Category Archives for : Experience

I’m somewhat of an anomaly. I work as an internet marketer full-time and as a musician in my off-time. Now, I’m not saying that I’m an irregularity because I dabble within the audio-creative realm as well as the technical-online-marketing and content-strategies arenas—because, the truth is, I probably work with at least 5 other people that are also musicians. The difference is that I’ve begun to treat my music and my art as a business instead of simply as a creative outlet.

Drawing from the processes that I’ve seen function well in and around my office, a group of like-minded artists and myself assembled with the purpose of creating a brand to accompany our music. Born of that was our organization, Earthlings Entertainment LLC.—a music and entertainment blog and a low-key clothing line.

As we’ve grown over the past year, we’ve begun to recognize that we can either stay underground, hustling our clothes, merchandise, and music at the street-level, or that we can adopt best practices and procedures and run our outfit like many other legitimate businesses do. We’ve opted for the latter.

(For the sake of privacy, the marketing firm I work for will not be named, and henceforth will be referred to as “the office”).

One thing that I’ve always admired about the office is that we have a great company culture and atmosphere that encourages innovation and communication, all while maintaining productivity. We meet often, we go over models, diagrams, and plenty of presentations so that we can work out whatever kinks need working out, i.e. quantifying results, framing deliverables, etc.

As a collective, Earthlings Entertainment decided to adopt this mode of presentation, most recently employing business process modeling to demonstrate exactly what we wanted out of the transaction stage for a future online-storefront. At the time of writing this, the Earthlings website is in the middle of a redesign, so it may not yet exist at the time this is read (and may never exist, depending on the volatile nature of start-ups!), but we’re closet optimists that like to prepare for the best.

Our goal is to determine whether to go with a standard, one-size-fits-all type of e-commerce set-up like Big Cartel, or to employ the services of an open source development company like Appnovation. To better determine and present our most basic needs and answer e-commerce set-up question I came up with this model:

Our business process model ( click to view larger image )

To some, this online transaction example is rudimentary knowledge. To others, this is how you explain the internet and e-commerce. So bear with me—there are plenty of companies full of computer-illiterate folks, from entertainment/lifestyle brands to lumber liquidators to (yes, even) internet marketing companies. Instead of trying to tackle the intricacies of a web store’s processes with SSL, HTML, and Java-laden jargon, I opted to present what was most important and understandable. With the model explaining the process I can subsequently  handle all of those other, equally important aspects later on my own.

With the help of other associates, this neat little business process model (constructed via Creately’s online app) was folded up and presented with other pieces of business data in a neatly designed PDF (there are plenty out there, we use Soda PDF). The ability to visually and verbally explain the process virtually eliminates any confusion that team members may have had dealing with the project.

After the model  has been presented, following the standard procedure at the office, we email and print off the PDF so that anybody can refer to it later, if they are so-inclined.

The point here is that any entrepreneur running a start-up—from musicians getting their feet wet to seasoned internet marketing professionals—can benefit from business process modeling and presentation.

Of course, if you really want to know how well it goes with our company, feel free to check in on us from time to time and see how we’re doing. Also, definitely leave comments or suggestions below—we’re always looking for suggestions on ways to innovate and improve our processes.

A guest post by Andy O. If you’re interested in publishing with us check out the guest blogging guideline link found in the bio section.

NOTE – Visual collaboration is at the heard of everything we do at Creately. And remote employees can benefit a great deal from our visual collaboration platform which has real-time collaboration, easy sharing features and team management features. To collaborate you need to hire them first and following tips by Matt Boyd of Sqwiggle will surely help when hiring remote employees.

Hiring is tough and extremely important. You’ve probably heard the old saying “good help is hard to find”. That definitely applies when hiring remote employees. When hiring anyone, it takes careful consideration of all the options to make sure you’re making the right decision.

As a person who’s hired remote workers, I’ve learned some great techniques to find the best employees, no matter where they’re located.

“It’s very important in a restaurant to really do the right hiring because there’s no restaurant that you have one cook and one chef and nobody else in the kitchen. Generally you have five, ten, 15 people with you. So that’s really important is to train them right, but first you have to hire the right people.” -Wolfgang Puck

things to consider before hiring remote employees ( credit – Under 30 CEO )

When hiring anyone, regardless of location, it takes a certain level of trust that’s only developed over months of working together. Unfortunately, that’s rarely an option when you need someone quickly. This list contains a few simple tips that will help you qualify your applicants and narrow down the right person for the job.

1. Work Ethic and Past History

Work ethic is a big factor when considering applicants for your remote position. Working with someone over long distances requires major trust and a solid work ethic. This can easily be verified by paying attention to the details of their work history. If the applicant presents a work history that’s littered with instability, then they’re probably not a right fit for your remote position.

2. Ability To Communicate

Remote working requires an amazing skill to communicate ideas simply and effectively. When considering applicants for your position, it’s important to remember communication will be limited because of time zones. Take into consideration their ability to articulate ideas in a quick and effective manner. This ability goes a long way in a remote working environment.

3. Responsive When Needed

If you’re working in a business where emotions run high and things shift very quickly, it’s important to work with people who can shift with you and be there when you need them most. A solid level of responsiveness and quick action are great attributes to look for in a remote employee. In your applicant interviews, be very upfront about what you require and the level of responsiveness you need. Most applicants will be honest about their ability to perform under this kind of pressure.

4. Attention to Detail

This rule goes for any employee, but especially remote workers. Always be on the lookout for the applicant’s attention to detail. A detailed employee will make sure all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed. Pay attention to typos in their writing and give them small tests with the sole purpose of determining their level of detail. The last thing you want is an employee that never achieves their maximum potential because they aren’t detail oriented.

5. Problem Solving Abilities

When working in a high pressure remote environment, hand holding is not an option. It’s important to find someone with the ability to solve difficult problems with little to no outside help. You can easily determine your applicant’s ability to solve problems by asking difficult questions and gauging their responsiveness. If they respond quickly with a detailed plan, then you’re certainly closer to finding the right person for the job.

6. Technical Qualifications

This probably goes without saying but is worth noting. It’s important to hire someone that’s very technically proficient in your particular category. You can easily determine their level of expertise by again, giving them a simple list of questions and asking them how they would solve the problem. If it’s a code based question, ask them to show how they found the solution on a sheet of paper via a video conference. This is a great way to test your applicants and understand their level of proficiency.

The Amazing Advantage to Hiring Remote Employees

As a person that’s relied heavily on remote employees in the past, I want to briefly mention the great advantage I’ve found in hiring from all over the world. When you ultimately decide to break through the barrier of your local talent pool and move toward a distributed workforce independent of physical location, you’ll understand the amazing power and strategic advantage you have over your competition. Talent is no longer limited by physical location and to me, that’s really exciting. It’s your responsibility to hire the right people for your organization that will help you become as productive as possible.

Conclusion

No matter where you are or what you’re working on, you can probably benefit from hiring remote employees. It takes patience, skill and a bit of luck to find and qualify the right people but when you do, the results are amazing!

Don’t give up and pay attention to the details. Hiring is an exciting opportunity to grow and improve your company’s skill-set and thrive in a remote world. Take advantage of this amazing opportunity and make sure you hire the right people. It’s a very important task so be responsible and make the right decision!

If you have any great tips on hiring remote employees, I’d love to see them in the comments!

Matt Boyd is co-founder of Sqwiggle, an app designed to make remote working a more collaborative experience. Follow him and his journey as a remote worker and distributed team builder at http://blog.sqwiggle.com or http://www.twitter.com/mattboyd

As a serial entrepreneur once of the most important things I’ve had to learn the hard way is to value my time. When I launched my first online business in 2004, I literally did everything myself from creating a logo for a website, to writing content, to doing SEO, to handling email. I was literally working 14 hours a day and I was burnt out.

Being Cheap Vs Being Smart

But because I was so intent in trying to keep costs down I thought I was being smart. I mean, that’s what they all try and teach you in the textbooks isn’t it? Keep costs low, don’t expand too quickly and with any luck you may be able to realize a profit in the second or third year. I don’t know about you, but when I start a business, I want to be making a profit in the second or third week! So I don’t have a lot of time for text books, especially the ones written by academics who’ve never left the comfort of academia. But I digress…

The real reason I was not being smart was because I was just being cheap. And by being cheap, I was actually hurting my business because I didn’t understand the true value of my time. I wasn’t prepared to leverage the time, effort and expertise of others because I thought I could save money by doing it myself. So when I thought I was being smart designing a $50 logo myself, which might take me 4 hours to do, I was in fact selling my time for $12.50 an hour!

How Much Is your Time Worth?

So let me ask you a question. How much is your time worth? It never ceases to amaze me that so many business owners have never sat down and calculated the true value of their time. You may be wondering what do I mean by true value? I mean the actions that you take on a consistent basis that directly increase your bottom line. I call these revenue producing activities. So in my online business, for example, if I know that spending an hour optimizing a PPC campaign could potentially increase by bottom line by 0.5%, then this would be a true revenue producing activity.

Unfortunately for most of us, the activities that we spend most of our time doing are not actually revenue producing activities at all. They are simply administrative tasks and whilst on the surface these tasks may seem important, the fact of the matter is they do not add one iota to the bottom line. Such tasks would include checking email, customer support, attending industry conferences etc.

I’m not saying these tasks shouldn’t be done. On the contrary, most of them are integral to the daily running of a successful business. What I’m saying is let’s get clear on the actions that actually produce revenue and those that don’t. Because I can guarantee you one thing. If you are not earning the sort of money you always dreamed of earning in your business, it’s because your time is not effectively being spent on the things that directly add to your bottom line.

So here is a quick and easy exercise that you can do. Keep a diary for a week of every single task you perform in your business and time how long each task takes to complete. If you’re tech savvy you can use a mind mapping tool to do the same task. When the week is up, mark any task that didn’t directly add to your bottom line as Non-Revenue Activities (NRAs) and any task which did as Revenue Producing Activities (RPAs). Now calculate the percentage of your total time for the week that was an RPA. I think you are going to be in for a shock and I would hazard a guess that in all actuality 20% or less of your time is currently spent on RPAs.

Now assuming I’m correct, that means currently 80% of your time is spent on NRAs. We now have a benchmark and something we can work on improving. Now, start going through the tasks and identify the ones that are one-off events and the ones that are performed on a recurring basis. Any recurring task that is performed in your business can be systemized and outsourced easily. And the reason it can be outsourced easily is that if you’ve done the task more than once yourself, you should have a pretty good idea of how to carry it out already.

The True Value of Your Time

Earlier, I was talking about not being cheap and working out the true value of your time. The reason why this is so fundamental is because your hourly rate just had potentially a 5 fold increase in value! If, for example, you earned $15,000 in the last 3 months and you work around 200 hours a month, you would think that your hourly rate would be $25 per hour ($15000/600 = $25) However, that assumes that 100% of your time is used to accomplish RPAs. However, if only 20% of your time was actually allotted to RPAs, this means that only 40 hours a month are used to directly add to your bottom line. And that, my friend, means that your true hourly rate is $125 per hour.

Discover the True Value of Your Time ( credit – Flickr )

Once you realize your true hourly rate, there really is no excuse to be cheap anymore. It’s time to start outsourcing any task that costs less than $125 an hour. A few of the places where I have found great talented workers online are ODesk, Elance and vWorker . Whilst these sites are great for one-off tasks, I have had my best success in finding full-time workers by finding them directly. And the country that I have had the most success in is without a shadow of doubt the Philippines.

Why the Philippines is the #1 Outsourcing Hotspot

There are number of reasons why the Philippines stands out above the rest, but the main reasons include their excellent communication skills, their high levels of literacy (all the workers that I have are college educated) and their work ethic. They really do take a pride in their work. The wages are also a lot less than here in the West. You can find a good full time Virtual Assistant for around 12000 PHP a month (approximately $300 USD). That’s 40 hours a week full-time. So let me ask you the question. If you could free up around 160 hours a month for you do dedicate to RPAs, what sort of impact would that have on your bottom line?

Managing Your Workers

Is it all plain sailing? No. They do require you to manage them. In my own business, what I started doing was using a free screen capturing video like Jing to record small 5 minute tutorials that I could then show my outsourced workers. I also started creating process maps of all the recurring tasks that occur in my business. The advantage of the process maps over the videos is that it is visual and you can see step-by-step the actions that need to be taken to accomplish the task. Because it’s visual, you can also step back from it and really analyse the whole process. Sometimes, just by doing this, you are able to find more efficient ways of completing the same task. I also encourage all my outsourced workers to give their input and to create a process map of every new task that they perform. This way, not only can I see how they are performing their tasks, they are also providing me training materials for future workers we take on.

So in conclusion, value your time. Find your hourly rate. Outsource the tasks that you don’t need to be doing yourself and focus on the tasks that really matter. By doing this, you will not only see your profits grow, you will also have more time to do the things that you actually want to do. After all, isn’t that why you started a business in the first place?

Simon Phillips is the CEO of Touch Logic a mobile marketing company that specialize in mobile website design and app development for small businesses.

Are you trying to work out if Coworking is a good option for your start-up  Why not ask yourself a few of the following questions to see if it’s really right for you?

Yes, if you want an easier life

Coworking allows you to enjoy a potentially productive office environment without having to lose any productivity sorting things such as building maintenance and utilities; things you would have to consider if you rented your own space from a landlord.

No, if you have specific requirements

Of course if you have any specific requirements, particularly regarding security matters, then coworking may not be your best option.

For example, will you be happy to send sensitive data through a shared network? Also do remember you may not get to lock the office (and all the valuables inside it) at night. So, if you are particularly security-conscious you may end up lumbering around with armfuls of tech.

A Coworking space (via Inspire9 on Pinterest)

Yes if you want a flexible experience

With rolling month-to-month contracts and everything set up and ready for you to go, co-working offers a flexible alternative to traditional office space. If your company moves forward rapidly and you want a bigger space, then you can get out almost as quickly as you moved in.

If you are looking to expand, a further bonus is that you may be able to rent a few more desks in your current coworking space, so you don’t worry about having to source thousands of cardboard boxes to carry stuff to a new office (amongst other, more stressful problems you encounter when moving office).

No, if you want to shape your own permanent home

Of course, due to the flexible nature of coworking spaces there will be a certain amount of coming-and-going. A host of new faces can be a great way to keep things fresh, but if you want your own settled permanent home, this may not be ideal.

You also won’t get any real options to customize your space, so if you want an office to reside in long-term, that you can mold in your companies image, then co-working may not be for you. Of course this is always an option further down the line, but if you’re a start-up you often shouldn’t run before you can work.

Yes, if you want to work somewhere that’s a little unusual

Co-working spaces seem to bring out the creative best in office designers. They are rarely huge black, white and grey sprawling office blocs, and more often, small, independently run unique spaces.

You can find coworking spaces of all shapes and sizes clustered in creative hot spots across the world. You could end up working somewhere like the grand old Grain Exchange in Minneapolis. In London you can work in disused tube carriages that have been hoisted onto a rooftop or even on an old battleship on the Thames!

No, if you’re concerned with security

Again, with coworking spaces you will also have little control over the people you rent desks with. This means you could potentially be sharing a space with a competitor; it also may be a security concern for you. Although, thankfully such issues very rarely raise their heads. If this is a concern, then co-working may not be for you.

Yes, if you want a buzzing working environment

On the other hand, coworking spaces are some of the most dynamic, inspiring workplaces. They offer a whole host of potential contacts (and maybe even clients) amongst your coworkers and are generally filled with people in the same position as you. People who are usually more than willing to offer genuinely constructive feedback!

What’s Your Take on Coworking?

What do you think of coworking? Think it’s not the best solution for your start-up? Or is it the perfect match for your start-up? Maybe it depends on the coworking space and who manages it. Chip in with your opinion in the comments.

Peter Ames writes on behalf of www.officegenie.co.uk, a marketplace for shared desk space in the UK.

Imagine if you took the best parts of each team member and made one superstar. You might take Tom’s smarts, combine it with Renee’s empathy, add a dash of Joe’s writing skills and top it off with Tina’s sales ability. With a person like that working for you, your company would be unstoppable! Of course this person might come out a little funny looking…

The truth is you don’t need some Weird Science experiment to get more from your team. You can get more from your team when they work more together.When ideas, and communication crosses department and even business unit boundaries there are terrific opportunities for innovation.  Just imagine the impact that would have on your company!

Improving team collaboration can do wonders for your company

Team Collaboration can mean a lot of things – from overhearing a co-worker who’s struggling with a piece of software and walking over to show them an easier tool; to researchers sharing their best ideas to see if they can learn from each other’s discovery, and everything in between. But getting people to work together is more art than science.

Five Steps for Greater Team Collaboration

1. Set the stage.
   In order to get people working together, and more importantly sharing their best ideas and innovations, you have to have a culture that values the team above the individual, that respects ideas no matter where they come from, and where listening is valued. These are the baseline. Without respect, team orientation and listening it’s difficult to get anyone to share anything.
2. Create the space.
   Once we have the psychic space, we need to address the physical space.Collaboration happens best when it “just happens”. Chance encounters, overheard conversations, and hallway meetings produce more innovation and collaboration than 1000 “brainstorming sessions”. How can you locate your team in such a way to promote those chance encounters? Maybe it’s not the physical office; there are lots of online tools for knowledge sharing and collaboration that can facilitate it too.
3. Celebrate a good thing.
   When you start to see results from the collaboration, celebrate that by sending out a note recognizing the team members who took a risk, celebrating the results they achieved and holding them up as examples to follow. When you do this it gives you the opportunity to reinforce the values of respect, team orientation and listening too!
4. Stir the pot.
   Once you’ve got collaboration started, don’t let it grow stale. People tend to collaborate more with folks they know, like and trust. So mix up your teams a bit; invite marketing folks to your production meeting. Send the whole office out for drinks or to a bowling alley. Create some social or team building event that requires folks to work with teams that they wouldn’t ordinarily connect with. The more that people have positive experiences with one another, the more likely they are to collaborate.
5. Provide the Tools
   Encourage them even further by providing visual collaboration tools built for teams. From diagram software like Creately to task management tools like Asana there are hundreds of product that encourage collaboration. Features like real-time collaboration makes working together fun and productive increasing the likely-hood of people working together.

Now it’s your turn! What ideas do you have to improve team collaboration? Let me know in the comments below!

About The Author: Brad Farris works for EnMast. They help small businesses get on the right track with tools and processes that are built for success.

We hear it all the time, one of the adages of entrepreneurship – work smarter, not harder. But what does that translate to, in our daily lives? Work less long, but get more out of it. But how do you accomplish that? Like many things, in abstract this idea seems difficult to achieve, but when broken down, it shows that there are many ways to improve your work style. Try putting at least one or two of these ideas into practice each day, and eventually you’ll become the master of your quality of work.

Avoid Distractions

Think about your typical workday. Do you allow yourself long stretches of time in which you can truly sink your teeth into an assignment, or do you tend to only work in small snatches of time between interruption after interruption? Are you constantly flicking back and forth between projects and your email or social media sites? Do your employees pop in often to ask questions or for advice? Make it stop!

Did you know that it takes the average person 15 minutes to recover from a distraction? That means that for a quarter of an hour you are floundering around, trying to put your mind back where it was before the interruption – and then you’re probably going to get interrupted again! Here are some ideas for minimizing distractions in the office:

• Let calls go to voicemail, and then answer them in one block.
• Have one or two dedicated times to check and respond to emails during the day, instead of checking them as they come in.
• Turn off alerts for incoming emails, messages, or notifications from social sites. Yes, this might mean turning off your phone, too.
• If your office uses instant messenger, turn it off or set yourself to “away” while you are trying to focus.
• Close your office door, hang a sign on your cubicle asking not to be interrupted, or if you’re really desperate, wear big headphones or pretend to be on the phone.

So many distractions that can harm our productivity

Organize & Prioritize

Too many people rush into the day without a clear plan of action, and it leads to frustration and wasted time as you figure out where to focus your efforts first. What are your goals for the day? What absolutely must get done, what do you need to make progress with, and what can sit on the backburner for a lull? Set aside some time at the end of the workday to structure the coming day. For some people, this means implementing sophisticated project management software; for others this means writing out a long to do list and scattering post-it notes across their desk. Some may even prefer a simple Gantt chart for some visual guidance. Whatever your preference, if you’re going to skip any part of your day, definitely don’t skip the ten or fifteen minutes you spend organizing and prioritizing your day.

Don’t Multitask – Work in Parallel

Despite what you may believe, just face it: you can’t multitask. Anyone who has ever tried to talk on the phone while responding to emails understands. What we call “multitasking” isn’t truly doing two (or more – shame on you!) things at once at all; it’s just your brain switching quickly between two things over and over. Not only is this bad for your focus – remember how it takes 15 minutes to recover from a distraction? – but it also wears down on your brain, making you tired more quickly.

So, what can you do if not multitask? Instead, try working in parallel. This technique is already used heavily by teams of people working on the same material – think design teams or programmers – but you can take advantage of it, too. Do some of your projects get sent back and forth? Do those projects first, and while waiting for others to send them back, work on other things. This means less frustrated waiting time for you and your coworkers, and more time getting things done. Alternatively you can try real-time collaboration with your team or peers, another way to work smarter and save time.

Learn How Long Tasks Take

Once you eliminate or control your distractions, get to know your schedule and your way of working. Over time, you should see patterns emerging – it always takes you at least three hours to complete this kind of report, whereas another project you can whip out in thirty minutes. How would you know that if you hadn’t lassoed in those interruptions? This is useful not only for blocking out a schedule for yourself, but also for knowing when you have to say no to a job or a project.

Delegate: A Must Have Skill to Work Smarter

Everyone knows delegation is important, but for some reason too many people hang on to doing tasks that others could complete more efficiently or just plain better. Think about why you do certain tasks – if the answer is simply “because I always have,” you need to think hard about whether that task really ought to belong to you. Certain tasks – especially tedious ones, or those that someone else could easily be trained to take on – are no brainers.

Constantly Improve Your Processes

Change is good, especially when it translates to getting things done with more efficiency, more expediency, or less cost. The last company I worked for rewarded process improvements. Even if yours doesn’t, you should always be on the lookout for ways to do things better – it could mean you have an easier time managing your workday, or you might even get a raise.

Acknowledge the Point of Diminishing Returns

This is perhaps the biggest point behind the adage “work smarter, not harder” – there is a point at which working more does not mean you are getting more done. Productivity declines, and it can be more and more frustrating to reach the same goals you were hitting with ease before. This doesn’t mean you’re doing a bad job – it might just mean that you need to focus on a new strategy, or even take a break and return to the task fresh. If you acknowledge that such a point exists, you will face less frustration at work.

Listed above are some practical things you can do to work smarter instead of harder. Got more awesome tips? Do share them in the comments and if it’s a truly awesome one we’ll add it to the article.

Adrienne Erin is a blogger and writer. When she’s not blogging about tech and social media, you might find her practicing her French, whipping up some recipes she found on Pinterest, or obsessing over vintage postcards and stamps.