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10. January 2010 by Noel Guilford.
OK, so now you’ve found your way down that long path to business ownership. First, congratulations! You have done something that many only dream of and even fewer have the courage to pursue that dream. Over that rise, past your opening day, lies a expansive land full of responsibilities and challenges…many of them daily. For those people with enough foresight and vision it gets easier over time. The reality is that most business owners have no experience and often feel lost even after many years of running their first or even second business. If any business owner should find themselves in this position there is no shortage of assistance out there for those that look.
Of all the obstacles faced, nothing compares to how difficult people-management can be, especially in today’s work force. You can go absolutely mad trying. The most commonly used tactic is to find someone else to deal with it. Sounds easy right, well who is going to manage that person? If anyone needs sound and consistent leadership it’s the middle management. To manage a strong leader takes an even stronger leader. This is all considering that the right person can be found, hired, trained, compensated, and retained. I wont take the time here to discuss the possibility of doing that when there is a more effective and rewarding option available.
Unfortunately the “no wait, right now” society that we have become totally conflicts with the time and effort needed to effectively mentor anyone. Yes I said it! That person with the extensive resume and years of experience didn’t crash land in your lobby. They were made just like me, just like you. Someone molded and honed the well qualified professional aspirant looking to fill a position in your business. Good thing you found them and they you. If you haven’t yet found a gem of a worker for yourself then make one.
Take the hand of an employee with the determination and drive to excel and push them. Some of my most rewarding experiences has been laboring over the spark of potential and watching it grow. The biggest benefit to hatching your own egg is you get the desired experience necessary to fit your needs and the needs of your business with the added factor of the earned loyalty.
This is the real world and these eggs hatch and sometime move on to bigger and better opportunities. What I will leave you with is this - If a protege of yours needs to grow beyond you and your organization and has the chance to do so consider it the highest compliment to your ability to lead that you will ever receive. So find an employee worth the effort and sit on them.
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28. December 2009 by Susan Kempton-Smith.
How do you know for sure that you’ve made the right hiring decision? You don’t, or at least you can’t be absolutely sure until the new hire has passed the test of time. What you can do is take some practical steps to reduce your risk of hiring the wrong person.
Step 1 - Without a road map you’ll be flying blind, so make sure that before you begin your search for the perfect employee, you develop a job description that truly encompasses necessary hard and soft skills.
Step 2 - Eliminate the candidates whose resumes suggest a less than perfect fit.
Step 3 - Screen the candidates for hard skills. You can determine the qualification potential of applicants by devising questions that can be administered over the phone, saving both of you time and money. For example, if a job requires specific computer skills, you can ask software-specific questions to help determine their skill level.
Step 4 – Have the applicant fill out an application and have them email or fax it to you prior to the face-to-face interview. This process helps to answer several questions. When driving is a job requirement, then a space for driving history should be included on the application. This can reveal DUIs or excessive speeding tickets, which would be probable reasons for elimination.
Step 5 – The face-to-face interview. This is the time to get to know the applicant.
Step 6 – Picture them in your environment.
Finally, remember that skills can be taught. Personalities can’t. You can only expand what’s already there. It’s impossible to build on something that doesn’t exist.
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19. August 2009 by The Original Bulldog - Bob Griffin.
The time when most people find out whether they are going to be good in business is when they are in school. No, not college or even high school, but in elementary school. That is when all the bad habits form and when the true nature of the entrepreneur rises. In school you were taught to wait and follow the rules. Line up, sit down, eat now, do this, go here or there. All independent thought is squeezed out of you.
The worst thing you could do in school was to look at the teacher because you may be called on to answer a question and being laughed at by your peers if you answer incorrectly - what a horrible thought. So, you were taught to keep your head down, follow along, and do not speak up or question things. Keep your head down and just follow the rules was your new mantra.
The true entrepreneur is that kid who asks too many questions. He finds ways to make things go more quickly and more efficiently, and is always, always in trouble for thinking for himself. School, from elementary school to college, is NOT the place to ask questions or offer new opinions. It is a place where real ideas go to die.
Can you tell I resent the waste of time I spent in those halls of supposed learning?
I tell my son, and I mean it with all my heart and soul, “Smart is what you do!” Intelligence isn’t in a book even though you do need to know things from books to do a job well. It also isn’t with a teacher who just rambles on about a subject, although there is something of value in those lectures (if you listen). Intelligence is when you take something you learned and do something new with it to make your world better. Entrepreneurs understand that from the day they are born. If more schools got kids out of their chairs and asked them to prove theories and create things the world would change overnight.
I have been supportive of my son who is a real entrepreneur. I encourage his new ideas, his inventions (no matter how outlandish they are), and his experimentation (although I draw the line at what he wants to do to my car). He is great with numbers, an outgoing person, and can see things that I do not. I listen and let him tell me a story about what he wants to see happen. At the age of three he came up with his own franchise. We are still working a few details out, but it will be great because in his mind he can see every detail. Can you imagine if you were given that kind of encouragement at a young age?
He gets in trouble at school for talking out of turn, for trying to do things he knows are right, and for doing things too quickly because he sees them as a time waster. I know this is something he is not going to out grow, but rather something he is going to learn to deal with until his time is done there. Smart kids figure out a way, don’t they?
Entrepreneurs drive people crazy (sorry teachers). They can’t help it. They think differently, act differently, and are not a ”follow the directions” kind of person. We all know someone like this…some people just need to look in the mirror. Entrepreneurs are the people who see past what is there to what we can do better. Thank goodness for them. I wouldn’t have the Business Bulldog brand if I had not seen how business could be run better.
I guess you would have to create a new sub-category for me and people like me, though. I see how things are and spend my days working to help others create their own path to success. Working with entrepreneurs is like herding cats sometimes and other times it is like running with the bulls. Sometimes you are lucky to get one person on the right path and sometimes you are lucky to get out of the way while they are running down a path.
I am sure you have some people around you that drive you crazy with questions or ideas that may seem plucked from some science fiction book. Do yourself a favor - shut up and listen. Hire at least one person like this. Encourage them to develop their ideas. Encourage them to ask more questions. Finally, encourage them to do something - Smart is what you do, right?!?
I want to encourage all of you to post a question on this site or even ask me a question directly. I am at bgriffin@businessbulldog.com.
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21. March 2009 by The Original Bulldog - Bob Griffin.
Bulldog Rule # 14 - The right people never want to work with the wrong people
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