Finding Great People

Great people develop themselves by aiming to be the best and consistently working hard for it.

-Charles Bates

Working with great people makes you great; you learn a lot and it also gives you the experience and confidence to move on with your own career.

Nas

This week we learned about how great people can make companies great. This is better said by Jim Collins in his book Good to Great  "...to build a successful organization and team you must get the right people on the bus."  The questions we need to ask are: Who are the right people? and How do we get the on the bus?

In order to find the right people we need to know what kind of people we are looking for. We can do this by creating job descriptions that include experience and education required, job functions that will be performed, key personality traits, company values and required timelines. We then seek out individuals who may fit out criteria. This is often done through the interview process. During this process we must take our time and not be quick just to fill a position. Doing so could stunt our company growth and be very costly. Once we find the right person we can offer them a position. As part of this process we should also consider what our exit strategy will be just in case they are not the right fit.

We can use the example of Jet Blue and its founder Neeleman who learned the industry through career choices, discovered a problem, thought of a solution and then found the best people that could help him "fix" the problem. He found people who were experts in the industry but would also buy into his dream and culture. Doing this allowed his to achieve profits in six months. This was amazing because most start ups in the industry were bankrupt within three years. 

$100 Challenge

This week has been challenging as I have only gained one additional sale this week. That brings my total to $65.

My biggest challenge is being unfamiliar with the market here in Twin Falls and not having a huge desire to carry my business beyond the point of this assignment. While I want the assignment to be successful I don't intend to stay in the business. Part of my motivation for going back to school is to make a career change. In our HMM quiz we were asked to discuss how people can make or break a company. In the service industry your clients are the company. I feel like I am doing any new clients I meet during this assignment a disservice because I don't intend to continue long term. In this industry you are dependent on repeat business. What am I saying to my clients if I only agree to service them this one time?  How does that really build a relationship?  Honestly, it doesn't.  The way I run my business also doesn't allow me to sell  my book to someone else. Clients come to you for your knowledge, skill but most importantly because you are you.

Next week I will work on my online product promotion with a goal of $20 in sales. I will be selling the products auction style (this was a feedback suggestion). I will be using two product lines Kenra and Moroccan Oil for this promotion.

Entrepreneurial Interview

My goal was to finish the final draft for this project but I put it on the back burner to do the E-myth book report instead. It is kind of silly that I didn't have this complete already as I finished the book the 3rd week of classes. I have had to go back and skim over the information to remind myself what the highlights of the book were. Joys of procrastination.