Business Blog 2.0

What you want to pay someone, or how much work you want to get from them, doesn’t matter. This isn’t about your wants, or even the candidates’ wants, it’s about the labor market. If receptionists are being paid at least $20,000 a year, that’s what you’ll need to pay. If they don’t have the time to do any more than light filing while doing their receptionist duties, then you can’t expect them also to reorganize and digitize your records.

Check with headhunters, employment agencies, your industry association, the editor of your trade journal, and the local chamber of commerce to learn exactly what the market rate and traditional job profile are for the kind of position you’re filling.

By offering less than market value, and simultaneously having unrealistic expectations, you’re certainly not creating an environment of trust. Actually, you’re frightening people off. You don’t need to become Mr. Rogers. You just need to have realistic expectations and offer fair value.

There’s no point in going back to the poor candidates who were desperate enough to respond to your initial offer. Why give an unattractive candidate a second chance?

This is a presenting problem. You’re actually answering your own question. If you say you don’t know whether or not to believe a candidate, you’re really saying you don’t believe them.

Don’t feel bad about distrusting a candidate. It was their role to create trust in you, and they failed. It’s not your fault, it’s theirs. Sure, you can try to check a candidate’s references, investigate his background, and determine his expertise. But if you have a gut feeling and simply don’t believe him, there’s no point in wasting any more time. It’s up to the candidate, not you, to try to turn this no around. That being said, if for some reason, despite my advice, you feel the need to give this person a try, make it clear there will need to be a trial or probationary period of, say, three months. If they work out, fine. If they don’t, they’ll be fired without receiving any severance.

I never ceased to be amazed at how little most small-business people know about marketing. Every single marketing problem I’ve ever helped a client deal with is the result of misunderstanding.

The most common misperception I confront is that, due to the special nature of their business, they don’t need to do any marketing. On the contrary, every business needs to do marketing. And, in fact, the more specialized your business, the more marketing you probably need to do. People who are professionals and service providers are the worst offenders in this regard. They mistakenly equate marketing with advertising, and then denounce it as beneath their dignity. I try to explain that there’s far more to marketing than advertising. I offer suggestions on publicity and public relations. I discuss newsletters and Web pages. I talk about teaching classes and giving speeches. I explain how to write and place newspaper articles and generate positive word of mouth. I offer advice about choosing office stationery and taping the right answering machine message. I even discuss how pricing can be an element of marketing. My message is always, in essence, the same: marketing is the cultivation and spreading of a positive image that will attract and, by reinforcement, keep people and customers. As such, it is a sine qua non for any business.

Won’t it cost a fortune?

Your real problem is you don’t understand the nature of marketing: it doesn’t necessarily cost a great deal of money. You are viewing marketing emotionally, rather than rationally. Marketing, while an expense, is intended to generate increased revenues by exposing your products or services to a larger market of potential clients or customers. The issue you should be concentrating on isn’t how much marketing will cost, but how much you need to spend and where, in order to increase your revenues enough to generate a profit.

Become a student of marketing. Look for contacts within your industry or professional organization for advice on marketing. Contact your local chamber of commerce. Investigate courses at the local college. Speak with other successful practitioners or business-people in your profession or business. Talk to public relations and advertising agencies. Ask the sales representatives of local media outlets, newspapers, magazines, radio stations, cable television stations, to provide you with information on the reach of their particular medium.

Trust isn’t an issue here. You can solve your problem by defining your situation rationally and then becoming an expert. There isn’t a need for an appeal, since the no is inside your own head.

This is almost always an actual problem, since almost no one in America is saving “enough” money. Despite it being a single actual problem, you’ll have no luck solving it until you make it more specific. Until then it will remain an emotional issue. Let’s agree that you’re not saving enough money. However, for what are you saving? Are you not saving enough money to buy a home, to retire, to send your child to Harvard, to start a business? Unless you have a goal and a specific number in mind, you’ll never be able to say you’re saving enough.

Become an expert. Once again, the solution to this problem is to become an expert on your own finances. Sit down with your checkbook and credit card statements and figure out where all your money is going. Then, spend a month tracking all of your cash expenditures. Once you see where your money is going you can determine which expenses can be reduced, which can be trimmed, and which must stay the same. There’s only one way to save money: spend less than you’re earning. You can do that by maintaining your income while cutting your expenses, maintaining your expenses while increasing your income, or, for the best results, increasing your income and simultaneously cutting your expenses.

Interestingly enough, becoming aware of this problem is often the biggest step in solving it. Very few people will admit to not saving enough money, even though the problem is epidemic. Admitting you have the problem injects a certain degree of consciousness into your financial life. Sometimes, that, and fewer trips to the ATM, is all it takes.

If you find it difficult to restrain your spending, consider having your paycheck automatically deposited with a portion of it going immediately into some kind of savings plan. Perhaps if you don’t have that money in your hands it will be easier for you not to spend it.

What’s your problem? Fear about relocating is a presenting problem if you’re single and without school-age children. That’s because in that instance, relocation, while a chore, won’t negatively impact your life. In fact, if you’ll be getting a better job for more money it could positively impact your life. You’re using relocation fears as a cover for your fear of change or some other worry about getting a new job.

If you’re part of a couple and/or you have school-age children, relocation still isn’t your real problem. Instead your obstacle is getting your employer to provide enough financial and other resources to make the transition less onerous for your family.

One problem at a time – Worries about the “costs” of relocation are almost always a cluster of related problems involving issues such as a spouse’s career, a child’s schooling, and extended family relations. The key is to isolate the individual problems and focus on solving each, realizing that financial compensation and employer counseling services can go a long way in solving all of them. Pick the most difficult problem first. For example, your spouse’s hunt for a new job will be more difficult than your hunt for a new school for your daughter, or a new home. If you solve the most difficult problem, the others will subsequently be far more manageable.

Focus on facts, not feelings – If you’re unmarried and/or don’t have school-age children, fears of relocating are purely emotional. The fact is that you can fall in love with, or at least like, any location that offers you a chance to improve your career. If you do have spouse or child issues, relocating is a cluster of rational problems. However, they’re probably not as difficult as you might at first perceive.

Become an expert – The more you and your family learn about your new location the less fearful you’ll all be about the move. Carefully study the support and services your company offers for relocating employees. Look for any gaps or shortcomings in the package.

Create an environment of trust – Having obviously won the new job or promotion, you’ve already established a level of trust with your new employer. Maintain that trust by never showing hesitation about the move. Instead, simply ask for help in the parts of the package you’ve found lacking. Ironically, in this situation most employers will do more for an already committed employee than for one sitting on the fence. That’s because they’ll view further contributions as employee assistance rather than as job negotiation. Remember, by paying attention to the understandable concerns of your spouse and children you’ll further secure your already trusting relationship with them.

You can try to appeal, or at least mitigate, decisions to relocate you by pushing for a possible flextime or telecommuting arrangement. However, I’d discourage the effort. Today, you really need to be willing to move where the work is.

Preinterview fear about the interviewer liking you is always a cover for a lack of confidence in your interpersonal skills. Your problem isn’t “what if they don’t like me,” it’s “my communication skills need work.” On the other hand, if this is a post interview fear, and you believe the other party didn’t like you, it is your problem. Whether it’s a presenting or actual problem, it’s a single obstacle rather than a cluster or series.

Focus on facts, not feelings. If your fear of not being liked is expectant, you’re being emotional. Focus on improving your interpersonal skills instead. If your fear of not being liked is extant, however, it’s a rational problem you’ll need to address directly. Expertise, while always important, generally isn’t a contributing factor in getting someone to like you.

The shortcut to getting someone to like you is the same as the shortcut to getting someone to trust you: show them you care about them. If in garb, language, manner, and action you demonstrate your respect, concern, interest in, and appreciation of the other party, they should like you.

Notice I used the word should in the prior sentence. Unfortunately, there are instances when no matter what you do, you can’t get someone to like you. There are many in this world who will not like you simply for what you are, how you look, or where you came from, rather than who you are as an individual. It’s disheartening, but even in business, a field in which judgments should be made based on the bottom line, there are people who will dislike you because of your religion, the color of your exterior, or the place you were born. It’s worthless to directly appeal to them for reconsideration because their no is entirely irrational. No added facts can make a difference, since the no isn’t based on facts.

Your only hope of turning such a no around is to appeal to a third party with a connection to the organization, asking them to intervene. Unfortunately, unless they’re someone with influence over the person who rejected you, this effort is usually a forlorn hope. A discriminator will never admit his or her irrationality and can only be forced past their prejudice with internal pressures.