Can Your Small Business Ever Become Next Amazon?

It’s no big secret that Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer. The e-commerce giant started out life as a small website that just sold a few books. Today, you can go on the Amazon website and buy just about anything! Yes, they still sell books. But, you can also get electronics, homewares, even food!

Jeff Bezos, the guy behind Amazon, is worth around $66.9 billion. And all that from a small e-commerce website founded back in 1994. Now, I know what some of you are thinking. Amazon got established during the Web’s infancy. There’s no way anyone could start an e-commerce store and topple Amazon today! Or, is there?



Amazon does have some stiff competition from the likes of eBay and AliBaba.com. Plus, many promising new e-commerce sites look set to grow at a rapid pace! Are you thinking of setting up an online store? And have you ever wondered if you could be as big as Amazon?

Benefits of Employee Engagement

Half of adults have left a job to get away from their manager at some point in their career, according to a Gallup survey. And since 2000, when Gallup first began measuring employee engagement, less than one-third of Americans are engaged in their jobs in any given year.



This problem can have a significant negative effect on productivity, customer service levels and retention, OfficeTeam says. The staffing company found that more than one in four professionals said their company is not effective in keeping workers motivated. Sixty-one percent said they would likely leave their current position if they did not feel engaged.

Gallup estimates that the 18 percent of employees who are actively disengaged cost the United States $450 billion to $550 billion in lost productivity per year.

Emotional Intelligence in Business

Throughout history, scientists have tried to measure intelligence in many different ways and formats. These measures of intelligence have been used to rank people in ability, talent and other characteristics. For a business seeking new employees, finding highly intelligent candidates is key. But how much does intelligence truly relate to workplace success? Does emotional intelligence factor in, and if so, how?

IQ, EQ and Business

The business world is continuing to understand how to properly implement the use of EQ for the betterment of their personnel. But since Goleman first used the term in 1995, he has inspired countless organizations to take EQ into consideration. Since publishing his book, Goleman has spoken across the world on how good leaders have a high EQ.

Travis Bradberry, coauthor of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, notes in an article for Forbes that high EQ helps organizations understand the intangibles that make leaders successful. EQ is the strongest predictor of performance; in Bradberry’s studies, 90 percent of top performers are high in EQ and just 20 percent of bottom performers are high in EQ. As far as IQ, people with average IQ scores outperform those with higher IQs a majority of the time.