How to Create a Minimum Viable Product

There are only a handful of scenarios in the history of the U.S. that truly changed the way capital works: the Great Depression, Savings and Loan Crisis in the ’80s, and the most recent Great Recession, to name a few. The latest financial catastrophe has reminded the world that you cannot throw your cash into a hole and expect a money tree to grow.

More to the point, startup founders can no longer take an unproven idea and expect investors to line up with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of offers to help build something testable. You must be more proactive.

What’s beautiful about this so-called “problem” is that technology has advanced to a stage that allows us to create functional products we can prove and test before we go and seek substantial funding for our ideas. One of the most important principles in startups today revolves around the idea of a Minimum Viable Product, or MVP. An MVP is the absolute bare minimum service or product that will allow you to get users, buyers, clients, etc. to see how they interact with your main idea. The goal is to spend as little as humanly possible in order to begin getting user feedback (which may not come directly from the user, but from an embedded ‘analytic’ function) so that you can iterate or change your product/process as needed to make it better. A great book titled “The Lean Startup” by Eric Ries is a must-read regarding the basics of the MVP.

For example, when we initially came up with the idea for BottleCamo, we needed to prove the basic concept worked first. So we made an extremely inexpensive prototype by using a hacksaw to cut a stainless water bottle in half in the garage, then stuffed it with neoprene. That was our MVP. It proved to be a lot more successful than we had originally intended.

Numerous resources exist to help you with your MVP. For example, if you intend to create a mobile app, try POP: Prototyping on Paper. POP will allow you to manually draw out your vision, with pen and paper, then upload images of the drawings and add functional buttons that link to other pages and features. In a very simple few steps, you can create the basic look and feel of your app as you click through to various pages and interfaces. With the back-end skeleton framework complete, you will be much more able to program the front end of your MVP vision.

Not building an app? Not to worry. As you decide upon the service or product that you intend to create for the problem you intend to solve, visualize all of the wonderful things you want this new company to do — and then throw them out the window. Start with one basic principle or functionality that is the foundation of the solution. When you’ve devised your principle, you can easily and inexpensively purchase a domain, quickly put up a website or landing page through WordPress, insert an analytic function in your site through Google Analytics and use Google AdWords to test keywords. This may seem complicated, but it’s not. (Tip: Just go to YouTube for detailed instructions on any of these steps.)

This will allow you to list an ad through Google and very inexpensively, see how many people are clicking on your ad and ending up at your website. This is the first step to proving your basic concept. Once you get past the initial steps, one of the best ways to truly test your model and message is through a crowdfunding platform like Fundable.com. This will give you the opportunity to pre-sell product to your early adopters.

After you have launched your MVP and have collected some early users and data, you can use that extremely valuable information to seek funding or take other next steps necessary to grow.

Congratulations — you’ve now mitigated at least some of the risk to potential investors and proven the basics of your business model.

A version of this article originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Adam Callinan is the Co-Founder/Co-CEO of BottleCamo, the simple yet practical solution to the warm beer and broken bottle epidemics that have plagued the world for centuries. Adam is also the Founder/CEO of PiCK Ventures, Inc., the parent company of PiCK, a mobile wine technology company. Adam and his wife Katie live in Manhattan Beach, California. Follow Adam on Twitter @Adam_Callinan & @BottleCamo

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

Do You Look At Employees’ Social Media Accounts

Question: As CEO, be honest — do you look at potential employees’ social media accounts? If yes, what is it you expect to see from someone you WOULD hire (vs. wouldn’t)?

Positive and Professional

“Whenever we are vetting new team members, we tend to do a little Internet sleuthing to find out more about the person. Social media accounts are a huge part of that. We will look at Twitter and Facebook accounts to get a feel for their communication style and attitude. A positive attitude and professional communication give us confidence that their interaction with clients will be the same.”

– Erin Blaskie | CEO, Erin Blaskie, Digital Strategist

Part of the Application

“I ask for links to all social media accounts right on the job application, and always check them out before contacting the person for an interview. The reality these days is that all of your employees represent your company, and they need to be aware that what they do and say is public. If I see a Twitter account or public Facebook page filled with angry, negative rants, that person is out!”

– Laura Roeder | Founder, LKR Social Media

Don’t Actively Look

“I don’t actively browse people’s accounts because I don’t want to see what they do in their private life; that’s not what I am hiring them for. However, if candidates send me their profiles for me to learn more about them, I click. If nothing is hidden, it’s a downside because they come across as taking privacy lightly. I prefer to get a link to a well-maintained résumé site or a LinkedIn profile.”

– Christian Springub | CEO and co-founder, Jimdo

Both Potential Employees and Current Employees

“I regularly monitor social media accounts of my employees. Negative things that I watch out for are excessive profanity, inappropriate photos, and explicit and/or suggestive conversations. It gives you a window into who somebody really is as a person. Every single one of my employees represents my brand. Therefore, I want people who present themselves in a way consistent with our image.”

– Richard Lorenzen | CEO, Fifth Avenue Brands

Let Yourself Shine Online

“Definitely. I personally maintain a private Twitter list of potential hires and monitor them over time, for example. But I’m primarily looking for familiarity with social media, a sense of humor, and a true passion for what our company is doing. Consistent negative updates are usually a deal-breaker.”

– Derek Flanzraich | CEO and Founder, Greatist

A Quick Glance

“I will look at the social media account of anyone I’m considering adding to my team — because of my field, I need to hire people who are already web savvy. But I also expect to need to give them some training and guidelines on what I expect to see on their accounts in the future. These are new tools and people aren’t always aware of what’s appropriate initially.”

– Thursday Bram | Consultant, Hyper Modern Consulting

It’s Part of Your Brand

“Absolutely, I do. The first thing I look at is a potential hire’s LinkedIn account and who I know that’s connected to him or her. We work with our clients to make sure their LinkedIn profile displays their professional brand in a positive way, and I expect the same from a potential employee.”

– John Hall | CEO, Influence & Co.

Very Valuable Tool

“I want to know that they fit the job description. For some positions social media is not relavant, but for some, I want to know if they are who they say they are and if they would fit my company culture. Social media is a great way to connect with anyone and also find out information about anyone. It is a tool, so use it as such.”

– Louis Lautman | Founder, Supreme Outsourcing

In the Age of Transparency

“Sure, I check them out; I like to see leaders and influencers. I stay away from shy people. We are in the age of transparency, and I want the members of my team to feel comfortable sharing their details online.”

– Alexander Torrenegra | Co-founder, VoiceBunny

Absolutely Not!

“I see little to gain by snooping on prospective employees personal social media accounts. I would fully expect to find them engaging in completely unprofessional activities outside of work as they should be. I’m more concerned about what kind of game face they can put on when the suit up in the office and judge them on their professional performance alone.”

– Christopher Kelly | Co-Founder, Principal, Convene

Social Media Doesn’t Lie!

“People tend to always interview really well, and sometimes that means they choose to withhold certain information that prospective employers wouldn’t want to hear. Every employer should look at a potential employee’s social media to see how they truly behave as a person. as we’ve found this always does play into their work ethic and character in the workplace.”

– Warren Jolly | Co-founder, Affiliate Marketing

Time and Frequency

“Yes. During the interview process, we consider social media use in the context of time and frequency. If an applicant is consistently active during working hours, that is the only real red flag for our business — unless they are managing company social media accounts. For a social media specialist, online presence is a job requirement; otherwise, it’s a distraction.”

– Nick Reese | CEO, Elite Health Blends

Smile on Social Media

“In our business, we work with the public. Smiling and being friendly is important. I expect to see potential employee smiling in photos and socializing. If I see potential employees not smiling in any photos or posting photos of inappropriate behavior, I would not want that person serving my customers.”

– Nancy T. Nguyen | Founder/Sweet Sylist, Sweet T Salon

The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

Image: social media

Founder Spotlight: Matt Ehrlichman CEO & Co-Founder, Porch

Matt Ehrlichman is the CEO of Porch, where you can get inspired by the best home projects your neighbors have completed, see what any home project will cost, and find the best service professional your neighbors and friends recommend. Previous to Porch, Matt was a founder and CEO of Thriva (acquired by ACTV) and Chief Strategy Officer of Active Network (2011 IPO). Matt lives in Seattle, WA. Follow him @mattehrlichman.

Who is your hero?

My personal hero is Pete Carroll. My business hero is Warren Buffett.

What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?

No one will ever remember how much money you made or what your title was. They will only remember you for how you changed and impacted the world in a durable way. Because of this, I am on a mission to build a truly great company that improves the world one household at a time with Porch.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

The first company I ever started was a sports summer camp in Western Washington at age 14; later, I needed to transition the camp into new leadership. With the change in leadership, the camp failed to continue. Had I known better, I would have worked harder at diligently finding the best way to balance not only the camp sustainability but a successful exit as well.

What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?

I methodically organize my week to make sure I provide appropriate attention to our key efforts: management, consumer growth, product, marketing, and sales. During the first hour of each day, I speak with the respective discipline leader (walk and talks). We go over priorities and execution, and I roll up my sleeves to dig into subject matter challenges.

What’s your best financial or cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?

Entrepreneurs by nature make mistakes and take opportunistic risks. We track key financials and metrics that provide us with health and appeal for investors. The only one that matters at the end of the day is your last day. Keep strong watch on your cash runway end date, and ensure that you know what the date is with no revenue as well as with conservative estimates.

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

Turn the tables and ask your employees to give you a 360 review!

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

Success to me is building a truly great company that solves a really big problem. I will know that I am successful if I build a company that delights customers, creates beautiful experiences, helps millions of small businesses, and forms a culture and team passionate about embarking on a joint mission.

Want to Be an Entrepreneur? Then Get Your MBA (Really)

I am an entrepreneur — a moderately shocking fact for a kid from Cleveland, Ohio. What’s more shocking? I’m a very proud graduate of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Yep, I willingly left the workforce for two years in order to pay to attend business school.

There is a standard list of reasons why startup types mock MBA degrees:

An MBA is all about drinking
An MBA is all about partying
An MBA is all about “networking” (read: drinking and partying).

It’s true that you do not need an MBA to be an entrepreneur — actually, you don’t even need a B.A. (see: Zuckerberg, Mark). But I loved earning my MBA. I was able to co-found a business during school and learn from that experience. I was able to take time to think, refine and experiment. I was able to meet incredible people who have directly impacted the success of our business.

For those hoping to break into entrepreneurship, business school is an amazing path to do so because of its inherent opportunities:

Experiment within an incredibly forgiving setting. While in school, I worked on a business with three other classmates. The lessons we learned were invaluable: define roles early, work on a partnership agreement, get used to the grind of working on a startup, build a diverse team in terms of perspective and skill set. Equally valuable is that on any campus there’s an unparalleled wealth of resources – classmates, professors, undergrads and students in other departments like the Information and Computer Science schools.
Build a relevant local network. Being a successful entrepreneur requires you to be resourceful and to find answers to complex issues. Working hard and meeting smart people affords you not only their insight, but also that of their network. Building strong relationships through intense and ongoing interactions (like school projects, event planning, or yes, having fun) creates a large advocacy network. Your classmates will want to see you succeed, and they will happily introduce you to their friends who can help. Of course, business school is great for future business development. This is analogous to a management consultant who builds relationships with junior-level folks at client companies. In 10 years when they are both at a senior level, they will have a great working relationship.
Find your investors. Our lead investor is a great VC, Michael Berolzheimer, who graduated from Haas four years before me. The rest of the round is filled out with Cal grads, and folks whom I have met through warm introductions.
Hire a great team. Our Creative Director Ashil is a close friend’s cousin and our startup lawyer, Doug Bend, is another’s brother. Our Technical Director is a Cal undergrad whom I met while speaking to an entrepreneurship group. As we engage in hiring now, I can count on my classmates to provide great candidates.
Collect classwork that might actually come in handy. Business school was the first time I took a formal course in marketing, finance, accounting, sales and operations. Is a lot of it theoretical? Yes. Have I taken lessons from each class and applied them to Modify? Absolutely. Even more valuable were entrepreneurship classes from Steve Blank and Eric Ries, a startup workshop from Dave Charron in which I received the instant feedback every entrepreneur needs, and “Problem Finding, Problem Solving” class from Sara Beckman that gave me the beginning of a toolkit for creative problem solving and design thinking.

“You don’t know what you don’t know” is one of my favorite phrases. With the right attitude and the right goals, any work, educational, travel, or other experience will help you improve as an entrepreneur. Done right, business school can provide you the space to come up with that brilliant idea, the resources to execute it, and the support network that you will need during the entrepreneurial grind. And yes, it might provide people who are good at celebrating your successes too.

If you don’t believe me, just ask the entrepreneurial and venture capital guru Ben Horowitz from Andreessen Horowitz: maybe MBAs are undervalued.

Aaron Schwartz is Founder and CEO at Modify Industries, Inc., which designs interchangeable custom watches known as Modify Watches. He loves working on startup ideas and has spent innumerable (happy) hours advising friends and former students on how to grow their ideas.

5 Tips for Hiring Only the Best Startup Talent

Prior to launching my own startup, I spent a few years in the VC world. During that time, I regularly coached startup founders on how to best approach everything from cash flow issues to PR to acquisition strategies. When all was said and done, however, what I always found most fascinating were the elements of company growth, particularly in terms of human capital.

While technology may allow us to scale businesses exponentially (once we have identified the appropriate formula), hiring the right talent is still the most fundamental aspect of building a thriving business. The HR function of being a startup founder is perhaps the role we are least equipped to play. But it is, in my opinion, the most important.

Here are five tips for attracting and retaining talent that will support your vision, complement your strengths, and ultimately make your life easier – not harder:

1. Do some recon. If this were a potential date, you’d stalk that person (oh please, you know you would). Most talented people, unless they are fresh off the school boat, have a legacy. Chances are you can get to solid references via LinkedIn or your personal networks. Put on your CIA-slash-journalist hat and contact people your candidate has either worked with in the past or currently work with. Ask open-ended questions that allow references to draw their own conclusions without being forced into a yes or no answer.

2. Put them to work. Want to understand how someone will operate within the framework of your company? Give them a small project and see if they can hit a deadline. If it’s a developer related role, invite them to participate in an impromptu company hackathon. You get a pretty good idea of someone’s true colors after they are pulled out of their comfort zone. If excuses continually come up then they most likely aren’t the right fit. It’s not you. It’s them. Keep in mind, simply interviewing someone isn’t enough, and your gut can be wrong more often than you realize.

3. Are they are a culture fit? Startups don’t often have a defined culture. But it’s there. During the nascent stages of building a company, it’s extremely important that new hires understand the pace, values, and vision of the company – even if unspoken. Lou Gerstner is famous for giving powerful insights on hiring. In one of my favorite talks, I watched him draw a 2×2 matrix, where Talent/Ability made up one axis, and Culture/Fit made up the other axis. In a startup, anyone who isn’t outstanding in both can quite literally derail your efforts. No matter what, resist the urge to hire the genius who is also a “cultural disaster.” It will rip your company apart.

4. Assess characteristics and traits. You want personal characteristics that mimic business traits. If you’re hiring someone as your startup CFO to run a shoestring budget, it would be nice if they didn’t enjoy lighting their own money on fire. Again, these are all subjective – $72 biscuits are made for a reason after all. Make it easy on yourself. Find someone that lives/breathes/eats the traits that you want your business to exude. Three things I look for:

Special talent: What is the one capability they possess that no one else does? What is the skill that will enable them to provide leadership in a particular area of the company?
Willing to contradict you: This is crucial. Leaders can be wrong…frequently. When the team doesn’t step up to let the leader know, the business fails.
Smarter than you: Always hire A+ players. If you don’t for reasons you can control, then congratulations, at least now you know you’re a C player yourself.

5. Love ‘em or leave ‘em. In the end, humans make the world go ’round, and no matter how disruptive or groundbreaking your tech, people still run the show. Building a great team is imperative to early company success. If someone isn’t a fit, it’s time to say goodbye. Nicely, but quickly.

Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer is the co-founder & CEO of AirPR, a technology platform to increase PR performance. He was an Entrepreneur in Residence at Shasta Ventures and a Senior Associate at Sierra Ventures. He served as a Board Observer at Makara (sold to RedHat), and began his career as a technologist at Appian. Sharam graduated with honors with a BSE in Computer Science from Princeton and an MBA from Harvard.

Starting Up With Your Spouse? 8 Tips to Make It Work

When I was 24 years old, I started a business with my fiancé (now husband) and one of our best friends. Three years later, our business and marriage are stronger than ever (thankfully!) but not without a few bumps along the way.

If you’re considering starting a company with your spouse or significant other, or if you already have a business and you’re considering bringing your significant other into the mix, make sure to run through this checklist in order to avoid potentially major headaches down the road:

Have an emergency fund in place. Money is the number one cause of divorce, and cash flow tends to be the number one challenge for new businesses. When we first started out, we waited months to get our business cash flow in order and get paid. But we didn’t stress, because we had saved a personal emergency fund ahead of time.
Get an office as soon as possible. You shouldn’t run out and get an office right away, but see if you can start budgeting for an office or co-working membership as soon as possible. We spent the first year of our business working from home, but we also joined a co-working group and got together with other entrepreneurs twice a week at a local coffee shop just to get out of the house and find camaraderie. Co-working spaces often offer flexible part-time memberships that will give you a more budget-friendly opportunity to get out, meet new people and maintain sanity.
Know your personality types. I tend to draw my energy from being around other people, while my husband draws energy from focused time by himself. I have my best focus and energy in the morning, while he works best late at night. And I’m very focused on the big picture, while he does better with the details. By understanding our own strengths, we’re better able to find areas where we complement each other. Consider taking a personality assessment to figure out your individual strengths and how you can best work together.
Define your roles. Along with knowing your personality types, you should have clearly defined roles within the company. Write job descriptions for yourselves and set clear expectations about who will take on which tasks for the business.
Make a point to engage in separate hobbies. When you’re starting out, you’ll be spending a lot of long hours working together to get the business off the ground. It sounds strange to say, but it’s important to make a point to schedule activities apart. When we started our business, I got involved in the local photography community, while my husband got more involved with the organizations in the local startup scene. This added some balance to our lives and gave us something new to talk about outside of work.
Discuss your tolerance for risk. Because our business is our main source of income, my husband and I tend to be less risk-averse than we might be if we worked separately. We decided early on that we wanted to take a “slow and steady” growth path with no debt, loans or investments, but we reevaluate our views on tolerance for risk regularly.
Balance praise and constructive criticism. Make a point to thank each other for a job well done, and be kind about how you approach constructive criticism. In a close relationship, we often forget these basic rules of business.
Have a sense of humor. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Take time to find humor and happiness in the little things each day (I’ve been known to break into song and dance during the work day).

Starting a business with your spouse can be one of the most challenging and rewarding things you can do. There will be tears and laughter. There will be celebrations and frustrations. But in the end, there’s nothing like sharing the payoffs of working together toward a common goal with your life partner.

Allie Siarto is the co-founder of Loudpixel, a social analytics company focused on social media monitoring, insights, measurement and infographics. She also runs a project called Entretrip, a co-traveling experience for location independent entrepreneurs, and a digital marketing innovation podcast called The Apt Marketer.

image: justmarried

How to Choose Your Own Venture

As a professor of social entrepreneurship and an entrepreneur, people often approach me with all their ideas. They get overwhelmed with how to start choosing their first venture (or second, for that matter).

How do you start? Whether you are new to entrepreneurship or starting another venture, you begin the same way:

Uncover your strengths FIRST: Research suggests that the most successful enterprises (for-profit or social) leverage each individual’s or organization’s strengths. Begin with your staff and/or board and brainstorm. What do you already have or know? Think broadly about your unique assets. For me, my unique asset was my speaking ability. I was a debater in high school and have always loved to craft a great speech.

Evaluate your strengths: After you identify your strengths, vote on the top five to seven strengths that are most unique, have value to others, and are closest to your mission. Then, walk through the questions below for each strength. Questions to ask:

Is it different and distinct?
Who would value this strength?
How valuable is it? Do other options exist?
What is the market willing to pay for this strength?
Is this a long-term strength?

For me, my strength was my speaking ability. Through these questions, I realized that it was valuable to many different audiences and could present a long-term strength.

Identify opportunities from TOP strengths: After evaluating your strengths, think of all the opportunities that exist for that strength. For me, I could write speeches for others, write and present speeches myself, or teach others how to speak more effectively.

Assess your opportunities: After you identify your opportunities, vote on the top five to six opportunities and then walk through each question below to assess their promise based on ease of implementation, fit, and profit. Questions to ask:

Ease of Implementation:

Do we have the right internal expertise and capacity?
How complex is the opportunity?

Fit:

Does this fit with existing businesses?
Does this fit with our image?

Profit:

What are the startup costs?
What is the market demand and/or willingness to pay?
How soon can we expect a profit?

Based on this, you will have an objective assessment of which opportunities have the most promise.

Not every venture is viable. Success requires the right opportunity, the right timing, and the right process. Once you determine that all of these are aligned, take each opportunity and conduct a feasibility assessment. The feasibility assessment allows you to “fail early and cheaply” and helps you decide on a go or no-go decision. If the feasibility assessment is promising, the next step is developing a business plan to create a roadmap for your venture. Once you go through these steps, you will have the confidence that your venture is not only the best opportunity for you, but also a viable business venture for years to come.

A version of this post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Suzanne Smith, MBA is a serial social entrepreneur and bridges many disciplines, including serving on the National Board of the Social Enterprise Alliance, coaching nonprofits as Managing Director of Social Impact Architects and Co-Founder of Flywheel: Social Enterprise Hub, and educating future leaders as Adjunct Professor at the University of North Texas. She holds an MBA from Duke University, where she was a CASE (Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship) Scholar and continues to serve as a Research Fellow.

6 Pros and Cons of Hiring Remote Workers

Log on to a site like Odesk.com and you’ll quickly see profiles for the tens of thousands of workers based around the globe, ready to hire out their services for as little as $.50/hour. A few easy mental calculations reveal that this hourly rate works out to just $20/week and $1,020/year for a full-time staff member – numbers that sound awfully appealing compared to standard Western salary and compensation packages.

But the maxim that “most things that sound too good to be true, usually are” should certainly be applied to this situation. While remote workers have their place in an increasingly global labor market, hiring outside staff members isn’t the right fit for every company. Much depends on the job itself, too. For example, you may not want to outsource your core competencies.

If you’re considering hiring remote staff for your business, consider the following pros and cons first.

Advantages to Hiring Remote Workers

Costs: To be clear, it is possible to hire both domestic and foreign remote workers (and there are certainly pros and cons to each alternative). If you hire remote workers from developing countries, you’ll see the greatest cost savings in terms of hourly rates. But even if you hire remote workers from within your own country, you may still see some salary relief by hiring on an independent contractor basis (which minimizes your benefits and tax expenses) or by hiring remote workers from areas with lower costs of living.
Skill set access: Beyond the potential cost savings remote workers represent, hiring external employees may also give you access to skill sets that aren’t represented in your area. As an example, if you live in a rural community, your local employment pool may not have a good supply of digital media artists or developers using up-and-coming languages. Hiring remotely enables you to find the right people for your needs – no matter where on the planet they’re located.
Time utilization: For most professionals, there’s something tremendously appealing about the idea of firing off a project request to an international worker and having the same task completed by the time they’re waking up for coffee in the morning. And indeed, when managed correctly, remote workers in different time zones can maximize your ability to ensure that productive work is occurring at all hours of the day – whether you’re at the office, at the gym, out to dinner or asleep in bed. Just be sure that, even if your remote workers operate during your time zone’s night hours, you’re able to communicate with these remote employees throughout your own work day!

Disadvantages to Working With Remote Staff Members

Language barriers: If you choose to hire remote workers for whom your native language is a second language, be prepared to encounter at least a few challenges when it comes to translating project instructions across boundaries. Although foreign workers may be educated in basic English, they may not grasp the subtleties and complexities associated with U.S. slang or industry-specific business jargon.
Internet-based miscommunications: Even if your remote employees speak perfect, fluent English, get ready to face yet another communications challenge – the trouble associated with giving instructions for Internet-based work. When interacting with in-person employees, you’re able to provide clarifications, examples and further details on your project-based expectations. When all of your communications occur via email or online video or Web chat, some of these explanations may be misunderstood, leading to project delays and/or extra costs.
Turnover and training time: Finally, be aware that remote employees may lack the same level of buy-in as traditional employees. While it’s possible that you’ll find a worker who’s as dedicated to your success as you are, it’s much more likely that you’ll work primarily with short-term remote workers on a per-project basis. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing (depending on your company’s needs), you’ll almost certainly encounter higher turnover and training costs while working with remote employees than you would by hiring a full-time alternative.

Again, this list isn’t meant to either sway you towards or deter you from hiring remote workers. There are plenty of cases in which hiring outsourced labor makes more sense than bringing on full-time employees — and vice-versa.

However, hiring virtual employees isn’t all cheap labor and round-the-clock productivity – despite what popular books like “The 4-Hour Work Week” would have you believe. Doing your due diligence will help you plan appropriately so you can avoid some of the common pitfalls associated with taking on remote workers.

AJ Kumar is the co-founder of Single Grain, a digital marketing agency based in San Francisco. Single Grain specializes in helping startups and larger companies with search engine optimization, pay-per-click, social media and various other marketing strategies.

7 Easy Ways to Improve the Way Your Startup Works

At my last 9-to-5 job, every time I thought differently from my supervisors and managers about a problem we faced, I wrote down what bothered me and how I would do it differently given the opportunity. Before long, I had a huge spiral notebook filled with ideas. I realized that all these “negatives” were actually opportunities for better leadership. And I brought many of those ideas to the company I now co-own.

You can do the same. Whether you are working in an executive position, just striking out on the entrepreneurship path, or you have already started a business, consider the following seven ideas for taking your business (and company culture) to the next level:

Location. Location. Location! (Did I mention location?) You are paying rent already, or your bosses are, so make it money well-spent and get on a prime street with high traffic. Bright signs near a freeway let everyone know you are there. If you only need a small office suite, make sure you can have your name on a sign outside the building so you are getting the exposure.
Hire slowly; fire quickly. This is a big one for entrepreneurs and business owners. Let me repeat it: Hire slowly. Fire quickly. You might be in a rush to fill a vacant spot or add a new position, but it takes more time (and money, and stress) to train the wrong person and fix their mess than it does to hire the right person in the first place. A bad hire brings down the entire company. Their effect is felt by all employees. The phrase I use time and time again is: “You never miss someone after you have let them go. You only wish you had let them go sooner.”
Inspire, develop and lead by example. Your employees are vital to your success — and payroll is also the highest cost in a company. At Star Staffing, it is our employees that make us the reputable firm we are today. Inspire your employees to be the best, motivate them, and help them grow. Make sure to provide continuing education too. Whether you send them offsite to conferences and training seminars, or offer an internal learning website or trainer, it’s important for your team members to strengthen skills and gain industry knowledge. It is up to you to make sure that they are given the right tools and resources to do their job efficiently.
Have fun, but keep it real. If it moves, measure it. Track activities that lead to results. I’m a true believer that activities done correctly and continuously lead to results. For instance, in sales, it takes an average of eight times to break into a new client. You need to see that company or person eight times before you can even begin to think you have a chance. If you continuously see that client week by week, you should gain real traction, and that will lead to a potential new client. Another great reason to track everything is that you can see how your company operates overall: what’s working, what’s not working, and what’s needed when hiring (see #2).
Operate with integrity. You will be faced with challenges to your integrity and to your company’s integrity; do not let money or greed get in the way. Your reputation counts on it. At Star, we always operate with ethics and integrity. Even when it costs us, we tell our clients the truth — and that’s why we have high loyalty and retention rates.
Strive for excellence in everything you do. From answering phones to handling collections, every task can be improved to give your client that “WOW” feeling. How do your processes look? Are your clients hanging up the phone feeling like they just dealt with the most amazing company or the opposite? We try to make every client and employee feel appreciated, valued, and taken care of. It’s important to look at every operation of your company’s front line. Are you striving to be the best in every aspect, even the smallest of tasks?
Be different than your competitors. What sets you apart from your competitors? The answer is YOU, and your people. Embrace this, and take it all the way to the bank. The main reason I chose to leave a comfortable paycheck was to do things differently, and now that I am co-owner of Star Staffing, we continue to live that philosophy. We operate 24/7, and I visit clients on a regular basis as the main sales representative. That’s right — who better to sell than the owner of a company? Half my new clients had never met their prior staffing firms’ business owner — yet they deal with me on a daily basis, cell phone number and all. I heard a great quote recently from “Good to Great” by Jim Collins: “Put your best people on the biggest opportunities, not the biggest problems.” Too many owners and executives sit in an office all day submerged in paperwork. I spend my prime hours (9 a.m. – 3 p.m.) in front of clients and employees. After all, they’re people that make my company the industry leader it is today.

Nicole Smartt is the Vice President and co-owner of Star Staffing. She was recently awarded the Forty Under 40 award, recognizing business leaders under the age of 40. In addition, Nicole co-founded the Petaluma Young Professionals Network, an organization dedicated to helping young professionals strive in the business world. Nicole can be found on twitter; @StaffingqueenN.

3 Questions to Reevaluate Your Startup’s Marketing Strategy

If you’re like me, you’re exhausted by boring marketing campaigns, up to your eyeballs in gimmick-laden slogans, and putting your direct mail straight in the paper shredder. I just received a car dealership promotion disguised as a W-2.

As consumers, we’re inundated by more than $465 billion a year in total ad spends. The amount of money companies are spending to make us feel badly about them is staggering. But the real question is, why do companies keep competing for attention using mediocre models when they could play by a very different set of rules?

Take T-Mobile — they successfully choreographed multiple flash mobs and captured them in videos that generated nearly 100 million YouTube hits and a 52 percent sales increase. Or the CDC’s Zombie Apocalypse blog, which generated 1.2 million new Twitter followers. Both of these examples required someone recognizing the value of taking a big marketing risk, thinking creatively, and ultimately, hitting the green light.

Though I’m no sports expert, I think of marketing like baseball. You want a steady stream of base hits to load the bases. That’s your traditional marketing. But then you want to bring up your big slugger and knock one of out of the park every once in a while, because people don’t talk about or remember the base hits. People talk about the risks that paid off (and the risks that didn’t!).

Like great baseball teams and their fans, you can create an exciting relationship between your brand and your customers if you’re willing to take a risk. Here are 3 questions to get you started:

1. What’s worth amplifying?

Zappos lives by 10 core values. The third and fourth are “Create Fun and a Little Weirdness” and “Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded.” To show customers how much they embrace those values, in 2012, Zappos founder Tony Hsieh launched his best-selling title “Delivering Happiness” as a comic book. Fun and a little weird? Creative and adventurous? YES!

The result: The comic has consistently rested in the top 5 best-selling books on Amazon under Customer Service and Retail. Every copy is like a foot soldier, heading out into the world to generate connections and dynamic conversation around the brand.

Conclusion: Your core values are worth amplifying.

Sir Ken Robinson, a world-renowned education and creativity expert, developed the most-viewed TED talk of all time: “Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity.” It has generated nearly 15 million views since 2006. In 2010, a new talk called “Changing Education Paradigms,” was launched in partnership with RSA Animate, who crafted an illustrated video of Ken’s talk that generated an additional 9.5 million views.

Conclusion: Your wisdom is worth amplifying.

Starting in 2009, T-Mobile began producing choreographed experiences as part of their “Life’s Worth Sharing” campaign to promote their mission of connecting people. They orchestrated:

A flash mob featuring 350 dancers at the Liverpool Street Station
An a capella singing arrangement that welcomed home travelers arriving at Heathrow Airport
13,500 people singing Hey Jude together in Trafalgar Square.

To date, the campaign has generated close to 100 million YouTube hits, countless major media placements and incredible increases in foot traffic, Internet searches (up 38 percent) and sales for T-Mobile (up 52 percent).

Conclusion: Your mission is worth amplifying.

2. What medium makes sense for your brand?

While the goal is to create a campaign that drives conversation and ultimately revenue, taking risks together is equally valuable to your culture. It’s an opportunity to generate camaraderie and include people in something that will be “fun” to create. So look to your staff and yourself and ask what would be a blast to work on. A few ideas include: a music album, a documentary film, an animated video, wall art, a fashion show, a staged play, and a flash mob.

If you have people on staff who loved comics as a kid, or wanted to be dancers, or wished they could be rock stars, now’s the time to tap into their dreams — while also delivering for your business.

3. How will you execute your campaign?

The best way to create and realize a BIG vision is to hire a producer, agency or in-house talent. Don’t risk looking amateurish or wasting time and money; other people have devoted their lives to this kind of work. So find them, test them, and if they impress you, get to work.

You want your new partner or producer to:

Guide you in creating your vision
Hire and manage the artistic staff
Oversee regular deliverables
Capture feedback from your team
Manage the project’s momentum
Navigate emotional and tangible obstacles in the creative process
Deliver a draft for testing
Revise based on feedback
Deliver a brilliant final product you’re all proud of

Yes, there’s a tremendous amount involved in taking a creative risk, but there are people available to help you. Partner your mission, your message and your worth with their artistic talent, and give yourself a chance to stand out amongst the clutter. Don’t settle for mediocre marketing that leaves a bad taste in people’s mouths.

Risk being brilliant instead.

Working in Los Angeles for a decade, Corey Michael Blake was the face and voice behind a dozen Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 brands as a commercial and voiceover actor (his work won Belding, Addy, Cannes, and London International Advertising awards), before working as a film producer and director, as an author and publisher, and now as the founder and President of storytelling company Round Table Companies (RTC).

Startup Tips: How To Know When To Move On

So, you know when you know. That is, you know when it’s time to move on to better things for your business, whether that means finding a stronger vendor, hiring a new employee (and letting go of the old one), or even firing a client (gulp!).

But often we hang on far too long out of fear, worry, and plain old procrastination. Today, I’ve got your back. Because there are three terrible reasons to avoid change and two great ones that you need to remember when it’s time to let go.

Excuse #1: “I don’t want to hurt someone.”

I get it – I’ve separated from five different assistants in various capacities over the life of my business and it’s hard to do every single time. You worry that you’re saying “you’re not good enough” or “I don’t like you anymore” to the people who have put time and energy to your business for months or even years.

It’s worse if the team members, vendors or clients have become friends in that timeframe (which they very well can be if you actually like your clients and colleagues!). You’re worried that this sends a message that you’re somehow above them, too big for your britches, or maybe you’re worried that you’ll been seen as having impossible standards.

Emotions aside, this is a business decision and the only one you should be concerned about hurting is your business. Because your business is the client here – it has needs and you’re the caretaker. If something or someone isn’t serving the business anymore it’s time to make a change. Period. How that makes them feel or the guilt you take on is a moot point because your business needs to come first.

Acknowledge those fears, but don’t let them hold you back.

Excuse #2: “Maybe it’ll get better.”

If you really believed that then you wouldn’t be entertaining the thought of making a change. Quite often the problems have been growing for months, slowly driving you crazy until you just know that it’s time for a change.

I get it. You don’t want to be a perfectionist entrepreneur that no one can get along with and who goes through assistants faster than the devil who wears Prada.

The compromise is a test. You simply state what you need — “Please give confirmation you’re working on this project” or “Please invoice me this week so I know how much time you’ve put in” — and if the other person does not reply within three days, you know it’s time to move on.

Maybe you’ve read “When do you know it’s time to fire?” and you’re wondering if you’re actually going to fire someone over not responding to an email. These small tests are just confirmation that the problem exists. You don’t need to explain why you came to this decision.

Listen: the reasons that you end an agreement are your own. Simply state that the relationship has ended and move on. You don’t need to give a reason, explanation or justification for your decision. See above: the only thing to be concerned about is the health of the business.

Excuse #3: “I don’t want to get bad-mouthed.”

Here’s the thing that mature adults recognize: there are two or more sides to every story. If a client relationship ends or an assistant leaves, it doesn’t mean that someone is at fault, wrong or even bad at their job. It means that needs change, availability shifts, and not everyone meshes.

Imagine if we felt this way about personal relationships: “What do you mean you’re not still friends with those kids from kindergarten? What are you, defective?” or “Since you didn’t marry the first person you ever dated clearly you’re unreliable and not trustworthy.”

People change, needs change and businesses grow – no one has to be ‘at fault’ when a relationship ends.

I know it’s a very real fear that the person who has your Twitter ID, Facebook page profile and platform is going to stand up and shout out how horrible you were. So instead of firing by avoidance or just ending the contract without a conversation (this goes both ways too), actually have a conversation. Thank the other person or agency for their support and share your decision to move on without inviting a negotiation, debate or argument.

Most of the time, both parties will understand it’s for the best.

Okay — are your excuses for not moving on out of the way yet? Because there are two great reasons why you need to let go:

Reason #1: You can’t go higher if you don’t let go.

Imagine a trapeze artist who just keeps swinging and swinging, never to make the leap to the next bar.

Is it scary? Yep. It is necessary? Yep.

In the very basic sense, you can’t fully commit to a new team member when an old one is still hanging around, not doing their job well. While there may be a little overlap, you need to let go of the people and practices that are keeping you from reaching where you want to go.

Reason #2: Your business is a unit and weak links will break the whole.

In college, I was on a large debate squad that had 20-30 teams producing evidence. If just one team didn’t complete their assignment, the whole squad was weaker. If the quality wasn’t there, then we were all going to fail. We worked together and mentored the younger students, knowing that we could only be as strong as the weakest link.

Your business operates the same way.

If the copywriter doesn’t show up, then your campaign is going to suffer. When the technical VA doesn’t check all the links, sales will suffer. When you don’t show up fully prepared because you’re frustrated or distracted, then the content isn’t as good as it could be. At every turn, you have the ability to turn your business into a well-oiled machine, with working systems and caring team members who are there to serve the client. Weaknesses can’t be coddled for long or your business will suffer in reputation, sales, continuity and trust.

Remember, the business is the top priority – not the feelings of the team member who isn’t well suited for the position, or the company you hired years ago that is no longer serving you well or the client who isn’t a good match for your model. When you serve the business first, you’ll recognize that sometimes it’s just time to let go.

Be honest and answer this question: “What relationship do you need to move on from in your business?”

This post originally appeared on the author’s blog.

Kelly Azevedo is the founder of She’s Got Systems, a custom coaching program that leads clients to get support, documenting and dominating in their fields. She has worked in startup, successful six-figure and million-dollar online businesses, helping owners create the systems to serve their needs.

Photo: Mayflower

5 Investment Mistakes Even Smart People Make

If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?

A lot of smart people ask themselves that question, especially as they struggle to keep up with the bills and worry about an inadequately funded retirement. In my work consulting with entrepreneurs, I commonly find that they spend so much time juggling the competing demands of their business that they take little time to analyze their personal saving, spending, and investing behaviors. And yet giving attention to these areas is vital if one hopes to achieve long-term financial success.

Here are some common mistakes that can derail even the smartest individuals:

The Status Chase: You’ve worked hard, earned your degree and paid your dues. Now you want to show the world how far you’ve come. But the massive house, the new car every two years, and custom-made suits might keep you from building your nest egg. Instead of seeking status through material possessions, pursue excellence in your field or seek to free yourself from status concerns. Ultimately, it’s more satisfying and better for your bottom line. Warren Buffett lives in a very modest house and is hardly known as a snappy dresser and no one seems to hold it against him.
Overconfidence: More than once, financial journalists have highlighted that some of the smartest people in the world have the worst performing portfolios; doctors are a classic example of this. This could be because smart people are used to being able to figure out the system and use it their advantage. They’re not used to playing in a game like the financial markets, where so much of the action is due to chance — and where an inability to admit mistakes is your worst enemy.
Target Marketing: Some unscrupulous financial services firms target professionals, hoping to manage their cash, sell them complicated financial products, and make an unfair amount of money from them. In such cases, their victims would be better off managing their money themselves, or selecting a financial advisor more carefully.
Insufficient Time: Investments require a bit of attention now and then. When you’re busy all the time, it’s easy to ignore things for years on end, to your detriment. It’s better to hire help than to simply ignore everything, but even hiring someone requires that you take the time to research your choice.
The Expert Trap: Investing isn’t like neurosurgery. Investment managers with very impressive credentials often do just as badly — or worse — than those with more modest backgrounds. Because so much of market success depends on being able to buck the trend, exercise self-control and stay calm. The performance of a Harvard MBA may not be as good as that of a no-name university, newly minted graduate. Bright and accomplished people tend to rate others according to a scale of academic and personal credentials that may be largely irrelevant when it comes to managing money. One thing is certain, though: The people with the fanciest credentials will have the highest fees, whether their results justify it or not.

In short, smart people can do better with their nest eggs if they avoid overconfidence and stop seeking to buy status. They should choose their investment advisors carefully and not rely solely on impressive credentials.

Robert Sofia is a best-selling author, award winning public speaker, and financial industry thought leader. He has developed marketing strategies for Fortune 500® companies, personally coaches hundreds of financial advisers nationwide, and is the COO and co-founder of Platinum Advisor Strategies.

Create the Work-Life Balance That’s Right for You

As a time coach, I talk to people who want to live a more balanced life on a daily basis—including startup founders. It can be a struggle, but my real-world experience has uncovered that founders can achieve work-life balance IF all five of the following conditions are met:

You Want It: Not everyone wants traditional work-life balance, typically meaning that you have enough time for basic self-care like sleep, exercise and nutrition and a connection with key people like friends and family members. Instead, as a time coach, I focus on trying to help entrepreneurs achieve their definition of work-life brilliance – meaning your time investment aligns with your priorities. However, I can’t bring about lasting behavioral change if you don’t intrinsically want it.
You Believe It: To have true work-life balance, you need to not only believe it’s possible in a theoretical sense, but also believe it’s possible personally for you. In my experience, this belief comes from a combination of seeing an entrepreneur whom you relate to experiencing work-life balance and/or starting to attempt it yourself and witnessing positive results. Without a sense of hope, it’s nearly impossible to stick it out through the uncomfortable process of breaking old habits and forming new ones. To make it through this difficult withdrawal stage, you need to have faith that the changes will really pay off in the end.
You Value It: We have a limited amount of time each day, and how we invest it determines what kind of life we create. Work-life balance comes at a professional cost for most people, but especially for founders. The choice to invest in activities outside of work may mean that you can’t start certain types of businesses, take on specific categories of funding, work with particular clients, or expand at as rapid a pace. For those who highly value life outside of work, these macro-level decisions that give them the opportunity to live a balanced life are worth the potential cost and risk to their business.
You Know How: Many people want, believe in, and value work-life balance, but they just don’t know how to change. If you’ve always seen startup founders work crazy hours, you don’t have good role models to show you how to behave in a balanced manner. And it’s hard to know how to think and act differently if you’ve always operated in one way. As the quote often attributed to Einstein goes: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
You Can: After working with clients around the world with many different personality types, including some with ADD/ADHD, I believe that almost anyone who meets the above four criteria can see improvement in their work-life balance. But for people who thrive in high-pressure environments, achieving traditional work-life balance and moving their company forward effectively may or may not be possible to the same extent as others.

For individuals who fit this profile, the best strategy is to clarify action-based priorities in key areas. This includes things like seven hours of sleep a night, working out five days a week, or having family dinner six days a week. Then you need to focus on making these priorities into routines that allow them to consistently invest their time in these core areas while still keeping up a fairly high level of intensity in your work during the remaining hours.

Work-life balance is possible for founders who meet the above five criteria, but for those who don’t, it’s not.

Elizabeth Grace Saunders is the founder and CEO of Real Life E®, a time coaching and training company, and the author of “The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment: How to Achieve More Success With Less Stress.”

5 Reasons To Startup In College

The catchphrase “you only live once” or YOLO is the modern-day version of “carpe diem,” and it usually involves doing wild and risky recreational activities. But an increasing number of college students have taken YOLO to the next level by doing something their parents may find even more unsettling — turning down cushy corporate jobs and internships, and starting their own companies instead.

For what it’s worth, I believe these graduates are jumping into entrepreneurship at exactly the right time. For one, most college students don’t (yet) have families to feed or mortgages to pay. And although they may not have much money either, that means they have very little to lose. Plus, college students are used to keeping their costs of living low — Easy Mac, anyone?

Personally, I couldn’t have started PerBlue without the resources college provided. It’s where I found my future employees, and it’s where I could make mistakes without much risk. For PerBlue, college was like a startup petri dish — sheltered from the toils of the “real world” — where smart people and crazy ideas ran rampant (and still do).

Here are some of the lessons I learned from starting up in college and how you can apply them to your own dorm room startups:

Hire your friends. Find co-founders and future employees within your group of college friends; they will be your most loyal and hardworking employees. In PerBlue’s case, my friends were the ones willing to skip class for two weeks straight prior to launch, and work for sweat equity during the early days to get the company off the ground. Starting out with a very passionate team establishes a strong culture that will be extremely valuable as you grow your employee base. The people you surround yourself with will both teach and help you along the way.
Use (free) campus resources, including mentors. Resources vary from campus to campus, but college is a great place to find free legal and financial advice, clinics and networking opportunities, every day of the week. If you’re starting a Web business, keep an eye out for Startup Weekend, 3 Day Startup and other hackathon-style events held on campus. Chat with your advisor or stop into the business school to get connected with entrepreneurial resources. And don’t be afraid to seek out and talk to students outside of your major — those studying engineering, business and other subjects can provide new perspectives and insights for your startup. In college, my mentors were both professors and other college entrepreneurs. Today, they are my board members and leaders of hugely successful companies.
Parlay your startup skills into other companies (or a “real” job). The experience you gain as a young entrepreneur, whether your startup grows or stalls, will be invaluable later on. Many leaders of successful businesses didn’t major in, or even study, business. But they had the passion and the ability to execute their ideas, rewiring their brain to start thinking and learning from a business perspective along the way — invaluable leadership skills in any job. For example, while I double majored in Computer Science and Computer Engineering, I’ve only coded a few lines in the past two years. Instead, I’ve transitioned to leading the PerBlue team and steering the vision for our products and business. Soon you’ll stop worrying and start strategizing instead. Get in this frame of mind by practicing negotiation, pitching your startup to friends, or even budgeting and balancing your finances — whatever it takes to get your brain focused on becoming a great leader.
Make mistakes early and often. Starting a business will allow you to wear many hats and pick up many new skills you otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to. You will probably stumble a little at one (or more) of these roles, but that’s where delegation and hiring great people plays into the equation. No matter what happens, know that you’ll still be learning more by spending a year working on a startup than you ever would working at an entry-level position in a big company. And even if you fail epically, failure is often the best teacher. You will be that much smarter when you set off on your next project.
Save the job offer for later. The experience of being a college entrepreneur is priceless. Maybe you’ve already been offered an attractive internship or full-time opportunity — some kind of nice, cushy job at a large, established corporation. Well, I challenge you to turn that offer down. Bootstrapping and building a startup is an exciting and sometimes rocky road. Yes, there will be long nights and weekends spent working, a steady diet of Ramen and Red Bulls, and times of absolute burnout. (To this day, the thought of pizza from the restaurant below our first office at 2 a.m. brings back a wave a nostalgia.) As hard and tiring as those days were, I miss them. No matter how difficult or exhausting the work is, it will be worth absolutely every minute. You always have the option go back and work a “real” job later!

Now is the perfect time to take the risk and start practicing the skills it takes to be an entrepreneur — or a leader. I think it’s a clear win-win for those brave enough to venture outside of their comfort zone. What are you going to do today that will enable you to take the leap and start your own company? After all, YOLO!

Justin Beck is the Co-Founder and CEO of PerBlue, a mobile and social gaming company in Madison, WI. PerBlue is best known for its flagship product, Parallel Kingdom. The popular location-based massively multiplayer role playing game for mobile and web platforms has over one million players worldwide. Founded in 2008, PerBlue is now home to 40 full-time software developers, artists, and business specialists.

Madison is getting a new startup epicenter called Starting Block, read about it here.