The Business Brief
November 2019
Hire Slow and Fire Fast
The Best Tactics for Employers
Every instance of employee turnover costs businesses between 12–16% of their annual revenue. In 2018 alone, employers lost a combined total of $600 million due to turnover rates, and that number is projected to increase to $680 million by 2020. While nothing is certain, one strategy will decrease your turnover rate: the "hire slow and fire fast" strategy. This technique doesn't mean waiting for months to find an employee and firing due to knee-jerk reactions; rather, when it comes time to hire for an opening, consider these three questions. 1. Does this position actually need to be filled? By restructuring your workflow, you might be able to accomplish the same tasks with the team members you already have. good fit? Try gauging whether a prospective hire fits your company culture with a personality test. The results put you one step closer to determining who to hire. Remember, a good culture fit is key. 3. Is it time to give up the search? When you take your time to assess your candidates, you will be able to find the best fit for your company. 2. Are your potential candidates a
efficiently, and you won't waste time dealing with drama.
You want your company to be the place where everyone wants to work, and, if you're aggressive in your firing approach, that won't be the case. If they're not a great fit, tell them in the most polite and professional way possible. As an entrepreneur, there isn’t a clear path to success. However, making the wrong hiring decision can set you back many steps in your progress. If you do find yourself in a bad hire situation, I know it can be tricky to escape. If you need advice about the best way to proceed, give me a call at (208) 401-9300. If you want to talk after business hours or over the weekend, I'm always happy to help. Just send me an
Hiring slowly is imperative, but firing slowly can cause issues for your business, and you will inevitably waste more time and energy handling them. A bad employee will always poison your company culture. Keeping them around will negatively impact other team members' well-being. Furthermore, you want your customers to know you have a world-class staff. By holding on to a bad employee, you decrease the performance and quality of your team, which won't look good to your clients. While firing fast is essential, you must always fire compassionately, as you never know where an ex-employee will end up. They may take a job with a client and be in charge of purchasing decisions.
email to schedule a call at tom@genlawgroup.com.
If you have the right folks in the right positions, everything will run smoothly. When you maintain the right culture, work gets done
–Tom Walker
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BREAK AWAY FROM BLAND
How to Write Content That Pops
As awareness about the global impact of climate change rises, consumers have started to vote with their dollars for companies that offer greener, more sustainable products and practices. Slowly, that groundswell has caused businesses to shift their priorities and take steps to track and reduce their environmental impact. But long before the green movement began in earnest, there was Ray Anderson — one man who decided to flip the script. In 1994, Anderson was 60 years old, the CEO of the modular carpet company Interface, Inc., and no more environmentally aware than his contemporaries. But when his customers started asking about the environmental impact of his carpets, he dropped into the rabbit hole of environmental research and emerged a changed man. He had a new goal for his $1 billion company: It would take nothing from the earth that the planet couldn’t replace. In 2009, Interface created and sold over 83 million square yards of carpet without negatively impacting the planet or losing revenue. Anderson chronicles his journey from point A to point B in his book, “Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist.” According to Inc. magazine, Anderson, who passed away in 2011, was considered “the greenest CEO in America.” His company mastered sustainable innovation, and its patents, products, and processes are revealed in his book, which is as much a guide for entrepreneurs of the future as it is for those of the present. One reader on Amazon reviewed the book as “Inspiring,” writing, “If only the world had more Ray Andersons. The fact that he turned a company reliant on the use of petrochemicals for the production of its core product into [a company] with sustainability as its core ideology and was able to improve his profits is outstanding. Any and every company can learn something from this book.” If you’re trying to lessen your business’s impact on the planet and tap into a market of environmentally conscious consumers, “Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist” is the place to start. How to Get Rich Without Hurting the Planet
When it comes to winning over customers with content marketing, many entrepreneurs seem to think, “If we publish, they will come.” That would certainly explain the flood of bland, cookie-cutter blog posts pumped out across social media every day. To win over readers and make the most of your marketing dollars, your content needs to have a personality — a voice. Of course, personalizing content comes with a few pitfalls every marketer needs to know. newspaper. Do you think the author speaks exactly like that in real life? Probably not. Speech and writing are two different mediums with different stylistic needs, and trying to translate one to the other can prove disastrous. For example, many content writers include verbal cues like dramatic pauses … by including useless ellipses. In a conversation, strategic pauses may impress, but on the page, they pull readers out of the article. Contractions Aren’t Your Enemy On the other end of the spectrum, some people write like robots. They avoid contractions like “don’t,” “can’t,” and “aren’t,” resulting in stilted, plodding sentences that inflate word counts and alienate readers. Obviously, formal publications like research papers and legal briefs still maintain this archaic ban on mashing words together, but when it comes to marketing content, rules are flexible. Do not fear using these tools. You cannot go wrong with adding a splash of informality to your writing. Your readers are not going to mind. (Are you still with me?) Show, Don’t Tell This is a big one. So many businesses publish copy with big statements like “We love our customers!” or “Our passion is helping you!” These blanket sentiments come across as shallow. So, rather than tell customers you care about their needs, write content that shows them you understand their needs and want to help address them. We care deeply about your marketing campaigns and want to help them succeed! Don’t Write How You Speak Read a few sentences from your favorite book or
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Point by Point
Revolutionize Your Business With Bullet Journaling
When you’re an entrepreneur or a business leader, your to-do list can feel more like a novel than a manageable list. But what if you could order your thoughts, track your accomplishments, and maintain organization all on your own terms? It may sound too good to be true, but bullet journaling does just that. What Is It? Despite what the name may suggest, bullet journaling has little to do with writing out your feelings — unless you want to do that! Instead, it’s a log of all your to-do lists, reminders, and tracking systems in one convenient place. The goal is to complete tasks and update your journal each day. You can even download a companion app to digitally stay on top of your tracking.
The beauty of bullet journaling is customization. If you’re a visual person, create drawings or tape down pictures to represent your tasks. If you prefer precise outlines, use ruled pages to order each goal and its subtasks. A bullet journal can include every aspect of your business down to the smallest logistical details, or it can break down a single, complicated aspect, such as vendor tracking, into one journal. The look and function of your bullet journal is completely up to you and your process. How Do I Do It? Despite the versatility, every bullet journal shares a couple key components. First, you need a legend or key to identify what symbols mean throughout your journal. For example, a square next to a task may indicate it is a high priority, or a star may mean a task has been completed. Any group of symbols will work, but consistency keeps you organized. Second, you need a calendar in your bullet journal. That way, you can organize your goals by year, month, week, or day and keep track of smaller goals along the way. Throughout your journal, create separate sections for as many breakdowns as you want, but the key is to keep it all connected. No longer do you need to carry around a to-do list, a planner, and a calendar. Turn to bullet journaling to revolutionize the way you organize. For more tips, inspiration, and information on how bullet journaling can help you and your business, visit BulletJournal.com.
PUZZLE
HAVE A Laugh
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Inside This Edition
1.
The Best Tactics for Employers
2.
Is Going Green Good Business?
Are You Making These Writing Mistakes?
3.
Bullet Journaling for Your Business
Have a Laugh
4.
Execution Is Greater Than Strategy
Execute Strategy and Kill Stagnancy 3 Tips for Every Business Leader “To me, ideas are worth nothing unless executed ... Execution is worth millions.” –Steve Jobs
2. Be Methodical While you shouldn’t wait for the perfect plan, you shouldn’t be flying in blind, either. You can be too energetic about execution. Make sure everyone involved in a plan knows their responsibilities.
Anyone can take this advice to heart, whether you’re a stay-at- home parent or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Ideas are easy, but no one becomes successful because they had a great idea. Success comes from putting that idea into action. Being able to execute a plan is a skill every business leader needs. Here are three steps to help you improve your execution. 1. Ditch Perfection Have you ever watched a behind-the-scenes featurette of your favorite movie? Some of the most successful films were all but unrecognizable in their early phases. In fact, a lot of early concepts are terrible. Look up the original designs for Woody in “Toy Story” to see for yourself. Fortunately, rather than wait for the perfect script, creators executed their visions and make changes as needed. Putting off action in favor of creating the perfect plan or strategy leads to stagnant business. Successful people know that plans take many shapes before they reach their final form. Don’t jump into something without a clear plan, but don’t be afraid to define your strategy as you go. There’s a reason audiences won’t be flocking to theaters to watch the latest galactic adventures of Luke Starkiller this December.
Confusion will torpedo any strategy faster than you can say, “Who was in charge of this?” The Harvard Business Review states, “Having the discipline to organize people, assemble resources, and then generate a plan that others can commit to will collectively improve execution.” 3. Evaluate, Evaluate, Evaluate We’re not saying you should micromanage your team, but you do need to be checking in on a regular basis to evaluate progress on your plan. Schedule monthly or quarterly meetings to go over the strategy. This is where you look for any changes that need to be made and refine the strategy. A smart strategy feels reassuring, but learning to execute a plan is the only way to make progress. The best business plan in the world is worthless if you never follow through.
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