rich shares a significant pivot in his podcast’s focus, based on over two decades of experience, now zeroing in o…
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Let's face it. Very few business owners and managers are confident in the permissions of their most sensitive files, let alone the thousands of other files that have accumulated over many years. Thanks to Microsoft Teams, there is finally a way to get control of permissions, clean up your mess, and make sure new employees can't access salary inform…
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No matter if you are a manager in a mega-corporation or a solo freelancer, if the time spent in email bothers you, this is the episode for you. Annie tells you how you can replace email with Teams messaging and save hours per week while being much more organized. You'll want to share this episode with your employees as a part of your ongoing effort…
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How confident are you in your business math skills? In this episode of The Ultimate Business Tune-Up Podcast, we revisit a critical lesson on growing a profitable, sustainable business. Host Rich Allen brings back the fundamentals of business math, reminding us how simple equations can lead to substantial growth. You may have heard it before, but l…
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AI has burst upon the scene after years of science fiction telling us it's coming. What's that mean for you? Just how in the world can you use it to improve your business? Can you? Annie Rynd tells you how to begin using Microsoft's AI offering, Copilot, to immediately save time on common business tasks. She also tells you how to make sure your inf…
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Are you or your employees new to Teams? Do you like Teams, but you're a bit disillusioned with how many distracting notifications you receive? Does the instant messaging vibe of Teams interrupt your workflow too much? Today, Annie Rynd gives some timely tips for reducing interruptions caused by Teams notifications. The solutions are simple, but the…
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How would you rate your personal development journey? In a world where business success often feels just out of reach, many entrepreneurs struggle to break free from habits that hold them back. Our podcast is here to help you identify and overcome those obstacles. This week, we’ll dive into the final ten habits from Marshall Goldsmith’s insightful …
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Are You Truly Aware of Your Personal Development Blind Spots? On this week's episode of the Ultimate Business Tune-Up Podcast, we’re diving into a critical self-assessment exercise that could unlock your next level of success. As a business owner, taking a hard look at your personal habits is crucial to moving beyond your current achievements and a…
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Are you struggling to get your long-tenured employees to embrace new training methods? Training team members, especially those who’ve been with you for years, is crucial yet often neglected. If you're only focusing on onboarding new hires, you're missing out on improving the skills and engagement of your seasoned staff, which can impact your busine…
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Do you roll your vision, mission, and goals out once a year, only to wonder why employees aren't working toward them? Are your employees so consumed by daily tasks that you wonder why you even bother to have a vision? Are you also losing sight of the plans you made last December? In this episode, host Annie Rynd tells you how to leverage Teams and …
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How Efficiently Does Work Get Done in Your Organization? This week I want to explore with you the different ways that work gets done in an organization. And more importantly, I want to encourage and inspire you to perhaps re-think how work is getting done in YOUR business. I believe that work gets done in any business or organization of any kind in…
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This episode tackles an extremely important topic that is pivotal to the success of organizations venturing into the Microsoft Teams and 365 world. It's one of the first things that must be decided, and it is something that is time-consuming to undo if you get it wrong. In just five minutes, Annie Rynd tells you the answer to the common question, "…
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How Clearly and Precisely have you Defined Your Ideal Customer? This week I want to help you resolve one of the most frustrating challenges that face most business owners – having to deal with customers who are NOT their “ideal” customer. If you’re like most business owners I’ve met, you have a handful of customers who you would GLADLY see go away …
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If you or your employees are tired of minimizing and maximizing windows, clicking through nested folders, and looking for project documentation, this is a must-listen episode. Not only does such mouse clicking and searching cause too many clicks and wasted minutes, but it is a main cause of employees experiencing a mid-day energy crash. Their eyes …
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What Promises Should You Be Making To Each and Every Customer? This week I want to challenge you about the promises you make – or should be making – to those who use your products or services. You see, I believe each of us, as business owners, owe it to our customers to make them a promise – or even several promises – of how we will conduct busines…
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Whether you manage an engineering or architecture firm, construction company, or any business working on multiple projects at a time, you may not feel like you have your arms around the status and needs of those projects. You could dig through dozens of related emails and spreadsheets, or even call project managers, but wouldn't it be much nicer to…
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Does Your Customer Service Make Your Customers Tell Everyone About It? This week I want to challenge you to “up your game” when it comes to your Customer Service. You don’t have to be a Sewell Cadillac or a Nordstroms to blow the socks off your customers. Just focus on them with your complete attention, make their issues bigger than your issues, an…
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The first three episodes in this series covered managing more strategically at the leadership level. This final episode tells how to use Teams to then manage your workforce's collaboration and information processes more strategically. Learn why you should plan strategically prior to releasing Teams to your employees. If you've already deployed Team…
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Does your Team Culture nurture Individual Winners or Team Winners? This week I want to “geek out” on the Olympics for a bit – I hope that’s ok with you! If you’ve got a pulse you are probably aware that the 2024 Paris Olympics just finished up a week ago after 16 days of some of the most exciting sports competition you could ask for. Whether it’s i…
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Whether you use the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) in your business or not, you need a way to track your long term goals, short term goals, issues, tasks, and more. You can certainly use any of the specialty software systems out there, like Ninety.io, but why not use Teams instead since you already have it? Additionally, you will become acc…
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Igniting Employee Engagement and Building a High Performance Team Through Your Onboarding Process
14:30
How Do You Welcome New Team Members Who Join Your Team? This week our topic is one that will have a long-lasting impact on your team and your culture – the Process You Use to ON-BOARD NEW TEAM MEMBERS. We all know that when we first meet someone, our first impression lasts the longest. It’s why when we first meet a prospective customer, we put our …
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This is the second installment of our Managing More Strategically series. In this episode, Annie Rynd explains how the "Entrepreneurial Operating System" or EOS, from the book "Traction" by Gino Wickman can help you develop your business vision and methodically keep you on track to greater success and growth in your business. Buy Traction here.…
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Are you so busy working in your business that you don't have time to work on it? Do you feel as though you're so busy fighting fires and managing the day-to-day activities that your business strategy is lacking? Today we kick off a series that is sure to help you begin getting a grip on your business, from laying out a fresh strategy, managing that…
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Are you a small town mayor, parks superintendent, or clerk who spends much too much time and effort tracking shelter house reservations? This episode tells you how to use Teams - and more specifically, SharePoint Lists - to make your reservation tracking almost effortless without spending big bucks on a reservations system. Not only will you learn …
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Do Your Team Members Play The “I’m Right – You’re Wrong” Game? This week I want to address a situation that seems to come up far too frequently. This one has to do with how your team members react and respond to others on your team. This is the game where when two people disagree on how to handle a situation or they have different opinions on what …
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Perhaps you have already begun using Teams and you're unimpressed. Perhaps there is only sporadic usage and you still feel as though your information and communication is spread across so many places that you instantly cringe when booting up your computer every morning. It doesn't have to be that way. In this episode, Annie Rynd tells you the three…
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Are your experienced employees retiring or nearing retirement? Are you losing knowledge that is very hard to replace? Join Annie Rynd as she tells how you can capture seasoned employees' valuable knowledge and make it keyword searchable for new and current employees who take their place.Arnie Howes
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How Do You Respond When Your Customer is Dissatisfied? This week I want to talk about something that came up for a few of my clients over this past month that I thought was worth your time and attention. It has to do with how well we serve and support our customers – something that we are all very interested in – or SHOULD be very interested in. If…
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You have lots of information tracking needs in your business and it seems like every time you turn around you have to shell out more monthly budget for yet another software service. Of course, such packages usually save you time and effort, which translates into a better bottom line, but...what if there are some of those packages that could be eith…
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We've all seen it. You open a folder and then have to scroll past dozens of old versions of past documents just to find the recent file you need right now. There is some functionality in Teams that will eliminate that problem forever if you choose to use it. It's simple and once you begin using it, your team won't waste so much time scrolling throu…
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How Solid are Your Financials and How Strong is Your Team? This week is the third and final week of the three-week Business Tune Up we launched in honor of the 2024 Tour de France bike race. This week, we’re going deep into the engine and fuel for your business – your Financials and the Team you have assembled to execute your strategy and serve you…
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Are Your Bike Tires Getting Good Traction On the Road? Today we’re covering your Business Tune Up – Part 2. We’re going to focus on the part of your business where the rubber LITERALLY meets the road – the front wheel and back wheel of your bike – your business. The front wheel of your bike represents your ABILITY TO WIN NEW CUSTOMERS. The back whe…
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Too many business owners and managers become enamored with the potential of Teams, but then they rush into deployment without a sound strategy or plan. This episode tells how to effectively deploy Teams in a manner that guarantees success and holistic improvement in your business. Don't do Teams without listening to this one!…
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Could Your Business Use a Tune Up Right About Now? This week and then for the next two consecutive weeks, I’ll walk you through the critical parts of your business that need to be looked at and “tuned up” from time to time to make sure your business – and YOU – stays in tip-top condition so you can RIDE HARD and RIDE FAST! As we go through each par…
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What is it that is Holding You Back? This week I want to share a book recommendation that I found to be a resource I wish I had found many years ago. Each page of the book contained a single quotation and had lots of white space. He suggested it was a PERFECT book for a guy – someone who doesn’t really like to read novels or lengthy how-to books. T…
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Is Your Competition Using Your Business as the Benchmark Standard? This week I want to explore the concept of benchmarking and how to best use it to make your business better. It’s a common practice that most seasoned business owners use to measure how well they are performing against their toughest competition. Today I want to give you a simple 5 …
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Is Your Compensation Structure Promoting the Teamwork You Need in Your Business? One conclusion I’ve come to – with little reservation – is that commission-based compensation structures don’t work all that well for creating a business that will be successful over the long term. But you may be wondering – what SHOULD your compensation structure look…
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Have You Built a Firm Foundation for Your Business? Today I want to share with you the five (5) key elements that I believe go into creating the foundation for any business. You may want to grab a pen and paper so you can write these down – because when we’re done, you’re going to want to spend some time reflecting on your business and perhaps even…
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How effectively are you Qualifying your New Prospects? It’s not uncommon for me to hear that the biggest issue or challenge a business owner is facing is the need to gain new customers. Many businesses have their team assembled, they have their product or service ready to go, and all they need to make the business work is to find and secure more cu…
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How are Your Employees Feeling About the Impact Your Business is Having on Those You Serve? This week, I want to dive deeper into the LEVEL THREE – or as I call it GEAR THREE – statements that every employee is asking and assessing on a daily basis. These Gear Three statements are related to whether the business is serving their customers well and …
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How are Your Employees Feeling About their Fellow Team Members and Their Future with Your Company? This week, I want to dive deeper into the LEVEL TWO – or as I call it GEAR TWO – statements that every employee is asking and assessing on a daily basis. These Gear Two statements are related to their supervisor and managers – the leadership of the bu…
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How Can You Keep Your Employees WITHOUT Requiring a Signed Non-Compete? You’ve probably heard the reports that the Federal Trade Commission, better known as the FTC, has issued a ruling that is intended to promote competition by banning all non-compete clauses issued by companies to their employees. I’m going to recommend that every business owner …
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How Good are You at Catching People Doing Things Right? No matter how good they are at their job, the majority of employees feel that their immediate supervisor or direct line manager focus WAY MORE on the things they get wrong than those things they do well. Great talent is hard to find. And when you have great talent, the LAST thing you want is f…
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Why is it SO HARD to get your Team members to do things the way YOU want and need them to do it? Truth be told, it’s not impossible at all. In fact, it’s simply a math equation! That’s right. Getting someone to do what you need or want them to do is ALL about getting the math right. You get the math right, and the other person will do what you want…
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How Good are You at Generating New Leads when Networking? Over 91% of business owners surveyed said that Business Networking was a critical part of their marketing strategies and that Networking had been an integral part of how they grew their customer base. Since everyone is using business networking to grow their business, shouldn’t you take some…
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How Effectively do you Clarify the Roles and Responsibilities in your Organization? If you’re like most business owners I’ve met, one of the biggest challenges you’re facing is making sure everyone on your team knows, with certainty, what they are responsible for and what you expect from them in their position. Today I want to share a method that y…
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Would You Like to Avoid the Dumb Mistakes that Sabotage Growth, Profits, and Business Success? Honestly, that’s what we’re doing together – trying to solve the biggest challenges in owning and running a business – and along the way, take the best path toward success – rather than getting stuck riding down the “stupid road” – the one full of pothole…
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