Entrepreneurship Questions and Answers

There were several Question and Answer sessions during the Action Seminars. These are the ones that related to Entrepreneurship.

The questions are:

• How do you determine if your passion is worth pursuing as a business?
• When you are ready to add people, how do you decide whether to outsource or hire in-house?
• What questions should you ask when you want to hire someone?
• What are the steps to get employees trained?
• Question for Lisa: How do I grow my local team?
• For Stan: Do you have some type of ritual to increase productivity?
• How do you find a product launch manager?
• How do you pay your people?

How do you determine if your passion is worth pursuing as a business?

Mary Ellen: A passion business is great if there is a market for it. Otherwise it is a hobby. If no one else is doing it there is a reason for that. It is not good to be first to the market. It is good if you can see some unserved portion of an existing market.

1:33 What questions should you ask when you want to hire someone?

Jonathan: Previous work, references, but those can be faked.

Always hire more than one for a one-week trial to see what they can do

Melanie: 3 things when she hires a contractor:

• When you check a reference, make sure they call back quickly. Ask if they would hire them again and what they wish they could do better.
• Call people from testimonials
• Don’t pay all up front. 50% at most.

15:16 What are the steps to get employees trained?

Melanie:

1. Record what you do as you are doing it so everyone gets the same training. Have everyone document what they do.

2. Everyone needs a certain amount of training. Higher level people usually don’t need as much because they already have skills.

Christina:

Get the person being replaced help train the new person.

AS2-2

18:52 Question for Lisa: How do I grow my local team?

Hire part time first.

To create first job description: Draw a box with 4 sections:

• Top right: Entered her unique abilities that make money
• Top left: Things she does well but don’t charge her up.
• Bottom right: Things she was competent at but would never be great at
• Bottom left: Incompetent. Things she should stay away from.

She found that most of her time was being spent in the bottom 2 boxes.

She started by hiring a part time person to handle the incompetent tasks first so whe could concentrate on the high-impact tasks.

She uses the KOLBE test first to find people that fit the necessary profile.

Jason: You can get people to intern for you before you hire them.

Stan: You can go to a local college and get interns that you can teach the business. Then if they work out you can hire them.

28:30 Productivity: Do you have some type of ritual?

Structure your day so you can be productive. Don’t schedule everything you do. Find an hour a week to focus on something and you will be amazed at what you can accomplish.

30:21 How do you find a product launch manager?

John Walker: We have a service that will find one for you.

31:28: How do you hire other people (web developers, etc)?

Harlan: Referrals, Craigslist Philippines. He gives advice about hiring people remotely

John Walker: He puts out a request to his list first.

Bond Halbert: You can get info from a Mastermind, networking event, skype group

Brian: It is all about relationships. He does a lot of testing. Best people always come from relationships. He has a specific process to weed out the worst of them first.

Jon Correll: Start finding people when you don’t need them. He uses the KOLBE test. If you can, have them do a project for you first.

Stan: Once you get someone make sure you have each project organized. He uses Basecamp. He doesn’t outsource overseas.

5. 46:29 How do you pay your people?

Harlan: It depends on who they are, where they are and what they are doing. He gives some specific examples.

Bond Halbert: If it is someone who you need for continuing help, give them a piece of your income so they are invested in your success.

Brian: He has a lot of overseas employees and has a local person who oversees them. If you are paying up front, use a depository for them to put the code in case they disappear. They are paid through that service, too.

Jon Correll: All employees are in-house. They get salary and bonus. Overseas people tend to have a long learning curve.

53:47 Harlan: Don’t put yourself at risk, be careful how much access you give people. He gives several security measures you should use.

Stan: You need to know something about how to do everything in your business.

Note: Elance is now called Upwork.

This would depend on where you are in your business.

There is some great advice on hiring/training/paying employees as well as how to become more productive,

If you are just starting out, listen to what Mary Ellen has to say about the importance of passion in your selection of a niche.

They mentioned the book:  “The 4-hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris

We have a post in the Marketing Rebel Insider’s Club about how to read effectively and efficiently.  Click here to read the article.

One great way to organize your thoughts, or a business plan, is by creating a mind map.  We have a post that explains how to do that here.

They talk a lot about the KOLBE test.  You can get more information about that here.