Author: anwaryusef

Anwar Y. Dunbar is a Regulatory Scientist. Being a naturally curious person, he is also a student of all things. He earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan and his Bachelor’s Degree in General Biology from Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). Prior to starting the Big Words Blog Site, Anwar published and contributed to numerous research articles in competitive scientific journals reporting on his research from graduate school and postdoctoral years. After falling in love with writing, he contributed to the now defunct Examiner.com, and the Edvocate where he regularly wrote about: Education-related stories/topics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Financial Literacy; as well as conducted interviews with notable individuals such as actor and author Hill Harper. Having many influences, one of his most notable heroes is author, intellectual and speaker, Malcolm Gladwell, author of books including Outliers and David and Goliath. Anwar has his hands in many, many activities. In addition to writing, Anwar actively mentors youth, works to spread awareness of STEM careers, serves on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the David M. Brown Arlington Planetarium, serves as Treasurer for the JCSU Washington, DC Alumni Chapter, and is active in the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church. He also tutors in the subjects of biology, chemistry and physics. Along with his multi-talented older brother Amahl Dunbar (designer of the Big Words logos, inventor and a plethora of other things), Anwar is a “Fanboy” and really enjoys Science-Fiction and Superhero movies including but not restricted to Captain America Civil War, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Prometheus. He is a proud native of Buffalo, NY.

Niagara Falls basketball legend Tim Winn discusses playing in the LaSalle dynasty part two

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“It doesn’t matter what sport it is. It doesn’t matter what realm of life it is, if I approach it with same approach I used on the court at LaSalle, I’m going to win. Period.”

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This is part two of my interview with legendary LaSalle Senior High School point guard Tim Winn. The interview was a part of the research for my two-part book project entitled, The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story. In part one, we discussed his background, how he started playing basketball and how he became a LaSalle Explorer. In part two, we talk more about playing in the LaSalle basketball program, where Tim played college basketball, the closing of LaSalle Senior High School, and finally, how basketball has changed.

The pictures in this interview come from an archive of Western New York basketball assembled over the years from issues of the Buffalo News, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, and Sections V and VI playoff programs by my first Coach at Hutch-Tech High School, Dr. Ken Jones. Other pictures were generously shared by Tim himself, and his Head Coach at LaSalle Senior High School, Pat Monti. Click on any of the images to enlarge them. Links follow up video interviews with Tim, Modie Cox and other LaSalle coaches and players are at the end of this interview.

Anwar Dunbar: So, with your team having its eyes on Glens Falls the entire time, it sounds like even though you were getting everyone’s best shot every night, you weren’t very concerned with any of the other Section VI teams.

Tim Winn: Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of tough teams in Western New York, but there wasn’t one game there that was going to take us up too high, or take us down too low no matter what the results were, because our goal every year was Glens Falls. It’s like the Cleveland Cavaliers right now. Yes, Boston is tough, but for the Cavs it’s championship or bust. Once you get to Glens Falls a couple of times, you’re not accepting anything else. No matter what the ups and downs are during the year, your eyes are still on that prize, and it’s all that really matters to you.

AD: Were there any games in Section VI that you had circled? Niagara Falls High School, for example. That was a ‘rivalry’ game wasn’t it?

TW: It was a rivalry game. It was great for the community. You can compare it to St. Joe’s, Canisius. For us it was a great game. It brought the community together. You might be playing some of the most intense basketball against one of your cousins. You had family at both schools and everyone came out.

It was probably one of the best traditions our city doesn’t have anymore. We looked forward to playing against St. Joe’s. Obviously Buffalo Traditional, the team played them my senior year, but I didn’t because I sprained my ankle working on my jump shot in an open gym. Everyone in the world was waiting to see that game.

AD: So, Tim, what was your game? Were you a penetrator? Could you eventually do everything offensively?

TW: By my senior year, I could do everything. My staple though was defense. I would lock anybody up – that’s just how I felt. I was 5’9” and 165 pounds, but my heart was as big as Isaiah Thomas’. Coach Monti put me on anybody and it didn’t matter their size – I was locking them down. That was my greatest skill set by far, and it was probably the most aggressive part of my game for my entire career. I didn’t develop what I would call a ‘well-rounded’ offensive game until my senior year in high school, and that’s with me averaging 23 points a game as a junior. At that point I could get to the basket and I could shoot; whatever the game presented to me.

AD: What kind of student were you while you were playing for LaSalle?

TW: At LaSalle you didn’t have any choice but to be a good student. I talked about not being able to play if you didn’t defend, but also if you didn’t go to class you couldn’t play. Coach Monti had a program that really set you up for life and for me that was a really big deal. From the start I was wondering what I would have to do to get into college. From the start it was like, ‘You’re going to take this level of classes, we’re going to have progress reports every five weeks for everybody, and if you don’t perform academically, you can forget about it.’

It didn’t matter who you were, you were held to these standards and there was no favoritism. You were going to walk a certain way, and you were going to carry yourself a certain way in the classroom. School was going to be more important than any state championship, and if not, then it may not have been the program for you.

AD: So Coach Monti was actively monitoring your grades then?

TW: Everything. He monitored how many steps you took down one hallway. It was the best thing that ever happened to me – to have someone care about your development that much as a young man. It wasn’t just about basketball – he treated all of his players like family – like his sons.

AD: Was there a particular quote he used to tell the team regularly?

TW: No, there wasn’t necessarily a quote as much as it was a philosophy. You just knew when you were dealing with him, you had no choice but to walk the straight and narrow. There is a lot of structure that young men need that a lot of them don’t get these days. You knew that if you weren’t handling your business in the classroom, you had a problem on your hands and you did not want to make it to his classroom. That type of program for me and my teammates was everything. You still hear guys talking about it right now, ‘If Coach Monti was here, if Coach Monti was in the Falls,’ just because of what it did for us.

AD: When did the colleges start recruiting you?

TW: I think I started getting recruited in my sophomore year. During my sophomore year all the local schools started recruiting me. The summer after my sophomore year, after we made it back to Glens Falls, it picked up because I went to a couple of camps where I did pretty well. I’d say beginning to mid-sophomore year and onward.

AD: Which schools came calling?

TW: I turned down Syracuse and Georgia Tech. Amongst my circle, we still talk about it all the time. I was ‘signed, sealed and delivered to Syracuse,’ but the young and naïve me not having anyone else in my family who went through the experience, I pulled out of it at the last minute. I remember being at the State Fair in Syracuse and I was supposed to go verbally commit. My friend, Romell Lloyd, went the next year and Malik Campbell (Turner/Carroll, pictured below in the All-Western New York photos) was at the Fair at the same time. We were all supposed to go, but I pulled out at the last minute.

AD: Why didn’t you go?

TW: It was a last-minute change of heart. Rob Lanier had watched some of my games at the ABCD Camp and I told him that I was still open, and then St. Bonaventure started recruiting me.

AD: Did you talk to Coach Monti about it?

TW: I didn’t and that was the young me. I didn’t tell anybody about it. He’s from Syracuse and I know for a fact he wouldn’t have let me pull out of going to Syracuse. It’s one of those things. I don’t have regrets now, but as an older man, sometimes I think about it.

AD: So you went to St. Bonaventure. I remember seeing you on TV. What was it like playing at St. Bonaventure?

TW: Anytime you go to college and away from home, there’s going to be an adjustment. I sold my family on my not going to Syracuse and going to St. Bonaventure instead by telling them that, ‘I can go to Syracuse and be expected to win 20 games every year, right? I can win 20 games there and go the NCAA Tournament and I’m just one of the guys. St. Bonaventure hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament in 30 years, and if I can get them there, I’ll be a legend.’ It meant more to me to leave that type of legacy behind.

AD: Did you play all four years? And did you make it into the NCAA Tournament?

TW: We made it my senior year. We played Kentucky in the opening round. It went into double overtime.

AD: What Kentucky team was it? Was it one of Rick Pitino’s teams or was it one of Tubby Smith’s teams?

TW: It was one of Tubby Smith’s teams. They had Tayshaun Prince, Keith Bogans, Jamaal Magloire – those guys.

AD: By the time you were a senior were you leading the Bonnies in scoring or assists?

TW: I think my junior and senior years I was leading my team in scoring, assists and steals. In my junior year, I was second in the nation in steals behind a guy named Shante Rogers from George Washington University.

AD: So you said you learned the most basketball at LaSalle. Was it an easy transition to go play for Jim Baron at St. Bonaventure?

TW: It was. The only adjustment was getting ‘college-strong’, getting my body on the level. There wasn’t anything that I wasn’t prepared for, so it was just a matter of getting up under one of those weight programs and getting my body to catch up with my mind.

AD: What did you major in at St. Bonaventure?

TW: Marketing.

AD: Beyond the college level, did you play any professional basketball?

TW: I pretty much played in the minor leagues over here. I played in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) and the American Basketball Association (ABA ), and then I played in Germany, France, Venezuela, Canada, England – so I’ve been around a little bit.

AD: I know a highlight for Jason was playing against Allen Iverson. Were there any particular matchups that stand out to you?

TW: Tim Hardaway and I were teammates for an All-Star game in the ABA. For me, Tim Hardaway is a pretty big deal. I’ve played with Olden Polynice. I’ve also played with Keith Claus. I’ve played a bunch of guys who played in the NBA, who came down to the minor leagues.

AD: How many years did you play Pro-ball?

TW: I stopped playing in 2007, so about seven years. I could’ve kept playing, but I chose a ‘regular’ life to put that degree to work.

AD: Were you getting tired of all the travel? The sleeping in hotels?

TW: It’s very tiring. The minor leagues are a year-round job and there’s really no offseason. It gets tiring after a while. You don’t have the NBA’s budget to take care of your body so it got taxing after a while.

AD: What career did you settle into when you left basketball?

TW: I was the Vice-Principal in a school in Buffalo called “Sankofa Charter School”. That came through a basketball connection. I did an appearance at the school. The kids liked it, and I was asked to become the Dean of Students which was the equivalent of being the Vice-Principal in the charter school environment. I did that for a couple of years and the school closed. Then I moved my family to Charlotte, NC.

AD: Are you still involved in the game in any way? Are you coaching an AAU team? Do you still compete in any way?

TW: It’s crazy. I’m cold turkey. I’ve been asked on numerous occasions to help coach AAU. Jeff Bishop is down here and he’s asked me on several different occasions to help him out with his AAU program. My son plays baseball and is nine years old, so I really don’t have the time to dedicate to something on that level. I wouldn’t want to cheat a group of kids by me not being there consistently. I don’t play at all and all I have left are old stories (laughing).

AD: Interesting.

TW: And I’m cool with it.

AD: Yes, it sounds like you’ve done just about everything with basketball. Going back to the LaSalle days, do you remember what your best game was? Was it one of the state tournament games? Was it one of the Niagara Falls games?

TW: It was a bunch of games. Locally, I gave Turner/Carroll 39 points, and that’s a big deal because Antoine Sims was always a great competitor and to have a great game against Turner/Carroll and that caliber of player, it’s going to stay with you for a while. I had 52 points in a game which broke Carlos Bradberry’s record; regarding records that was a big deal. My senior year in Glens Falls in the semifinal game, I scored 35 points. We were down big in the fourth quarter and then scored 39 points as a team to come back and win to advance. It was a big stage and that was against Hempstead who beat us when Carlos was a senior, so it was a little bit of payback.

AD: Of all four of your years, was there one that was your favorite?

TW: Easily. It was my junior year by far. We had a three-guard lineup and as humble as I can be in saying this, there was not another guard combination in Western New York who could stop us. You don’t really feel it when you’re in it, but now that I’m older and I’m watching the tapes, it’s just unreal to watch that team and those three guards – me being one of them.

You couldn’t key on me because Jody Crymes would give you 20 points. You couldn’t key on Jody because Terry Rich would give you 20 points. We were a well-oiled machine, and I think all three of us had over 100 steals apiece that season. It was a lot easier than my senior year.

AD: And you guys were able to nullify any height advantage your opponents had?

TW: That was our thing. You might have height, but could you run? And then, can your guards get you the ball? We didn’t lose sleep playing guys who had players 6’8” because the chances of them getting the ball over half court were slim to none.

AD: Was there anything that surprised you during your time at LaSalle?

TW: I didn’t really know how to score until I played alongside Carlos Bradberry (pictured to the left). Prior to that, all I did was steal a bunch of different skill sets from a bunch of different players who came before me. I put my attitude and personality behind me, figured out where I still had weaknesses and worked on it. Playing with Carlos my freshman year, taught me how to score; just watching how he would get buckets.

I may be the all-time leading scorer in LaSalle’s history, but I had 500 steals. Carlos had at least 1,600 points, but they were straight buckets. I keep mentioning Modie Cox – knowing that he’s in the program and living a couple of houses down from me as well – being able to watch that and watch him lead a team as a young kid meant a lot. In my junior year, we were in the semifinals in Glens Falls. Jody Crymes came down on four different possessions and scored. I’ve never been in a game where someone else besides me said, ‘We’re not losing today.’ It was one of the ‘awe-moments’ for me.

AD: I remember trying out for the Empire State Games in my sophomore year. Jody (pictured to the left) showed up with Curtis Ralands. I was on Jody’s team before the first cut.

He was lightening quick, and on one play he penetrated down the lane and I followed him down the lane looking to get a potential offensive rebound. He threw a no-look pass behind his head to me, and I didn’t expect it so it sailed right passed me. He turned around and looked me with an expression like, ‘What happened?’ I wasn’t used to playing with that caliber of player, and you guys played at that high level, and I can only imagine the three of you on the floor at once.

You went to Glens Falls all four years. For kids who never went, what’s the experience like?

TW: I guess when you win a lot, you don’t know what it’s like to not be in the environment that you’re in. I never experienced a down-time or a losing situation. To not know what it’s like to be in front of a packed house, to not be in the hotels, to not go to Glens Falls, I’ve never experienced that. Not going would’ve been a failure for us. So, for me it was what we were supposed to do, and it was how we were supposed to be treated. The message was, when you win, this is how it’s supposed to go.

AD: That’s fascinating because there were many kids who were happy just to qualify for the sectionals, but for you and your team it was getting to and winning in Glens Falls. Otherwise, it wasn’t a successful season. So, there’s something here about where you set your sights and what you shoot for.

TW: If we had lost in the sectionals it would’ve been the biggest tragedy for our program ever. Once we beat the Rochester team my freshman year (McQuaid Jesuit) in the Far West Regional, it moved to that, and I felt like we were never not going to play in this game. We knew what it felt like to win that game, and we knew what defeat felt like because John Wallace’s team (Greece-Athena) beat us the year before. Being an eighth-grader and being exposed to that game, I felt like one day I would be the guy to lead us.

AD: There are whole generations of kids who know nothing of the LaSalle Explorers except in legends and old wive’s-tales. Where were you when you heard that they were going to close and demolish LaSalle Senior High School? How did you feel when you heard it?

TW: I’m still in disbelief. So much tradition came through there, and so many success stories; not just basketball, but in general. Imagine that you buy a house and it’s in your family for 30-40 years and then you come home and the house is torn down. It felt like they tore down the house that’s been passed down for generations in our family.

I’m also bothered by the fact that when they combined the schools, Pat Monti wasn’t named the Head Coach of the Varsity program. That let me know that there is a gift and a curse to winning all the time.

AD: Okay, we’re speculating here, but does that mean there was some sort of conspiracy to keep Coach Monti out?

TW: It’s all politics. How does the best basketball coach in Niagara Falls history not get that job? He was the best coach to come through the city, one of the best coaches in Western New York. He’s in four to five different halls of fame. It’s one thing to close the school down, but to bring politics into the equation and not give him the next job? It wouldn’t have hurt as much if he had gotten the next job because the tradition would have still been in the city. Since LaSalle closed, there’s only been on state champion out of Niagara Falls, and that’s when my little cousin Paul Harris and those guys won it.

That’s the only state championship since we closed. But if you look at the rosters at Niagara Falls High School since LaSalle closed, they should have at least six or seven state championships.

AD: We can keep this off the record, but do you think there were parties that were looking at all of Coach Monti’s success and felt that you all had an unfair advantage, or were they just ready to see the brown and gold go away?

TW: As great as Coach Monti was, the people he beat up on all the time didn’t like him. Imagine being beat for years. Just think about our rivalry with Niagara Falls High School. I think we won 40 or more straight games from the late 1980s until the school closed. All of the coaches and superintendents who are responsible for the new school opening were not going to let him be the coach after kicking their asses for all of those years.

AD: Well I did ask Coach Monti that – were all the other coaches happy to see you go once word got out? He laughed. We have a few more questions, Tim. How have players changed since the days you were at LaSalle. I hear they have ‘trainers’ now, and Jason Rowe said everything is on social media. How has basketball changed?

TW: Winning has taken a backseat to stats. It no longer dominates the emotion and I don’t know when it went out of style. Your stat-line dictates everything nowadays.

In the past, winning dictated everything. You see a ton of players who don’t know how to play the game. Because winning doesn’t dominate the emotion anymore, it’s hard to call a kid on it. When winning doesn’t come first, it’s hard to complain about anything a kid does in a game. To me, that’s the biggest difference between now and back then.

Jason and I spent a lot of time together back then. I knew what it meant to him to win. Triple-doubles aside, to not win – we’re from that era where winning was everything. Yes, I had 40 points, but we won. That dominated everything for us. You worked on your jump shot so you could win. You worked on your handle so you could win. Everything was set up so you could be better placed to win the following year.

When Jason and his team weren’t winning the Rochester game, I know that he and “Mush” (Damien Foster, pictured below) went to work in the summer so they could win that game. They didn’t go to work so they could come back and average 25 and 30 points – it was time to win a state championship. There’s enough talent back home where they should be winning on a high level, but you can’t make kids approach it like that.

AD: You know they say kids today are softer, they don’t communicate the same way.

TW: Everyone is friends and that’s one of my biggest pet peeves. I love Jason and he’s my guy. We’ve been friends since he was little. I swear to you that when it came to “checking the ball up”, he was my worst enemy. There’s something missing in competition these days.

If you put Jason and me in this era, I don’t think we would be as good. I’m talking about mentally, because we would’ve been too cool with each other. Talent-wise we would’ve killed this day and age, but I think one of the best things we had in us was that we were fierce competitors, would go to war with each other and literally go get a burger later.

AD: So, Tim, is this kind of a LeBron James–Kevin Durant type of thing where it’s okay to go make a team versus building your own?

TW: Yep, it is. It always starts at the top. The players these kids look up to are all friends. Kevin Durant and LeBron James are really, really good friends. For me, I could never be that good a friend with someone to where it would impact my approach on the court. It didn’t matter who you were, I wanted to go through you on the court; family included, friends included. It didn’t matter; my mother couldn’t get a bucket on me.

Again, it’s different eras, and just like Jason (pictured with Tim to the left) said, with the impact of social media, it’s required for you to have personality. Everyone wants to be cool now and it’s just completely different than when we were young. At that time your game spoke for you. You didn’t need social media. You didn’t have to talk anywhere else. When you were on the court, it was ‘Check it up. Check ball!’ There was no greater voice than ‘Check ball!’

AD: Alright, two more. For youngsters aspiring to play basketball or to pursue any other life goal, what advice would you give them?

TW: If you’re serious about it, treat it like a job. Go to work every day. There’s a ton of kids who have trainers, and to me that work ethic is missing in today’s kids. You know which kids are working from a mile away. If it’s something that you’re serious about dive in, dive all the way in. Don’t dive halfway in and want all the results. There are a lot of kids who will give you 15% effort, but want 120% back in terms of the results. It doesn’t work that way and this is a game you really, really must go to work for.

AD: So do you think it’s unusual that they would need trainers?

TW: I think it all depends on whose hands you’re in. To me that’s everything. There are a million trainers now, a million guys like Jason Rowe and Mark Price. I would send my kids to them because I know where they’re from. I know them personally and I know their games and their resumes, so I don’t have to question what they’ll do for my kid.

One of my biggest pet peeves is kids can’t workout unless they have a trainer. Whatever happened to dribbling the ball down the street to the park? Kids won’t just go to the gym and play pickup ball anymore and that’s the era that we live in.

AD: Wow. That is strange.

TW: I’ll ask kids, ‘Are you working out?’ They’ll say, ‘I’m trying to get a trainer.’ No! Whatever happened to just getting your ball and dribbling down the middle of the street? One, two, three between the legs. One, two, three between the legs and crossover. I’m all for trainers getting their money, but I must know that it’s on the level of a Jason or Mark training them.

AD: Okay, the last question. What did playing at LaSalle for St. Bonaventure and then playing professionally teach you about life and success?

TW: For me it was one thing playing in that program. It taught me how to be a young man, and the success of the program made me feel like I could do anything. I don’t know losing, so I approach everything the same way I approached those games back then. I expected to go to Glens Falls, so when I’m in a job interview now, I expect to win.

I’m currently at Wells Fargo on the technology side and I expect to win. Playing for LaSalle, I’ve carried myself a certain way all my life because of that experience. It’s confidence, it’s borderline cockiness sometimes.

I always believe that if I approach it with the right work ethic, then it’s game over. It doesn’t matter what sport it is. It doesn’t matter what realm of life it is. If I approach it with same approach I used on the court at LaSalle, I’m going to win. Period.

And you can ask any of the teammates that I’ve had. It’s just something that’s in you. It just did something to us as kids. We just always believe that we’re going to be alright.

AD: Well Tim, that’s all I’ve got, unless you have any other comments or stories, thank you for telling your story.

TW: It’s been an honor to speak on this.

A special thank you is extended to Tim Winn for taking the time out to discuss his story and the LaSalle basketball program. In case you missed it, see part one of our interview. Also see parts one and two of my interview with legendary LaSalle Head Coach Pat Monti, my interview with legendary Buffalo Traditional point guard Jason Rowe, some of my personal basketball stories surrounding my book project, and a piece I wrote up regarding former college and professionals basketball player Chris Herren, who now tours and speaks about substance and wellness for teens:

• Niagara Falls coaching legend Pat Monti discusses building, and leading the LaSalle basketball dynasty part one
• Niagara Falls coaching legend Pat Monti discusses building, and leading the LaSalle basketball dynasty part two
• Jason Rowe discusses Buffalo Traditional Basketball, the Yale Cup, and State Tournaments
• Lasting lessons basketball taught me: Reflections on three years of basketball camp
• Chris Herren discusses his journey, drug addiction, substance abuse and wellness

Video Interviews With Tim Winn, Modie Cox and other members of the LaSalle Basketball Dynasty

Niagara Falls Basketball Legend Tim Winn Discusses LaSalle Basketball And Training To Win

Maurice “Modie” Cox Discusses Playing In Niagara Falls LaSalle Basketball Dynasty

The December 2020 Niagara Falls LaSalle Senior High School Basketball Dynasty Live Stream

The video link is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O7_ddrCwX0

Closing Thoughts

I intend to create more promotional/teaser pieces for The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story, both via print and video as I journey through the final steps of completing the book. I created a page on Big Words Authors for the purpose of giving a background of the book and grouping all the promotional pieces, such as this in one, for interested readers.

The Big Words LLC Newsletter

For the next phase of my writing journey, I’m starting a monthly newsletter for my writing and video content creation company, the Big Words LLC. In it, I plan to share inspirational words, pieces from this blog and my first blog, and select videos from my four YouTube channels. Finally, I will share updates for my book project The Engineers: A Western New York Basketball Story. Your personal information and privacy will be protected. Click this link and register using the sign-up button at the bottom of the announcement. If there is some issue signing up using the link provided, you can also email me at bwllcnl@gmail.com . Yours in good sports. Best Regards.

Don’t Hire Your First Employee Until You’ve Considered The Following

Some of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and both Business and Entrepreneurship. A major key for any entrepreneur is properly hiring and managing new staff – two aspects that can cause any business to crash if not done correctly. This contributed post is thus entitled; Don’t Hire Your First Employee Until You’ve Considered The Following.

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One of the biggest steps that most entrepreneurs need to take is hiring their first member of staff. It’s an exciting time when it is time to consider hiring an employee, as it means that the company is going in the right direction and growing steadily. However, it does come with a few implications as well, such as being a huge expense. If a company owner mistimes hiring an employee, then it could cost their business thousands at a time when it can’t really afford it.

So, as you can see, it is essential that you do your homework and make sure your business is in the right position to bring on a new member. To help you out, here are a few things that you need to consider before you do start looking for your first employee.

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Think About The Cost

Firstly, it’s necessary to think about the cost that will come with hiring a new member of staff. Once you do hire someone, you will need to start paying them a wage which will obviously be one of your company’s biggest expenses. It’s worth reviewing your budget to make sure that your company is making as much as you think and that you will definitely be able to cover this expense.

Think About How You Word Your Job Description

Before you start reviewing applicants for your newly open position, you will need to draft up a job description. After all, if you don’t advertise the fact that you are hiring, how will anyone know that they can apply to work for you? When you are writing the job description and ideal candidate specification, it is important to take care that you mention all the tasks and responsibilities that will come with the job. The more detail there is, then the more chance that only those with the right qualifications and experience will apply. If the job description is too vague, then you might get some unsuitable applicants, and sifting through these will only waste your time.

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Employee Or Contractor?

Before you do set out on employing a full-time employee, it’s worth asking yourself if it makes more sense to find a contractor instead. Even though contractors and freelancers are often more expensive to pay than full-time employees, you will benefit from the fact that you don’t have to provide them with any financial benefits. For instance, you will need to give any full-time employees paid vacation and sick days as well as help them with pension contributions. This isn’t the case with contractors as they aren’t entitled to these kinds of benefits. So, even though they may charge you slightly more than average, you will actually end up saving a lot of money thanks to their lack of entitlements.

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Reassess Your Workplace

It’s always a good idea to reassess your company’s base as well. It needs to be safe for people to work in or else you might end up needing to hire the likes of Richard Vadnal to represent you in the event that you are taken to court by an employee who injured themselves in the workplace. Even though you might think that an office is a safe environment in which to work, there are still some hazards and risks that you might need to be aware of. For instance, you need to carry out a regular fire drill with any employees you hire so that everyone is aware of how to act in the event of a fire. Make sure the office space is also kept clean and tidy so that there are no trip hazards on the floor. Furniture should be ergonomic so that employees aren’t at risk from developing repetitive strain injury (RSI).

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Look For Good Insurance

Once you have some employed staff on your team, you will need to get all the relevant insurance. This is so that you are covered in the events of any accidents and injuries that occur in the workplace. The insurance should pay out to cover any compensation claims so that it doesn’t have to come out of your business’s pockets. Not only that, though, but the insurance will also cover any claims from clients if they are unhappy with the quality of work carried out by your employees.

Set Up Payroll

In order to pay your full-time employees, you should set up a payroll system. This makes it much easier to sort out your workers’ tax payments as well as figuring out their insurance contributions. It can be quite tricky to set up this kind of system, especially if you have no experience in doing so. Some entrepreneurs like to outsource this to a HR professional to get them up and running, while others prefer to hire a HR team member as one of their first new recruits so that they can set up payments ready for all incoming new team members.

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Draft Up A Contract

Before you do welcome someone new onto your team, you need to make sure that there is a contract between the two of you. This is essential as it will set out exactly what is expected from all parties. For instance, it should include the agreed wage as well as employee’s scope of work. The contract should also explain how the contract can be legally terminated by each party, by having this outlined this can stop employees being wrongfully fired and ending up getting a workers compensation attorney due to breach of contract..

Keep Records Of Everyone

Once your first employee starts working for you, it is important that you keep records of everything. These can then be used as evidence in the event of any disputes or arguments between the two of you. It’s also necessary to keep complete documents of employees’ hours, sick days and anything at all that is relevant to their position. Keep these documents safe as you never know when you might need to use them in the future.

Hopefully, considering all the points above will make it easier for you to figure out whether now is really the right time to hire your first ever employee. Good luck with growing your company!

What’s Stopping You From Seeing The Big Picture?

Some of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money, and both Business and Entrepreneurship. Depending on what kind of business you’re starting, a major key is eventually working on the business as opposed to working in it as described in “The E-Myth” by Michael E. Gerber. This contributed post is thus entitled; What’s Stopping You From Seeing The Big Picture?

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The devil is in the details when it comes to your work but getting stuck in those details while trying to run a business can make you oblivious to the big picture. Without a little distance and perspective, it can be much harder to notice the biggest obstacles, the best potential strategies, and the solutions your team needs. How do you get the perspective you need when you’re constantly in the trenches with the rest of the team?

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No time at all
You have to make the time to work on your business, not just in it. Everyone has multiple responsibilities and a need to be able to juggle them. Being able to prioritize both your workload and your time can be crucial. Learn how to structure your workday, breaking it down into blocks of time that you can assign to multiple tasks. This way, you can find the time every day to take on the most crucial and urgent managerial or admin tasks while still leaving time free to strategize.

All the admin
If you’re taking care of all that administrative work yourself, you might never be able to find that time in the first place, however. There are a few steps to cut back on how much you have to deal with yourself. You can automate, using accounting, payroll, and HR software to take out the man hours necessary to keep all your systems up to date. For elements that need a human touch, like answering the phone, you might want to consider a virtual assistant, too.

Tech troubles
More and more businesses are relying more heavily on tech. They can help us unlock magnitudes more productivity, but the more we rely on them, the more our success becomes tied to them. If you’re spending a significant part of your working day solving tech issues, then managed IT services might be what you need. Not only can you use them to identify and solve problems much more quickly, but they could improve or build a network that makes you tech even more versatile and valuable.

Unempowered employees
If your team isn’t empowered to make their own decisions or work proactively, then a lot of your time is going to be spent babysitting them. This isn’t always necessarily their fault, but a result of a company culture that doesn’t encourage employees to be more engaged. You can change that by getting them more informed and involved in the overall objectives.

Not enough insight
Taking a bird’s eye view of the business can help you identify workflow issues and potential improvements to communication and cooperation. If you want to implement any strategy, however, you need to know how it looks on the ground, as well as the challenges your team faces. For that reason, you need to put an effective employee feedback loop in place.

Getting that perspective is crucial for a business owner but you should never forget what it’s like to work with the rest of the team, too. Their perspective can be just as helpful as yours.

Financial Decisions That’ll Help You Down The Line

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy and Money. Our everyday behaviors and decisions impact our where we end up financially in the future. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Financial Decisions That’ll Help You Down The Line.

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When it comes to your personal finances, you need to think beyond your current situation. It’s essential to cover your basic costs, but you need to do so in a well-calculated manner so as to ensure that you’ve got savings for the future. In this article, we’ll discuss that point along with other helpful pieces of financial advice. If you want to protect your money then here are some financial decisions you could make right now to help you further down the line.

Investing some of your earnings.
The first financial decision you could make to help yourself down the line is to invest some of your earnings. This is something you should do on a continuous basis if you want to increase your wealth; it’ll bring you additional forms of income on top of your existing salary. And there are plenty of different investment routes you can take as a beginner. You might want to do some research on getting started in the property market. With the correct guidance and management advice, you could start buying properties to lease them out (that’d bring you a nice monthly income). You could even buy properties to fix them up and sell them at an increased value.

Of course, there are plenty of other ways to invest your earnings, too. Getting involved with trading can be very profitable if you do your research and learn how to monitor market trends carefully. You might want to consider spread betting over traditional trading methods. Earning tax-free profits is just one of many reasons to trade this way. Investing wisely is the type of financial decision that could really help you down the line. You’ll be able to start building up some savings for the future.

Creating an emergency fund.
Another financial decision that will help you down the line is creating an emergency fund. We all face unexpected costs at different points in life, so it’s important to have a backup plan in place for just such occasions. Your budget can only account for regular and predictable expenses, but you should also set aside a little bit of money on a regular basis for emergency costs. For instance, your house might need repairs after a natural disaster, or you might need emergency financial support if you leave one job and start searching for another. Creating a backup fund now could really help you further down the line. You don’t want to dip into your bank account for emergency costs and find yourself low on funds for necessities.

Spending your money sensibly.
This final suggestion is possibly the most important. If you want to improve your financial future then you should simply improve your financial present. By making a proper budget, you’ll be able to start tracking your expenditures accurately and making smarter decisions with your money. Calculate the cost of your essentials, and figure out how much income you need to devote to those necessary expenses. If you barely have any remaining funds then you could start reducing your basic costs in smart ways. For instance, you could save money on groceries by using coupons and start using price comparison sites to search for better deals from energy providers. You could reduce your monthly expenses if you did a little research. And it’ll benefit you in the future if you have more money to set aside for your savings.

Managing Money Matters

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Money, Business and Entrepreneurship. A key aspect of any successful business is the effective money management. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Managing Money Matters.

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Money makes the world go round, does it not? We all rely on money so heavily, that the slightest change in our circumstances leads us to panic to say the least. But that’s just referring to our personal lives. When business comes into it, the need for money is greater. Without money, progression needed to survive in the business world can’t be achieved, and the chance of the business failing altogether becomes all too real. So, we want to show you the money matters that needed to be managed the most, and how they can ensure that your company will thrive for years to come. Have a read on to find out more!

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Your Employees Money

Start messing with your employees money, and it isn’t going to end well for you. To help you understand what we mean, let’s paint a picture. Your employees rely on the fact that you’re going to pay them exactly what they’re owed, when they’re owed it. So many companies fail on this, or pay the wrong amount. It’s not understood by management how much this can impact an employee’s life! So, before you start making error after error, think about how you can manage it more effectively. Paystub is just one of the websites that you can use to generate paychecks, allowing you to cross reference the amount that should be paid, as well as your employees. If you feel as though the burden of running payroll is too high, and that’s why you’re possibly making mistakes, then think about hiring an in house accountant. You’re so much more likely to be able to manage money effectively rather than letting it all weigh on your shoulders.

Your Investment Money

When you start getting to the point where you’re earning enough money, you need to think about having investment money. Managing investment money isn’t the easiest game to play, because you’ve got just as much chance of losing money as you do making money. So, in terms of your investment money, think about getting a broker to do the dirty work for you. You need someone who is going to be able to make expertly informed decisions for your company and the money that it is using. If you do do your investments the right way, the money that you could potentially earn from it will be more than you could image! Good investment ideas are ones such as stocks, virtual currency, and property, but it is all about finding which one works for your company.

Your Pension Money

When you have so much money coming in, the last thing that you might be thinking of is your pension. But like the people that you employ, you should seriously start investing into your pension. You can also hire companies to help get the job done for you so that you’re saving in the right pay, and securing your future for you and your family. Even if your retirement is years away, it’s best to put aside now, as you never truly know what is going to happen to your company!

How To Help A Loved One Overcome Substance Abuse And Addiction

A major focus of my blog is Health and Wellness. Substance abuse can become a lifelong struggle for some people – sometimes our friends and relatives, and it’s not always clear in terms of how to help them. The following contributed post is thus entitled; How To Help A Loved One Overcome Substance Abuse And Addiction.

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Learning that a loved one is addicted to drugs or alcohol is a scary, stressful, and upsetting experience. Naturally, you want to help them, but with so many people telling you that “they’ll only stop when they’re ready,” you can be left feeling conflicted and helpless. Thankfully, while it’s true that an addict is the only person who can make positive changes in their life, there are still steps that you can take to kickstart these changes and try to curb addictive behaviors. With that in mind, here are a few things that you can do to help a loved one overcome their addiction.

Never Turn A Blind Eye
Reaching out to someone with a drug or alcohol problem is never easy, which often leads friends and family members to turn a blind eye and ignore toxic behaviors. However, the person that you’re worried about is never going to know that you’re concerned until you tell them that you are. While this may be an uncomfortable conversation, it’s important that you open up these lines of communication and try to make a difference. If you don’t, it’s unlikely that anything will change.

Intervene Before Things Get Serious
Ideally, this initial conversation should occur before anything gets too serious. All too often, families and friends wait until there is a major crisis, like an arrest, sacking, overdose, or another serious health issue, before they take action and decide that enough is enough. However, like other illnesses, addiction can be best treated during the earlier stages. For this reason, you should start a conversation and express your concerns the moment toxic behaviors begin.

Don’t Shame Or Pass Judgment
Alcoholics and drug addicts rarely start taking drugs or drinking heavily for no reason. More often than not, there is an underlying issue that they struggle with, like anxiety or depression, and they take drug and alcohol as a way to self-medicate. It’s important that you recognize these reasons and avoid passing judgment or shaming the person that you’re worried about. Usually, this will make them feel worse about themselves, which will only make them use more.

Offer Professional Help And Support
Addicts need the support of those that care about them, but, most of the time, they also need help from a professional. After all, they have years of knowledge on addiction and know the best ways to help. They also have access to medical professionals, like LifeBrite Laboratories, who can run tests and ensure that your loved one has definitely stopped using. This is incredibly important as many addicts try to hide their addiction from those around them.

Support Them Through Their Journey
The journey to sobriety isn’t an easy one, and there will be many hurdles for your loved one to face along the way. For this reason, it’s vital that you show that you’re supportive and care about your loved one and their journey. The moment it starts to feel like you can’t be bothered anymore, your friend or family member will notice, and this could impact their recovery. You should also avoid drinking around the person and never enable their toxic behaviors.

Helping a loved one overcome addiction will never be easy, but, hopefully, with the advice and guidance above, you have some idea of how to start.

Business Leaders – Are You Wasting Time?

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Money, Business and Entrepreneurship. A key aspect of any successful business is the efficient use of time. The following contributed post is thus titled; Business Leaders – Are You Wasting Time?

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Wasting time is the number one ‘no-no’ when it comes to anything to do with business life. We hear that ‘time is money,’ and that’s no accident. Any business leader, at least those successful the world over, will have mastered the art of effectively using their time. Honing your own personal schedule is all very well and good, but when looking at the larger picture, your business may be telling you something else entirely. If your business is wasting time, even in small ways, its inefficiency can build and build in its aggregate form.

It might take time to inspect and fully make effective, but a business concerned with improving its growth and optimizing it’s process will need to cut out the fat sooner or later. Here are the places you might look first:

Payroll

Your payroll department is often the last thing you’ll establish when you’re starting to grow your firm. This is because a certain amount of employees may not warrant a dedicated specialist to come in and handle these hours, it might be that the manager or the owner takes care of this. This task is unlikely going to be the only one undertaken by the person responsible in this case. While you must always dedicated the correct amount of time to this task lest you make mistakes that can cost the satisfaction of the employee you have impeded, you can always implement time-saving options to help you deliver your duties well.

For example, using a service to create a paystub can help you organize dedicated formatting efforts for your payroll, both calculating and providing proof of income and charges to your employees routinely and with predictable formatting. This can be very helpful if dealing with a team of variant roles and variant hours worked, as templates can be saved and you can adjust via hours, salary or any other payment criteria your business has setup. Payroll can often be the most intense and important consideration to get right, so taking out any human error and providing a uniform formatting option of proof can help the person responsible take care of this task appropriately each time.

Dead Weight

None of us enjoy having dead weight on our time. This is perhaps one of the easiest ways to reduce total staff motivation, waste money on salaries and have to conduct time and money into the cleanup that a faulty staff member will need to cover them. This means that inspecting your staff routinely to ensure they’re working hard as per reasonable standards, that they are paying attention to your policies and security/safety protocols, as well as ensuring they care about the end result of their work can help you identify anyone who isn’t pulling their weight, or who is willfully neglecting it. In certain industries such as hospitality and retail, this can be quite a common occurrence. With a skilled, reasonable and rational eye, you can decide to conduct training efforts, motivate that person further, or let that person go.

With these two simple tips, you can cut plenty of wasted time from your schedule, and the larger flow of your business.

Sport Could Change Your Life: How Do You Plan On Letting It Change Yours?

Two of the focuses of my blog are Athletics and Sports, and Health and Wellness. In addition to teaching life lessons through competition, sports are overall good for our quality of life. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Sport Could Change Your Life: How Do You Plan On Letting It Change Yours?

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Let’s get a little serious for a moment, shall we? Sport can honestly change your life, but how it changes it is entirely up to you. We see so much online and in print about how exercise and perhaps even taking part in sports is so good for you. Not just physically, but mentally as well, but yet many of us will still openly admit that sport or physical exercise is not a part of our normal routine. I wanted to share with you some of the ways that you could introduce sport or physical exercise into your life and how those ways could really transform the way you live and think. It sounds dramatic, but it is true. Here are my suggestions.

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Play a sport and get involved with a team or class

One of the first things you could try would be to find yourself a local class or team in the sport you want to play and just have the courage to get involved. It may sound difficult at first to overcome such a mental fear as this, which is on the same lines of stepping out of your comfort zone, but it could make the world of difference. Being part of a team also gives you that social aspect, which can add to the enjoyment and even give you the chance to make some new friends.

Watch a sport live and feel the adrenalin

At first, just join a team or even doing something yourself may feel like a big step to take, so actually being a spectator of sport can give you the inspiration and motivation to get started yourself. Seeing a hockey game live and buying tickets, or attending your first ever football game, it can give you a new sense of passion for the sport as well as the motivation to start out yourself.

Get yourself a pet dog

Maybe you just need a reason to be more active, and one of the best things to do is walking. Buy walking yourself may feel a little overbearing, so having a dog to do it with you could be the ideal way to start being more active on a day to day basis. Walking is one of the best forms of exercise to take, believe it or not, and it can actually be a great way to build up fitness levels and confidence.

Set yourself a challenge or target to achieve

Finally, why not set yourself a goal or a challenge to get started with? This could be a great way for you to start feeling motivated about taking part in specific sports or exercises. Having a big goal is great, but don’t forget to set yourself smaller targets along the way to help you along the way. This really helps you to stay motivated on track.

Find an immersive sport

Sports that require a particular focus or drive can be life-changing as they help you develop a specific mindset. This mindset can involve long or short bouts of concentration, like running long distance vs. sprinting. Cultivating a new mentality can be useful in all areas of life as it can help you focus over more extended periods. Sports that have many different components to them can also be engaging and immersive. If you enjoy shooting, for example, there are many ways to improve your knowledge of the subject, like learning about the different gun accessories available to be safe when enjoying the sport.

So there you have it, my thoughts on how sport could change your life. However you choose to enjoy it, I hope you start to notice some of the differences yourself.

Wonderful Changes That are Going to Improve Your Business Today

Some of the key focuses of my blog are: Financial Literacy, Money, Business and Entrepreneurship. Starting a business can be very challenging. Business owners constantly need to think about how grow and evolve their businesses in order to survive in constantly changing market conditions. The following contributed post is thus entitled; Wonderful Changes That are Going to Improve Your Business Today.

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It is really important to make sure you understand what is involved in the process of improving your business long-term. There are a lot of things that can play a role in taking the business to the next level, and you need to look at what you can do to improve. These days the business world is so competitive, and there are a lot of issues that can play a role in holding your business back, and you must think carefully about this.

Running a modern brand requires a lot of work and nurture these days, so you need to be careful and think hard about things. What can you do as a business owner to try to elevate your company above the competition and achieve success? Entrepreneurs so often focus on what they ARE doing and not what they SHOULD be doing. These are some of the excellent ways of improving your brand today.

Reinvent Yourself

Reinventing your business is absolutely essential in this day and age. It is something that needs to happen in order to help keep the company fresh, exciting, and ahead of the times. This is absolutely essential if you are looking at ways of bringing yourself more success. The company should be fresh, fun, and exciting, and this is an excellent way of achieving that. It’s also clear that business extension starts with reinvention, and this is something you have to make sure you put into practice.

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Get Closer to Your Customers

It is also so important in 2018 to try to get closer to your customers as much as you possibly can. They are the lifeblood of any company, and you can’t afford to be losing them to your rivals by not prioritizing them. So, the best thing to do here is to make sure you improve the way you approach your customers. As a business, you need to use things like UserIQ in order to try to get closer to your customers as well as getting a better handle on your management too.

Always be Financially Stable

A business can only achieve success if it has financial stability, and this is something that you need to focus on achieving as a company. That means you need to be sensible with what you are spending and how you are spending, and it also means you need to look at how you can become more financially stable as a business. This sometimes means recruiting investors or getting crowdfunding to help you take the business forward as well. Always having financial security will go a long way toward helping you remain a successful and stable business.

If you can follow some of the ideas in this post, you will be armed with some of the tools needed to make sure you are improving your business where you can. This is something you need to make sure you look at moving forward. Make changes that are going to improve and enhance your brand long-term, and understand what makes this so important.

Can You Keep One Eye On The Business Ball Without Taking Work Home With You This Evening?

Two of the focuses on of my blog are Career Discussions, and Health and Wellness. When stepping up into management positions, balancing one’s health with the new demands can be a challenge. The title of this contributed post is thus entitled; Can You Keep One Eye On The Business Ball Without Taking Work Home With You This Evening?

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Managers are always told that they shouldn’t take work home with them. We all need a break now and again, after all. By taking care of admin into the early hours, you’ll soon start to suffer. Keep this going for too long, and you could experience the notorious ‘manager burnout’. If that happens, your work will suffer. You may even have to take time out. Whatever happens, it won’t be good.

Instead, managers across the world work hard to switch their business phones off and leave their laptops in the office. And, the chances are this is an effort you also attempt to get behind. Good for you. Prioritizing your own time is part of what makes you such an excellent manager.

The trouble is, leaving the office at five and switching off altogether could leave you stalling in the morning. Rather than getting straight to work, you’ll have to take a little time to get back into things. Often, that’ll leave you behind before the day has even started.

Hence why we’re going to suggest something revolutionary. While you still want to leave work at the office, it is possible to keep your mind on the ball regardless. All you need to do is make use of the following outlets during your down hours.

Podcasts

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We all love a podcast, don’t we? Whether we’re listening to Serial or The Daily, this is now the way many of us choose to unwind. Lucky for you, there are plenty of business-based podcasts which can help you relax while teaching you a thing or two. Shows like Fire Nation can teach you about every aspect of entrepreneurial life. In episodes like this one where JLD chats with Joe Kashurba, you can even learn how to grow your business. Options like the Social Pros Podcast can even teach you about content marketing and everything social media. While fun and interesting, these options also fuel the embers of your business fire, rather than putting it out overnight.

YouTube videos

Who doesn’t spend at least some of their evening browsing YouTube? If you get stuck in loops of cat videos, opt instead for inspirational business-based channels. The official TED channel includes talks for individuals from every industry, including business. You may also want to subscribe to entrepreneur-specific YouTubers such as GaryVee. His business advice has gained him well over 1.5 million subscribers. Watching these guys, you’ll feel like you’re relaxing with a past time you love. But, you can bet you’ll learn a few useful tidbits.

Listen to industry news

While we can’t help with any specific suggestions, it’s also crucial you listen to industry news. By finding field-specific radio stations, you can get your fix of what’s going on in the rest of your industry. That can help with everything from finding your target audience, to keeping them interested. Rather than listening to 80s pop music on your way to and from work, then, consider sticking this on and learning something you wouldn’t otherwise.