Tag Archives: Employment

October 16, 2019 · 11:04 am

The Right Questions

I was watching the Dems’ debate last night. I’m pretty much a political junkie and this has been an interesting few months as the Democratic candidates sort themselves out en route to a nominee.

As I was watching, I was reminded that the next year is really a very long job interview for a very big job. Watching the debate in that context made me realize that the moderators weren’t approaching it that way at all. They were asking the wrong kind of questions, at least right up until the last one about “someone we’d be surprised you’re friends with.” Let me explain because if you manage a business, hiring is one of the most important tasks you have.

If you’re still asking lame questions such as “tell me about yourself” or “where will you be in five years,” you really should leave the interviewing to someone else. The purpose of an interview is to find out things that aren’t on a resume but which have a huge impact on a candidate’s ultimate success or failure. In my mind, “smart” is the main thing I’m looking for along with intellectual curiosity. I spend my time trying to get answers that demonstrate a candidate’s possession of those qualities or lack thereof. To you, some other things might be important. You need to hone your questions to shine a light on the areas that are critical to you.

Don’t ask “yes/no” questions. Do ask hypothetical questions that reflect the reality of what will be the candidate’s day to day job. I used to test the candidate’s knowledge of my company to see if they really wanted to work there or if they were just looking for a job. “What did you find in your research about us that surprised you?” “As you were finding out about us, what questions came up that I might be able to help answer for you?” If the answers are vague or focused on things like salary or benefits, this is a person who wants a job and not a career. That’s fine, but it’s not what I want.

Asking the right questions can make all the difference in assembling a team for the long-term or constantly having to replace people who either leave for a better gig or who aren’t really qualified in the first place. The right questions get you the right people. You with me?

Leave a comment

Filed under Helpful Hints, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , ,

September 4, 2019 · 9:47 am

For Yourself, Not By Yourself

I left corporate America at the end of 2007. In the dozen years since I’ve worked for myself. Oh sure, I have always considered the clients for whom I consulted to be my bosses, but at the end of the day, I was on my own.

If any of you have been, or are, in a similar circumstance, you know that it’s both a liberating and terrifying feeling. There is the freedom to spend a beautiful day at the beach or on a golf course instead of working. After all, you’re the boss. Along with that freedom, at least for me, there was always guilt that I had taken the day to play or run errands rather than grinding it out as I had done for the 30+ prior years of my business life. I guess the Protestant work ethic applies even to Jews…

While I’m still working for myself, the last year I’ve not been BY myself. As a franchise consultant, I’m a part of a much broader network of several hundred other coaches. We share information, I have access to ongoing education about franchises and how to do my job more effectively, there is someone doing collections for me, and the network actually even finds leads for me if I want. I’m in business for myself but not by myself, as is the case with any franchise.

Candidates (people considering investing in a franchise) sometimes ask why they should go with a franchise instead of using their capital to start up their own business. The statistics answer that question for me. 90% of new businesses fail in anywhere from the first five years to as little as the first four months. 90% of franchises are still in business after five years. There is a reason for that, which is that you’re investing in a proven concept. The mistakes have been made, the operation has been refined, marketing plans have been tweaked, and all of that is being handed to you as part of your investment along with training that can last from a few days to weeks, with ongoing mentoring and education for much longer. Pretty spiffy, and a route I wish I had taken a dozen years ago instead of trying to figure it all out on my own.

So what can go wrong with a franchise? I think the two biggest sources of problems are when franchisees don’t follow the model or when they are undercapitalized. In the first case, ignoring the model is basically throwing away what you paid for and diminishing your success rate quite a bit. In the second case, ANY business will fail if it’s undercapitalized no matter how well-run it is. Counting on immediate cash flow to support the operation (or your ability to eat!) is short-sighted. That’s why franchising makes even more sense since there is a track record of what capital is needed to get the business up and running for the first few months. It’s actually so clear that the franchises put those costs in their Franchise Disclosure Document (item 7) and those are numbers I have and discuss with folks as they are looking at investing.

Being in business for yourself is great. It’s even better when you’re not by yourself. I can show you how to make that happen for you. Just click here and let’s get started.

Leave a comment

Filed under Franchises, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , ,

April 15, 2019 · 9:30 am

Great Skills

I spent some time last week speaking with a fellow who is trying to change his life. I meet a lot of those folks in my franchise consulting role. They’re tired of working for someone else and want to invest what they’ve saved in creating a new, better life for themselves and their families.

One thing we talk about early on in the process is the skill set the candidate is bringing with them. Have they managed people? Do they like selling? Do they know about technology? It’s not that any skill set is better or worse. It’s simply about identifying what they bring beyond financial resources as we examine the hundreds of possibilities out there.

The fellow I spoke with last week works in auto repair. He’s a “body man.” Unfortunately, many of the auto body repair franchises are well beyond his financial abilities so we talked about some others. I also brought up a franchise that’s involved in drywall repair. He said he didn’t know anything about drywall and he didn’t have those skills. I reminded him that this, like most other franchises, offers a lot of training but putting that aside, I asked why repairing drywall is that much different from repairing sheet metal. He’s now considering the franchise but it raised a good point that we all need to remember.

Many of us focus on the trees and not on the forest. We think about learning a skill in a vacuum instead of the broader application that learning may have. Learning to code, for example, can teach project management, since you can’t perform either one well without a great plan and a flow chart of sorts.  It’s also a good reminder that learning the “broad” skills of communication, problem-solving, and teamwork have application across the board. That’s why so many of the business opportunities I deal with emphasize they want candidates with those skills and will train them on the specific skills needed to be successful.

Unlike Napoleon Dynamite, we all DO have skills and most of us have more of them than we think. What are yours?

Leave a comment

Filed under Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , ,