By Patrick Baron

BLOOMINGTON – A local business professor says some of the most important things for small business owners is to know what they’re doing and to know how to tell employees what kind of work ethic they expect.

Speaking with WJBC’s Scott Laughlin, Associate Director of the George R. and Martha Means Center for Entrepreneurial Studies at Illinois State University Terry Noel said people who run small businesses must know how to run the day-to-day aspects of the business on top of knowing the ins-and-outs of the product.

“You have to not only be good at the service or product, you have to remember that a business is an entity into itself and you’ve got to be good at the operational part of the business,” said Noel.

Part of that, Noel said, is making sure employees are disciplined in their work routine and are aware of how their actions – or lack thereof – affect co-workers and consumers. He added business owners need to know how to train their employees properly and ensure there are no small errors.

“There’s no quicker way to lose customers than to get the little things wrong,” Noel explained. “Orders that aren’t filled quite right, you promise somebody something two days earlier than you know you can deliver it, things like that. That can really wreck a business.”

Noel pointed to big corporations like Starbucks having detailed and intensive training programs that teach the employees how they should act when communicating with a customer.

Patrick Baron can be reached at [email protected].