At last, the secret to happiness has been discovered: be a small business owner. A survey conducted by TD Bank reveals that 69 percent of American small business owners polled said they would describe themselves as, “very happy.” In addition, 61 percent said they think they are happier than their peers. Moreover, the stress of running a business during the worst economy since the Great Depression has not turned these happy entrepreneurs off to the advantages of capitalism, since 87 percent say in the next five years, they are just as likely to still be operating their own companies.

The poll, released as part of the TD Small Business Happiness Index, looked into the behaviors and attitudes of North American small business people in a dozen metropolitan areas across the United States and Canada. Those surveyed were even happier when contemplating the alternative, since 90 percent thought they would be more content owning a business than working for someone else. The survey also found a correlation between doing what you love and spending a lot of time doing it. The majority of small business owners surveyed work more than 50 hours a week, and 39 percent work more than 60 hours weekly.

Why are these small business owners so glad to be their own bosses? Of all those polled, 97 percent said they are motivated by a sense of pride and accomplishment, while 94 percent valued a strong personal connection to their employees. These business owners have firm ideas of the advantages and disadvantages of the path they have chosen. Their top three benefits, according to the study: 1) being their own boss, 2) setting their own schedule, and 3) being in control or being able to make their own decisions. And their top three challenges: 1) managing budgets and cash flow, 2) the responsibilities, risks and stress associated with owning their companies, and 3) the long hours and limited time off.

The study also found that Americans are more content with their lot in life than Canadians. Those working north of the border were slightly less happy, and fewer thought they would be in business in five years. Both are working the same hours, on average, but Canadians say they are having a harder time managing their workforces.

The TD Small Business Happiness Index looked at the reported activities and feelings of small business owners in 12 North American metro areas. Their companies employed five to 50 people. The research was conducted by Environics Research and consisted of a poll of 1,213 small business owners in North America in May and June of 2010, including 502 U.S. small business people.

As the economy improves, increasing employee satisfaction is becoming more important, according to a recent research report released by MetLife. The report, “Building A Better Benefits Program Without Breaking The Budget,” identified five steps employers should consider in order to build competitive benefits programs and help improve workplace satisfaction.

According to MetLife VP, Scott Beck, “As the U.S. economy emerges from recession, there are big expectations for small businesses to provide the engine that will drive the American economy. Retaining top talent and increasing employee job satisfaction are two strategies that may help small business employers face this challenge successfully.” The first step is to keep employees satisfied by re-evaluating non-medical benefits such as dental, disability and life insurance. The study found that although 59 percent of small business employees say these benefits help increase loyalty, only 34 percent of employers recognize this. The solution is to emphasize benefits that are currently ignored by management but which employees care about.

Next, consider adding wellness plans, which not only increase worker productivity but also help contain medical costs. Partner with local health organizations who can educate employees on healthy behaviors, and give staff the chance to participate in wellness programs. A third step is to help increase staff feelings of financial security. Employees who feel more secure are the ones that are most productive. Offer retirement and financial planning sessions to workers during business hours, or set up online financial resources for them.

The MetLife study shows that 80 percent of companies do an ineffective job of telling employees about benefits. The fourth recommended step, therefore, is to remove jargon, try multiple channels, and make messages relevant to actual life experiences and stages. Simpler messages work better. Finally, the fifth step suggested by the research is to consider emphasizing work-life balance, using company culture to boost loyalty. Decrease burnout and stress by allowing such options as flexible working hours and casual dress codes.

The survey included 1,503 interviews with benefits decision makers. Of the interviews, more than 900 took place with decision makers at companies with fewer than 500 employees, and more than 500 interviews took place with employees who work for these smaller businesses.

Retail managers now have two compelling reasons to encourage employees to be polite in the workplace; polite to each other, that is. Sure, retailers know that rudeness to a customer means lost goodwill and lost sales, but new research reveals that rudeness shown by one employee towards another one is damaging too. Moreover, a different study shows that rudeness can interfere with efficient cognition. A University of Southern California team, led by professor Deborah MacInnis and assistant professor Christine Porath, found that customers who witness employees being rude to other employees tend to make negative generalizations regarding the store’s staff, the store in general, and future visits to the store. Even if the employee is not rude to the customer, just being rude to a fellow worker can make customers angry or upset.

The research results, published in the, “Journal of Consumer Research,” found that a store manager calling an employee, “an idiot,” inspired customers to jump to negative conclusions about the company. Even when the rudeness was in support of the customer, the effect was negative. In part of the research, a retail clerk gossiped on the phone for several minutes, ignoring the customer. When the clerk was reprimanded rudely by another employee in front of the customer, the customer was still turned off, even though the rude behavior was intended to help the customer.

Porath, the author of, The Cost of Bad Behavior, tells Cover Magazine that rudeness damages retailers. “When you just witness incivility as a customer, people get very angry and generalize quite negatively. People will not support businesses where this happens. It does hit the bottom line,” she says. Her research revealed that this negative response comes from basic human consideration. “Morally and ethically, we just don’t like to see people treated that way.” The negative consequences of rude words or behavior are not limited to turning off customers. Rudeness also decreases the ability to think creatively and solve problems. A study by psychologist, Amir Erez, at the University of Florida found that anyone witnessing rudeness not only had decreased success solving problems, but rudeness tends to set free their inner demons. Associate professor Erez gave subjects a few simple mental challenges: to unscramble several words and to think of new ways to use a brick. Some of the test subjects were first exposed to a study leader berating an underling by saying, “What are you, stupid? Get on with it!” And he said that the underling was unfit to hold a job in the, “real world.”

Study participants who witnessed the verbal abuse had less success doing the mental tasks. Even worse, they tended to unscramble “demure” as “murder,” and the uses they suggested for the brick included attacking people, killing people, and throwing it through a window. Overall they came up with fewer ideas for using the brick than did the control group. The results of this study were published in a journal, “Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.”

Erez went on to study rudeness in retail settings with Anat Rafaeli, a professor at the Technion in Israel, and Erez shared his unpublished results with Cover Magazine. “It was research about customers’ rudeness and how it influenced employees’ cognitive function,” says Erez. That included simple problems such as remembering customer requests, changing a phone number, and so on. “And what we found was that it was really bad for all of those,” he says. Erez noted that the negative effect was less pronounced for employees who were good at, “perspective taking,” that is, “a specific type of empathy that let’s you get into their head and feel what they’re thinking.”

According to Porath, there are concrete steps retail managers can take to decrease rudeness in the store. “These managers can set intolerance expectations,” she suggests, including, “the idea that this kind of thing isn’t going to fly; it’s not acceptable in the company.” She has concrete steps for managers, as she describes in her book. “Training in civility is actually quite helpful,” she says. “Building listening skills, conflict resolution, stress management, and anger management training is all worth the investment.”

A new law was signed today in Massachusetts that offers relief to independent retailers looking for meaningful health care cost-cutting. Thanks to the new law, Massachusetts small businesses and their employees will now have the ability to take part in cooperative small business health insurance purchasing. The outcome is partly the result of the hard work of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, which joined forces with 46 chambers of commerce and not-for-profit organizations, for the express purpose of getting small businesses and consumers to the table with big business, insurers, government and providers.

The new legislation will set up an important model for the implementation of health care reform, both on a state and federal level. The law also calls for vital premium, medical loss ratio and mandate compliance transparency requirements. A total of 85,000 individuals will be represented under six cooperatives–a major step in eliminating the regulatory and marketplace discrimination that was set in motion during the 1990s, when groups of under 50 individuals were prohibited from group buying. Under the new law, consumers can work together via innovative programs once implemented only by very large employers, such as wellness programs, cost and quality data education and usage, and limited provider networks. This potentially translates to greater savings over time, as more members become healthier and better educated.

Extensive insurer disclosure will now be required, as well as transparency on premiums. For the first time, administrators of self-insured clients will be required to provide full disclosure on the level of compliance with state-mandated benefits. Under federal law, many large employers can avoid this.

Faced with “increasingly demanding customers,” consumer goods and retail companies are responding with a slew of new products — 60 percent of companies surveyed in a recent report say that they are rolling out new products or variations on old ones. That’s according to a June 2010 research paper by management consulting company PRTM, who surveyed 350 companies to discern current and future trends in supply chain management.

One positive finding: business is up. “Survey respondents, on average, expect annual revenue growth of 8.3 percent between now and 2012,” according to the report. “Survey participants are also confident that gross margins will rise. More than two-thirds expect average gross margins to surpass 10 percent. And more than one-third expect them to surpass 20 percent.”

The forecast on the retail front was less rosy. “Although people have started returning to the stores, consumer goods and retail companies expect consumer activity to remain low. As the competition over revenues intensifies in this buyer’s market, winning companies in these sectors will be the ones that reduce costs.”

Companies are planning to achieve lower costs with a variety of initiatives. Tied as the most popular cost-saver, 78 percent of retail and consumer goods survey respondents plan to make stock management and inventory more eficient, and 78 percent also plan to improve customer service (companies we able to give multiple answers, so the percent total is greater then 100 percent). Other popular initiatives included improving delivery and reducing the company carbon footprint. (See below graphic for full list of measures.)

The full report, 2010-2012 Global Supply Chain Trends, is available online as a free download.

Here are 10 tips that the editors of Cover have gathered at recent business meetings for starting a new business:

1. Outline your company’s mission statement, goals and define your corporate culture.
2. Outline your business plan. It is critical to have a detailed business plan for the first 60 days, the first six months and the first 12 months.
3. Create a three year budget, because your potential equity investors and debt lenders will demand it.
4. Find an accountant geared to small business to help you select the best business structure for your operation; C corporation, S corporation, LLC or another structure.
5. Set up a legal entity and register the company name with the state.
6. File for state and federal tax ID numbers.
7. Find an attorney geared to small business issues.
8. Do a company name search to avoid conflicts with existing firms.
9. Get legal advice on shifting personal assets to protect them in case the business does not thrive as planned.
10. Carefully plan and implement employees/partners compensation plans. If the plans are too generous up front and you need to cut back on them later, it can be a disaster.

IndependentRetailer.com recently had the opportunity to interview John Rudberg, National Sales Director for Diamond Storage Concept, a leader in the garage storage category most known for its HyLoft line of products. Rudberg believes that we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel; that the economy will continue to improve and retail spending is on the rise again, something independent retailers have long been waiting for. Here’s what he had to say:

IR.com: What would you say was the effect of the recession on independent retailing in general? On the garage storage category?
The recession forced consumers to spend less and only spend on essentials. Garage storage was growing at a 20%+ rate from 2002 through 2007 because the need and demand was there. All of that spending stopped in 2008 with the recession and de-valuation of the housing market. When homeowners are upside down on their home mortgage the last thing they’ll do is invest money into their home.

What do retailers need to do to lure consumers back in an era of reduced spending?
The need for more affordable storage options are still there, and as home values start to increase, consumers will begin to spend money on their homes again. And as buyers pick up the foreclosure homes they need to spend money making them livable again. Retailers need to focus on the features and benefits of garage ceiling storage.

Many went out of business as a result of the past couple of years. To what do you attribute the fact that your company has survived?
We have an owner who is financially strong and believes in the HyLoft product and the potential growth of the category.

How would you describe your business’ experience in the past few years? Has it been a struggle?
It has been a difficult couple of years as business slowed.  It has been necessary to cut overhead (people & programs) and that’s always difficult. We had to get back to the bare essentials and start treating nickels like manhole covers.

What leads you to believe that we now may be headed for brighter times?
Some of our major retailers that share POS info with us are saying that we’re beginning to see sales improvements. Consumers are starting to spend money again — certainly not at the same reckless pace like before but an improvement. If we can just get the financial markets to settle down and as home prices continue to increase we’ll see better days ahead.

What are some of your competitive advantages, and how can other companies take steps to gain the same advantages?
The uniqueness of our product line is a major advantage. Having those products in a major growth category is a real plus.

What are some of main industry trends you’ve been observing, as well as the opportunities for growth?
Housing values, home foreclosures, retail sales, University of Michigan consumer confidence index. We are also exploring new product opportunities in the home storage/organization and garage categories. We are rebuilding our network of small independent contractors who can sell and install garage storage products for consumers.
Example: During the housing boom, garage door installers didn’t have time for anything else. Now with new construction in the toilet these same garage door installers are looking for opportunities and new products that they can install that will produce new revenue for them. Ceiling storage in the garage is that new product and revenue producer for them!

What does the future hold in terms of brick-and-mortar vs. dot-com?
The biggest players in both sectors will continue to grow and the smaller players will continue to struggle and lose market share.

An American Management Association study has demonstrated that employees will feel better about their jobs, and even better in their personal lives, when their own values are in line with those of their company. The bottom line, from a management perspective, is that a common vision shared by employees will affect the way people interact with one another. This is especially true of independent businesses, including independent retailers.

“An organization that can create an energized, higher-calling environment will have higher retention and greater productivity,” says Gregory P. Smith, author of Here Today, Here Tomorrow: Transforming Your Workforce from High-Turnover to High-Retention.

A shared vision ensures connection to a larger purpose, and to one another. That larger purpose, in turn, leads to stronger employee loyalty, which leads to benefits for the company. Granted, some companies have an easier time linking to a “higher calling” and building that loyalty. Nevertheless, it’s important to focus on building your company’s higher purpose. For example, if you’re selling toys, a natural connection would be to stress the enjoyment and fulfillment your products will bring to children; if you’re selling plus-size women’s clothing, think of the self-confidence boost your items will be bringing to those who wear them. It may not always be easy to make such a connection, but it’s important to try.

Once you’ve done so, share that connection with your employees. You can do this by posting your company values in places like your employee manual, brochures, vacancy notices, your website and your company intranet. Other methods of decreasing turnover and increasing loyalty include:

• Providing positive feedback, including rewards and recognition when deserved.
• Offering career counseling. Assisting your employees in their careers will encourage them to include your company as part of them.
• Communicating clearly, and often. Let your employees in on what’s going on, and seek input on important decisions.
• Utilizing exit interviews with departing employees, to help understand why they’re leaving.
• Making the work environment family-friendly, including being flexible with schedules.
• Investing in employee training. This is an investment in your workforce, which in turn encourages them to invest in your company.
• Raising the bar. If you expect greatness from your employees, they’ll be motivated to achieve it.

Identity theft can be a very serious problem–both for customers themselves, as well as for businesses whose reputations are at stake. Having customers’ financial information put under risk is a blow from which it is very had for an independent retailer to recover, from a public relations standpoint. So naturally, the smartest thing to do is to take steps to make sure it simply doesn’t occur in the first place.

Business.gov, the official business link to the U.S. government, recently outlined some important ground rules for keeping customer information safe:

1. Secure all paper documents and equipment. Lock up all paper documents and storage devices when not in use, shred anything you don’t need, and keep track of where you store data electronically, whether it be on cell phones, laptops or other devices. You might even want to consider physically securing computers to their workstations.

2. Protect electronic information. This may mean running security software, or conducting an audit via a reputable outside firm. Sensitive files should be encrypted before being sent over the internet. Use secure connections, such as Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). And store only the information you need.

3. Prepare your employees. Company confidentiality is important, and must be made a priority. Employees must be made to understand this as part of their training. Check references and perform background checks. Keep information on a need-to-know basis. Perhaps most importantly, take steps to ensure that past employees can no longer access company information.

4. Keep vendor relationships secure. Stay up on all the data security protocols of any companies your business deals with, whether it be for web hosting, payroll, or anything else. Needless to say, work only with reputable companies that can handle the data security requirements of your business.

5. Make sure to have a worst-case scenario contingency plan. Despite your best efforts, data security breaches can still happen, and you have to be prepared for that possibility. Immediately disconnect any compromised computers. Be ready to contact law enforcement or customers if necessary. Also, remember that in the event of customer identity fraud, you are required to provide a free record of the customer’s transactions.

By following these guidelines, independent retailers can minimize the negative impact that the threat of identity theft and other related security breaches can have on their businesses.

Coaching employees is a key element of management, and can help you develop a better relationship with your workers, thus resulting in higher productivity and greater morale. Beyond simply managing, coaching your employees can help them better fulfill their potential, develop their skills, and better utilize the ones they have.

The managerial skill of coaching involves helping employees overcome limitations. It means focusing not on the specific tasks, but rather on the actual person. There are several recommended components to doing this properly:

• Provide advice and direction–on career path, on dealing with organizational politics, on completing the tasks at hand.
• Let your employee speak. Ask questions that will allow him to “find his own answers,” so to speak.
• Schedule coaching sessions with each employee. This will help you find out his goals and personal challenges.
• Explain to your employees how coaching works, and get their feedback on the areas they would like to be coached in.
• Determine the outcomes your employees are looking for, and the perceived difficulties in achieving them.
• Ask your employees for a game plan to help keep everyone on the same path of overcoming obstacles and reaching goals.

Certainly, not all coaching needs to be this formal. Always being open to feedback from your employees is what counts, and can be the deciding factor in running a smooth operation for any independent retailer.