I am sure you know that old saying by heart: the only thing constant in this world is change. With what we have been experiencing in the past year or so, I am also sure that many of you have experienced this saying first hand. Change has been happening all over the world in various sectors, and the business sector has not been exempt from that. Your own business might even have had to undergo some major changes as well.

Talking about change, how is your business when it comes to dealing with change? Are you and everyone involved resilient enough to weather any changes that might happen or are you resistant to the possibility? Let me tell you know, even without an impending change in the horizon, it is always important that you ready yourself, your employees, and your business itself to change. At one point or another, it is bound to happen. And when it does, you will only really benefit if you are ready for it.

How do you prepare yourself, your employees, and your business itself for change?

Take a close look at your company culture. Perhaps you are of the traditional kind. Perhaps the culture that has been ingrained in your business is resistant to change. If so, it is time to do something about that. Talk about change on a regular basis. Talk about it in meetings. Talk about it over coffee. The idea is to help your employees open their mind to change and for them to be able to see it as a positive thing.

Here’s to change!

For the first several years of my working life, I found myself drawn to start ups. Perhaps it was not by choice. Perhaps it was simply because I got really good opportunities with start ups at that time. And I have to say, I really learned a lot during those years. If there is one thing that really stuck with me, however, it is that any business – no matter how big or small it may be – should have clear policies at the outset. Without clear policies, you might be able to get by for the first couple of years. Once you start expanding, however, you will see that having no policies spells disaster. Here are some tips that you can consider when coming up with policies for your business.

Have foresight.
While you may be content to run your business at the pace and scale that you started out at, expansion is inevitable at some point. As such, you have to bear in mind what can happen and what you will do in case these things happen. Planning ahead is always a good thing and having a solution to an event that has not occurred yet can save you a lot of time, money, and headaches.

Know what policies you will need, even from the start.
There are some things that you cannot do without. If you have employees, then you need an employee handbook. You have to establish policies regarding compensation, leaves, performance evaluation, and so on.

Make sure there is a concrete venue by which you can communicate your policies to everyone involved.
One of the worst things is having policies without anyone in the company being aware of them. When you spring a “rule” on your employees without the proper process, it might very well backfire on you.

Many companies I know have banned YouTube. It not only eats up the bandwidth at work but also takes up the time of employees who should otherwise be working. While this is very reasonable, we should not really discount the good points of this site. In fact, more than the funny videos, we can also find good insights from YouTube.

Take for example this series of videos that are geared toward the business sector. In this series, Sir Martin Sorrell, along with many other business experts, shares tips to beat the recession. Dubbed Survival of the Fastest, the series features different authorities on various business topics. It is backed by reputable names such as Google (being the parent company of YouTube), The Daily Telegraph, and The London Business School.

There are currently 73 episodes in the series, all of them uploaded onto the site already. My suggestion is that instead of going through comic videos and other things most of the time, why not try viewing this series? You just might get something out of the videos.

Here’s a sneak peek from Lord Davies, the minister for Trade and Investment:

“What you have to make sure is that the culture of your company, whether it be a small company or a very large company, that you as the leaders, you as the owners and that you as members of staff, that you are encouraging creativity.”

There is more to be found in this series. What are you waiting for?

You might think that I am going crazy. The economic world is rather unstable right now. Who in his right mind would turn his attention to expanding and looking for other opportunities instead of focusing on the problems at hand? Well, let me tell you, in these hard times, there will always be opportunities for those who are alert to them. And you never know, these opportunities may very well be the answer to some of the problems that you face in your small business.

As a matter of fact, other business experts are thinking along the same lines. I recently read an article by Jared Lauber and Joe Orlando of Frank, Rimerman Consulting. It was thought provoking and encouraging at the same time. The conclusion really struck home:

The key to any decision-making process, especially in the assessment of risk, is a continuous and thoughtful assessment of available information. Every business owner must develop a fundamental understanding of the facts surrounding their business. Business owners need to know as much as they can about themselves and the world in which they compete. Similarly, every individual needs to understand their personal income statement and balance sheet. The better prepared a business owner or individual is to embrace change, understand risk, maintain visibility and seek out opportunity, the more likely they can begin the process of putting comfort back into what has become an uncomfortable world.

This simply means that we may have to look outside of our comfort zones and perhaps find a hidden gem that can make our comfort zones ever wider. Brilliant, don’t you think?