At one time, marketing meant using such tactics as buying commercial time on TV or radio stations, advertising in a newspaper or magazine, or sending your message through direct mail. All of those remain options today, but they are joined by a plethora of digital alternatives for reaching potential customers or clients, who spend a lot of time hanging out in the digital world.
Jonathan Musgrave, owner and chief digital marketer for Steep Digital Marketing says many businesses and professionals don’t always take advantage of what digital marketing offers, instead falling back on what worked in the past, either out of habit or due to a lack of understanding of the power of digital. 
And that’s no way to move forward, he says. But choosing between digital or traditional approaches to marketing isn’t an either/or proposition. Musgrave offers a few examples of how the two can be married to produce great results:

• A text instead of a call. Musgrave says one of his clients, a financial professional, would buy TV time each month for a show in which he would talk about money issues. At the end of each segment, in an effort to generate leads, his firm’s telephone number would be displayed so viewers could call if they wanted more information. “I suggested that instead of a number to call, they should show a number that people could text,” Musgrave says. That change might appear insignificant on its face, but it proved to be extraordinarily consequential. The financial professional went from receiving about three responses per show to about 300.
• Billboards and digital calls to action. A message on a billboard provides the same opportunity to elicit a digital response from anyone who sees it. Once again, instead of urging people to call, urge them to text. You can also include your website address in your billboard ad so those intrigued by what you have to offer can learn more there, Musgrave says.
• Work digital connections into all marketing materials. Likely, you have business cards, brochures or any number of other marketing materials that people can hold in their hands. All of those should let people know how they can find you online, whether it’s on your website or on social media channels, Musgrave says. By the same token, if you have speaking engagements, you can put that information on a display poster or include it in a PowerPoint slide. “Since people always carry their phones, if they see how to find you on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or wherever, they may follow you right then and there,” he says.

“The most dangerous thing I hear people say is that digital marketing is the future,” Musgrave says. “That’s not quite accurate because the future is already here. Advertisers globally spent more on digital advertising than any other medium in 2017, displacing TV at the top of the chart for the first time. If you keep kicking the digital can down the road, by the time you catch up to it again, your competitors will have already passed you.” 

For entrepreneur, professional speaker and success coach Sheryl Grant, transformational leadership through personal development and community building is the name of the game. A Ms. Olympia at over the age of 50, Grant clearly knows what it takes to realize over-and-above achievement both in life and in business. Today, through her eponymous company Sheryl Grant Enterprises, this powerhouse is helping CEOs, executives and other entrepreneurs master key areas of their careers and lives overall. 

Her secret sauce? Grant taps into a trifecta of neuro-training, physical fitness and increased productivity to unlock personal ambition, revenue potential and self-confidence. Grant urges that success-minded individuals must aspire to be F.I.T., heavily leaning on “Faith, Intuition and Tenacity” to reach their goals.

A key aspect of Grant’s various F.I.T. presentations and webinars is a focus on developing mental strength through neuro-training, whereby she offers a variety of tactical techniques related thereto. Below, Grant offers insight on some of her mind-bolstering methodologies that, as she explains, can help us cultivate a greater awareness of who we are, develop a road map of where we need and want to go, and conceptualize how we intend to get there:

Start a Dialogue with Yourself. Begin by asking yourself some basic questions: Who are you? What are you good at? What do people you care about see in you? When have you felt the most alive? What can you learn from others who have a strong purpose and who are inspirational to you? Ultimately, living with purpose means focusing on what matters most to you. And following the money and following your heart don’t have to be mutually exclusive. There’s not much mystery as to why most people work: to earn money. However, there are a lot of ways to pay the bills. The “why” refers to the underlying, personal reasons you are choosing a particular business and what you are trying to accomplish. Knowing where you are going and, as importantly, why it will inform and strengthen both your personal and career identities and help you reach your goals quicker. Such self-awareness also fosters drive, confidence and self-esteem that can transform you into an unstoppable force—giving you the strength to persist ... even through failure and adversity. You’ll likely be happier, too, and an inspiration to those around you.

Identify ALL of Your Inner Strengths. When people are living in their “sweet spot,” they are more productive and naturally add value to the world around them. Accordingly, this “mode” is when people also tend to make more money! What are the things you’ve always been good at? What motivates and inspires you? Perhaps it’s things that come naturally to you, to the point that you wonder why others struggle in the same area? While passion can also certainly blossom from areas in which you aren’t naturally talented, Grant’s personal and professional experiences have shown that we rarely aspire toward ambitions for which we have no natural talent to achieve. As civil rights leader Howard Thurman once wrote, “Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive, then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” Indeed they do.

Know Where You Add Value. Doing work that you’re good at, but which holds no passion for you, is not a pathway to fulfilment. When we know our greatest strengths and where we as individuals can add the most value, we can better focus on the opportunities, roles and career paths in areas where success will likely occur. These are usually the same avenues where a person finds the greatest sense of accomplishment and contribution. All too often we undervalue our strengths, skills and the expertise that we naturally acquire over time. A great way to discover this for ourselves is to discern what we’re equipped to help solve in the workplace, career, organization or industry. Also, uncovering what problems we enjoy solving, and what problems we feel passionate about attempting to solve. The answers to these questions can help people focus and develop a much clearer series of intentions that are based on natural strengths, and those tasks one innately excels at, rather than trying to bolster or eliminate weaknesses.

Through overcoming personal challenges in multiple areas in her life spearheaded by employing the strategies above, Grant says she quickly learned that her biggest difficulty was not the obstacles in front of her, but rather the lack of belief and trust in herself. By her shifting from a focus on fear and limitations to a focus on empowerment fueled by faith, intuition and tenacity (F.I.T.), she reached greater heights than ever before ... and continues to do so.

Almost everybody bemoans the difficulties in trying to maintain a healthy balance between family and work. But for entrepreneurs, the inability to find that balance is not just unhealthy, it can result in the failure of both the business and the loss of the family. Most entrepreneurs work at least 50 hours a week, and some people like Elon Musk say that working 100 hours a week is doable and will improve the chances for business success. But what about having a life beyond the business?

“Entrepreneurs really do have to walk a tightrope between their families and their businesses,” says Peter J. Strauss (www.peterjstrauss.com), an attorney, entrepreneur and author of the upcoming book The Accidental Life. “Failure in one of those two aspects usually leads to failure in the other.” Making matters worse is that when entrepreneurs first launch the business, many are using their homes as an office. This creates family issues when there are no physical barriers between job and family, Strauss says. He offers tips for entrepreneurs who want to have success in both their business and their home lives.

• Set boundaries. Especially if you run the business at home, it is important to set boundaries with your spouse or partner to make sure you are not always talking about business. When you are at work, be at work. And when you are at home, even if your business is in the garage, be at home. Have a separate phone for your business and don’t take business calls when you are on family time unless it is an emergency.
  
• Prioritize work tasks. Determine what is the most difficult task and attack it first. That will help you get out of work on time and go home to your family. If you have a family event in the evening, it is much easier to leave a small task to the morning instead of a large, difficult task.
• Take vacations (even small ones). A vacation doesn’t have to be two weeks. Take a day off and take the family on a picnic. It will not only be good for your relationship with your family, it will also be good for your business. You will come back refreshed and better able to tackle the challenges of your business.
  
• Don’t intrude on your family’s space. If you run your business from your home, have a designated workspace. Don’t use the family dining room table for your paperwork. Find someplace where you can focus on your business without family interruptions.  

Strauss says entrepreneurs should not underestimate the importance of finding the right balance between business and family. “If they don’t get it right,” he says, “they risk losing everything.”
 
About Peter J. Strauss
Peter J. Strauss (www.peterjstrauss.com) is an attorney, entrepreneur and author of several books, including the soon-to-be-released The Accidental Life. He is the founder and managing member of The Strauss Law Firm, LLC, on Hilton Head Island, S.C, and also the founder and CEO of Hamilton Captive Management, LLC. He is a graduate of the New England School of Law and of Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management program. Strauss also holds an LL.M. in estate planning from the University of Miami and speaks regularly at public seminars.​

Bad habits can be hard to break, and for business leaders who have them, they can be deal-breakers. In a survey by Leadership IQ, an online training firm, the primary reasons CEOs were fired - mismanaging change, ignoring customers, tolerating low performers, and not enough action - were often related to unproductive habits. 
 
“Although leaders who display these behaviors generally know what to do, and how to do it, their unproductive habits render them unable to get things done - with dire consequences,” says Mark Green, a speaker, coach to CEOs and author of Activators: A CEO’s Guide to Clearer Thinking and Getting Things Done (www.Activators.biz). “The most common unproductive leadership habits include avoiding decisions and conflict, maintaining comfort-zone networks, needing to be liked, neglecting to listen enough - and they are hard to break.”
 
But Green says they can be broken and suggests replacing them with foundational habits that make leaders successful. He lists six of them here. 
 

• Capitalize on luck. This is a habit of forward-moving thinking in response to both good- and bad-luck events. Green says bad luck, such as the extended absence of a key employee, affords an opportunity for the leader to empower others by challenging them to learn, grow and contribute in new ways. “Whatever the circumstances, leaders rapidly come to understand the value of generating return on luck,” Green says. “Everyone wins.”
• Be grateful. “When you appreciate and value what you have, you gain a clearer perspective,” Green says. “A daily meeting ritual of appreciation creates space for each executive to share what they appreciate most, and it opens up the room to clearer thinking and increased collaboration.”
• Give - within limits. Research shows there are many advantages to being a giver, but striking a balance is important to remain productive. “Sharing information and resources cultivates an abundance mindset, bringing benefits that both the company and the leader can reap,” Green says. “But there are limits; if you’re giving away too much time and too many resources, you won’t be able to accomplish your own objectives. Give, but know when to say no.”
• When problems arise, focus on process - not people. “When something goes wrong, a common approach is to find fault with the people involved,” Green says. “But bad or poorly communicated processes can make even the most talented, dedicated staff look terrible. Question processes and communication first, before you explore the intentions, character or capabilities of those involved. Research shows that believing in your people pays off.”
• Have high expectations of others. Leaders who set the bar high and then give their teams latitude to execute reap more benefits than those who simply tell their teams what to do,” Green says. “Those whose habits include valuing autonomy and individual responsibility can build something great over time. High expectations and empowerment are key.”
• Maintain intentional focus. “Countless research studies have exposed excessive multi-tasking as ineffective,” Green says. “To make real progress, hold a small number of very important things in your mind and let go of the rest.  Ruthless prioritization and focus in execution will set you free.”

 
“With our thoughts, we make our world,” Green says. “Check your beliefs about your leadership habits, choose just one or two to change, enlist others to support your efforts, then get to it.”
 
About Mark E. Green
Mark Green, author of Activators: A CEO’s Guide to Clearer Thinking and Getting Things Done (www.Activators.biz), is a speaker, strategic advisor and coach to CEOs and executive teams worldwide. He has addressed, coached and advised thousands of business leaders, helping them unlock more of their potential and teaching them how to do the same for their teams. He is a Core Advisor to Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches (formerly Gazelles International), a mentor to coaches worldwide, and an active contributor to programs and content for their global ecosystem.

In business, the adage “it starts at the top” can prompt an uncomfortable question: “Can the boss finish what he or she started?”
Many CEOs and entrepreneurs wrestle with this challenge, with both short- and long-term implications. Meanwhile, a disconnect develops between the CEO’s initial big-picture vision for the company and its seemingly sporadic execution toward those goals.

The Global Leadership Forecast 2018 highlights issues of greatest concern to CEOs;  among them is a lack of alignment among senior leaders. The last problem any CEO  wants is an inability to get everyone on the same page, aligned and executing their strategy. 

“I’ve witnessed CEOs struggle with this question: ‘‘Why is it so difficult to execute what I already know I should be doing?’” says Mark E. Green, a speaker, coach to CEOs and author of Activators: A CEO’s Guide to Clearer Thinking and Getting Things Done (www.Activators.biz). “They and their teams generally know what to do and how to get it done. But they avoid the decisions and actions they know could advance their success.

“All roads lead back to obstacles within your mind. New behaviors leading to execution require new ways of thinking.” Green lists five ways for CEOs to change behaviors that obstruct them from leading their company efficiently and effectively:

• If/when, then. Green points to a study on influencing behavior by German researchers, who found that formulating an “if/when, then” plan – stating a specific time to accomplish a task – provided a cue to provoke the desired response. “I’ve worked with many CEOs who were not classically trained in accounting and finance and are overwhelmed by numbers,” Green says. “Such fears drove them to avoid financial information and reports. Making an if/when, then statement compels them to change the behavior.”

• Relate and repeat. To change, one needs to believe that change is possible. “Cultivate relationships with those who can help you see that the change you desire is attainable,” Green says. “Then repeat by testing out the new behavior or thought pattern and seeking feedback.”

• Know when to say no. As the company leader, being a giver is important – but not to the point where sacrifice damages your own performance. “Credible research shows that high-performing givers knew when to say no,” Green says. “Track your yes-to-no ratio. It’s the only way to protect your time, energy, and focus as a leader. 

• Forget perfectionism. Green says perfectionism is a waste of time and energy for a CEO. He references the 80/20 Rule – also known as the Pareto principle, first articulated by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto – which holds that roughly 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. “The 80/20 Rule also applies to perfectionism – the majority of the value in any endeavor comes from a small amount of the overall effort,” Green says. “Perfectionism frequently limits our progress and fuels our fears. If you can keep the 80/20 Rule in mind, you can reduce your fears and accomplish more.” 

• Hold yourself accountable. One way CEOs and entrepreneurs can judge their performance is by asking themselves self-assessment questions daily. “You need accountability strategies that require you to evaluate your progress and focus on the importance of your goals,” Green says. 

“Often, the best way to modify a behavior is just to jump in,” Green says. “Seek out examples of the behaviors you want to employ, embrace some discomfort, and emulate them until they begin to feel natural.”  
​
About Mark E. Green
Mark Green, author of Activators: A CEO’s Guide to Clearer Thinking and Getting Things Done (www.Activators.biz), is a speaker, strategic advisor and coach to CEOs and executive teams worldwide. He has addressed, coached and advised thousands of business leaders, helping them unlock more of their potential and teaching them how to do the same for their teams. He is a Core Advisor to Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches (formerly Gazelles International), a mentor to coaches worldwide, and an active contributor to programs and content for their global ecosystem.

Some popular products seem to sell themselves, but the reality is the success began with a process. The same is true in the business of professional sports, a $60 billion-a-year industry where some franchises grow into monster brands. Sales managers in many industries sometimes use sports themes in their coaching -– competitiveness, dedication, strategy execution, etc. And as someone who has trained the sales teams of major sports brands, Lance Tyson sees what often separates the winners from the losers.
 
“The problem with selling today is there’s no home-field advantage,” says Tyson (www.tysongroup.com), President and CEO of Tyson Group, a sales training, coaching and consulting company and author of Selling is an Away Game: Close Business and Compete in a Complex World. “The selling game takes place in the buyer’s mind. As the salesperson, you have to determine how much the potential buyer knows or doesn’t know. And even with all the technology, it’s never been more competitive; there are more salespeople interacting directly with customers than ever before.”
 
Tyson offers four concepts to consider when coaching your sales team on today’s more complex playing field:
 

• Screw the better mousetrap. “You don’t necessarily have to build a better mousetrap; you have to do a better job selling your mousetrap,” Tyson says. “You have to understand there are a lot of new variables in selling. Social media and online information have changed the game, but despite all the new technology, the bedrock of sales remains the same: people selling to people.”

• Attitude adjustment. Tyson points out that grit is a key component of both championship sports teams and successful sales teams. One notable difference is the relative importance of skill set in each profession. “Skill set does not equate to success in sales,” Tyson says. “Hard work isn’t a skill; it’s a choice. It’s starting early, staying late, being resilient after rejection. It’s forming the habit of doing things that failures don’t like to do.”  
• Level the playing field. Tyson compares the sales process to choosing which game to play in a casino; your odds of closing improve if you keep your sales process simple and tailor the approach to the buyer’s mindset. Otherwise, the salesperson can be as distracted as if in a casino. “In sales, we don’t have to be gamblers, but we do have to be odds players,” Tyson says. “So you want to play craps rather than the slots.”

• Find common ground. Establishing credibility with a prospect requires engaging them in a conversation. “The first seven seconds are the most critical to get their attention,” Tyson says. “If you survive, you have the next 60 seconds to win their interest. To do this you need to see the sale from the buyer’s perspective.”

 
“There’s plenty of room for a salesperson’s creativity and a customer’s need for tailored solutions,” Tyson says. “At the same time, you can use that process repeatedly to provide solutions and compete in a complex world.”
 
About Lance Tyson 
Lance Tyson (www.tysongroup.com) is President and CEO of Tyson Group, a sales training, coaching and consulting company listed among SellingPower’s Top 20 sales training companies of 2018. He is the author of Selling is an Away Game: Close Business and Compete in a Complex World. Among Tyson Group’s clients are many professional sports teams such as the New York Yankees and Dallas Cowboys. Tyson was a franchise owner of Dale Carnegie operations in the Midwest and drove them to 230 percent growth before starting his own company. He conducts over 100 workshops annually in areas such as performance management, leadership, sales, sales management, customer service, negotiations and team building.

A key part of any CEO’s or entrepreneur’s role is to make the “right” decisions, and then ensure they are enacted to advance the business. Yet their decisions and actions often miss the mark, frustrating the achievement of their aspirations. It’s the voice in their head and other invisible factors at work. 
 
“All CEOs and entrepreneurs have habits, beliefs and motivators – such as fear – that affect what they do, often unconsciously,” says Mark E. Green, a speaker, coach to CEOs and author of Activators: A CEO’s Guide to Clearer Thinking and Getting Things Done (www.Activators.biz).
 
Green says these “hidden growth killers” interfere with a business leader’s ability to make optimal decisions and then see them through via day-to-day choices and actions. “This is why leading your business feels challenging, frustrating and even maddening at times despite the fact that you generally know what to do and how to do it,” Green says. “Your motivators, habits and beliefs influence how you think and act.”
 
Any CEO or entrepreneur who ever put off having a critical conversation or justified retaining a poor-performing employee has experienced their own “hidden growth killers” in action. And it’s not just those at the top who are susceptible. “Motivators, habits and beliefs operate similarly in the minds of your leadership team and every other person you employ,” Green says. “The cumulative cost is staggering.”
 
Fortunately, he says, there are research-backed techniques to counteract the “hidden growth killers” and more consistently align our decisions, choices and actions with our ultimate aspirations. Just a few of those are:

• Reduce fear. “Until you identify and debunk your fears, they’re guaranteed to drive your thinking and behavior,” Green says. There are ways to prevent fear-based decision making. One is to name a specific fear and explore the logic and realistic probability behind it. In most cases, you’ll realize that it isn’t real enough to warrant impact on your thinking and behavior. Next, don’t rush into decisions. If you take the time to gather information and weigh logic more than emotion you minimize fear-dominated decisions. Finally, you should surround yourself with more accomplished people who are willing and able to challenge you to grow beyond your fears 

• Slow down and get rational. “How we think and what we do are largely the result of habits, some good, some bad,” Green says. Those habits are engrained and automatic, so one way to overcome negative habits is to slow down. For example, many business leaders are in the habit of being seduced by their own busyness. Instead of working on the big-picture – such as assessing customer needs or thinking strategically – they become focused on solving something in front of them that seems broken. “Rather than give in to that urge, you can slow down and get rational,” Green says. Compare the value of one activity to another, weighing which has a better long-term payoff. Or determine if someone else could handle the immediate issue and be sure to get over any fear associated with proper delegation.
• Leverage your past, both good and bad. “Your interpretation of the past affects how you view the present,” Green says. “Our perception of past events skews either negative or positive, which is why two people often remember the same event differently.” If you have a past-positive orientation, your past experience will tend to bolster your confidence. But if your orientation is past-negative, you might approach the same situation with fear and dread. Green says you can better leverage your past by contemplating a few questions. What good came from a bad prior experience? Are there alternative explanations for past events? How else can you look differently at what happened in your past? Shifting your thinking can be the key to your future success.

Green cautions that no matter how deliberate you are in your efforts to improve, even the most seasoned CEOs make mistakes and experience setbacks. “Remain purposeful and take it in stride,” he says. “In the marathon you’re running to scale your business, your willingness to stretch and grow, to do the work and to stick with it are what really matter.”
 
About Mark E. Green
Mark Green, author of Activators: A CEO’s Guide to Clearer Thinking and Getting Things Done (www.Activators.biz), is a speaker, strategic advisor and coach to CEOs and executive teams worldwide. He has addressed, coached and advised thousands of business leaders, helping them unlock more of their potential and teaching them how to do the same for their teams. He is a Core Advisor to Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches

Major brands such as Facebook, Volkswagen, Starbucks, and most recently Papa John’s have endured controversies that called into question their ethical practices. Those companies are only the latest to be exposed for problems that consumers and those knowledgeable about corporate culture often link with a lack of ethical standards at the highest executive level. This can cause an erosion in the public’s trust, which in turn eats away at a company’s bottom line. Research by Mintel revealed 56 percent of U.S. consumers stop buying from companies they believe are unethical, and it also showed that more than 60 percent of consumers think ethical issues are becoming more important. 

There’s an opportunity here, says an international ethics expert, for companies to get ahead of the curve by incorporating better ethics before damage control forces it upon them. “Controversies and scandals in corporations have the power to shift them from moral autopilot to an energized manual control, where they are acutely aware of their actions and their impact,” says Dr. Christopher Gilbert, author of There’s No Right Way To Do the Wrong Thing and senior consultant/speaker at NobleEdge Consulting (www.nobleedgeconsulting.com). “But it doesn’t and shouldn’t require misfortune to switch things up.

“As powerful public figures and corporate executives are switched to the truths of equality and justice, the costs of their unethical decision-making become crystal clear to everyone. The dominoes are still falling daily. But never doubt that a rising cry for equity and opportunity can change hearts and grow into a global mind shift.” Gilbert offers five steps for business leaders to help their companies avoid ethical problems and elevate ethical development.

• Be your own guru. A good leader asks questions of those he most trusts. In helping shape a stronger ethical foundation, how do they view the leader’s own views of right and wrong? “Your decisions are yours, and every step up the moral ladder is yours,” says Gilbert. “Make those choices wisely and while knowing every tier of your organization will be well-supported with a well-thought-out ethical foundation.”
• Practice “behindism.” Leave the old “isms” behind. “Your actions, justifications, rationalizations and explanations should always be worthy of the trust of others,” Gilbert says. “Concentrate on the question, ‘Is this action going to create more trust with the others, or erode it?’ ” 
• Pass around your decoder ring. Share your codes liberally. “Let people know what you’re saying and what you mean,” Gilbert says. “Be forthright, transparent. Hiding behind words or the true meaning of your words is part of an unethical action.”
• Trustworthiness is as trustworthiness does. “Transformation is a challenging process ensuring incredible and life-changing possibilities,” he says. “The opportunities in building trust are limitless, so concentrate your actions around those that build up your trustworthiness.”
• Watch what you “eat.” Gilbert calls these ethical acid tests, or EATs: “Does your decision stand up to public scrutiny? What if it appeared on the cover of the local newspaper or was broadcast? Do you want your significant other, children, colleagues or bosses to do this same thing? Does this decision advance the long-term common good?”

“What you think about ethics becomes your ethics,” Gilbert says. “If you believe ethics are grey, you will find yourself in greyer and greyer situations where the choices get blurrier. Where you see, know and act with the assurance that ethics are there to tell us right from wrong, you will be put into more and more situations where the answer is obvious – despite the complexity of the circumstances.”
 
About Christopher Gilbert, Ph.D.
Dr. Christopher Gilbert, the author of There’s No Right Way To Do the Wrong Thing, is an international ethics consultant and senior consultant/speaker at NobleEdge Consulting (www.nobleedgeconsulting.com). Having spent much of his career focused on the study of human moral development, Dr. Gilbert has over 30 years of experience in organizational development as a strategic facilitator and leadership and operations consultant. He has served an international clientele, including Fortune 1000 companies and government agencies in the U.S., Canada, Asia and Africa. Dr. Gilbert completed work for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on a sustainable food-security program across four nations of sub-Saharan Africa, and he has been a professor of business ethics who taught at universities on four continents. He earned his doctorate in Organization, Management and Leadership Ethics at Capella University.

Every day, businesses across the country hum along efficiently, their operations supported by enormous reams of data that most employees – and bosses – take for granted. Need to check inventory? Want to make sure a customer paid a bill? That information and much more is stored somewhere in a computer, always at the ready in time of need.
Except when it’s not. 

Sometimes things go awry – a hacker, a system crash – that cause a business to lose critical data, and that can be devastating to the bottom line. Worst-case scenario: The business goes out of business.
“If you’re a business owner and you’ve not thought of data in relation to your financial well-being, don’t feel bad; you’re not alone,” says Penny Garbus, co-founder of Soaring Eagle Consulting Inc. (www.SoaringEagle.guru) and co-author of Mining New Gold – Managing your Business Data.

“Sometimes people are so busy running their businesses that they don’t have time to worry about the bits and bytes of their data and how relevant it is to longevity of their business.” But they should, she says. Without data protection processes and procedures in place, the business could face serious consequences. Garbus says data is like gold: It can be traded, it’s the base for creation of products, and if you lose it, you lose money.

Here are just three ways in which a failure to secure data can prove costly to a business:

• Impact on sales. A sales team may be so dependent on data to do its job that a breach could mean sales goals aren’t met. That in turn affects the bottom line of the company. The longer it takes to reconstruct the data, the more money is lost.   
• Lawsuits and fines. Sometimes regulatory agencies require that certain records be kept. If a business loses that information, it could face potential fines or lawsuits. “Lawsuits and regulatory agencies can make your life a nightmare if you fail to understand, develop and follow processes that protected regulated data,” Garbus says. Customers also could sue if a system malfunction causes a business to fail to live up to a contract. 
• Ransomware. On occasion, malicious hackers infect your computers with software that blocks access to everything until you pay a ransom. “The ransoms are usually $1,000 and most companies pay the money,” Garbus says. Unfortunately, even paying a ransom is no guarantee a company’s data will be freed because on occasion the perpetrators demand even more money, she says. The situation can get even worse. “Sometimes the attacker has so completely destroyed data files and infected hard drives that they are unable to get the data back,” Garbus says. “The cost can run into thousands or even millions of dollars to get the company up and running again.”
  

“Any business that hasn’t already done so should begin a self-analysis to design data protection processes and procedures,” Garbus says. “You need to define your needs and then talk with your IT staff to ensure that the data recovery and protection strategies match those needs. “But remember that this is not an insurmountable problem. If you take the right steps you can save yourself a lot of costs and headaches down the road.”
 
About Penny Garbus
Penny Garbus, co-founder of Soaring Eagle Consulting Inc. (www.SoaringEagle.guru), is co-author of Mining New Gold – Managing Your Business Data. She has been working in the data-management field since leaving college when she worked as a data entry clerk for Pitney Bowes Credit. She later ran the training and marketing department of Northern Lights Software.

The recent suicides of iconic fashion designer Kate Spade and internationally renowned chef Anthony Bourdain renewed attention on a disturbing trend in the U.S. Deaths by suicide have been increasing across the country for almost two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC’s recent report showed that suicide rates have jumped over 30 percent in half the states since 1999. Yet many who take their own lives suffer in silence, and often there aren’t warning signs to those close to them. The CDC study reported that 54 percent of people who died by suicide had no known mental health condition, such as depression. 

Authorities on workplace culture see those numbers as further evidence that employers should prioritize mental health initiatives for their employees. “Integrating mental health and wellness practices into an organization makes a huge difference for individuals and the company as a whole,” says Kerry Alison Wekelo  (www.actualizeconsulting.com), a human resources expert and author of Culture Infusion: 9 Principles to Create and Maintain a Thriving Organizational Culture. “They know you care. As leaders are looking to improve their workplace, it’s vital to have employee mental health as a big part of the conversation. How employees feel directly impacts their contribution.”

Work is the one of the most common sources of stress, according to the American Psychological Association’s latest survey. Stress can lead to mental illness or substance abuse, which can costs employers between $79 and $105 billion annually according to the Center for Prevention and Health Services. “Unhappy people create a negative work environment, which will cost you financially in absenteeism, decreased productivity and healthcare expenses,” Wekelo says.

Wekelo lists four ways employers can increase awareness about mental health in the workplace and provide help in that regard for their employees:

• Communicate: reach out and listen. “Suffering in silence is sometimes due to the person feeling uncomfortable talking about issues or not having anyone who will listen,” Wekelo says. “Taking time to listen can lead to conflict resolution or to one’s road to recovery, and the confidence they’re not alone.”
• Encourage inspirational activity. “When faced with my own personal stress or with someone coming to me in distress, a question I ask is, ‘What are you doing that inspires you each day?’” Wekelo says. “Then I encourage making a list and completing one activity each day that the person loves.”
• Breaks: Move to improve your mood. Wekelo notes we all get in a funk at work and sometimes feel chained to our desks. “Supervisors can allow more freedom to get outside and walk off some stress, re-charge,” Wekelo says. “Movement is a real way to take care of your own well-being. It can clear your mind and spark creativity.”
• Emphasize nutrition. “Focusing on healthy, balanced food choices supports a healthy mental state,” Wekelo says. “Sometimes in stress we dive right into emotional eating - junk food that makes things worse. Have the employees ask themselves why they react to certain situations that way.”

“Employers need to realize that as much as their employees give them, they need to be there for them on a consistent basis, and not make mental health something no one wants to talk about,” Wekelo says.  
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About Kerry Alison Wekelo
Kerry Alison Wekelo (www.actualizeconsulting.com) is managing director of human resources and operations for Actualize Consulting. She also is author of Culture Infusion: 9 Principles to Create and Maintain a Thriving Organizational Culture. Among her other accomplishments, Wekelo is a yoga teacher, life coach, award-winning author of children’s books, and the founder of Zendoway, a company that encourages holistic wellness.