Dealing with Angry Customers When Youโ€™re Short Staffed

The scene is a common one these days. Lines of people waiting to pay in a restaurant, retail establishment, or grocery store. Tempers flare. Customers yell at staff and wonder why thereโ€™s only one person checking people out. Your staff thinks, โ€œWho needs this?โ€ and theyโ€™re not wrong. They feel overworked and underappreciated. Customers are demanding and loud. Customers vow not to return. It makes for a bad situation for everyone.

So what can you do to ensure it doesnโ€™t happen in your business?

Dealing with angry people during a staffing shortage is not easy, especially since one problem creates the other. People are angry because they have to wait. People have to wait because you are short staffed. No one wants to work in an environment filled with angry people.… Read the rest

3 Things in Business That Arenโ€™t Worth It Blog Header Template

We only have so many hours in the day so the last thing you want to do is spend time doing things that arenโ€™t worth the time. Being labeled as โ€œnot worth the timeโ€ doesnโ€™t mean they are annoying to do. In fact, some of the things youโ€™re doing in your business may be very enjoyable but arenโ€™t worth the effort in that you donโ€™t get the return out of the time youโ€™re investing. 

Every hour of your business day is valuable. 

You want what you do to move you closer to your goals. But some things we do in the name of our business donโ€™t have the same benefits of other things we could be doing with our time. As a businessperson you should always be performing a cost/benefit analysis.… Read the rest

Make Procrastination Croak… 3 Lessons Learned From Frogs

Having recently watched The 10 Commandments, starring Charlton Heston, I was reminded of the Biblical account of the plagues that came upon Egypt, most notably the plague of frogs and how we can sometimes feel overrun by all the things we need to get done. There was no escaping frogs. They were everywhere. Frogs were in their houses, bedrooms, beds, ovens, even in their jars of flour. 

Sometimes it can feel that same way when our to-do list grows exponentially, as we go from one meeting to another, taking on more action items to complete. Everywhere we turn there is something that needs to be done. No matter where we are, whether at home, in bed trying to sleep, making dinner, or with our friends, we think about all the tasks that need our attention.… Read the rest

Business Oregon Operational Cost Assistance Grant Program

This Wednesday, May 26, Business Oregon will open the final portion of a program to provide grants for small businesses to help with commercial rent and operational costs in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Oregon Legislative Emergency Board allocated approximately $100 million for the program to help small businesses impacted by the pandemic and the restrictions it necessitated. Following two rounds of distribution of Commercial Rent Relief assistance grants, approximately $28 million remains to be distributed in this final round through the Operational Cost Assistance Grant.

The Operational Cost Assistance Grant is designed for businesses with 100 or fewer employees in industries that were particularly affected by the pandemic, including those that:

1.     offer the consumption of food and or drink on premise;

2.     provide… Read the rest

Oregon Health Authority Covid-19 News (5/18)

A word from Oregon Health Authority...

Oregon adjusts guidelines for wearing masks and physical distancing indoors and outdoors

Salem, Ore. -ย Oregon Health Authority (OHA) today releasedย updated guidance about mask and physical distancing requirements for individuals fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Under the updated guidance, people who are fully vaccinated will no longer be required to wear a mask indoors, in most public settings where vaccination status is checked. In public settings where vaccination status is not checked, masks will still be required. Finally, businesses and venue operators remain free to establish their own, more restrictive policies regarding mask usage.ย Learn more here.

In addition to exempting people who are fully vaccinated from mask requirements in most indoor settings, OHA health experts announced that mask requirements no longer apply to anyone who is outdoors.

… Read the rest