Steven Cox - Founder of TakeLessons. Build Something You're Proud Of

Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make - Hire Right

Here's a good article from Neil Patel (co-founder of KISSMetrics). He interviewed a few successful entrepreneurs that had built businesses worth at least $50 million to learn what some of their biggest mistakes were.

By far, the reply that kept coming up is hiring the wrong people. It seems that just about everything else falls secondary to "getting the right people on the bus", as Jim Collins would say.

I agree with the general consensus. Your ideas will change, your direction will change, and the skills you need will change. What is critical is that you can find smart, hungry, driven, flexible people with raw talent. Just about everything else can be learned over time. However, just a couple wrong hires can kill a company's culture and make it extremely difficult to grow because you end up spending more time fixing internal staff problems and less time solving the customers' problems.

We've developed a pretty good system of weeding through candidates effectively. We have seperate interviews where a team of two interviewers' job is to specifically focus on one of three aspects: skills, work/school history, and culture fit. By spending a lot of time on each one, the interview teams can get a really good idea of the candidate, and we're not asking the same question to the candidate over and over.

If you've made a bad hire, believe me - your team knows it. Once you become convinced the person is the wrong hire, it's critical to cut bait early. You are doing yourself, your company, and the new hire a disservice by keeping them around. Let them go find something more suitable for their comfort level. If you don't cut bait, I believe it is hard for the new hire to overcome the psychological downward spiral of 'losers slime'. This is where the internal team is not impressed with the hire and thus becomes just a bit less likely to spend the extra time with them. This, in turn, creates an uphill battle for the hire to get up to speed, and eventually everyone ends up frustrated. 

Read the full article

Tools for your startup

Here is a post by Sean P Aune on 10 helpful tools that can help your startup. I've personally used 99Designs and DropBox, and we are reviewing a couple of the other customer service tools for use on the TakeLessons Music Lessons site.  

Lots of good tools from file sharing to storage to email.

10 Tools for your Startup

Congrats on the great job. Now, back to work.

Here is an email I sent to the TakeLessons team last week where we recognized our past successes and was reminded of what it takes to continue to grow. Sometimes, the biggest challenge to success is success itself as it can breed complaceny. As a leader, it's your role to ensure your team keeps focusing on future results.

------------------

Hello Team,

As you know, last quarter we went through a time where we were over-worked and stretched thin. The goal was to get to reach out financial milestones so that we can ensure we are self-reliant in case the macro-economic environment turns downward.

Here’s an article from TechCrunch that talks about the current state of venture/angel/private equity. In summary, less deals are getting done, there is less appetite for risk, and I believe more start-ups will die. It will be tough to raise money.

What this means is that if you are not cash-flow positive already, you are going to have a very tough road ahead of you. Funding will be limited, which means it will be nearly impossible to grow without a sustainable business model. It also means that companies with solid models can now extend their lead faster and with more force, since competition will be muted.

We made the right choice by buckling down and doing the hard work necessary to reach our goal. There are thousands of tech companies right now that would give anything to be in our position, and because of your commitment, drive, free throws, and perseverance, we are in an enviable position.

Looking forward, it is essential that we continue to focus on hitting our quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals. You saw Matt’s email this morning. We missed 6 sales yesterday from unanswered calls – and those six sales (as well as every sale) really matter. Don’t allow yourself to think that we can sit back and rest. Now is not the time. If we get complacent, we will slip backwards quickly. Keep the intensity and pressure on yourself and on your teammates to perform at their best.

Are you using your time efficiently? Are you reading about what it takes to prepare yourself for the next position you’ll want in the company? During the downtime throughout the day, are you surfing the net, or thinking about ways to improve your department? Are you offering to help your teammates? Remember, it’s what you do when no one is looking that determines your character, your habits, and ultimately your outcome. It’s doing the little things well that matter because, ultimately, there are no ‘little things’. Everything matters.

As you master the art of self-discipline, it is the traits you are learning and applying daily here at work (perseverance, CANI, ownership mentality, loyalty, strategic thinking, goal-setting) that will make you marketable the rest of your life. It is these same characteristics that will make you a better student, husband, wife, parent, civic servant, entrepreneur, and world leader. It is these same character traits that will allow us to keep raising the bar for ourselves and bettering ourselves and human beings. And as we grow, we will expose ourselves to new experiences and opportunity that will continue to add to the value of our life.

As we continue to expand, I encourage you to master your current position and begin to prepare yourself – at work and on your own watch - for the position you want to grow into.  It will be those who continue to require more of themselves who will be the ones that naturally rise up. Will it be you?

I am counting on you, as the leaders of this company, to continue to think smart and build something you’re proud of. Great job. You deserve a high-five. Now, back to work.

Steven

http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/19/think-your-start-up-is-venture-worthy-think-again/

Kevin Rose's 10 Tips for Entrepreneurs - ReadWriteStart

Here is a short list of helpful hints to new start-ups. I agree with all of them. It boils down to getting the right people on the bus, keeping them motivated, and being very smart with your cash.

Kevin Rose's 10 Tips for Entrepreneurs - ReadWriteStart.

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California Arts Council Announces Arts License Plate Fees Are Now Charitable Deductions, Launches Goal of One Million New Arts License Plates On California Cars

From our friends at the California Arts Council

A recent clarification from a state tax agency could be a significant boon for the arts in the state. California Arts License Plate fees are charitable deductions to the State of California for tax purposes, according to the Franchise Tax Board. The clarification comes just in time for the holidays and end-of-year charitable planning and serves as a platform to launch a goal of affixing one million new arts plates to California cars.

Whether the additional fees Californians voluntarily pay for Arts Plates were considered a charitable contribution to the State of California was in question for years.

The recent clarification is especially helpful for businesses and residents looking to support arts statewide. Sales and renewals of the Arts Plate account for over 60 percent of the California Arts Council's budget. Currently the state's per capita investment in the arts is around 10 cents per person even with the Arts Plate funds, putting California in last place compared to other states in the nation.

"It's a crucial time for the arts in California," said Malissa Feruzzi Shriver, Chair of the California Arts Council. "Our economy relies on creative minds, artistic organizations and innovative workers, yet our per capita state investment in the arts is the lowest in the nation. Individuals and businesses can help change that by buying Arts Plates, especially for the upcoming holidays and as part of end-of-year charitable donations."

"One million cars with California Arts Plates would mean close to $40 million for the arts," continued Feruzzi Shriver. "That would put California near the top in arts funding rather than dead last."

The California Arts Council is the state agency that advances California through the arts and creativity, and the agency's programs emphasize arts for children and communities. The Arts Plate, designed by California artist Wayne Thiebaud, first hit the roadways in 1994. Since then sales and renewals of the plate have provided over $20 million for the arts in California. Fees for sales and renewals of the Arts Plate go directly into the Arts Plate Fund, minus the Department of Motor Vehicles' cost to fabricate and administer the plate.

For more information about the California Arts License Plate, contact the California Arts Council's communication director Mary Beth Barber at (916) 322-6588, (916) 835-5580 (cell) or mbarber@cac.ca.gov.


HOW TO ORDER

Using Social Media to Recruit Employees

Here's a slideshow from Fred Wilson, a smart VC from Union Square Ventures, on using social media to recruit new talent. 

At TakeLessons, we've hired twice in 2009. The first time, we posted ads on Craigslist and Monster, sifted through 400 resumes, and invited 35 candidates to come wow us at an evening open house. It took a lot of effort for our team to meet the candidates, and even more time to narrow the candidates down to the final three. We eventually ended up hiring a person and found out within a couple weeks that we'd made a mistake, as the person didn't seem to share the same values we did.

It was a lot of wasted time, and we were right back where we started. 

Recently, we hired again. This time, our team members used Twitter and Facebook to gather 15-20 solid resumes from our network. What I liked about this process is that my network knows how hard we work and that we require someone willing to give 110%. I had a few people who had initially emailed me with someone, then retracted because they could not, in good faith, recommend this person to a friend. To me, this social filtering was extremely useful.

In the end, we spent about 10% of the time and was able to hire a rockstar for our team. She started yesterday. Another benefit is that we now have another three solid candidates when the next position comes up. Perhaps they might not be available, but it allows us to start with people we've already vetted.

View more presentations from fredwilson.

Do you have a customer support problem? Make a video.

A couple days ago, I needed to buy a couple shirts from Paul Fredrick, a men's quality clothier. I opened their website and tried to view some of the shirt details on my computer, but their zoom function wasn't working, and the100x100 pixel image wasn't giving me enough detail to make a decision.

So, I went through their customer support contact box on the site andlet them know. The next day, they politely wrote me back to let me know it was probably my cookies. I erased my cookies to the site and tried again, but no dice. The site was having a problem, and since they didn't know about it, that led me to believe it was probably isolated to the users of Mac/Firefox.

Rather than to write them again, I decided to make a short video and post it so they can see what was happening. It worked great and they are know aware of the problem.

First, I recommend you download Jing. Jing is a great little tool that allows you to immediately make videos of what's happening on your screen and I suggest you get the Pro version as it allows you to save files in a easy to use format. Then, just post to YouTube.

The next time you're trying to get help with a site, make a video and post it. It will save you a lot of time and will help the site out. 

The site was happy I made the video as well. Here's their response:

HI Mr. Cox,

Thank you for taking the time to report the Issue with our Product Zoom
feature. We did notice the issue on Friday and we are working to resolve
this issue. This issue is isolated to FireFox and Flash 10.0 on the OSX
platform... Until we resolve this issue you should be able to utilize the
Zoom feature using Safari.

We really appreciate you taking the time to create the video..what a
creative way!

Again Thank you
Shaifeez S.
Sr. Web Project Manager
PaulFredrick.com

-----Original Message-----
> Received: 11/14/2009 1:21 AM
> Subject: FW: Feedback : Website Comments
>
> Feedback from the website
> Date : 11/14/2009 1:21:09 AM
> User Name : Steven Cox
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Hello. I wanted to tell you about a bug that I am continuously getting on
PaulFredrick.com. I`ve made a 1 minute video of the bug and posted on
youtube so you can see it in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxCCPX1iISs
>
> Let me know if you have any other suggestions. I`d like to buy a shirt or
two, but I can`t see the details of them.

Is Social Media a Fad?

Our Marketing Director shared this video with me over the weekend. Lots of good stats in here on the changes that the social media platforms are providing. I am hearing more buzz about email being an "old" method of communicating. Wild...

Mint CEO Aaron Patzer discusses how to start a startup

I found this presentation on TechCrunch and Vator.TV. If you're doing a startup, you'll like this...

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