October 10, 2010
I recently spent a week on vacation. It is something I frequently do. You see I need to get away from business every so often. I always go someplace where I am not easily enticed to get on online or to turn on my cell phone. Although I take several vacations a year, on most I stay connected but not very involved. But at least once a year, I cut the cord to my real world. Some people refer to vacations as a time to recharge their batteries. For me, it is a time to explore new places, reflect on where I have been, where I am headed and to learn new things.
This vacation took me to a country where I had never been, Aruba, one happy island. That is their tourism slogan and as I spent the week I realized why it was. The Aruban people are happy. They enjoy who they are, what they do and they always smile, laugh and want to be helpful. I wanted to find out why, but that will have to wait, for I was on vacation. It is a topic I may research.
I read an “old” classic, “The Long Tail”, written in 2005 by Chris Anderson about internet marketing and how it is partially changing the way we buy and how business is now selling products and services. I will write a book review on that another time. For now, I will just say it got me thinking about a few things in a new way and confirmed some others.
I met and made new friends, Ron and Bev and Dave and Emily, couples from Chicago. They were traveling together and all had been to Aruba several times. I met them on a sunset dinner cruise and we spent several hours together that night just swapping the usual who are you and what do you do. They were staying at the same place I was and we bumped into each other at the pool several times over the week. They were both delightful couples. Chatting with others leads you to see how others perceive things.
I also ran into a lady from Charlotte, NC. I did not get her name. She was on the same sunset dinner cruise. At one point her phone rang and she answered it. It was a business call. She conducted some short business and hung up letting the person know she would complete the work when she returned. I wondered how many other calls she had taken like that while she was on “vacation”.
And, then there is Jean, a guest services lady at the resort. She is a model of how everyone should work. Even though employed by the resort, she operated as though she ran her own business. Her knowledge of the island was vast. She knew where to go , what to see and made sure my stay was what I wanted. She arranged rental cars, dinners, sunset cruises and took care of the details of the trip. She was never without a smile, a laugh or a story to tell. In the end, we hugged and I will never forget her!
I had fun on my vacation. I snorkeled, I spent time sightseeing, I lounged by the pool and swam in the ocean and spent time connecting with the person important to me. I also thought I was going to lose the rental car in a ditch! Most of the time I did very little. People that needed to know knew where I was and how to reach me in case of disaster. Disaster is a crucial word. I know too many people that take their work with them wherever they go. They don’t know how to get away, or how to look at the world without work. This goes for my corporate friends and my business owner friends equally. They either cannot or will not shut off their day to day world to explore new opportunities or to seek out new ideas and knowledge.
The day to day can wait. Cell phone and internet don’t matter when it is time to get away. Business, FaceBook, Twitter, et al will still be there when you return. Your business associates will fill you in when you return and they will call you if you have an oil well burning in the Gulf that you need to take care of. But anything else in business can surely wait if it isn’t a life or death situation. The business will be there when you return. As for FaceBook, Twitter, et al., how important is it that you know what a friend is going to have for dinner? Really.
Let’s get real and pay attention to the things that are important. We need to realize that is what vacations are for. Never mind the recharge the batteries scenario. That is corporate BS to justify giving you a vacation. Many people return from vacation exhausted and needing another one just to get going again. The real reason for vacations is to step back, learn about the world and yourself, have some new experiences and think about things in a different way! And, oh yeah, enjoy yourself! Sleep can wait until you return home!
Happy Entrepreneuring!!
Filed under News by on Oct 10th, 2010. Comment. 
October 14, 2010
This post on using agencies completes the short series on how to recruit. Previous posts focused on networking, advertising and cold or warm calling as part of my series on Hiring the Best People. You can contract with an agency for permanent hires, contractors, or permanent (or temp) to hire staff depending on your staffing plan.
If you have a short term project, seasonal ups and downs or expect a blip in business, you may want to consider going through an agency for contract or project help. Most agencies specialize in a particular industry which could be technical, clerical, financial, management, human resources or others. Agencies will generally have a roster or bench of people that want contract work as opposed to full time work.
You will need to let the agency know exactly what skills you need, the duration of the contract and what you are willing to pay. Most contractors work on an hourly rate as opposed to a salary or project rate. The agency will send you several candidates with the appropriate skills to interview. Once you’ve made your selection, your contractor or temp starts working. They will be on the agency’s payroll and the agency will bill you based on their markup, payroll taxes and insurance costs otherwise known as their burden. Once the work is completed, the contractor will move on to another company.
There are two different kinds of agencies for hiring permanent employees, retained or contingency agencies.
Let’s start with contingency. Under a contingency arrangement, you will contract with the agency to provide you with candidates for a particular position. After discussing the responsibilities, qualifications and pay range of the position, the agency goes to work. They may have some qualified candidates they are working with that they can forward to you immediately and set up interviews for you. These candidates will have already been interviewed by the agency so they should be qualified for the position.
If the agency does not have qualified candidates, they will begin searching for the right fit and skill sets. Only if you hire one of their candidates do you pay the agency. The agency fee is generally 20-25% of the first year’s salary. Most agencies offer some sort of pro-rated 90 day guarantee. Be clear on how this works before you sign a contract. You can use more than one agency for this type of search. However, if you use too many, most agencies won’t work with you.
Retained agencies operate differently. They get paid regardless of whether you hire their candidate or not. For each position contracted the agency will have the exclusive right to fill it. In all cases, you will pay their fee even if you hire a candidate that you find. Retained agencies will meet with you; understand the position and how it relates to your business. Once they have done that, they begin the sourcing process.
They look for folks who are generally employed performing the position duties, many times at your competitor. They will interest the person in your position and company. Once they have done that they will interview the person for appropriate skills and fit. Only then, will they send them on to you for your interview process. Once you have made your selection, they will help with the transition.
You can expect to pay about 35% of the total compensation expected for these types of searches. The agency will also bill you for search expenses separately.
This post completes the recruiting series! Next, I will explore the interview process where I will write about types of interviews, questions you may and may not ask and how to select the best candidate.
Happy Entrepreneuring!!
Filed under Hiring and Managing People by on Oct 14th, 2010. Comment.
October 18, 2010
A fictional, Aesop’s fable type tale about George, who in every way seems to be losing it, but just can’t pull it together! He has toiled as a middle manager for a company and is about to lose his job if he can’t come through. His marriage is on the line and he barely recognizes his kids. He is grumpy and tense. To top it off he hops in his car on a Monday morning and discovers he has a flat tire. His wife is busy and can’t get him to work and he has a project due in two weeks. In addition, he has lost the respect of his team, his staff that has to come through for him. He is panicked and forced to take the bus to work.
On the bus he meets Joy, the bus driver. She is full of, of course, Joy and lots of energy as are the riders on her bus. Over the course of two weeks of rides (George’s car has issues more serious than a flat tire), George learns 10 rules to fuel his life, work and team with positive energy. You follow along as George goes through each day learning a different lesson from Joy and the bus riders and applies them to his situation.
As George weaves his way through disgust at Joy to learning to listen to her, you smile at George’s foibles, relish Joy’s advice and just enjoy the story. He learns to recognize his errors, take control of his bus and start to drive where he wants his bus to go. Along the way he learns how to get his team to work with him and he changes his view on management and leadership. He infuses his team with positive energy and needless to say the project is successful and he saves his job and his team. He also uses the principles to infuse new life into his marriage and home life.
This book is very simplistic and superficial in its story. The principles are well accepted among great managers and life coaches equally. These principles can be applied to business or to life. They are principles that I have used for many, many years. However, it is a fun and fast read that will bring a smile to you as you read about George achieving success. Most of us can see a bit of George in ourselves.
Happy Reading!!
Filed under Book Reviews by on Oct 18th, 2010. 1 Comment.
October 21, 2010
Moving on to section II of the series on Hiring the Best People, I will cover the interview process. Section I of the series covered recruiting via networking, advertising, cold calling and using agencies.
Interviewing is a skill many entrepreneurs never master, but if they want to hire the best person for a position, they will need to master it. It makes the rest of running the company much easier with the right people in place. Some entrepreneurs will hire someone based on liking them, a referral from a friend or current employee or some other invalid reason. This series will show you how to hire the RIGHT person.
The purpose of the interview is two-fold, to ask questions and to answer questions. An interview completed properly will determine if your candidate has the skills to perform, the desire to perform and if they will fit into the culture of your company. If they lack any of these attributes, they cannot succeed and will end up being a bad hire. I know. I learned that lesson the hard way long ago. You are better off leaving a position open then filling it with a “body”.
There are several types of interviews, but the process will normally start with a phone screen. This may only last 10-15 minutes. First comes a little “small talk” where you can discern how they communicate and even answer questions like, “How are you today?” How they respond can give you great insight into attitude. Secondly, you will want to tell the candidate what the job entails and what skills are required. Through a quick series of questions, you can determine if they have the skills and at what experience level. If they have what you need, invite them for an interview. If they don’t, thank them for their time and send them on their way. Don’t waste time with people who don’t have the skills you need.
Two types of interviews can be effective depending on your comfort level. They are informal and formal.
Informal interviews generally happen in a social setting as opposed to an office environment. You will meet them for coffee, breakfast, lunch, dinner, anyplace other than your office. In an informal environment, your candidate will feel much more relaxed and the questions and answers will be more conversational, almost like going on a first date.
Formal interviews will take place in an office environment where the candidate can see and feel the company culture and meet others that work in your company.
The formal interviews can be one to one, a group interview or an interview day.
- One to one – Just you and your candidate where you dig deeply into their background and skills to determine if they can do the job and assess if they will fit into your organization. This interview can last anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour.
- Group or Panel – The candidate is interviewed by several people simultaneously. Each panel member has specific questions they ask based on their area of expertise and pecking order in the company. Those who are not asking questions are listening intently to answers and mannerisms of the candidate. Some will act as distraction and feign non interest in the whole process.
- Interview Day – similar to a panel interview except that the candidate is interviewed by each member of the panel individually. Some questions will be duplicated so interviewers can share answers later.
I can remember as a young turk going through all these types of interviews. One of the most grueling was being ushered into a large board room and staring at no less than
8 people who were staring back at me. They were seated around the board table and I was asked to sit in the “hot seat”. The panel consisted of some of the staff I would manage, peer managers of the position and the supervisor of the position. It was quite literally a 7 hour interview. They catered lunch in so other than a couple of very brief breaks it was “showtime” the entire time. I could feel several sets of eyes on me all the time. I guess I did well, they offered me the position a couple of days later!
Next week’s blog will cover the types of questions you should ask in an interview!
Happy Entreprenuering!!
Filed under Hiring and Managing People by on Oct 21st, 2010. Comment.
October 25, 2010
There has been some great give and take on money.cnn.com over whether entrepreneurship can be taught. A college student poses the question of whether he should major in entrepreneurship or engineering to get the skills he needs to start a business. He does not state what type of business.
In the responses (comments), both entrepreneurs and business schools/professors answer his question and pose others. The business schools argue they can teach methods and approaches to starting and running a business. The entrepreneurs, mostly, feel real world experiences and skills form the foundation of a successful business.
My personal opinion is that both matter and can be useful. Formal education or even a few selective courses can help you avoid pitfalls in the business world. Knowing how to speak and present your ideas to investors can be a vital skill learned in school. The how to present, what to present and how to package can be learned. Finance and accounting, crucial to success, can also be taught. You may not do the accounting, but you still need to know how to read profit and loss statements and balance sheets and understand them. Without that, you won’t know what questions to ask. All this can be taught.
On the other side, some things just can’t be taught in a classroom even though you might do case studies. In 5 Personality Traits of an Entrepreneur, I wrote about the traits an entrepreneur needs to be successful. These traits are supported by scientific studies that show most entrepreneurs inherit these traits.
Entrepreneurs have to have great people skills to be able to manage staff, investors, customers and vendors. They need to be able to sell, negotiate and think innovatively to be successful. These are not skills that can be taught.
Entrepreneurs require courage. They need to lead through adversity and see clearly where they are headed (especially if others tear down their ideas). But they also need to have the courage to adjust their plans and steer the company in a different direction if market conditions change. This is also a skill that cannot be taught.
My advice to anyone figuring out the answer to this question is to understand that learning, both formal or with mentors, and solid real world experience is essential. Get your degree in a skill you can use. Gain some work experience and pick up a couple of business courses. Then, go for it! Learn on someone else’s money. Now you will have both the skills and confidence to be successful.
The small business section of money.cnn.com has quite a good database of business questions posed with some excellent answers. The answers are written by business writers and most have solid comments from others following a topic. It is a really good source of information.
Happy Entrepreneuring!!
Filed under News by on Oct 25th, 2010. 1 Comment.
October 28, 2010
Last week I covered the different interview formats and styles. This week I write about the interview structure and the 5 major questions you must ask. Of course, the questions will vary somewhat depending on the position you are filling. Even so, the structure should be consistent.
You should start the interview with small talk. Your candidate is probably a bit nervous and this should help relax them. Conversations about current events in your industry, your community and even the weather are all good topics.
Once you are ready to begin, tell the candidate what you want to accomplish during the interview. Tell them you will discuss the position, their background and compensation and to assess if the position would potentially be a good fit. This lets them know the topics you want to discuss. It also puts you in control of the interview. As long as you stay on topic, you will not lose control.
You can start by describing the position at a high level. Talk about the duties and the responsibilities of the position. Bring up the skills required to perform well. Show them how and where the position fits in the organization. Also explain the expectations of the position.
Once they have this overview, ask a simple question like, “Is this position one that you can see yourself doing?” They will generally respond positively and explain why they are suited for it. Jot down their answer and come back to it later.
Next, ask a loaded question. “Tell me about your current (or last) position.” How they respond depends on what they think you want to hear. Some candidates will give you their job description, others will talk about their accomplishments while others will talk about what they like and dislike. Once they answer you have a pretty good indication of what drives them and what is important to them.
Next, you want to ask them, “Why are you looking for a new position?” Their answer gives you their motivation for moving. It could be changes in their role or culture or job requirements in their current company. It might be they are ready for a new challenge or more responsibility. You can focus the interview based on showing how your position and company can meet their objectives.
Focus on skills comes next. Do they have the skills to be successful in your position? Here you ask a series of questions that go like this; “This position requires X. Where have you used X and how have you used it? Give me some examples.” Continue this line of questioning until you are satisfied they have the skills you need and that they claim to have. This will be the bulk of your interview. You can use this to determine management skills as well.
It is essential to find out about their current compensation so that if you want to offer them a position, you know what you need to offer to get them onboard. This series of questions provides the answers you need.
What is your current (or last) base pay?
Do you get bonuses (or commissions)? How does that work?
If you walk away today, what do you leave behind? It could be unpaid bonuses, restricted stock or something else.
Are you under any non-compete or non-solicit? This is particularly important if they work for a competitor.
Once you have completed your questioning, ask them if they have any questions. Most people will have a few questions. Some will even pull out a sheet of paper where they have written down questions to ask. Answer their questions clearly and succinctly.
Now that you have answered their questions, let them know what the next steps will be. Thank them for their time and let them know you will be back in touch with them once a decision has been made.
Happy Hiring!!
Filed under Hiring and Managing People by on Oct 28th, 2010. Comment.
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