Tuesday, September 10, 2013

6 Rules For Hiring a Team

6 Rules For Hiring a Team

Link to Small Business Trends

6 Rules For Hiring a Team

Posted: 09 Sep 2013 08:00 PM PDT

Hiring a team

No business grows by itself. Businesses are well-oiled machines (hopefully) that have people, infrastructure, and a set of systems working together to produce things or services of value.

As a business owner, you need to be working on your business not in it.

Hiring a team, and helping them grow, is one of  those things we do to work “on” our business.  And it’s one of the hardest things to do in business.   Tough or not, there are rules for hiring and building a team:

1. Don't hire friends and family – without thinking twice

Ask Nellie Akalp, CEO of Corpnet.com, about this one, and you’ll likely get an earful.  She wrote a piece on the worst business advice for small business owners, and the first one she points to is "hiring people you know."

Business owners often look for immediate help from among their friends and family.

Here’s the thing:  you are in business and not in a family get-together. Hiring people you know isn’t a good enough reason by itself to hire. While there's a strong element of trust here, there may be nothing in terms of validated skills and attitude — key parameters that go into decision-making to hire people to work for your business.

Further, if you have to fire the employee (which could happen), a drama ensues instead of an exit interview. It may be quick and easy to hire family and friends, but far harder to disentangle.  Imagine what it will feel like if you have to fire your friend or a close family member.  That alone may cause you to look elsewhere.

2. Write a good job description

A weak hiring process leads to mistakes that can be expensive.  Why?  You’ve wasted time recruiting and interviewing, only to bring someone in who it turns out was a bad fit.  The person doesn’t last long — either leaving in disappointment or being let go.  Before you know it, you’re recruiting again.

Meanwhile, the work is not getting done. Existing employees are feeling overburdened.  Yet, you’re back to square one.   The entire process ends up consuming more time and money than if it had been done right to begin with.

Start with a thorough job description  – not some vague sense of what you want.  Now, I know this sounds like common sense, but let me tell you, this is often treated as unimportant busywork.  It’s anything but. You need a job description not just for you, but for others.

  • Other managers and coworkers within your company need the job description.  They may have differing ideas on what is required for the position. Don’t assume everyone (a) knows, or (b) agrees.  Putting together a job description and discussing it internally helps get everyone on the same page.
  • The candidate needs the job description.  In my former life as the head of Human Resources for a unit of NYSE company, on occasion we would have someone take a job, only to turn around and leave within the first 60 days.  Why?  Sometimes it was due to not fitting into the company culture.   But just as often, the job wasn’t as the person envisioned.  The duties, it turns out, were actually different from those they expected.
  • You need the job description for you.  Until the job description is put together, you may not consciously think about what you need, especially if it is a new position.  The act of creating and reviewing a job description will force you to pinpoint your true needs.  When I’ve gone through the exercise, I’ve ended up at times with something quite different. For instance, instead of needing a marketing person, I might have realized I actually needed a sales person.

Writing job descriptions is tedious, I know.  But think of it as creating a solid foundation for the rest of the recruiting and hiring process.

3. Hire for attitude

Mark Murphy, the author of Hiring for Attitude, reveals in a study that tracked more than 20,000 new hires, that 46% failed within 18 months. A surprising insight from the research was that 89% of the new hires failed because of attitudinal reasons and only 11% had to quit jobs because of lack of skills.

Mark further states that while technical skills can be easier to assess for employers and easier to learn for new hires, attitude is a gray area, which is hard to assess.  Also, you can't train people on attitude (at least not as efficiently as you can train them on skills). Mark helpfully provides 6 tips on hiring for attitude as an afterthought.

Bottom line: yes, skills are very important.  But skills aren’t the only thing.  Skills are what you use to weed out the candidate pool.  Attitude is what you use to select the right person from among the qualified candidates.  And attitude is something that you can assess during the interview process.

4. Learn how to interview when hiring a team

Most businesses just don't get it. Interviewing is a skill that must be practiced and learned just like any other skill. Behavioral questions that employers ask during interviews are not always the right mode of asking questions and are plagued with mistakes.

Carrie Sloan of Fox Business points to a few confessions HR experts made related to their mistakes in interviews.

I prefer to think of the interviewing process as a mutual information sharing session, rather than a test.  Each side — interviewer and interviewee — needs to gather enough information to decide.  The interviewee needs to decide that the position and company are right for him or her.  And the company, of course, has to decide the candidate has the qualifications and attitude, and will fit into the company culture.

Try to structure the interview so that each side gets enough time to talk.  Don’t dominate the interview  in your zeal to tell the candidate all about the company.  Ask open ended questions to draw the person out, not just “yes or no” questions.  You’ll learn the most by observing and listening to the answers to those open-ended questions.

It’s best to jot down questions ahead of time, after reviewing the person’s resume. Don’t try to wing it. You may overlook key items you need to know.

Besides, you’ll be too busy thinking up the next question, to read body language and listen.  That’s what you really need to do in an interview.

Include others in the interviewing process, too.  Schedule candidates to spend a half hour each with key coworkers and managers on your team.  Have a team debrief after the interview, to get input and try to reach consensus.  Then your existing team will be invested in the success of the person who ultimately gets the job.  If you bring someone in without consulting others, in some organizations the existing people will resist that new person.  You want to give that new hire every possible chance for success.

5. Find “passive” candidates

By passive candidates, I don’t mean passive personalities.  The Adler Group recently conducted research on LinkedIn where 83% of employed professionals classified themselves as "passive candidates," i.e. ones who aren't looking for jobs.

As such, the entire recruitment industry technically operates on only 17% of all available and employable personnel pool. For small businesses, that's a huge pool of employable talent that's missing from the regular hiring process!  You should try to tap into that pool.

On Ere.Net, Lou Adler – the CEO of Adler Group – points out  a few ways.   For instance, he suggests creating an “ideal persona” for the job including demographics; career and personal needs; and the most likely companies to source from.   Also, in the first 5 minutes be prepared to tell the person about the terrific advantages of working with your company:  career growth, cultural fit, life/work balance, and the great team you already have.

Those sorts of things help you entice the “not currently looking” candidate.

6. Build your team with a vision, clarity of purpose, and training

You developed a proper system to hire people and then put them to work. Yet, work barely happens.

The real key to hiring a team is what you do after the job offer is made:

  • Employees need to know what’s expected of them.  Are you guilty of not using clear instructions?  Does your business lack documented processes and systems?  Does confusion reign?  Training and systems are crucial.
  • They need to see the big picture.  Explain the vision and try to help employees see it – describe it again and again.  We learn through repetition.
  • They need positive reinforcement.  Do you always point out what’s wrong, instead of what employees did right?  Is recognition for a job well done unknown in your organization?
  • Employees need a sense of purpose.   Help them see that they are doing important work that matters.  Your job is to help them feel  needed, excited, motivated.

Team building isn't a job, it's an art. It's a fragile skill that has people involved, including a collective set of emotions, desires, self-propelled goals, varying purposes, and different personality types.  It takes work.  People have feelings and ideas and desires — and you have to figure out how to read them and try to accommodate them, so you can retain them.   It’s not an easy thing.  It’s not a one shot deal.  It’s what you need to do everyday.

You will have times when you backslide, because no manager is perfect.  Don’t beat yourself up. Come back the next day and try to be a better leader.

Which of these rules do you follow? What does your process for hiring a team look like from the inside?

Team image via Shutterstock

The post 6 Rules For Hiring a Team appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Evaluate Your Website to Learn More About Mobile Shoppers

Posted: 09 Sep 2013 04:00 PM PDT

mobile shoppers

While the global economy continues to see limited growth, there is one area that is continuing to see a massive expansion – mobile eCommerce, often referred to as mCommerce. It has been estimated that around 48% of consumers use their mobile devices to browse for products and mobile traffic is believed to surpass desktop traffic by 2015.

When a mobile user reaches your site, what is their experience? Is it smooth or complicated? To dig deeper, you have to immediately start optimizing your site for mobile.

Do you face difficulty measuring your mobile site? Is it not generating enough leads? How do you intend to provide great mCommerce capability? If you are equipped with endless questions, let me help you evaluate your mobile commerce site to ensure that your business also sees the right level of growth.

Understanding the following metrics is sure to make your site mobile-friendly.

Get Insight into the Mobile World

Before understanding the metrics, you should know exactly what to measure. To accomplish this, make the most of the analytics tracking software popularly known as Google Analytics. The software helps you to track campaigns, bounce rates, cart abandonment and even those products that bring in maximum revenue. You must first understand the way overall traffic pattern emerge from the performance of mobile.

The following three metrics will help you track user acquisition from different sources:

  • Number of visits: How many people visit your website from a mobile device?
  • Number of unique visits: How many different people have visited your website?
  • Total page views: How many times are pages on your site viewed?

The most interesting thing you can track is how acquisition metrics change over time. You can see how the ratio of mobile to desktop traffic changes.

Learn User Behavior

The following three metrics will track users behavior to provide insights into whether a site is moving towards its goal.

  • Page per visit: How many pages are viewed during a single visit on a mobile device?
  • Time on site: How much time does each visitor spend on your mobile website?
  • Bounce rate: How quickly do users turn away?

You can classify the mobile users into three categories of interaction:

  • Browsing while bored: These people seek entertainment while waiting in line at the bank or in public.
  • Browsing something urgent: These people seek sensitive information about a particular situation such as the next movie showtime or the nearest restaurants.
  • Repetitive browsing: These people seek time sensitive information such as sports scores or stock quotes.

Understanding the mobile visitor's 'user mode' sheds more light on the behavior metric over time. This is critical as mobile shoppers have several restrictions. Their experience is impacted by the device they use as well as the bandwidth of their Internet connection. So it is important to understand whether you are managing these aspects or ignoring them completely.

Get the Conversion Rate

The following two metrics track user conversions and the value of each of them. The results show how mobile visitors contribute to a site's bottom line.

  • Conversion rate: How many visitors proceed to the next step, such as registering or requesting more information or whether or not to purchase selected products.
  • Average order size: This tracks what the average dollar amount per order is.

Concentrate on Optimizing the Design of Your Site

Richness and grandness will certainly not work with mobile websites. Mobile websites need to be precise to achieve better visibility. Remember that browsing a site on mobile devices can only be faster if the Internet connection is fast. Therefore, design the content and other elements of your site with an aim to make it mobile-friendly.

As each mobile device has it’s own characteristics, it is crucial to adapt to a responsive design template. All mobile devices differ in terms of the type of site content as well as volume. For instance, an iPad screen is more comfortable in displaying rich visual content when compared to the iPhone. Therefore, to offer easy browsing functionality, your site should be optimized so it can be viewed properly from an iPhone.

Responsive design can ensure that the entire site, including the home page, can be built, designed and used anywhere, anytime and on any device.  Not only this, a site built using responsive design is also capable of detecting the nature of inbound traffic generated by your site in smartphones, iPhones, tablets or iPads.

Evolving mCommerce promises online business retailers promising outcomes in the coming years. So as you track metrics, you can get a comprehensive understanding of how a mobile website attracts customers and directs them to consider taking an action and then moving them to complete that action.

Tablet Shopping Photo via Shutterstock

The post Evaluate Your Website to Learn More About Mobile Shoppers appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Apple Lets You Trade In Your iPhone, iPad or MAC

Posted: 09 Sep 2013 01:30 PM PDT

Apple recycling trade in program

If your business has iPhones, iPads, MACs or other Apple devices lying around the office in good working order but no longer used, take note.

Those devices could be turned into credit for newer Apple electronics thanks to a new program.

Apple Offers Reuse and Recycling Program

Apple is now allowing customers to send in iPhones, iPads, Macs and even other PCs, either laptop or desktop, to be evaluated to determine if they can be reused.

If so, Apple contractor PowerON will determine the fair market value for the device. Users will receive an Apple store credit in the amount usable for new technology at any Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store.

If the device is not reusable, Apple will still recycle it at no cost.

How to Participate

If you would like to determine whether there might be value in any of your office computers and mobile devices, you can start by visiting the Apple recycling program page on the Apple website. Once there you can determine whether your device qualifies for the reuse and recycling program.

If so, PowerON will provide a prepaid option for you to ship the device and after final evaluation, your Apple Gift Card will be sent to you if it qualifies for trade-in value.

Media reports say some Apple Retail centers are also allowing customers to walk in used iPhones for possible trade-in at the stores, as well.

For more information on the program as a whole, visit the Apple website and check for further details.

The post Apple Lets You Trade In Your iPhone, iPad or MAC appeared first on Small Business Trends.

5 Questions to Answer Before Launching Your “I Have A Dream” Business

Posted: 09 Sep 2013 11:00 AM PDT

dream business

The ”I Have a Dream” speech was delivered by American activist Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28, 1963, in which he called for an end to racism in the United States. It was delivered to over 250,000 civil rights supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. It was a stunning sight.

Do you have a dream to start your own business?  I did. But, starting your own business is a very serious commitment today. It's not easy to do, sustain, pull off and you may not be cut out for it.

As I look back on my own endeavor and path, after voluntarily leaving corporate America in 2006 and launching my business in 2007, I probably should have asked myself some additional qualifying questions before taking the leap. It's a decision, I would absolutely make again.

It has been a challenging, winding and gratifying road and I know it is a decision that was right for me at the time, but it's not right for everyone.

There are a few key reasons why new businesses fail: Lack of experience, insufficient capital, competition no dedicated sales and marketing plan.

If you really want to leave your day job and take the leap into starting your own business, do a comprehensive self evaluation. Going into this kind of commitment with open eyes, comprehensive preparation, all the tools and resources needed to succeed, will greatly impact getting through your first year and hopefully beyond.

Below are 5 key questions to answer before launching your “I have a dream” business:

Is This Really What I Want To Do?

It's so important to be deeply committed and passionate about the kind of business you want to start or be in. Be brutally honest. If you don't love it don't do it.

Is My Idea a Marketable, Bankable Idea That Fills a Viable Niche

Make sure there is a viable market and niche for what you are offering that you can make money with. If it’s too narrow it might be hard to market. Going big doesn't always work, so going smaller with a dedicated market niche can be very successful.

Am I Qualified to Take on This Endeavor?

Basic skills normally only go so far. Make sure you have no skill gaps when it comes to knowing everything about your product or service and how it can help people. Become an expert and leader. Focus on exceptional and unexpected customer service that people will talk about.

Do I Have a Dedicated Business, Sales and Marketing Plan?

Being good at what you do is not enough. A simple business blueprint that outlines what you do, how it works, how much it costs, how people can find you is a must. Incorporate results and testimonials with a realistic sales, marketing and social media strategy and always invest in some professional branding.

Do I Have the Capital and Cash Reserves to Get Me Through the First Year?

The biggest reason businesses don't make it past the first year is they are undercapitalized and don't have the realistic cash reserves to live on while the business is growing. Know how much you need monthly for the first 12 months and if you don't have that in reserve, rethink the launch.

From one of the most successful professional athletes of all time Michael Jordan:

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.

Launching your own business requires consistent, strategic trying, so make sure you’re in.

Don't romanticize starting a business, professionalize it. Put everything in place to set you and your business up to progress and grow. Be realistic, pay constant attention to what is working and what is not and don't be afraid to change things up or walk away.

Here are some essential resources about starting and running a business from the SBA and SCORE that can be crucial your first year.

I had a dream, took the leap with faith in February 2007 and through commitment, consistency and the willingness to change and learn, I am still standing and continuing to move forward.

If you are ready to take the entrepreneurial leap and have prepared yourself to succeed, by all means go for it.

Dare to dream – it’s quite exciting really.

Dream Photo via Shutterstock

The post 5 Questions to Answer Before Launching Your “I Have A Dream” Business appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Amazon Introduces New, Improved Kindle E-Reader

Posted: 09 Sep 2013 08:00 AM PDT

new kindle paperwhite

Small business owners and other entrepreneurs on the go will soon have an even better solution for taking important reading material with them. Amazon has introduced another Kindle e-reader, the new Kindle Paperwhite.

In an open letter to visitors of Amazon’s main site last week, CEO and founder Jeff Bezos explained:

The new Paperwhite is our best ever, with a new higher contrast display, the next generation of our built-in light, a powerful new processor, and the latest touchscreen technology.

New Kindle Paperwhite Offers Many Features

There are a few of these features that immediately jump out in hands on reviews like the one below.

First, Amazon has improved the lighting technology on the new Kindle Paperwhite. The new device is said to offer a brighter display for reading, even in sunlight, without being hard on the eyes.

Second, the new Kindle Paperwhite offers 25 percent faster processing speed than its predecessor translating into more rapid page turning more closely simulating the experience of paging through a book or magazine.

Other features include a Smart Lookup function which Amazon says allows you to look up a word, character, setting or other detail in the text via Wikipedia without ever losing your page.

Amazon also touts features like Page Flip, intended to let you, as the name implies, flip through an ebook page by page, chapter by chapter or skip to the end without loosing your spot.

But most important of all may be the device’s ability to retain a charge, translating into the amount of time you can go on reading remotely without needing to plug in.

Amazon claims the new Kindle Paperwhite can go up to eight weeks without recharging. (That’s based, of course, on a half hour reading wireless per day, so the average user may certainly need to charge it more often.)

The new Paperwhite will start at $199 with added features and connectivity available at an additional cost. The device should be available by September 30.

Image: Amazon

The post Amazon Introduces New, Improved Kindle E-Reader appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Small Business Capital Spending Remains Weak

Posted: 09 Sep 2013 05:00 AM PDT

Capital expenditures – purchases of assets that will benefit a company for at least one year – dropped dramatically during the Great Recession. Federal Reserve data show that capital spending of non-financial companies declined by 35 percent between 2007 and 2009, when measured in inflation-adjusted terms.

Capital spending has recovered, but the level in 2012 remained 11 percent below that in 2007, when assessed in real terms.

Sluggish investment by small business is at least partially responsible. The latest Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, a quarterly survey of approximately 600 U.S. small business owners, shows that the fraction of small business owners planning to increase capital spending over the next 12 months remains weak by historical standards. While more small business owners were planning to increase capital spending than decrease it in every quarter between 2003 and 2008, the fraction of owners planning to increase and decrease capital spending has been roughly equal since the end of the Great Recession, the survey reveals.

The National Federation of Independent Business's (NFIB) monthly small business survey shows similar patterns. In July 2013, 23 percent of owners planned to make a capital expenditure in the next three to six months, four percentage points below the fraction that planned to make a capital investment in July 2007.

Actual spending patterns remain equally weak. According to the third quarter 2013 Gallup/Wells Fargo Small Business Index, more small business owners reported that they had decreased capital spending over the previous 12 months than increased it, a pattern that has prevailed since mid-2008. Fifty-four percent of the small business members of the NFIB reported in July that they had made at least one capital expenditure in the previous six months, less than the in 58 percent that reported a capital purchase in July 2007.

While the data are spotty, small business's capital spending plans appear weaker than those of big business. In the first quarter of 2013 – the latest period for which big and small company data are available – 38 percent of the chief executives of major corporations surveyed by the Business Roundtable said they expected to increase capital spending over the next six months. By contrast, only 22 percent of small business owners told surveyors from Wells Fargo/ Gallup that they planned to increase capital spending over the next 12 months, when contacted at a similar time.

One reason for weak small business capital spending during the current economic expansion has been the continued poor financial position of many small companies. The fraction of businesses that reported having increased capital spending in the Gallup/Wells Fargo Small Business Index quarterly survey correlates 0.92 with the fraction that reported good or very good cash flow, and correlates 0.93 with the fraction reporting good or very good financial situation, over the 40 quarters between third quarter of 2003 and the third quarter of 2013. Because a lesser fraction of small businesses has been strong financially since the Great Recession began, a lesser fraction of small businesses has had the money to make capital investments, contributing to subdued capital expenditure levels.

Getting the share of small businesses in a good financial position back to pre-recession levels may be necessary to return overall capital spending to 2007 levels.

The post Small Business Capital Spending Remains Weak appeared first on Small Business Trends.
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