Author Archives: Sarah

Are you a potential business risk?

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I often think about job interviews. Apparently I’m not the only one either because not a week goes by that I don’t see an article about answering tough interview questions or other how-to check lists for people looking to get hired. These years the focus is either on the potential employee searching for a job or the giant corporations who are firing people while sending juicy bonus checks to their CEOs. Yet when I describe our job/economic issues this way, many people might notice the entities that have fallen through the cracks of America’s focus: Small to Medium Businesses.

No this isn’t a rant about buying local and supporting businesses in your area (Although if you’re doing your holiday shopping at Best Buy while complaining that you can’t find steady work I would like the “Duh Ninja” to give you a swift kick in the teeth) this is a rant about employee vs. business.

I can’t escape the swarms of bleeding hearts for the victim employees but I’m hard pressed to find a single person willing to stand up for businesses in this decade.  My perspective comes fresh from standing at the helm of three separate businesses and being closely involved with its inner workings, from taxes and insurance to interviewing and hiring employees: I’ve done it.

What so many people are lacking, experts and job seekers alike, is perspective. All they understandably see is that they need a job and a pay check to pay their bills. What they don’t see is how a potential employee looks to a business. So how do I put this into perspective to you?

Imagine that your car’s transmission has gone out and you have only five mechanics to choose from. You’ve never hired any of them for anything before and you only have the references they will give you so God only knows if those are the few people who would ever say something relatively nice (I’m sorry Mr. Dough, we’re going to need references for your references) and all of them expect to be paid a certain amount no matter what. Sounds like a bit of a risk but they should know what they’re doing right? Well you can’t even be sure about that and oh yeah, if they don’t succeed in repairing your transmission, your car might explode and you’ll be left with nothing, but you’ll still have to pay them regardless of whether it was your fault or they failed, because that’s the law.

You can kiss this before or after you pay me. Your choice.

That is hiring an employee to a small/medium business. Employees literally make or break a company that doesn’t have millions at its disposal and state laws do nothing to help cushion the potential damage. We don’t get unemployment, hell we barely get a chance to state our side. In this decade it is assumed that businesses of all sizes have the upper hand and do things out of either generosity or spite.

Above: America’s view of business owners.

How many business owners do you think refuse to hire out of malice?  Is it really true that today’s general opinion is that businesses COULD hire but they just don’t want to? I’ve spoken to many business owners and never have I heard a single person state that they just don’t want to hire. The most common reasons have been:

  • I’d love to hire but I don’t trust someone to uphold the quality of work I do.
  • I don’t have the funds to support employees, but I wish I did.
  • I’m still recovering from the loss I suffered from previous employees.

 

There are a lot of misgivings about hiring and unfortunately it often is not the fault of the person trying to get a job. As person seeking work you must disperse unspoken apprehensions during an interview with both your experience and your attitude and that is definitely not easy. Maybe if people looking for work could understand the misgivings employers have, they could not only reassure them but find a genuinely great place to work or start a career. I’ll do my best to explain the three reasons for not hiring that I listed above…

 

I’d love to hire but I don’t trust someone to uphold the quality of work I do.
I can hear the helpful advice of toothy grinned advisors ringing in my ears “You must invest in training your employees so they can become happily productive and help your business flourish.”
Yeah, you try sinking hours and potentially thousands of dollars into training employees only to have them ditch your business and seek an easier paycheck elsewhere and then approach training someone new with total confidence that they’ll at least attempt to stand by your business.

An employer can love your resume but still wring their hands at the thought of hiring you. Will the time they invest in training you go to waste, how can you reassure them that it won’t?

I'm paranoid and I don't know how to deal.

I don’t have the funds to support employees, but I wish I did.
These days we are fighting to pay our bills and looking for well paying jobs while a nagging old lady’s voice gnaws at our brains, harping “Beggars can’t be choosers!” A business may be able to hire people, but not at the salaries said people are used to raking in. If you’re searching for a job and are confident in your abilities, why not be a little flexible about the benefits and salary you want, then build back up to the point you had previously reached? You’d be surprised at how many doors open when you stop putting your hand out expecting everything you had before the economy went down the pooper. There’s a reason you’re no longer working at a job with all of the shiny perks you had before. (Hint, it’s because no one can flipping afford it.) Yes, it sucks, but the times have changed and you know they have, so consider the wild possibility that things have changed for employers too.

Don’t kid yourself that you hold a monopoly on job seeking.

I’m still recovering from the loss I suffered from previous employees.
Who hasn’t had to put out a fire they didn’t start? That’s exactly what you’ll be dealing with if you’re seeking employment with a business that has been seriously burned and damaged by its previous workers. I won’t even get into the statistics and state laws that ball gag businesses and do a Pulp Fiction round on them, but we’re not kidding when we say that employees can make or break the places they work for. You don’t have to bend over backwards and let yourself get pushed around by a cynical business, but you should think about the ways you can assure an employer that you’re not a potential disaster. Can you work out an introductory salary, a non-compete, or another agreement that will give both of your piece of mind?

Let’s agree to not screw each other over.

Go to interviews with intelligent suggestions, honesty and above all, be professional. If an employer sees that you are aware of and understand their misgivings and that you can bring ideas to the table, they will be more open to the idea of taking you on board. Employment is a two way street and we all need to meet halfway or we’ll seriously never get anywhere.

5 Things I’ve learned in the past 5 Years

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While moving hundreds of miles away from family, joining a business, co-owning a business and now recently starting a business, I’ve picked up on a few things. Now I’m not a zen master and don’t plan on becoming one, these few tips have helped me avoid making a complete ass of myself while giving me peace of mind.

Sometimes what other people think matters.
I used to bravely state how “rebellious” I was by saying that I didn’t give a shit what other people think. It was then and still is the general belief that if you care what other people think, you are a fake who only tries to please people and there isn’t a shred of honesty in your cowardly body.  The truth is that I didn’t ever not care what people thought. I cared a lot and would often try to repeat the behavior that was pissing people off even more just to show how much a rebel I was. Ironically, this made me as fake of a person as I was pretending I wasn’t.

It can really help to listen to what others say about you. Sure you have to sift through crap but if you hear the same thing said about you enough times from different people, could it be safe to assume that they might have a point? When it got to the point where even my friends commented on my hostility (and I realized that maybe my being miserable was the result of acting like a total bitch) I could no longer ignore the problem. Surprise surprise, once  I began to work on not handling every confrontation like Old Yeller, I began to feel… Happier.


When not to get involved.
There are times when you just don’t need to get involved in a confrontation. At all. It’s nice to provide support for your friend if they are facing confrontation but do it quietly without getting sucked in. What’s more irritating than a “white knight”? Not really much. It’s obnoxious.

I remember one particular situation I put myself in a couple years ago. It involved a friend of mine who was in an argument with someone else over something that was truly just between them. Upon hearing that someone was arguing with my friend, I leaped on my high horse and charged into battle, determined to put myself in harm’s way so my friend would no longer suffer such ill mannered attacks.  During this heroic feat I managed to alienate my (thankfully forgiving) friend, seriously piss off the person they were arguing with and unintentionally upset a lot of people who had nothing to do with the entire thing. When the dust settled and as I sat in my time out corner the thought suddenly occurred to me: “I had no business being involved in that.” Like a little light bulb above my head. While my friend forgave my blundering I managed to make un-friends with pretty much everyone else involved for probably ever.


You can’t please everyone.
You can’t. It’s not that you don’t try and you obviously care because it bothers you when it doesn’t work out. There are many reasons why it’s not possible to please everyone: Sometimes things just don’t work out, wires get crossed, and sometimes of course people don’t want to be pleased. In fact maybe being angry at you may be the only thing that WILL please them and so you had best just walk away, and that brings me to my next segment…


Learn when to walk away.
This one was tough to learn because for the longest time I couldn’t decipher the difference between walking away and being passive. I hate being passive in the sense that I could have resolved something peacefully but I decided to let it fester and continue being a problem.  Whether you’re about to blow your top or you realize that there is nothing else you can do, it’s best to just walk away, even just temporarily.

There are so many times in my life where walking away has really helped me or not walking away has really made a situation worse.  I couldn’t really do them all justice by listing a few and who really wants to read about the drama in someone else’s life (actually a lot of people…) but because I don’t care what you think I’m not going to list them. The toughest thing about walking away, for me, is that it doesn’t necessarily make me feel better… At least not right away. Sometimes walking away means letting something stand unresolved. Whether or not you plan on going back to the issue and working it out after you’ve cooled down,  taking a step back away from the problem really is important.
Oh and while you’re walking away don’t punch a wall and break a bone in your hand just below your pinky.


Silence that unsolicited critique.
This I actually learned because it was a rule on a website! You might have an opinion about something but if no one has asked you what your opinion is, keep it to your damn self. Write it in your journal, rant to your dog or take a job for all we care, KEEP IT TO YOURSELF. Most people who know me know that I have an opinion about pretty much everything. What they DON’T know is that what they hear from me is but a trickle of all the opinions I have.

Make no mistake, this is not a repeat of your childhood mantra “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” – Because that is just dishonest. If someone asks you to critique their photo and it’s a skewed unfocused hunk of garbage, by all means let them know in the most polite (or hilarious) way what your opinion is. However, on the flip side, if a woman walks into the room and she weighs more than what you think is attractive, telling her that she’s fat will not earn you a scout badge of honesty medal.
What can you take away from this? Being honest doesn’t mean being a jerk.
This mantra is “That’s nice, but no one asked for your opinion, so keep your mouth shut.”

How to blog efficiently

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Business blogging, like any other aspect of marketing, requires a certain amount of time and effort invested to be productive. There are a few methods that you can use to balance your schedule so you may efficiently create articles and get back to doing the business you are marketing.

Make a time budget
Decide in advance how much time you want to devote to your writing. Ask yourself how long you are willing to focus on writing in one sitting. Twenty minutes at a time? Ten?  It’s up to you and it is important to set this rule because it will help you avoid getting burnt out.

 Write where you are comfortable
Find a place, free of distractions where you may spend a designated amount of time writing. I often take a pen and notebook to the couch or venture out to a park to write. Hard copy blogs can be later typed out and refined but I feel that it is important to record initial thoughts while they are fresh. Many times, being in a comfortable and familiar environment helps those creative juices flow.

Jot down ideas
Get in the habit of storing away blog ideas or other interesting business thoughts for later. Look for inspiration in your daily activities. Do you feel like you answer certain questions over and over again for different people? Consider writing an article about those questions, FAQ (frequently asked questions) can be the best blog fodder.

Stop when you’re done
Don’t feel pressured to create heaps and heaps of content. More isn’t always good! In fact you may want to take time to read back over everything you’ve penned and ask yourself, can this be simplified?
Knowing when to stop is also about not being a perfectionist.  Ask a friend or family member to read your unpublished blog and for some feedback, then once you can be sure there are no glaring errors and everything makes sense, it is time to publish.

Everyone has their own way of going about creative writing. I’m sure many of us have not yet forgotten our childhood years in school and having to complete writing assignments. While we are somewhat “graded” by the blogs we produce, there is no reason to fear failure.
Consider this for your blogging goal: Balance quality with quantity. Don’t write one great blog and then not write anything else for months. I know, it sounds like a high maintenance project but this is why forming your own writing structure will help you complete these projects without tearing your hair out and denouncing the entire concept of blogging.
This is a good thing!