Owning your own retail business can be an exciting, albeit challenging, undertaking. When you look around at some of the larger brands you can see how shifts in consumer behavior and brand loyalty has changed the success and trajectory of a once rather predictable industry. For instance, Wal-Mart announced earlier this year that they would close 269 locations in 2016, accounting for roughly three percent of their stores.

There’s something exciting about getting your business to the point of being able to bring on new employees. Your business is growing and you’re successful enough to be able to hire people to share some of the load.

On the other hand, there’s something tricky about hiring the right person for the job. As a manager or business owner, there’s a lot on the line in terms workplace culture and customer service quality, not to mention the time and resources it takes to train them. Hiring the wrong person and having them leave is something all companies seek to avoid, but it does happen.

No matter what industry you’re in, there’s bound to be some kind of workplace politics at play. People are always striving to look good, jockeying for a promotion or strengthening connections with the “right” people. And more often than not in these situations, there is some kind of power dynamics in play.

These power dynamics become even more evident under certain stressful situations, like when you’re giving feedback to another colleague in the office. Giving feedback to others is a key part to team success, but you need to consider who you’re giving it to, their position, and how responsive they might be based upon the power dynamics at play.

Working with difficult people is neither pleasant nor stress free. We also know just how unavoidable it can be. Accomplishing your project and career goals requires you to be good at handling difficult people in the workplace, so take a moment to reflect with our top tips for how to handle difficult people in the workplace.

Dealing with different personality types in the workplace can be tough. Having to shift gears from one conversation to the next and trying to get all your work done can be an onerous task.

What helps is when we define the different personality types that exist, and more importantly consider difficult workplace personalities. What are the signs of difficult personality types in the workplace and what can you do to handle them so that your work isn’t affected?

This is the summary of a white paper written by Global Corporate College (GCC), a partner withCLIMB. GCC provides effective training on topics that matter most to businesses.

In GCC's white paper "Focusing on the Value of Training," it is proven that effective training and successful employees increase overall profit.

Unfortunately, living and working with difficult people is unavoidable. While they're a little easier to manage in our personal lives, at work, it can become a struggle to balance professionalism and quality work with putting up with distractions and setbacks. Today's post discusses nine best practices for working with difficult people so you can keep your sanity while accomplishing your goals and completing projects on time.

If you own a retail business, you understand how important sales are. They literally define your bottom line. But have you sat down and considered how important your retail sales team is? Today's article is going to talk about how your sales team affects your bottom line and touch on how to find the best salespeople.

Tired of sitting in an office cubicle at a dead end job? You’re not alone. As you read this there are hundreds of professionals in the workforce with similar sentiments. So if you’re looking to make some moves — perhaps land your dream job, or move up the corporate ladder, then this is the right read for you!

Experiencing success in a new business venture is a difficult, yet rewarding process. However, growth brings its own unique set of challenges as you try to keep up with demand and take your company to the next level.

One of the biggest challenges is knowing when to hire staff for your new business.