Category Archives: Management

A coffee house guy hired by corporate America

April 29, 2015 by 123outsource
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His name was Dale. He worked at a local coffee house. Dale was easy going, very sociable, smart, but also hard working. He liked music, the arts, but had also worked in landscaping, call centers, and other types of jobs. He prefered a low key profession, and hadn’t decided what he wanted to do with his life.

Then Max came around. He had just left one of his daily corporate board room meetings. There was stress, there were arguments. Many people who would have been critical to the conversation had been left out due to a combination of office politics and negligence. Max’s boss was one of the several VP’s of the company. They had decided that they needed a change of pace from this typical corporate head banging sessions. But, what to do? Max had an idea. He noticed how Dale was so pleasant to talk to, so laid back, yet attentiive to his work. A personality like Dale’s could do wonders for their insane corporate environment — if only they could figure out how to not scare him away.

So, Max went to visit Dale. They shmoozed, and talked about the regular things. Then Max asked Dale if he would like to try to work in their office as a personality coordinator. His job would be to talk with different people, compare ideas, invite people to meetings, and be a part of meetings. Max decided that Dale would need to have a serious of seminars about business, marketing, and the widget industry that they were in. He would need to be clued in to the company’s clients, their needs, and the various issues they faced.

Dale was given a little cubicle and was to manage a lot of the daily meetings. Although Dale was just learning about their business and their business model, he was so pleasant to talk to, that everyone enjoyed working there all the more. Everyone, except for Dale. But, the salary was so good. Dale finally talked to Max.

DALE: Max, I like the job I’m doing, but I don’t like working here. Or, should I say I don’t like being here. I feel so confined, there is no fresh air, and something is missing. I can’t quite put my finger on it. Let’s go out and talk about it over a cup of coffee.

MAX: Okay…. let’s visit the one down the street

(5 minutes later)

MAX: (sipping his mocha) I figured out what is missing that you can’t put your finger on.

DALE: (sipping a latte) What is it? I’m stumped!

MAX: How do you feel now?

DALE: I’m in my natural habitat. This is where my species exist in nature. At a coffee house with people chatting, browsing the internet and enjoying biscottis.

MAX: Exactly. What is missing is: coffee, fresh air, people, and the coffee house atmosphere. But, there is one thing you should know. Your personality IS the coffee house atmosphere and you bring that atmosphere wherever you go which is why we hired you. The problem is that the atmosphere we put you in is like a type of soil that your roots don’t take to.

DALE: You have figured me out to a T. So, I have another idea. Since I don’t want to give up my $60,000 entry level salary which is unheard of, let’s create that coffee house atmosphere on your property. We can build one outside, on the roof, or in the board room. I’ll need some fresh air piped in, or some plants to create oxygen. I feel so stifled in your building.

MAX: I’ll talk to my boss, and I’ll bet he can do it. Since you’ve come on board, people who never interacted before have been interacting. It is exciting to see. Marketing would never talk to Tech for example. The marketing guys were too busy to talk, and the tech guys were too nerdy and focused to interact. But, you brought them together, and now they have found common ground — or since you are in the coffee business — common “grounds.” If they would have the same interaction over a mocha, I bet the conversation would be even better.

DALE: Yeah, they could palpitate while talking about the next merger!

MAX: I have an ever better idea to add to this idea. We can invite some laid back people to hang out in our cafe once its built to create a mood. The people who hang out in our cafe now are uptight administrators, stressed our secretaries, and busy executives. We need to build a more laid back and interactive mood.

DALE: I can save you the trouble, instead of building a new cafe and inviting the crowd from the cafe down the street, why not hold your business meetings down the street. We could reserve hours, and put the tables in a circle which is the most optimal shape for a meeting.

MAX: Hmm, well, we could try it both ways. But, I like the way you think kid. That’s why we hired you!

A month later, corporate built a large coffee house that was only open to certain people in the law in front of the high rise. The open aired building had its seating section shaped in a circle to optimize the flow of conversations at meetings. Coffee and other drinks were served at all meetings. The most important fact of all is that Dale and Max were finally happy. Dale could be in his natural habitat while expanding his mind and helping others to connect ideas in a healthy way. Oh, and one final though.

In dream dictionaries, a coffee house is a powerful dream symbol. If you dream about a coffee house it represents, philosophizing, deep thought, interaction, and stimulation. If you ask me, it is my favorite dream symbol of all — besides tsunamis.

How to create a company culture like Google’s & have fun while doing it

March 14, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is it possible to run a successful business and still have fun?
In this modern business culture, having fun might be the only way. Too many companies out there have uninspired employees. There is no enthusiasm about work, innovating, or connecting with the others at work. Try being a customer of a company like that! No thanks! I’ll pass.

Google invests heavily in its culture, having the right offices formatted the right way, and paying people to work on their own little projects. What is the result? A job that means something. Most people find no satisfaction at work, but Google employees work in a stimulating atmosphere where it is hard not to find meaning in their work.

1. Start by hiring the right people
If you hire people who have no enthusiasm, you will not be able to create a culture around them. Even one toxic or boring person will ruin your culture. Culture is a hard thing to build and a lot can go wrong. You might be advised to find people whose last job was in a cool culture. But, if they were in such a cool environment, why would they quit unless they were forced to move?

2. Some companies out there are learning that the most dynamic conversations happen when people bump into each other in the hall way, or by accident somewhere. Some companies are designing their offices specifically to engineer more of these spontaneous combustion type conversations that lead to innovations. It might be hard to rebuild your building, but I’m sure there are things you could do to keep people bumping into each other by accident.

3. Many call centers who do BPO outsourcing do Google type things like having contests, prizes, and winners to keep the excitement going. Call center work is not quite as innovative as being part of the Google culture, but by keeping the momentum going, they do create a positive culture at some of the more successful call cneters. Remember, that they have the highest burnout rate of any profession, so they have to keep the environment positive.

4. Fitness counts, but try getting your employees to the mountains or beach. Google offers on-site fitness like swimming pools, gyms, and more. Nothing builds that winning feeling like working out. Fat, unhealthy workers might not contribute much to a vibrant culture, but if you get them moving, you might be surprised. I have an innovative job, and I need to keep my life exciting just to function. I go hiking, walking, and try new restaurants in my area. That is how I personally maintain a positive one-person culture if there is such a thing!

5. Do more for your employees to make them feel special.
I drive to my employees homes to give them a check on a regular basis. Perhaps they take this for granted, but no other boss would do that. It personalizes the work. Giving people unique birthday celebrations, or celebrating special occasions in an unusual way is another way to foster a positive and innovative culture.

6. Google has a billiards room, a slide, a rowboat, table soccer, and other unusual objects. At Google, work is designed to be mixed with play. After all, you won’t be at your smartest or happiest if you never have any fun.

7. Google hires people who are from all walks of life, speak dozens of languages and who pursue a wide range of interests including beekeeping, frisbee and fox-trotting. It might be a good idea to find out what types of hobbies your applicants have before hiring them if you want a lively job atmosphere. And if someone doesn’t have a hobby, you might try having a program to help incubate new hobbies.

8. The Google culture is associated with a startup culture, but Google has thousands of employees. The secret to maintaining the startup culture is to maintain an environment where employees can communicate freely with higher ups, and people in other departments in a casual way in the cafeteria, gym, or other parts of the company.

9. Do things outside of the office as a team. Google employees often go hiking, skiing or have picnics together. Building the bonds of a recreational culture in the workplace create strong bonds and good feelings. Personally, I think that rock climbing builds the healthiest relationships between people. Rock climbers are the coolest, not to mention the fact that you are putting your life in someone’s hands if they belay you which builds trust in the work place (assuming nobody dies.)

So, you can be more like Google. It’s easy. Just think of things you can do. But, if you think it is too hard, then you’re probably a boring defeatist and aren’t up to Google’s cool standards anyway — so give up! You’ll never make it! But, for the rest of us — we can — and success starts with a short brainstorming session and a few quick actions.

Do you work more productively from 1am to 5am?

January 30, 2015 by 123outsource
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I have a friend who wakes up every day at 2am and works feverishly. He claims he gets his best work done in the wee hours of the night. I do exactly what my friend does except those early morning hours are before I go to bed. In the old days I used to meditate in those hours. I hate my sleep schedule because I wake up late in the day after more than half of the day is over. It makes it hard to do phone calls. But, on the other hand, I do my best work after midnight when the atmosphere is calm and there are no disturbances.

Keep in mind that disturbances include more than phone calls, emails, knocks on your door and noise from outdoors. The atmosphere has other types of interferences that are more meta-physical. When people are awake they create small particles with their thoughts which I call thought-trons. These particles are not formed so much as people sleep. It is more peaceful then because nobody is using their cell phones, lights, or thinking except in their dreams.

So, maybe it is time for a lifestle change. Maybe it is time to stay up later or get up early and do your focused work when others are sleeping. Want to be #1? You have to be different and excel where others fail, be awake while others are sleeping, and be alert while others are checking their text messages!

Why is it so hard to buy a good business?

January 30, 2015 by admin
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Personally, I prefer to create my own businesses. But, I operate on a micro scale. That way I understand the business from top to bottom, have experimented and grown with the business. Investors on the other hand don’t want to build anything. They analyze and buy, but most of all, they say, “No!”

Very few businesses make good profits. Discretionary cash flow is another serious issue which involves earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Some fudge their numbers here which is why you need to be very seasoned to survive as an investor — seasoned in catching frauds!

Intangible assets are something that sellers don’t always understand fully. Trademarks, patents, secrets and just plain having people who trust you & vice versa can be a company’s most vital assets. On the other hand, it might be hard to define a value that an investor would respect for such un-assessable assets.

The commitment and passion of the owner is another factor that investor’s can’t ignore. My business is successful because I micromanage everything just to the right point. I know all of the processes and I’m an expert at all of them except for programming which I outsource to people who normally do not meet deadlines… ever… How would an investor survive in a small business that’s survival rests in the hands of its loving owners?

Personally, I feel that you should not invest in any business you don’t completely understand. Warren Buffet agrees with me on this. He goes to the extreme of not being willing to buy much stock in a company he doesn’t completely understand. This world we live in of buying selling, not being committed to anything is just crazy. In my opinion, buy a car and keep it until it dies. Create your own business and keep it until you retire or die.

On another note, if you want to create a BPO with the intention of selling it five years later and getting rich, it might be hard to find a buyer. Few people know how to handle a BPO. Your only real options might be large companies in the same industry that you are in. But, why would they want to buy your operation when you are not operating on the same standards that they are? Think about it from the buyers perspective and then you’ll see the brilliance of my create and hold for life strategy.

Good judgement comes from experience; Experience comes from bad judgement

January 29, 2015 by 123outsource
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Hmmm. Yet another quote that uses circular logic which is the only type of logic that I enjoy. I guess the only reason the elderly have good judgment is that they have been burned so many times that they learned. Sure you can teach children right from wrong, but until they have a few really bad experience and suffer some really real consequences that they feel, they might never learn.

I remember the old days when I wanted to make money fast. I worked hard on my paper route and lawn mowing business. I saved up money and purchased a penny stock. It went out of business a few years later and I lost everything. It was after that experience I decided to be a lot more cautious about investing. Now, I have a very stable portfolio of stocks that are mostly the same that Warren Buffet owns. Sure, none of them are fast growth stocks, but they are stable, and I made a little money from them too.

In my business, I have learned a lot too. When I started many years ago, I thought that you just set up certain functions and they maintain themselves. I put a bunch of people on a directory and thought that I had a directory. I didn’t realize that I would have to continue giving 3000 free listings every year for the rest of my life which is very time consuming. What I did was to add 4000 all at once, and then do nothing for two years until the total head count on the directory got really low. Now, I have a monthly system of putting new people on the directory in the beginning of each month. My behavior now demonstrates my realistic and good judgement which arose from being an idiot in the past and learning from my mistakes.

But, what about your business? Do you learn from your mistakes or are you oblivious and keep making the same mistakes over and over without realizing? Try to learn from your bad judgment and refine your decision making skills as that is what defines a good business person. If you have made twenty wrong turns in the past, and now know the right place to turn, you are a business person. If your correct turn changes over time and you adapt swiftly to the change, then you are a real business person who understands that change is constant.

Just remember — the difference between a successful business person and a very successful business person is that the very successful one compares a much larger number of options and says “no” a higher percentage of the time!

Hiring difficult personality types

January 28, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Leadership, Management | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

There are many personality types out there. But, dealing with them in the business world is just not easy. If you have a small company, you might not have easy access to the cream of the crop as they prefer to work for Google or other big companies with stellar reputations. So, how do you survive? You need to decide if you want to hire difficult people or not.

But, there are different types of difficult people. You might be able to handle some of them, but not others.

The mediocre type
Some people don’t argue much. They just do their work in a mediocre way. They don’t care if they made a mistake, and if they have to take the day off at a critical time, that is your problem, not theirs. They will be uncooperative about returning phone calls or about doing anything that you are not forcing them to do. In a sense, the mediocre type are sort of like adults with the psychology of American 13 year olds. Personally, I don’t like the mediocre type, because their performance is too pathetic to justify a normal paycheck in my opinion. Also, they dull my enthusiasm for work which is another factor which you should consider. If you work with underachievers, they will lower your standards without saying a word.

The complainer
Every company has one of these. They complain about everything. If you are nice to them on Monday, they will complain that you weren’t nice on Tuesday. If they didn’t get a bonus they complain. If they get a bad customer they complain. If someone does good work, I will tolerate a lot of complaining. But, complaining can bring you down. See if you can master the art of handling a complainer. Try to get them to see the good side of their job. Compare their situation to someone’s that is much worse. The Dalai Lama uses this technique to teach happiness by the way (not that I read Dalai Lama’s literature.)

The egomaniac
Some people are just into themselves. I had a friend who was like this. Some people say that egotists are not good team players, but that is not necessarily the case. Egotists in the long run care about coming out on top themselves, and not about your operation even if they seem to be cooperating. On the other hand, nobody cares about the success of an entrepreneur except the entrepreneur him/herself! Other egotists put everyone else down. It can be a pain to listen to this. But, on the other hand, they might make useful and legitimate statements about faults in others that you overlooked. So, don’t fear the egomaniac. Just try to understand their psychology and learn how to deal with them.

The backstabber
Unfortunately, the backstabbling type don’t usually wear a sign on themselves announcing to the world who they are. Backstabbers are a problem. Some of them only threaten you but don’t actually do anything. Others tell horrible things about you to your clients. Some try to steal a position from someone else who works from you. There are many things a backstabber will try to do including telling you things that will raise your blood pressure on a regular basis. In my personal opinion, backstabbers are not ideal people to work with. Try finding someone who just does their work without all the drama!

The secretive type
Some people are not bad workers, but don’t get back to you, don’t follow through and keep you in the dark. The problem is that if they didn’t actually do critical work on time, you will not know about it. The secretive type needs to know how important their work is in the bigger picture and that following through and communicating are required. Penalize them with small penalties and offer bonuses if you can adapt their behavior. Otherwise, I would not put a secretive person in any position where their bad habits can damage your business’ performance.

The follower
From a boss’ point of view, the follower looks like the perfect employee. However, they have some very deceptive flaws that you might be completely unaware of. Particularly if you are an Indian boss who hates being questioned! The follower just goes along with what you say, doesn’t question you, doesn’t rock the boat, and doesn’t come up with much that is innovative either. The problem with these types is that if they see a huge problem, they might not warn you or try to find problems to solve the problem. If there is a way to get the company far ahead, they will be more interested in just keeping the show moving along than trying to innovate to capitalize on a new opportunity. I have a good friend who is the following type. He maintains order, but nothing around him ever improves in his business or personal life. Sometimes you need an employee who lets you know when something happens that is noteworthy that could be an opportunity or crisis. On a brighter note, the other types of employees on my list will probably not inform you of serious issues either — except for the backstabber since they want to scare you!

Summary
In real life it is often not possible to find perfect employees. So, if you decide to work with problem types, find a way to calculate how expensive their flaws are in terms of lost productivity. Without that analytic you could go out of business! Never pay a problem worker more than they are worth. But, on a brighter note, if you find a good employee, perhaps consider paying them handsomely as they are a rare commodity in any of the companies that I have associated with!

A businessman with an exit strategy lacks commitment

January 28, 2015 by admin
Categories: Management | Leave a comment

Do you talk with other business people? Do you interview people? Most people these days lack commitment. Either they don’t want to be at the same job for long, or they don’t completely care about what they are doing. Mark Cuban warns about people who have exit strategies. If you are fully committed to your work or business, you shouldn’t have an exit strategy. Perhaps if you become deathly ill, you might have to sell the business. But, under normal circumstances (because normal people never die) you should focus on keeping your business.

If you truly love your business, why would you want to sell it? If you get married to a woman, do you have an exit strategy? Starting a business is like getting married. To be successful, you should ideally do the same business most or all of your life. People who get ahead do so by being the best at what you do. If you switch jobs every six months, you’ll be good at interviewing and that’s about it.

Looking for a business partner or outsourcing relationship? If they talk about exit strategy, you might not get the best service. That means they are thinking about money, not commitment. You can even trick them by asking them what their exit strategy. If the answer doesn’t involve a graveyard, you might have the wrong prospective partner! Warren Buffet only buys stocks that he is willing to keep for the rest of his life. I encourage you to choose businesses that you would like to be in for the rest of your life!

Prioritizing: What should you be doing less of?

January 26, 2015 by 123outsource
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Men, we need a plan! What do we need to do more of?
Forget about doing more. Let’s do less!
Less? Yes less!

Too many things!
In business, you can’t really focus on what is important if you are doing too much or too many things. I have read hundreds of blog articles on this topic, and I have found this to be true in my life. So, I created a pecking order of all the tasks I do, how valuable I estimate them to be on an hourly basis and which ones are time sensitive. Whichever is either not time sensitive, or not that critical goes at the bottom of the list or gets outsourced. But, how do you create such a priority list.

Every day, a busy manager might do twenty different types of things.
There are emails, interviews, meetings, sales calls, order processing, accounting, other paperwork or more. You basically need to make a list of absolutely everything you do. Additionally, there might be certain tasks that can be broken down into smaller sub-categories.

Let’s say you do a lot of interviews.
You might be able to have an assistant do a pre-interview, right down the dialogue, and forward it to you. That way you will know exactly what happened, maybe even see a video of it, but scan it at your leisure. That way you can conserve your time for those that make it to the second interview. You could also reduce the time of first interviews from forty minutes down to ten. Ask a few quick questions and then on to the next interviewee, and make the lucky ones come back for round two. It sounds a bit like speed dating. But, honestly, most people are not good fits for your company and there is no point in talking to them for more than a few minutes. For me, I can size a person up in less than two minutes which is why I crafted what I call, “The 2 minute rule.”

How about emails?
No two emails are alike. Can you break down your emails into several categories? Some might be general inquiries, others might be thought providing, while others might be unusual. Perhaps you should just not answer the less important emails in your box. And perhaps an assistant should do the routine ones leaving you to do the tough stuff. You’ll never have a well managed schedule unless you have slightly more time than you have tasks.

Phone calls?
I am in the process of breaking my phone calls into groups. The calls to important clients will be one group, the call list of customers who didn’t answer my introductory call will be yet another group. I’ll out source the third group which is intro calls to low-level clients. This way I can save 15 hours a month in my schedule and write more blogs about saving time!

Make your list
Make a list of all of the tasks you do. Then, break them down into subtasks. Experienced managers are very saavy about itemization of tasks and breaking things down. Sometimes you might need six different people to do a task that can be broken down, and you might get the optimal person for each stage in the process. How you do it is up to you, but without breaking things down, you will never figure out what needs to be done. Then, figure out what is least important and either outsource it, or do it at the end of the month if you are sitting around with nothing to do. But, do the less important stuff last — if at all. That way you can focus on priorities.

Priorities
I learned from an analysis that my newsletter and my Facebook account are my priorities. So, I started putting a lot more emphasis on both, and the results have been amazing. My Facebook clicks are up twenty fold, my SEO optimization has broken all time records, and my newsletter is growing steadily as well giving us countless clicks and increased business. I have figured out my priorities. I will continue to improve my skills at prioritizing. I wish you the best of luck too. Oh, and put reading my blog at the top of your priorities list. You will learn to think in new and exciting ways if you read my work!

Dual nationality management in outsourcing

January 24, 2015 by 123outsource
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Most smaller companies reside in one country, and their consciousness is rooted in that culture. However large companies are typically multinational by nature and network around the globe for talent and resources making them more sophisticated and competitive. I ran across a call center that was managed and owned by Japanese people, with the workers and middle level management being Filipino. I like this blend of cultures as the Japanese are very solid and reliable while the Filipinos are known for their warmth and hospitality. I think they make a perfect marriage of attributes.

Is your staff exclusively from your country?
Most outsourcing companies are either in India, The Philippines, or Eastern Europe with a few in various parts of Africa and Central America. Most companies tend to have staff exclusively from their home country while a few have an American or European higher level manager or sales rep. As outsourcers, you need to realize that you are catering to the needs of overseas clients who have very different sensibilities than you do. Indians tend to not be in tune at all with Americans. The communication skills and timeliness of Indians never seems to measure up to American standards. I believe it makes sense for all outsourcing companies to have some overseas people to work with them.

Hiring foreigners might help
If you are based in Bangalore, but cater to the United States, it might make sense to hire an American to work with you. It might make sense for that American to interface with clients in America. They might feel more comfortable with him assuming he is solid on technical knowledge and is helpful. Even if they don’t like talking to him, they will appreciate that he is on payroll — “one of us is on board over there!” Getting his opinions on how things are run may or may not help. If you get a lower level American, he might have very American opinions, but they might not be very business-like. The other alternative is to have an American CEO visit your company for a few days and make a list of pointers. There are probably dozens of things you are doing wrong. When I talk to Indian companies on the phone, during the first three seconds they start off by making social mistakes. Yes, there is a lot that you are doing wrong. The question is, how willing are you to learn what you are doing wrong and fix it?

Communication is always lacking overseas
Sometimes you get good workers in foreign countries. However, their communication skills are always below our American standards. The Eastern Europeans are only a little below par as far as my standards for communication go. The South Africans communicate much better than Americans as they speak the Queen’s English with tremendous style (love the accent.) The Filipinos speak clearly, but are not always good at communicating factual information. While the Indians typically have good higher level managers with the others speaking garbled English. Working on the language skills of your workers is not a bad idea. You could hire a school to give you a few hours a week of lessons for “communicationally” challenged workers. In addition to bringing up the interaction skills of all of your workers, it might not be a bad idea to hire a native speaker of English to make talking to Americans and British people smooth and pleasant. Just make sure you get someone who is socially graceful with solid technical knowledge and who is responsible in all aspects.

But, what about management?
Yes, having workers from different countries can be a plus in today’s world. But, it is also helpful to have higher level managers from a different country. If you are in India which is an unorganized country, no matter who you hire as a top manager will have the consciousness of chaos as that is what they grew up with. Indians are very tolerant of messes, negligence and other bad behavior while the Koreans will chop your head of on the first offense. Having a Korean manager who knows how to deal with Indians might be the magic that cleans up your company. You will need a Korean who can stand the insanity of India without losing his head. However, if you can find one who is tolerant of India, they might do miracles of maintaining high standards for your company. Koreans and Japanese do not tolerate people who are late, disrespectful or negligent. They will not allow any of the nonsense that is going on now at your company. Swiss, British and Germans are also methodical people. Americans are more moderate. We are not extreme about responsibility — we are somewhere halfway between India and Japan in this respect. If you do pick a foreigner to be a higher level manager at your company, regardless of which culture you pick, and which individual you pick, the new culture will have a profound impact on how things are done which could improve your company’s performance in a huge way.

Even if you don’t hire a foreigner to manage your company, you would do wonders by having one consult you on how things should be done. If you are from a country rampant with negligence, a British person could set you straight very quickly as a consultant. On a converse note, Japan is a country where people are too uptight. One company hired hippies from America to teach them how to relax which is the point of this article. That foreign influence can go a long way. Which direction it goes is unpredictable, but you will get mileage!

Why you should hire a Bug Tester, a PM, and 5 programmers for a single job.

January 23, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management, Software Development | Tagged | Leave a comment

I just read an article that sums up my thoughts, but sums them up more eloquently than I ever could.

How to get the most out of outsourced programmers
http://www.forbes.com/sites/entrepreneursorganization/2014/10/27/how-to-get-the-most-out-of-outsourced-programmers/

I didn’t get it — at first
When I first started hiring programmers, I would interview, and then hire whomever sounded good. I was unaware that most programmers don’t follow directions, don’t finish anything on time, and don’t give a damn. The author of the above referenced author gets it.

The trick is not to hire “a” programmer.
You have to test them out and verify how good their work is. The trick is easy. You hire a project manager to watch the entire operation. How you hire a PM is not something I know anything around, but they exist. Next, you divide your task into small pieces. That way you can see if the programming companies you hire get anything done before committing to a large quantity of work. Divide the programming into pieces and hire separate companies to do the graphic work or other niche tasks.

Hiring a separate bug tester
That sounds like an intriguing job. “So, what exactly do you do?” “I’m a bug tester.” If you hire overseas programmers, most of them do sloppy work. I cannot imagine any of them doing clean programming work with great commenting. There is always a huge lack in refinement as well as high turnover. A programmer who is a piece of work will produce a piece of work. The next programmer who has to work on it will have to figure out what the commenting means and will have to spend hours trying to figure out how to adapt the code to remove bugs or add features. The first programmer will undoubtedly quit, and then the second who is hired to fix the first programmer’s work will quit in the middle of the project leaving you with a girl named Sandhia who will patiently work on the project until she gets pregnant and elects to stay home. You will play musical chairs with multiple programmers and end up with sloppy code. However — if you hire a separate bug tester or code evaluator from a separate company — preferably someone high paid who has a very good sense of what quality code looks like, you can see which company is giving you good coders (until the good coder quits or gets pregnant and is replaced by a bad coder.) There are companies in India that actually do have standards, but they are a small percentage.

Testing programmers out
You can give programmers small test projects and have the bug tester see if their work is up to snuff. If not, then don’t use them. The problem as I stated before is that programming houses often replace workers on a whim. If Rahul gets busy, then Vikesh might take over your project. Rahul has been tested, but Vikesh (who nobody informed you would be taking over) just screws everything up and doesn’t communicate.

Having a contract
If you deal with Indian or other overseas software houses, you have to realize that the quality of coding is generally very sloppy and could be referred to as “spaghetti code.” If your contract states that the company doesn’t get paid if they do a bait and switch with their programmers, or if the commenting on the code is not up to snuff, or if there are any bugs or serious issues, the company will be less likely to play tricks on you. Having deadlines that you enforce is critical too. In real life, you might have to kiss many frogs (who find that spaghetti laden ponds are their most well-suited environment) before you find your prince. You will have to fire a lot of the companies who work for you. So, make sure that they pay the bill for screwing up, not you! You will still be wasting your time working with irresponsible people, but let them pay for screwing up. After all, they are portraying themselves as “professionals.”

My advice
Don’t hire companies that charge $5-12 per hour for programmers unless it is standardized work like blog creation or shopping cart set up. Have contracts that state that you don’t pay until a project or part of a project is completed up to whatever your specifications are. Include specifications as to the “quality” of the code to get some assurance that the code won’t be a complete mess. Personally, I would not pay less than $22 for an Indian programmer in 2015. $20 is too much of a standard wage, and those who charge $15-20 are very run of the mill and often mediocre or sub-standard. I would not hire someone who can’t communicate intelligently over the phone in English. I would not hire someone with less than 10 years of experience, but experience alone is not good enough as many lie about how many years of experience they have. Others really do have the experience, but are incompetent in many ways. I would test people out with a few easy math problems over the phone to see if they can think. I would ask a few personality questions to see if they can talk (or mumble well.) And finally, make sure you give two test projects before giving any serious work. The first should be about three hours long and the second should be about fourteen hours long with a tight deadline or no pay! Compare bids on these projects and quality of the coding, how long it took, and how responsive they were. Really test these guys out because most of them are not worth their salt or their “ghee” as the case may be.

Weekly check ups
You absolutely have to check up on your programmers once or twice a week. Ideally, they should send you updates on schedule to let you know what is going on. The minute they start keeping secrets or not getting back to you, that is when you fire them. A programmer who stops being willing to communicate is one who will almost definitely screw up or not finish your project — or worse. You might get in a very bad verbal or legal fight with such programmers. Constant communication is a requirement that should be in your contract. The minute they try to convince you that regular communication is a “waste of time” or “not necessary” or that you should “just trust them” — just fire them! Immediately! No matter what!

The least efficient sized companies have 2-99 people

January 22, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Tagged | Leave a comment

Being an entrepreneur is not easy. There is a lot you need to know, a lot of adaptation, and a lot to learn. However, life is easy when you know that you can depend on #1 to “help you out.” The problem is when other people get into the picture. If you hire one other person, you can’t afford an HR department to replace them when they quit or slack off. You are dependent on that one person. In real life, that other person will not be as dedicated as you are to your baby (your business) even if they are an official partner. If that other person disappears, you will be left doing two people’s work yourself while you have yet a third job which is looking for a replacement. It is feast or famine! When you do everything yourself, you can be very efficient and reliable. But, when you have two, three or more people helping you (or letting you down) things are not as steady.

Large companies can have a hiring department. The people hiring can take analytics and weed people out very efficiently. Management can see how the track record of the new employees turns out to be. There can be twenty out o a hundred workers who are new and there just to be evaluated. If they do a good job, they’ll get promoted to a higher level, otherwise they’ll get canned. Companies with a hundred employees are in control. Companies with five employees are at the mercy of the employees.

One alternative is to have many part-timers. That way if someone quits, you only lose half an employee. Also, if you hire extra help, instead of paying for an entire extra person, you only need half a person which will only cost you 1 arm and 1 leg! Additionally, many employees at smaller businesses need to be able to multi-task since there isn’t that much of any particular type of task to do. Hiring part-timers allows you to have more individuals helping you who are highly specialized in what they are doing.

A good employee strategy model is critical. Rather than having all of your staff being at a particular level, it is important to have people who are very seasoned, and some people who are working their way up the ropes so to speak. That way if your seasoned folks quit, you will have someone to replace them with. Keep in mind that it isn’t always so easy to hire experienced people, so if you manufacture them yourself by giving them training and experience, you might get to keep them.

The bottom line is that it doesn’t matter exactly how many employees your operation has. It is how efficiently you hire, fire, train and manage them. It is often easier in an economy of scale, but a smart small company with experience and a philosophical mind or set of minds will figure out how to be efficient at leadership as well. So, good luck!

The cost of being emotionally invested in your employees

January 22, 2015 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Leave a comment

Do you know why dating your employees is frowned upon? The chance of sexual harrassment lawsuits is one. But, you create a conflict of interest by having a personal relationship with someone you work with. What about hiring your nephew? This practice was done a lot in the old days, but is less common these days as it is seen as unethical to give someone a leg up simply because they are family.

You will be biased towards an employee with whom you have a personal relationship, and this generally counts against you. On the one hand, maybe the employee will do better work because they know you. On the other hand, you will be less likely to fire them or punish them if you are emotionally invested in them. My personal opinion is that you need to get to know your employees personally to a point, but there also needs to be a line that you don’t cross.

Conversely in business relationships where you are both on the same level — for example you are both entrepreneurs of small companies — in such a case it is good to develop a personal relationship. In an outsourcing relationship, you will be treated much better if you have a personal relationship with the other party. Outsourcing companies are generally impersonal and often do horrible work. Knowing them can get you a lot of extra help, loyalty, and more.

The type of relationship you should have with your employees is one where you are ready to fire them if they start screwing up. This means that not only should you be emotionally detached from them, but you also need a long list of backups that can do their job. If you don’t have backups, you need to be very experienced in the art of hiring replacements, otherwise you don’t have the upper hand. And as a business owner, you must always have the upper hand! You might go twenty years without firing anyone, but you should always be ready like a Samurai ready to strike!