In a time where lots of people are announcing staff reductions left and right, it's a good time to talk about the most important aspects of dealing with the human element of reductions — Ego and Safety.
When I was a younger manager just learning how this all worked, I didn't understand the value of Ego and Safety. My "fires" turned into heated outbursts, crying, and grandstanding. I couldn't figure out what was going on and assumed these blowups were tied to the people I was letting go.
They weren't — it was entirely my fault. Even though I tried to be kind, I didn't appreciate that letting people go isn't about the transaction — it's about the person. How we manage that relationship is the transaction, and it always maps back to how we vie...
It’s that time of year again! Get ready for all of the year-end lists, advice, and wrap-ups. Every year, we soak that stuff up, but this year, I’m focusing on something different: my team.
Over the years, I’ve noticed a few things as the holidays roll around.
Naturally, people want to take time off with their friends and family. They should. And they should also prepare accordingly by managing client expectations so they can enjoy their time away.
This is also prime time for folks to reevaluate their lives and career goals. As a boss, that means lots of hand-holding and long conversations with employees around career trajectory and promotion possibilities.
At my company, we’re slammed in the fourth quarter. It’s a good problem to have, but ...
Founders need to be as militant about recharging as they are about working.
Yet, nothing in front of us suggests slowing down or taking a break to do it — at all. We have a mountain of work, no one to help us, and we're burning through what's left of our cash and credit. The last thing any of that suggests is "Let's plan a sweet vacation!"
What we're missing in this mess is the fact that it's not about whether or not we want to take a break — it's that we have to. If we're going to run the marathon that is the startup journey, we can't just go full sprint 24x7 and pretend it'll all work out. Instead, we have to become highly regimented in our plan to recharge all the time, and treat that recharge as seriously as we treat our startup.
What happens when we've got someone in the organization who’s just simply a bad apple? What's the cost of waiting to address that problem?
It's a tried and true case of the "toxic employee" — and nearly every startup deals with it sooner or later.
A toxic employee is someone in the organization who absolutely loves to trash the organization, or in some cases just cause nonstop drama.
They can't wait to get into any situation where they can tell anyone willing to listen what a bunch of idiots run the company while insisting that their solution (if they have one) is clearly the answer.
They get their validation from stirring up problems, not solving them.
The cost of doing nothing ...
A founders agreement covers everything from ownership structure to intellectual property rights to which the co-founder can make critical decisions over others. In short — every startup needs a Founders Agreement!
Since co-founders are often very familiar with each other, we can easily jump ahead and forget to formalize anything beyond our basic ownership structure. We snap up titles quickly ("You're the Chief Technology Officer! I'll be the Chief Operating Officer!") among all of the founders and go on our way. We're friends, right? That should be enough... right?
And while all that is certainly true, ...
H ave you ever taken a quiz to find out what Disney Princess you are? Or clicked on a listicle on Buzzfeed promoted by [insert brand here]?
If so: Congratulations. You’re a human being.
You’ve also been on the receiving end of one of the most formative marketing trends of the 21st century: content marketing.
Content marketing isn’t exactly new – it’s been sweeping the marketing landscape for a decade or more now. “Content is king” the headlines proclaim – and for good reason. From blog posts and infographics to Youtube channels and branded podcasts, brands today are tapping into an ever-expanding toolbox of tactics and storytelling techniques to get their message across.
But, what about the plan behind the substance? What is it that makes t...
There are no doubt people who enjoy designing presentations, though chances are good that you’ve never met them or employed them at your business. That’s because presentations surely rank as one of the most common, painful, necessary evils.
Email might be a time suck, but at least it involves generating something new. With presentations, on the other hand, so much work goes into dressing up content that’s already been produced. Wouldn’t it be great to bypass the design work entirely?
Slidebean allows anyone to create a professional slide presentation with barely any effort on the design end, so that presenters can devote their energies to the information that matters most.
With Slidebean, templates and other presentation tools essentiall...
Startup funding — or startup capital — is the money needed to launch a new business. It can come from a variety of sources and can be used for any purpose that helps the startup go from idea to actual business.
While we often hear about venture capitalists and angel investors when it comes to startup funding options, it turns out that’s just one of the six top sources of startup capital. Of the $531 billion raised in startup capital each year, $185.5 billion is from personal savings and credit, $60 billion is from friends and family, $22 billion is from venture capitalists, $20 billion is from angel investors, $14 billion is from banks, and $5.1 billion is from crowdfunding....
You never hear of anyone winning an award for Best Receipt Keeper, because you’d never find enough entrants to make a contest in that category. Most of us struggle with keeping expenses in order, personal and business. Add frequent work travel to the mix? We’re toast.
About the only thing that we do find a way to manage reliably when we’re traveling is email, which is why Fyle is such a handy new tool.
Fyle is a Chrome extension that lets you track business expenses from your email, automatically capturing expense data and e-receipts from within Gmail and Outlook. You’re off the hook when it comes to manually entering data on your own, submitting expenses late – and for the inevitable loss of receipts while on the road.
Using what Co-Found...
The very first money that many enterprises raise — whether they go on to raise more money or not — is seed funding. (Some startups may raise pre-seed funding in order to get them to the point where they can raise a traditional seed round, but not every company does that.)
The name is pretty self explanatory: This is the seed that will (hopefully) grow the company. Seed capital is used to move past the first steps (product development, for example) and to start exploring what the next stages will be (like growth or a pivot).
Seed capital may be raised from family and friends, angel investors, incubators, and venture capital firms that focus on early-stage startups. Angel investors are perhaps the most common type of ...