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• To Communicate Effectively Takes Emotional Intelligence
  

   

  While doing some research, I came across an article in the New York Times and I was struck by a problem I see all the time in business (and in life in general): our difficulty communicating clearly with others. The article was about an American baseball manager who's training the Chinese Olympic baseball team. He tells them:

  "If you hit it here,"... acting as if he were hitting a ball after it passed his body, "you drive a Chevy. If you hit it here," he said, pretending to hit the ball as it crossed the middle of the plate, "you drive a Cadillac. But if you hit it here," he said, pretending to connect a smidgen earlier, "you're in a Rolls-Royce with a chauffeur! Get it? That's how much money they have. They don't count it, they weigh it!"

  They had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. Despite the interpreter.

  The article reminded me of two other communications-gap stories. One was another language/culture problem, the other just corporate comedy. In the first example, a respected publisher of one of the largest electronics newspaper in the United States was addressing a group of Japanese executives. He told them an anecdote about the U.S. semiconductor market and ended it by saying, "...but what do I know?" The audience was puzzled. If he didn't know the electronics market, why was he addressing them? His intention was to be humble and self-deprecating. But it came across as awkward ignorance.

  In my favorite example, a former employer of mine brought in a new senior executive to "fix" what was wrong with our corporate sales effort. This fella came into a meeting with a half dozen senior VPs heading our various business units. He was toting a well-worn copy of a magazine he had been publisher of....a decade-and-a-half earlier. He plopped it down on the table and it landed with a thud that made the room shake. His message: he knows a thing or two about selling advertising. What we heard: as long as we're selling it 15 years ago!

  And then his well rehearsed speech began. "There are three kinds of people in the world," he started, with great import and seriousness. I looked out of my peripheral vision to see one of my colleagues in the room starting to stifle a laugh.

  "There are people who watch things happen." Now where is he going with this? He seems like he knows what the next line is, so I'll be patient.

  "Then there are people who make things happen. " Ah, that must be himself he's talking about.

  "And there are people who say, 'What just happened?' " Wow! Where did those lines come from? There was no Google at the time so I just had to sit and wonder. This is my boss's new boss talking! C'mon, there must be a hidden camera in this room. This is a joke, right?

  We then went around the room introducing ourselves to this brilliant executive. I took my turn and then my boss said, "What just happened?" I had to excuse myself briefly from the room.

  Entrepreneurs take note: Whether you are talking to a group of people from another country or another company, or in the case of "What-just-happened-man" perhaps people from another planet, you had best have some insight into what those people are thinking, believing and needing to hear at that moment. You better have some emotional intelligence to get your message across, or you will be laughed out of the room.

  To Communicate Effectively Takes Emotional Intelligence originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 09:17:07.

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• Entrepreneurs: Don’t Take the Call from the Office Copier Guy
  

  I do most of my entrepreneur coaching by phone and often I never meet my clients. When they're located in the New York metro area though, I like to get together at least once to put a face to a name. Yesterday I had the pleasure of doing that with one of my terrific clients who heads up a fast-growing consulting firm with a staff of about eight people. As we were talking she was interrupted when her assistant buzzed her on the phone. The office copier rep wanted to talk to her. She declined the call and we resume talking. Our conversation went something like this:

  ME: Why was the office copier guy calling you?

  HER:We need a better machine with more capacity.

  ME: Who's the heaviest user of the machine in the office?

  HER: My assistant, Sheila.

  ME: Why isn't Sheila responsible for working with the copier rep on finding the right machine?

  (Long pause)

  HER: I guess it's question of trust. Sheila's great within her skill set, but I'm not sure she can do some things outside of it.

  ME: Well, let's assume she can, under your guidance, get all the information needed to make a decision, and then together you and she decide what to do? Wouldn't that be a better use of your time? And wouldn't Sheila feel more empowered with some extra responsibility?

  And that's the course of action my client decided to pursue. We spent about 15 minutes of our hour talking about the copier machine, which may seem silly. But it turned out to be a metaphor for where the business tends to get stuck. The CEO of a really fast-growing eight-person company just cannot evaluate copiers. Or peel stamps for correspondence. Or make lunch reservations. Or file documents. Every action that is not moving the business forward strategically is wasted motion and is the enemy!

  One of my favorite extreme examples of delegation was my old boss, the president of a $500 million publishing company. He delegated everything. He didn't even read or respond to his own email. He had a special assistant who would print out a stack of emails, get on a plane with him, read him the emails, and he would tell her how to respond. I always chuckled at his extreme-delegation techniques, but he was smart. Any activity that wasn't about increasing the value of the company was forbidden work for him. And so it should be for any entrepreneur, even if your company's sales are $5 million or $500,000.

  Entrepreneurs: Don’t Take the Call from the Office Copier Guy originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 09:14:21.

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• Questions Not to Ask if You're Thinking of Buying a Franchise
  

  I own a franchised business in addition to being a coach for people who are considering franchises or other business startups. My franchisor refers people to me regularly for what are known as "validation" calls. Prospective franchisees call around to existing franchisees to do research on the franchise and learn what it's like to be in the system. If they ask good questions, they can come out of the process with a much clearer decision path (pro or con). The trouble is, 90% of the people who call me ask the wrong questions!

  Here are some of the questions they ask:

  I know you may not want to talk about your  financial results but do you think I can make a six-figure income in this franchise? Now, how could I possibly know whether you can make a six-figure income? I know what I can do.  I haven't got a clue about you! And don't bother asking me how much I make, not because it's none of your business (which is isn't) but because my results and your potential results have absolutely no relationship to each other! You are you! You can't be me (and you don't want to be anyway). You need to ask you questions about yourself, and ask me questions that will get you thinking about yourself. More on that idea in a moment.

  
  

  Why did you decide to go into this franchise? Again, what's the difference? If you really want to know, a franchise broker told me about it, I wasn't excited about the other two ideas she had, and I didn't want to get a job. There you go! But who cares why I got into it? What do YOU want to get into and why?  Are you running toward something or running away from something as you think about starting a business? (Most people are running away, fast.)

  
  

  If you had it to do over again, would you buy this franchise? ARRGHs)$^*Q#$TJ!!!! I hate this question because it makes me start thinking of all the things I want to do over again! I have this little fantasy where I get a magic wish and I go back to a particular date in my life just before the moment when I did something really dumb. Only now, when I go back, I know what the future is, so I don't make the same mistake. It's a great fantasy! And then I remember I can't do that and it makes me really angry at your dumb question!

  So what are the right questions? I list them in my book that's coming out next month. A preview:

  Why did you start your own business? What was going on in your life that led you to that decision? What's the back story? Great question, because everyone's back story is different. You can learn a great deal about core characteristics of entrepreneurs by getting them to talk about their story. Do you consider yourself a success in this business? If so, why? If not, why not? Why did you go out of business? (You need to speak to at least a couple of folks who failed and find out why. What's really interesting is who they blame. Discount the ones who blame the franchisor, and learn from the ones who blame themselves.) What are the key traits you have that led to your success? This is a good question because you may be able to get a consensus from different franchisees as to what the core success traits for this franchise are. (And it's different with different franchises.) Then you can decide whether you have those traits, or if not whether you can develop them. What were the most difficult lessons you learned in your first one to two years in operation? This is a better way of getting to the "would you do it over again" question. I can tell you where I made mistakes. If you listen you'll save thousands of dollars.

  Few people ask these questions, but if they did they'd learn about my franchise at a higher level.  There are many more you can ask to get the information you really need to make a  good decision. Because even if I answer questions that seem to be about me, like the ones above, they really are about the skills and disposition you will need if you decide to get into my franchise or any other.

  Questions Not to Ask if You're Thinking of Buying a Franchise originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 11:57:40.

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• Quick Tips for Successful Sales Calls
  

  Keith Ferrazzi has a nice piece on his blog called "Surefire Tips for a Successful Sales Call," including a useful 2 minute video. He focuses on relationship selling-making the customer feel comfortable by focusing on her favorite subject-herself.  He gives six great suggestions. Read what he has to say, and then have a look at a few more items that I've found useful over the years when it comes to relationship selling.  I learned some of these ideas from Rennie Crabtree of Marketing Outcomes, whom I consider my mentor in relationship selling.

  Discover hidden agendas: I will never forget a sales call I made when I was a young newspaper publisher in the travel industry.  I was calling on a senior VP of Hertz Car Rental. Being inexperienced, I was very eager to go through my shpiel, which I did. He seemed distracted, and started to change skin tone the more I spoke, until he finally was a bright crimson. It was clear he hadn't listened to a word I'd been saying. At that point I had to ask him what was wrong. My newspaper had written an article about Hertz that he felt was unfair and wrong, and he was steamed. The sales call turned into triage as I tried my best to salvage the relationship. Had I not spent the first 20 minutes digging a hole for myself, it would have gone a lot better. When you are in a sales call with a new or old customer, you have to find out if there are any landmines waiting for you. How? Tell the customer what you came to talk about (and you came to talk about his needs, not your stuff), and directly ask if that matches up with his expectations, and if he has items he'd like to talk about. Then, when you have explicit permission to continue, start to exchange information. Don't forget to "close" the sale: Make sure to ask the client what she wants to do next. This doesn't mean the final close of the sale, just a "close" for this sales call as a bridge to eventually closing the sale. It may not include asking for the order, but if that's the next logical step, for Pete's sake, ask for the order! Or, if the client isn't ready for that yet, see what she wants to do: get more info, end the discussion because she has no interest, or something else. You want to be sure you're not wasting your time. Many people don't want to tell you no, even though the answer is no. You have to make it perfectly okay for them to say no. Go in as a team, leave as a team: I mentioned my mentor Rennie Crabtree earlier. There are times in sales situations where you go to a client or prospect with other people from your company. What happens if the client doesn't like one of the team members you brought along? In a workshop Rennie put together for us, we had a role play in which a seller team called on another team playing the role of buyer. The buyer team told the seller team that they only wanted to work with men, and asked if they would mind sending the female member of the team home. If they did not, game over. Obviously, this was a curveball to the seller team. They rightly asked to take a timeout, met privately for a few minutes, then returned. Because there was a multimillion-dollar contract at stake, the sellers agreed to proceed with the meeting without their female teammate, who volunteered to leave. Ouch! Wrong, wrong, wrong. Rennie ripped the seller team apart. He's a former Navy pilot, and it was impressive to see him get angry. "When you go in as a team, you leave as a team!" he roared at them. That idea was imprinted on my brain forever.

  Keith, thanks for starting the discussion.

  Quick Tips for Successful Sales Calls originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 11:53:47.

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• Where Customers are Concerned, Avoid "Aim-Fire-Ready" Decisions
  

  Do you ever make business decisions affecting your customers without asking them what they think first?

  I belong to a franchise system and have been very successful in my business for eight years. Last night, the corporate office sent an email to its 400 or so franchisees announcing that an important product was being discontinued because of high manufacturing costs. My BlackBerry began buzzing incessantly almost immediately with commentary from other franchisees that is mostly unprintable on this family-friendly blog. Ah, I thought, a teachable moment for entrepreneurs on how to make decisions when your customers are involved.

  If you have a product whose raw material cost had risen, what would your options be? You could:

  Discontinue the product without prior research on how this would affect your customers and your relationship with them. Raise prices to your customers to cover your raw materials price increase. Ask your customers (or a subset of them) whether they would be willing to pay more to keep the product. Look for alternative sources of supply. Other (you fill in the blank).

  As it turns out, the franchisor had not considered any of these except the first one. They skipped the analysis that a price increase of about 3% would solve the problem (an amount easily absorbed by customers and able to be passed along to end users without complaint). Instead, the franchisor, in aim-fire-ready mode, unleashed shock and awe on the very people who it depends on for its own life.

  And the moral of the story, boys and girls: When you surprise your customers, who are your business partners, bad things happen. If there are hard decisions that have to be made, find a way to bring customers into the conversation (and your business obviously does not need to be a franchise to accomplish this). This is especially true in small business. We're not talking about GM and the Hummer here. Almost any problem can be solved when you ask customers to be part of the solution.

  Where Customers are Concerned, Avoid "Aim-Fire-Ready" Decisions originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Saturday, February 27th, 2010 at 09:45:27.

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• These Entrepreneurs Move their Own Cheese
  

  I first met Emily Sunderman when we both worked at CMP Media, a publishing company on Long Island, in the 1990s. She was a business analyst and a great person. We both moved on and I hadn't heard of her again until I stumbled upon her online.  Wouldn't you know it, she and her husband, Michael Lee, are entrepreneurs. Their cheese-making business, Twig Farm, is based in Cornwall, Vermont. We reconnected and she and Michael were gracious enough to take time away from the goats to answer some questions about their entrepreneurial journey. I told Emily before she answered these questions that, looking at her website, I wanted to be a cheese farmer in Vermont just like her! After our interview, that fantasy hasn't changed. Thanks Emily and Michael, and continued success!

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  What has been your greatest success as entrepreneurs? And your biggest failure?

  Biggest failure first.  We tried raising buck kids for the Easter market this Spring--hundreds of hours of labor, lots of purchased feed, and we lost our shirts at the livestock auction. Live and learn.  Greatest success is we make a good product that we're proud of and that people need, or at least want, very much.
  
  What advice do you have for would be executive-to-farmer entrepreneurs?

  Animals don't take weekends, holidays, or two weeks paid vacation. There aren't very many people who want to work Christmas so you can drive to Auntie's.

  When I went to your website, my reaction was, "I wish I was a goat cheese farmer!" It looks so idyllic. What's it really like to be in the cheese-making business in Vermont?

  It's a lot of fun doing one shitty job after another-sort of a definition of farming. If you know that to begin with, it makes it all a lot easier.  Specifically to the cheese-making side of things, we're part of a friendly community that rarely sees one another. We make a ridiculously small quantity of cheese, and have gotten very good at saying, "We don't have any more cheese to sell you" in lots of very gentle ways.

  Why did you get into this business, and what were your goals when you started in 2005?

  I don't remember.

  How have your outlook and goals evolved since then?

  We have a goal to take a family vacation next year.
  
  What's a typical day like?
  Michael gets up at 4:45 to set up to milk the goats. By around 5:15 he gone out-this time of year wearing a headlamp as it is dark-to find the goats in the pasture and lead them to the milking parlor.  Milking and cleaning up are complete by around 7:30 and then Michael gets the milk into the cheese vat to start warming up.  We have breakfast together around 8:00 then chase down shoes for our toddler.  Michael drives our three year old son Carter to day care and Emily starts email and telecommuting at her job as a web traffic analyst. The cheese is usually ready to stir when Michael gets back from daycare drop-off and the cheese made is usually in the molds by lunch time.   We generally have cheese sandwiches together at noon.   After lunch Emily goes back to web traffic and Michael moves fences for the next pasture rotation or some other regular farm chore.   Michael sets up milk around 3:30 and is done with afternoon milking and clean up around 5:45.  Emily goes to pick up Carter from daycare at 5 and is back around 5:45 and we cook dinner and play at being pirates or firefighters.  After dinner the cheese is usually ready to move to the brining process in our walk-in cooler, so Michael moves the process along.  We take turns putting Carter to bed, and then read the New Yorker and do email before turning in for the night.
  
  Has the larger economy (oil prices, feed prices etc) affected your business and if so how have you adjusted your strategy?

  Yes-feed has doubled in price since we started four years ago.   We've raised our prices a little and are now buying milk from other farms as well so we can make bigger batches of cheese.

  What do you love most about your business?

  No boss!
  
  What do you like least about your business, or hate most, if you feel that way?
  
  It is no fun when an animal gets sick and neither we nor the vet can make them better.

  Michael does cheese-making, Emily does marketing and web support. Who does everything else? Do you two do it all?

  Emily looks after the bookkeeping and marketing.  We have a high school student that helps us on Sunday mornings with packaging cheese for shipment.  We also have help with milking on Saturday mornings when Michael sells cheese at farmer's market and on Sunday afternoons so we can have family time.   Michael takes care of the animals and makes and ages the cheese, and everything else.

  I live on Long Island. How can I buy your cheese?

  You can buy our cheese sometimes at Lucy's Whey in East Hampton, or at Saxelby's Cheese in the Essex Street Market in New York City, or at Bedford Cheese in Brooklyn. Murray's in New York City usually has our cheese too.

  
  

  These Entrepreneurs Move their Own Cheese originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Saturday, February 27th, 2010 at 08:04:58.

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• For Aliza Sherman, Entrepreneurship Began Staring at the Barrel of a Gun
  

  Aliza Sherman is one of the true pioneers of Web marketing and journalism. She launched one of the very first Internet services companies, Cybergrrl, Inc., in the 1990s, and founded Webgrrls International, the first women's Internet networking group that grew to over 100 chapters worldwide in its first year. Since then she has launched products and communities, written books, been a prolific public speaker and adviser in the worlds of politics, media, health care and more.  She graciously took the time to answer my questions about entrepreneurship.

  My blog is about successful business executives who are switching from corporate to entrepreneurial life. What do you see as the biggest opportunities out there for people who are looking to go out on their own?

  I think consulting is a big opportunity, particularly for self-motivated people who can take the skills they've gained and experience they've had in the corporate world and package them in a compelling way. The major obstacle is often the fear of the unknown, and the fear of work without a steady paycheck, but there are many ways to create a steady stream of income and building up to premium consulting fees. I also think that in tough economic times, people are looking for guidance, for how-to's, for advice and encouragement. A consultant who can provide practical advice that can help others succeed can do well. I've also always believed that if you can produce a product that helps people do something faster, easier, better, then you can do well, with the right marketing and sales in place as well. That is why software developers with great products are making good money. Staying on top of technology developments can also reveal more opportunities. The worst thing someone can do is look for a get rich quick scheme. Success should be thought of as a long-term proposition versus a quick hit.

  There is so much out there now with "mommy bloggers" and mom entrepreneurs. What separates the best from the rest?

  I think the best mom entrepreneurs are the ones with a clear vision, useful products or services, and a great marketing and sales team. Of course, that is a potentially winning formula for any business. Mom entrepreneurs often create a product or provide a service for something they wished existed but couldn't find for themselves or their children. That's the epitome of identifying a need and filling it, which my Dad always told me was the secret to success in business. Moms bring a lot of passion and emotion to anything they do. Maybe it's the hormones. But it can really fuel their drive.

  For executives who want to be entrepreneurs, what are the best books and blogs to read and follow?

  One of the best bloggers out there is Seth Godin.  he's just genius about marketing and his ideas are great for anyone in business. I like my friend Becky McCray's blog Small Biz Survival - just good wholesome advice. I think a very important book to read about entrepreneurship is The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber. I haven't read it in a long time, but I remember some of its lessons vividly - and have lived through some as well. The big thing I hold on to is the risk of working in the business instead of on it and standing in the way of the business as the founder who can't let go. A lot of people recommend Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't by Jim Collins so probably worth a look. I also like Barry Moltz's books like You Need To Be a Little Crazy: The Truth About Starting and Growing Your Business and Bounce!: Failure, Resiliency, and Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success. Don't forget podcasts, too. My favorite podcast is more about social media but still a good listen for anyone in business: Managing the Gray by CC Chapman. I also like Media Driving by Jay Moonah. Short and sweet.

  And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some of my own: Entrepreneur Mom on WorkitMom.com; WomenEntrepreneur Women at Work column; and Digital Marketer podcast.

  What do you consider your biggest entrepreneurial success and why?

  I guess on the surface, my biggest entrepreneurial success was Cybergrrl, Inc. and Webgrrls International although the latter wasn't really a business but supported by my business. We pioneered a lot of what Internet companies are doing today, we got a lot of press for our work, we had a lot of loyal customers, and we enjoyed what we did. We truly believed in our mission to empower women through technology and could point to tangible results of our efforts. But today, I feel like a success while simultaneously feeling like a has been. If I try to compare the surface of my business today to the surface of my business 10-plus years ago, it would look less impressive. But beneath the surface, I'm in a much better place now. With my first business, I worked long and dreadful hours, had a draining constant power struggle with my business partner, felt disempowered in my own business as I touted women's empowerment, and felt trapped. In my new business, I have flexibility, a strong team to support me, have a great business partner, and I'm doing what I love to do every single day: write. I work from home or anywhere with wifi. I can travel and write anywhere. I can move and take my business with me. I think success is something beneath the surface and individual to each person. The surface stuff is window dressing that can fade while what is underneath is what really matters.

  Same question, but biggest failure and why?

  My biggest failure was trusting the wrong people in my first business. I ended up alienating my true friends and allies instead of heeding their advice. Today, I try to surround myself with smart people with heart, people I can trust and who trust me. When it all comes down to the basics, business is about relationships. Good relationships.

  Who are your entrepreneurial heros and why?

  I think that if you're talking about heart and soul, I'd say my mentors Jerry Colonna who started Flatiron Partners and is now a philanthropist and adventurer and Samir Arora, Chairman of Information Capital LLC. Awesome human beings, wise, kind, and generous. If you talk about big success on their own terms, I love Richard Branson. If you're talking phenomenal leveraging of a brand name, you can't beat Martha Stewart and her multimedia vision. And for brand reinvention, give me Madonna any day.
  

  Any questions you wished I asked? And answers?

  Why did you become an entrepreneur? Because after a life-and-death moment, being held up at gunpoint in Manhattan in 1994, I decided I couldn't spend all of my energy and creativity helping others realize their dreams without realizing some of my own as well. I love helping others, but I don't think I could have left this earth feeling like I'd done all I could do without trying to do some of my own things as well. I don't know if I have a clear purpose or mission these days other than doing good things, whatever that might entail. Once I got a taste of entrepreneurship, taking a regular job again, which I did after September 11th for two years, was a struggle. I eventually went back out on my own and whenever recruiters call me asking if I'd be interested in a high-paying corporate position they're trying to fill, I tell them they must be kidding:  I have my own business. What could be better than that?

  For Aliza Sherman, Entrepreneurship Began Staring at the Barrel of a Gun originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 11:22:26.

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• In 17 Minutes Your Business Will be More Saleable
  

  
  

  John Warrillow's book, Built To Sell: Turn Your Business Into One You Can Sell ( Flip Jet Media, 2010) has me thinking hard about my small business -- and if you own a small business (under 100 employees) it will get you thinking, too. Most entrepreneurs are great at doing all the jobs associated with their companies.  Knock yourself out. Hey, it's your company. But if you want to sell your business someday, it's not great. It's dangerous.  Listen to my interview with John and in less than 20 minutes you'll get the essentials of what you'll need to know if you ever want to sell successfully. Read my review of the book here. And visit the book website for other good info.

  In 17 Minutes Your Business Will be More Saleable originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 20:21:15.

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• Web Tool Eases Hiring Process for Small Business
  

  One of the biggest headaches for small businesses is hiring good people. Some people are great in interviews but perform miserably. Others are nervous in the interview process but have all the skills to do a great job. Big companies have HR departments that are equipped to sort through the hiring quagmire, but what about smaller firms that don't have human resources people to run interference?

  A Canadian firm, ClearFit, has created a software product to help small businesses solve the problem of limited resources and the need to hire the right people. As an employer, you create an account at ClearFit and then answer a series of questions about the job you need to fill and the attributes candidates must have to be successful in it.

  Once the job is in the system, job seekers can apply by completing a behavioral questionnaire. After that, the employer sees a report showing the "fit" of the candidates who applied. The system lets the employer know which candidates are good or bad fits, and also which ones are "distorted" fits, meaning they tried to answer the questions for a better result rather than giving honest responses.

  Candidates don't have to come to ClearFit directly to apply for posted jobs. They also can do so from more than 16,000 other job boards, including Indeed.com.

  Once the applicant completes the ClearFit profile, the employer sees a report showing the "fit" of the candidates who applied. The system lets the employer know which candidates are good or bad fits, and also which ones are "distorted" fits, meaning they tried to answer the questions for a better result rather than giving honest responses.

  Employers save time and expense by having a "fit" profile of interested candidates. The employer pays $350 per hire and can evaluate as many candidates as they wish.

  ClearFit co-founder Jamie Schneiderman says the benefit to small businesses is partly cost and partly the science behind the system. "Usually, for a testing tool like we have, there is a $100,000-plus setup fee, plus the cost of testing each person." Obviously, that would be out of the range of all small businesses. The patented ClearFit tool, he notes, was designed by industrial psychologists.

  Schneiderman says ClearFit also offers benefits to job seekers in addition to putting their application in front of employers. "Candidates get career feedback reports. They can see which careers they are a good fit for, based on 133 benchmarks of job fit that we offer."

  ClearFit, which was founded in 2007 and launched its product in 2009, is aiming at employers with 20-50 employees. "That's our sweet spot," Schneiderman says. "That group is the fastest growing and is more open to using technology to make hires."

  Web Tool Eases Hiring Process for Small Business originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 13:15:11.

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• How to Make Sure You Can Sell Your Small Business
  

  If you're lucky enough to own a business and not have to "work for the Man," you nevertheless have this problem: Do you have an exit strategy to enable you to sell your business at some point in the future?

  The vast majority of small business owners, when they're done doing whatever it is they do, lock the door behind them and walk away. The reason for this "no sale" outcome -- which some experts say is the result for 99 percent of businesses -- is often that their owners didn't build their businesses to be attractive to potential buyers.

  Fortunately for every small business owner who dreams of selling one day, there is a new book that outlines exactly what you have to do to get your business into shape for an eventual successful sale. In Built To Sell: Turn Your Business into One You Can Sell (Flip Jet Media, 2010), John Warrillow explains eight important steps to whipping your business into sellable shape, how to lure buyers into a competition for your business, getting the best price when you do sell, and avoiding bad deals.

  Warrillow, who sold his own small business a few years ago, makes a number of great points, including these:

  Your business needs a "standard service offering" that can be taught to and repeated by employees, so that the owner/founder can step away from the mechanics of the business. Without this, the owner is in the center of everything all the time. If that happens, no buyer will step in. Once you have that product offer down, you need to document it in a well-thought-out manual. As simple as it sounds, you need to hire salespeople. In most small businesses, the owner is the sales team. Almost by definition, such a business can't be sold. Others have to do the selling to make it attractive to a buyer. Warrillow says that, ideally, you should have at least two salespeople so they'll compete and each will achieve more. Once you figure out what your company does really well and codify it into your standard service offering, you have to stop doing extraneous stuff (perhaps even the stuff that got you as far as you are already). This is hard to do because it can be risky to abandon a revenue stream. But if you're dependent on revenue that is too leveraged with one client, or not differentiated, or can't scale, then it's only a matter of time before your business implodes anyway. You need to have a long-term compensation plan for important managers. A lot of owners think of stock options, but Warrillow says that's the wrong approach because it's complicated and saddles a potential buyer with all kinds of legal issues. Instead, go for bonuses that reward results and longevity in the company.

  Warrillow also helps you understand the traps you can fall into once you're actively trying to sell. For example, buyers will almost always reduce their offering price after doing due diligence (that's the part of the selling process when the buyer's representatives literally camp out at your place of business and ask to see every scrap of information you've ever (or never) collected about your business: cash flows, customers, market size, management team background, litigation, tax returns, and a whole lot more. Another trap: when a buyer asks why you're selling, don't say it's because you've built the business for 15 years and now you want to cash out and go fishin'. The right answer: You want to sell to achieve some liquidity and to bring in a strategic partner who can invest in the business to help it reach its potential. And then go fishin'.

  How to Make Sure You Can Sell Your Small Business originally appeared on About.com Entrepreneurs on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 at 20:31:25.

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