Beakinoftruth: Making Money Work

We’re in business, so we don’t get to sit the tough seasons out and come back when it’s all better. Despite the economy, the small business owner still has serious management issues to address. We can tackle them head on, grow our businesses and ourselves–or we can ignore them, but that could eventually put us out of business. Success is the goal, and the better the team, the better the business.

Here are three suggestions to help you take care of your team, so that they can take care of your clients.

1. Focus on the little steps and everyday strategies.

Your team is no good if you can’t keep them focused. And you can’t keep them focused if you can’t keep yourself on track. Have you ever tried to build a business with your eyes glued to the television? It doesn’t work. In the same vein, jumping from one task to the next without focus and an ongoing sense of completion is just as unproductive. You’re busy, but so is a cat when he’s chasing his tail.

In “It’s All About the First Downs,” Diane Helbig gives some great tips to help you grow your business in “baby steps.” Instead of focusing on that big, amazing, and sometimes overwhelming plan, she has you shift your focus to the little steps. If we address the day-to-day details consistently, then we will eventually arrive at our big goals.

Diane says, “I’ve been confronted with people who are having trouble focusing.” She believes the “root cause is…an inability to see a big idea in small pieces.” I like what she says, because I believe your company’s future rests in your ability to manage the details of the dream, the day-to-day elements. In fact, the more focus you have on the daily strategies of your company, the more focus you can expect from your team.

Making the shift from the big idea to a daily grind that will get you where you want to be isn’t always easy. But Diane’s advice will get you started.

As you focus your team—and reap the benefits from it—you’ll probably want to find a way to reward them.

2. Try a new kind of raise: performance-based pay rewards.

You can’t grow your business without your team. So how do you take care of them if you are in a situation where you have just enough cash flowing to keep the doors open? Anita Campbell discusses performance-based raises in “Should You Pay for Employee Performance?”

You can’t give raises with money that you don’t have. So, if they make it, then you pay it. Anita explains, “A good pay-for-performance plan will focus on the aspects of employee performance that increase sales and profits. As a result, there will be more money available to pay employees for their performance.”

In the article, Anita tells you the type of employees that are most likely to appreciate this plan, as well as suggestions on how to implement pay-for-performance, including the advisors that can help you set it up.

Anita says, “When handled properly, a pay-for-performance program can motivate employees,” and that can move your business forward. Just keep in mind that your team needs to know the rules of engagement and it’s up to management to make that clear upfront and document it.

When it comes to performance, some people just don’t live up to it, and tough decisions have to be made. That brings us to point number three.

3. Fire what doesn’t work; hire what does.

In high school, college and the rest of life we try out for sports, audition for plays, interview for jobs, etc. We have to qualify for what we want, and the older we get, the higher the standards. We aren’t babies anymore—so we’re also long past being rewarded for being cute and cuddly. Everyone can’t or won’t perform at the level that your company needs and requires, and you have to do something about it.

In “3 Things to Consider When Hiring and Firing,” John Mariotti gives some well-balanced advice on firing team members without disrespecting them or breaking their will. He says, “Firing people is no fun at all—at least it shouldn’t be—but it is necessary.” John also advises us to “Always remember that it takes two errors to create a failed employee:

an employee who doesn’t perform in the job, and

the supervisor who put them in a position to fail.”

I try to remember that making the tough decisions can set us up to succeed where others fail.

From Small Business TrendsManaging Staff in a Tough Economy: Who Do You Fire, Who Gets That Raise?

Read more posts on Small Business Trends »

This isn't the first time that Mike Matas has been hired through acquisition, either. In 2005, Apple acquired his startup hired him away from his startup Delicious Monster. He was 19 years old at the time. That company built a media organizing tool called Delicious Library. Update: Turns out I was wrong about that. Apple just hired Matas. That doesn't sound very good. Maybe everybody's getting paid and it's OK though, I don't know.

Delicious Library is now the books on a shelf interface Apple uses to display media in iTunes, iBooks and other apps. (Asked today if Facebook had been calling him, Wil Shipley, Matas's co-founder at Delicious Library, said on Twitter "Nope! Always a bridesmaid.")

While acting as a Human Interface Designer at Apple for the four years, three of which were before the iPhone's launch, Matas worked extensively on the secret world-changing phone.

Matas designed the camera, photos, maps, settings and battery display for the iPhone. The iPhone doesn't ship with very many apps and Matas designed at least four of them. He also designed the Photos app for the iPad. He designed Time Machine and Photo Booth for the Mac. He's not Jonathan Ive, Apple's design guy at the very top, but he's pretty high profile none the less.

And now he's at Facebook.

A Detour Through the Super-Stealth

Oddly, Mike Matas appeared set to engage in a different kind of experiment just a few weeks ago. While still winning accolades for the e-book platform he co-founded, Matas's name showed up in reports about a stealthy new startup called Nest Labs.

According to a report by Green Tech Media's widely respected writer Michael Kanellos, Matas was working with Nest on a home networked climate control system. What were they making? Presumably one hell of a compelling interface for getting people to minimize their home power consumption, designed to be as pleasing to use as an iPhone.

Several Apple designers were in on the product; I saw tonight that Tom Crabtree, former Apple Art Designer who created the first iPhone packaging lists Nest as a client as well.

Kanellos sees some clues and takes a guess that Nest may have taken money from the Venture Capital firm Al Gore is a part of, the venerable Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Early backers of Google, Amazon, etc.

Nest.com is a pretty mysterious website for the company, too. There's nothing there but a very bold and ambiguous quote from investor Bill Prescott ;apparently Google has never indexed any inbound links to it.

Sorry, Bill, Mike Matas at least is at Facebook now.

None of this discussion even addresses the apparently TED-wowing e-book platform that Matas built for Push Pop Press. Facebook says it's not going into that business but will incorporate some of the company's work. Look out Twitter, look out Google Plus, Facebook is going to go Apple design on you. Matas is far from the only rock star designer Facebook has scooped up lately, either.

So the mysterious young designer who designed much of the interface for the most-loved mobile device in history, then began to work on transforming reading into an act befitting the future, then began working on making personal environmental responsibilities like turning off the lights in your house fun...is now at Facebook.

That sounds like the beginning of something very interesting. Some people say the Web suffers from social network overload already. More likely, I suspect, the world of social networking is just beginning to emerge. It's going to get a whole lot better, too.

reputation management optimization

Beakinoftruth

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Making Money Work

A Detour Through the Super-Stealth

<b>News</b> In Brief: Life - Science <b>News</b>

Language Log » <b>News</b> Flash: BBC Admits Error

08/03/2011: U.S. Department of Justice, EPA to Hold <b>News</b> <b>...</b>

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