Early and innovative websites dedicated to crowdfunding platforms included ArtistShare (2003) Indiegogo (2008), Kickstarter (2009) and Microventures (2010). Today, more than 450 crowdfunding websites exist. Collectively, they arguably represent the most powerful small business-funding alternative in the world.

The three general categories of crowdfunding business models are donation or reward, lending, and equity, at 71 percent, 15 percent, and 14 percent market share respectively.⁽⁴⁾

In July 2015, Deal Index reported some enlightening facts:

• Crowdfunding added an estimated $65 billion to the global economy in 2014.
• There are now 1,250 crowdfunding platforms worldwide (counting both websites and offline resources).
• Crowdfunding created 270,000 jobs in 2014.
• Crowdfunding has created 100 million unaccredited investors in the United States alone.

Perhaps most impressive is that the crowdfunding market was estimated at $34 billion USD in 2015. Compare that with average annual investment of $30 billion in venture capital and $20 billion in angel capital, and we now have a new small-business funding leader. During a recent lecture on business funding at the Wharton Small Business Development Center, I stated this figure skeptically, since the source was a crowdfunding advocate. I promised my class that I would verify the information with an additional source, so I attended a panel discussion on crowdfunding at the University of Pennsylvania.

“That $34 billion estimate is correct,” proclaimed the panel moderator, venture capitalist Wayne Kimmel of Seventy Six Capital in Philadelphia. Furthermore, Massolution, a market research firm specializing in the crowdsourcing and crowdfunding industries, also concludes that the $34 billion estimate is accurate.

From a macroeconomic perspective, “crowdfunding is still comparatively small relative to both global corporate bond and lending markets, but it is growing exponentially,” reports the International Organization of Securities Commissions. That said, entrepreneurs and small-business owners rarely need corporate bonds or large debt instruments to fund their businesses. However, both need customers—and startups need the equity that crowdfunding provides. The customer provision is more important than the equity investment. Axiomatically, customers provide the only long-term sustainable source of business funding. Veteran entrepreneurs commonly refer to this tide-rising business-funding concept as smart money. It pays to be smart with business funding.

What does all this mean for you and your business?

First, if you lead a startup venture, consider crowdfunding as a strategic funding alternative to acquire both customers and business funding.

As a startup, crowdfunding is a logical choice when launching:

• Creative works such as films, artistic works, journalism, or music
• Philanthropic causes
• Real-estate projects
• A socially responsible business cause seeking to substantiate demand

Established businesses should also consider crowdfunding to:

• Determine if there is a market (or not) for a new product or service
• Build a following of customers and audience engagement around a new offering
• Obtain feedback from end users to beta-test a new offering for improvements before a formal launch

What are the fundamental risks of crowdfunding?

• Your intellectual property could be exposed prematurely if unprotected.
• Scams — unfortunately, fraud exists everywhere, even in crowdfunding.
• If you don’t have your ecommerce systems ready and you’re not prepared to work with regular customers, then your campaign will most likely fail.
• You must spend time and money preparing for a successful campaign that, even when done properly, might yield unsuccessful results.

Crowdfunding’s leadership role in small-business funding is a good thing. Don’t think that it has taken anything away from venture capitalists or angel investors: It has expanded the business-funding pie.

“Crowdfunding is part of our entrepreneurial ecosystem now,” Kimmel proclaims. “It’s helped us equity investors work better together.”  Crowdfunding has democratized angel investing, once limited to the wealthy by law to protect wealth, for everyone. It also provides a debt-financing alternative to traditional commercial loans. Crowdfunding is a natural entry into angel investing and venture equity funding as part of the natural progression of business funding. This, fortunately, relieves some entrepreneurial funding pressure on friends and family. I for one am glad that crowdfunding has expanded our entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Jacob Winterstein and his partner founded Camp Bonfire (http://campbonfire.com/ ) in 2015 to provide affordable adult summer camps enabling grownups to relax wholesomely with nature.

Before committing to the business, Jacob wrote his business plan in The Wharton Small Business Development Center’s Strategic Business Planning (SBP) workshop with Instructor John McAdam in late 2014.  Equipped with a conservative plan, Jacob and his partner were very successful, profitable and able to pay themselves in their first summer camp season. Regarding their business start, Camp Bonfire started after SBP in 2014 and was profitable in their first year.  Jacob told us, “We hired over a dozen independent contractors, plus the host camp had over a dozen staff on site during camp weekend.” Sales and Income projections are on track in 2016.  Therefore, Jacob and his partner plan to work full time in this business in Year 3 (2017).

“SBP spurred us to invest more in advertising and publicity so that we could widen our reach beyond our current networks and make the case that our camp is worth the price tag.” “We had customers from over 10 states. We brought money into a Philadelphia-based business. The summer camp we rent is in Pennsylvania and owned by a family in Philadelphia. My partner and I have created more financially stable lives for ourselves. We’re building jobs around our passions to the point where we can work for ourselves rather than for someone else.  We started small (as our Instructor John McAdam advises), with our own savings. The Wharton SBDC made our success more likely and helped us keep our families more financially secure. The Wharton SBDC’s Strategic Business Planning course gave us the foundation on which to build what we hope will become a national company that will always be based in Philadelphia.”

Do you want to relax like a kid again? There is still time to register at http://campbonfire.com/register/.  We’re certainly tempted.

Whether you’re operating a start-up or an established business, the small-business world can quickly become a minefield. Briefly, let’s review the more common types of business disasters faced by entrepreneurs and small business owners today.

• Neglecting your marketing and letting your new-customer pipeline run dry

If you enjoy the company of entrepreneurs, like I do, you will eventually hear complaints about the feast and famine nature of their business, particularly with solo entrepreneurs in service industries. The feast-and-famine cycle goes like this. Your business starts in a famine state, because you usually don’t have a large revenue stream from day one. You market your services for months and finally acquire a client. Then you work full time serving that client. You are now in a ‘feast’ state. Time passes and the client’s project ends. Wait a minute—you’ve stopped marketing! You spent all of your time serving your client instead of selling your services. Damn! The famine state returns. Again you market full time to acquire your next client. You eventually land a client, and the feast-and-famine cycle continues.

• Customer concentration risk

Simply put: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. By definition, if one of your customers represents more than 10 percent of your total revenue, then you have a customer concentration risk in your business. The higher the percentage of revenue that one customer represents, the greater the business continuity risk. You have to face the difficult question: what happens to your business when your largest customer disappears? Will you go out of business? How will you manage that scenario?

• Non-customer-based funding

I worry about start-up businesses that raise equity angel funding or take out a loan too early. You can keep raising equity funding like a start-up dot-com from the 1990s, but equity funding eventually ceases if you don’t make a profit. Alternatively, you can borrow money, but it must be paid back. What, then, is the long-term funding solution? Eventually customers are the only long-term source of funding for any business. Equity and debt should be treated like catalysts and timing solutions, respectively.

• Overly optimistic sales and marketing projections

Most of the business plans that I read contain overly optimistic sales projections based on their sales and marketing efforts. Be conservative with your expectations and you can avoid this disaster. Problems surface when we spend our money before earning our sales. While it’s true that you have to spend money to make money, you do not have to spend most of your money before making any money—or at least establishing a sales trend. Wouldn’t you rather under-promise and over-deliver?

• A lack of planning

I’m amazed at the number of people that I come across who are willing to risk their life savings on a small business without a business plan. This disaster is perhaps the easiest to avoid. If you need help getting started or focused on the most important parts of any business plan, try The One-Hour Business Plan, by yours truly. Even a business plan–phobic entrepreneur can spend one hour of writing time. Other planning resources can help as well. These are perhaps the most frequent yet avoidable disasters that I see today. How to avoid them? First, maintain your marketing, even during good times—the feast times. Next, you will need more than ten customers to eliminate customer concentration risk. However, continuing to spread your business across as many customers as possible will keep you open for business. Also, remember to fund your business through customers first. If customers don’t fund the business, eventually the business runs out of money and time. It’s sad, but worth remembering. While we entrepreneurs are an optimistic bunch, creating overly optimistic sales goals and overspending is another avoidable disaster. Finally, plan something before you spend years of time and savings. These are the top avoidable business disasters that I see. How about you? _{^{Copyright John J. McAdam 2015. All Rights Reserved.}}

First of all, Investopedia defines value proposition as “a business or marketing statement that summarizes why a consumer should buy a product or use a service. This statement should convince a potential consumer that one particular product or service will add more value or better solve a problem than other similar offerings.”  In other words, a value proposition is a statement of what your business does that’s better than your competitors. How do you know if your value proposition needs a checkup?  Here’s a test. Have you ever met someone for a second time at a networking meeting, and they didn’t remember you or what you do? How do you feel? If you’re in sales, then this situation is disastrous. If you can remember them and what they do, why can’t they remember you and what you do? At a minimum, most of us would feel confusion. Others would feel frustration, or perhaps even anger. To be fair, people forget names, places, and businesses all the time, so it should come as no surprise that someone might forget about you. However, if multiple people are forgetting you and your business, then it might be time to give yourself a value proposition checkup. Other than people forgetting what you do, what are some other signs that your value proposition needs revisiting? Here are some questions that you can ask either yourself or others. An affirmative answer to each of these questions means that your value proposition is in great shape. Otherwise, a negative response indicates that it is time for a checkup.

• Could a typical businessperson repeat your value proposition accurately?
• Would that businessperson remember your typical customer?
• Is the repeated value proposition brief and clear?
• Does what they say evoke emotion?
• Do people ask you a follow up question about you or your business?
• Do people find what you do valuable, relative to similar offerings?

If you’re unsure how to go about this, then here’s a quick test for you. Ask someone you know—a friend, family member or trusted business associate—to repeat your value proposition back to you. If you’re feeling brave, then ask your friend to tell you what you do without reminding them first. Otherwise, tell a person your value proposition and have them repeat it back to you. The idea here is simple: if people remember what you do and can repeat it back to you, then you’re memorable. If you’re memorable then they might tell other people about you, which can generate word of mouth referrals for your business. Did you get a negative response to any of the questions? If so, then you have some refining to do. What should you do for a checkup? It helps to write your value proposition down, but be careful. People speak differently than they write. When you speak, you want to pay attention to the person in front of you. You don’t want to recite from a script. Our business speech and interactions need to have a natural flow and progression. If it helps, try one of the more popular value proposition exercises from The One-Hour Business Plan, called “What Do You Do?” exercise 1.2. Basically, you answer the question about what you do by filling in the two blanks in two sentences as follows: We work with people who need ___________________________________________. This benefits them by ____________________________________________________. There are other exercises in the book, but this one seems to be the most popular because it’s simple and quick. A value proposition is basically a statement of what you do that’s more valuable than other offerings. The best way to tell if you need a checkup is to objectively observe how others respond to your value proposition delivery. If someone can repeat accurately what you do, recognizes your customer, and understands what makes your offer comparatively more valuable, then you are in great shape. If not, don’t worry. Most of us need to refine our value proposition from time to time. How about you? [poll id=”6″] ^{Copyright © John McAdam 2015. All Rights Reserved.}

Did you ever have to work with a person that you were mad at? Years ago, I heard men threaten to take their problem outside at work, and on occasion I’ve heard women literally scream at each other in the office. But that was a long time ago. Obviously something needed to change about such extreme conflict. Today, we have become more politically-correct, judgmental, litigious—and for good reasons we’ve also become more guarded and careful. We learn from experience how to work with difficult people even if it is us that needs the work. But other times simply broadening the time perspective and focusing on the bigger picture of our work relationship is all we need to do.            

What about when you are mad at your business partner, family member, or spouse at work? There are many articles and other blog posts written  about working with difficult coworkers at work or working with a difficult boss. The focus here will be on business partners who are family  members, ones that become angry at one another and find it difficult to work together.  Conflict with business partners often becomes more  difficult when our business partner is also our family member, best friend, or spouse. Emotions become heightened and conflict resolution  frustrates us based primarily on the commitment to the relationship. When the business is not making enough money, or even losing money, it’s like being on a sports team that’s losing. Disagreements and fights  happen out in the open for all to see.  Even when a business makes money, business partners sometimes fight over power alone—which is very  awkward for everyone involved. What can we do in these angry business situations? Here are some tips to work out problems with business partners and family members:

• Have written agreements. Agreements have many names, but most of them can be broken down into either an operating or shareholder agreement. An operating agreement addresses how the partnership will function to operate the business. A shareholders’ agreement is intended to clarify the ownership of the business and what happens in the event of partnership transitions, partial ownership valuation or a complete company sale, to name a few. Written agreements alone will not solve all of your partnership problems, but they sure make conflict resolution easier when they’re well-written. They’re good to have to establish understanding, but you should also be wary. Try to learn how to work out problems before referencing written agreements. From my experience, when written agreements are referenced and quoted, the partnership may have already begun dissolving.
• Have a planning process. Notice that I did not say have a plan or even a One Hour Business Plan. A business plan needs to be updated at regular intervals, such as every 6 or 12 months. A quality business planning process, on the other hand, allows time to solve problems openly and capitalize on business opportunities. The absence of a regular business planning process makes conflict resolution more “one-off,” emotionally charged, and less efficient. If you don’t believe me, try a business planning process with some problem solving included for a while.
• Remember the goals for the business. Most business partners are going to fight at some point in the relationship. So hopefully they’ve learned to fight fairly. When the inevitable conflict arises, sometimes it helps to resolve conflict by simply keeping your eyes on the prize—which are the goals for the business. That can be goals like to make x dollars, relocate the firm, or terminate a longtime employee, for example. What are the business goals here? Share them with all parties involved.
• Critique yourself objectively the best you can. Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Most people are naturally good at criticizing others and laying blame on someone else. We are quick to point out whoever has wronged us. However, how many of us look at ourselves when we are in conflict with another? Ask the simple question, what can I do better to help resolve this conflict? It might be enough to take at least part of the responsibility for the conflict and move toward an amicable resolution.
• Broaden the time perspective. When we are mad at somebody, our relationship focus is often very much in the moment, and that can be good for focus. Other times, it might help us to broaden the time horizon for resolving the conflict. We might have years invested in a productive business/working relationship. Is it worth giving that up over this particular conflict? Family members in a business conflict need to remember that their family relationship is far more important than the business relationship. If we think beyond the present situation of the relationship and remember our commitment to the relationship itself, then we are often enabled to be in a much better frame of mind to solve our problem.
• Other tips to help you get along. At planned meetings, discuss openly what is bothering each of you. Recognize what you cannot agree on and agree to disagree. During any communication, keep it informative and logical. Try your best to replace unproductive emotions at work with logic and reasoning. And by all means agree to stay positive.

When business partners become angry at one another, it creates a serious business challenge. When the business partners are also family members, best friends, or a spouse, then the challenges rise to new levels of sensitivity and difficulty. Before the anger boils over, we can do some things to help resolve the conflict. Using tools such as written agreements, a planning process, goal stating, self-inspection, and broadening the time perspective of the relationship can all help us out of difficult business partnership situations. While there are other tips for working with angry business partners, these are the tools that I have used most often. Drop me a note (at john at planfoundations dot com) and let me know what you have done to resolve conflict with a business partner at work.     ^{Copyright © John McAdam 2015. All Rights Reserved}.

After teaching a recent business planning workshop, I noticed something different about the business plan drafts written by these entrepreneurs—other than the fact that most of them were already in business. One group of people wrote plans that were almost entirely about doing business in the future. While the minority of the group, this future oriented group of planners were mainly involved in startup businesses. A second group within the workshop wrote extensively about their business, activities, recent history, and plans for the present, with little to no planning into the future. This group consisted mostly of existing business owner’s plans. It’s rare as an author and instructor that I see such extremes in time orientation in one workshop. Why do some people stick so close to the present while others want to skip the present and go right to the future? Some business planners live in the future. They think of business planning as a vision of what is yet to come. These folks try to predict what their business will look like in 5 years, and describe it in vivid detail.  The dreamers are comfortable here. What a comfortable place it is, to ignore that past and the present and simply create the business life that you want in the future. But the problems with planning in the future alone are obvious, right? Imagine trying to read a map knowing where you want to end up, but not understanding where you are. If you are as geographically challenged as I am, then you have literally experienced not knowing where you are while traveling away from home. I have literally missed planes while traveling because I took a wrong turn and lost track of where I was. Even more fun is thinking you are on the west side of a major city looking at a hotel map when you are actually on the east side. That makes for some interesting conversations with yourself. I can’t imagine ignoring where I am or my present situation in business while writing a business plan. You have to make a living today. You have finite resources committed to your business. You only have a specific amount of capital that you are able or willing to risk. You only have so many hours per week that you can commit to the new business initiatives described in your business plan.  Accounting for specific resources such as money, your time, and other people’s time helps us to get our head out of the clouds, think more realistically, and place our feet on the ground. How much of a business plan should be written geared toward present versus future business activities? Finding the right balance between planning for the present situation, and for the future that you want to create, is essential for successful business planning. If it helps, think of business plan time frames in three stages: the present, the short term, and the long term time horizons. Short term planning is generally defined as plans within one year of today. Long term planning is generally defined as plans more than one year away. To get from where you are now to where you want to be in the future, you must include present, short term, and long term time horizons. One tool that helps us manage the present with the future is tying action plans with business milestones as describe in the book The One-Hour Business Plan. A business milestone is a significant business event at least 90 days in the future. For example, imagine the milestone that states, “Our company will increase revenue by $100,000 by the end of the first quarter of next year.” Technically this is a quality milestone. It is a significant business event associated with growing sales with a measurable time period. Anecdotally, it would help if the person(s) responsible were included. Now let’s take the same milestone and add an action plan to it. An action plan is a sequence of steps designed to achieve a broader business goal.

1. Email 100 business owners, Due 1/6/20xx, Marketing Assistant
2. Telephone follow up from initial list, Due 1/15/20xx, me
3. Divide the list between interested prospects; separate the people that are interested 1/30/20xx, me & Administrative Assistant
4. Visit prospects to provide demonstration, due 2/28/20xx, me & Technical Support Person Jeff

You get the idea. The actions items keep detailing the steps that will be taken to achieve the broader business milestone. These action steps force us to work in the present and incrementally step into the future to achieve our goals. They’re how we move from the present to the future we’re creating. What milestones and action plans can you think of to achieve your business goals next year?      

^{Copyright © John McAdam 2014. All Rights Reserved.}

Ah, fall… my favorite time of year on the east coast—crisp fall mornings followed by gentle afternoon sunshine. For me, these weather changes provide a sign that a new business year looms around the corner. And it’s also time to do some high-level business planning, or at least to start the process before it’s too late. I try to avoid those crammed plans that some of us inevitably face. Have you ever waited until your banker or investor asked you for your business plan and not been ready? Not fun—and it’s not like the author of The One-Hour Business Plan would ever do that! The point is, to start planning the process of business planning. In other words, (and as strange as it might sound) “planning for your plan.” Some questions that you might want to ask yourself to get started include:

• What do I want my business to achieve next year? This is more than just about money, sales, and profit objectives. Here we want to dream big about what could happen—while keeping our feet on the ground with a reality check. There is nothing like planning for your dream and making it happen.
• What information does my staff, management team, or subcontractors need to know about my business goals? One of the purposes of planning is to communicate with a variety of people. Think about who needs to know what. Normally we need help to achieve our larger goals. It helps to consider how these people can contribute to completing our goals. If there are any potential issues we can foresee, we can begin planning ways to deal with them.
• What business metrics do I need to achieve? Before the bottom line, certain operations or marketing metrics can point the way to future bottom line performance. For example, producing a certain number of marketing leads for sales, or completing a specific number of product or service deliveries each month.
• What costs are associated with next year’s business initiatives?  One of the common mistakes that I see in business planning is for the planner to list a goal, describe what they want to do, then ignore the costs associated with achieving that goal. We can and should make financial estimates before obtaining quotes for our plans.
• What non-monetary resources do I need to accomplish my new business initiatives? Carving out time from employees’ schedules to work on a new business initiative can be one of the most precious resources that must be planned for (particularly in the eyes of your employees). Often another organization’s expertise becomes necessary to accomplish something new, such as a prototyping or engineering expertise. Identifying the internal personnel and external organizations required to achieve your goals will be worth planning for.
• What are we afraid of? The two most common forms of fear I see in business planning are either a fear of the unknown, or the feeling that they don’t have the time.  These fears can morph into roadblocks, bottlenecks, passive resistance, or uncooperativeness when ignored. We need to anticipate potential fears when we start planning, not just for the people around us, but also for ourselves.

A lot of other questions arise when we think about business planning. We won’t go into detail about them here. We simply try to address the most important questions that surface most frequently. A good conversation starting point might be: “How is my business finishing up this year, and what might my budget look like for next year?” For new business initiatives, it helps much more to anticipate roadblocks and bottlenecks during planning than during execution.  Other questions might come, up such as: What do my business stakeholders need from my business? Can we afford raises for the staff? How much will health insurance employee benefit costs affect my cost of doing business? OK, I’ll stop here. What? There’s more? No, that’s enough questions for now. The point is to start planning to plan for the new business year. It’s all about knowing what you want to accomplish in the year ahead. And remember to start planning for your plan now, at least on a high level (as the aforementioned questions prompt us). If you don’t know what you want to accomplish, then start planning by making a list of what you want from your business. The second tip is to anticipate the fears, roadblocks, and bottlenecks that you will most likely encounter from others or from yourself. If I hear “I am too busy!” one more time… Finally, make a sketch, outline, or list of what your business plan needs in order to make progress towards your goals. There, now you’ve planned for your plan. And it’s the beginning of fall. What better time to plan for next year?   Copyright © John J. McAdam 2014. All Rights Reserved.

Whether you’re in a team of 1 or a group of 1,000, an innovative workplace will become important for your business to maintain competitiveness in the long run.  An innovative workplace is also a benefit for your employees: it creates a fun and exciting place to work.  So If your business offers new products every year (or as often as your customers needs them), then you know that you probably maintain an innovative workplace. But what if you haven’t come out with a new product or service in years? Are you still innovative at work? How do you know? First, let’s look at solo entrepreneurs (or business owners who mostly work alone). Then, we’ll explore some characteristics of innovation in teams. If you work mostly alone and haven’t offered a new product or service to your customers in a while, then consider new avenues or new approaches Remember, if you don’t offer something new to your customers, your competitors will. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing: • Look for small innovative extensions of what you already do, as opposed to radically new ideas and inventions • Look at what your closest competitors are doing and see if you can do it better in any way • Ask some of your customers what they need. But remember: it takes more than one customer to establish a trend. • Regularly schedule some time to review your business innovation. This can be anywhere from weekly to monthly. You might need a colleague or advisor as a sounding board to obtain more objective feedback. • Consider a business partnership, strategic alliance or joint venture with another small firm that has unique skill sets. Together, the two of you might be able to offer something more powerful to the market than you can individually.         If you work with teams, your situation is a little different. A published study by Bledow, Frese, Anderson, Eres, & Farr (2009) analyzed over 150 research studies on innovation and suggested that several factors can contribute to the degree of innovation in organizations.  Based on this research, their insights about the characteristics of innovative workplaces include: • Regular idea generation meetings that focus on idea generation, not idea evaluation. • Idea exploration meetings to explore benefits and risks without managerial involvement. • Encouraging small incremental innovation rather than radical innovation. • Hiring people, particularity managers that will encourage improvements and innovation and be comfortable with the ambiguity, unknowns, and challenges therein. • Making innovation valued enough that it’s part of an employee’s performance criteria and is discussed at review time. • Supporting an innovative culture by minimizing strict and restrictive rules, guidelines, policies, or norms that get in the way of creativity. • Rewarding new and successful ideas. • Encouraging diversity in thinking to lead to greater innovations. • Practicing “Proactive Creativity” – a work culture method whereby a worker identifies a work-related problem then identifies new ways to solve the problem. This has been successful with production workers at manufacturers and with nurses in healthcare. A fun challenge exists when creating a more innovative workplace. Whether a solo entrepreneur or a large employer, ask yourself what you can do to make your workplace more innovative. By comparing characteristics of innovation between large and small organizations, we see some unique perspectives. For example, both types of organizations benefit from keeping innovations small, natural extensions of existing offerings—as opposed to a radically new invention. Also, small organizations rely more on studying customers and competitors, while the large organizations rely more on cooperating with each other.  Either way, there is something that each of us can do to make our workplace more innovative. How about you?  

• Keep discussions work-related. Stay focused on the job. This sounds easy until you start listening to an employee with a serious problem. When the conversation gets too personal or veers off-topic, bring it back to the employee’s job. Perhaps you can make temporary accommodations to working hours, schedule, or work location.
• Be consistent and fair. While we like to think that a closed-door conversation is private, sometimes the employees on the other side of the door want to know what’s going on. Been there? However you decide to help the employee, remember that other employees will notice and precedents will be established.
• Provide referral resources if appropriate. Large employers sometimes have employee-assistance programs for those who need counseling. Small employers should know what local government programs and community services might be available to the employee and make referrals as appropriate.
• Do not ignore the employee if the situation recurs.  If you decide to ignore the problem, it might affect other employees, get worse, or result in employee turnover. While it can be tempting to ignore non-work-related problems, they do tend to get worse. It’s better to address the situation immediately.

How about you? Do you have any useful tips for us when employees bring their personal problems to work? Let us know if you do—and don’t forget to share this article with someone who might need it.

^{Copyright © John McAdam 2015. All Rights Reserved.}