5 Articles to Read Before Hiring Your Next Intern
Are you considering hiring a student or a recent graduate as an intern? If so, providing supervised practical training can lend benefits to your organization and the intern. But before you develop an internship program for your small business, here are five must-read articles to help you navigate the process with ease:
1. How to Legally Hire and Manage an Intern
Internships, when done correctly, are win-win propositions between the business and the intern. Businesses benefit from fresh, creative talent at low or no cost, while interns gain valuable real world experience with the possibility of being considered for full-time employment. However, there are laws and mandates in place regarding interns that businesses must adhere to. Simply put, the internship must benefit the student through monetary compensation or college credit. Read more
2. 5 Things to Consider Before You Hire Your Next Intern
Interns can be valuable resources for startups — especially bootstrapped businesses that need help but can’t afford to bring on full-time employees. However, having a successful internship experience requires preparation. Here are five things every small business should consider before hiring an intern. Read more
3. Posting Internships: How to Find (and Benefit From Hiring) Student Interns
As you set new goals and move forward in your business, here is an idea to help your company grow: Hire less experienced but driven individuals. Hiring new interns not only brings new skills and fresh ideas to your company but it allows you to possibly scout new talent for your growing business.
While hiring talented, experienced employees unarguably contributes to your business, student interns also bring a unique set of strengths and benefits. Read more
4. How to Prepare For, Find and Utilize Rock Star Interns
Being self-employed is fabulous – and fabulously overwhelming! When my business started gaining momentum, I quickly realized there was far too much for me to do on my own. Sleeping suddenly became a thing of the past and I struggled to keep up with the day-to-day operations while pushing growth forward. With a minimal start-up budget, I needed to think quickly; calling on my nearly 10 years of HR experience, I decided to launch a search for help … and took a chance on the ubiquitous intern. Read more
5. Do You Have Unpaid Interns? You Might Be Breaking the Law
It is not uncommon for startups to hire interns to help grow their businesses. In fact, what startup doesn’t hire interns? “Silicon Valley mainstays and startups like Google and Dropbox are hiring tons of interns for this coming summer, the Wall Street Journal Reports. Dropbox plans to hire three times as many interns for this summer as for last summer. This would make interns one whole third of Dropbox’s entire engineering team (businessinsider.com).” Read more
Need more information on how to correctly hire unpaid interns? Refer to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Fact Sheet and ensure your small business passes the Test for Unpaid Interns.
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YFS Magazine – Startup, Small Business News and Entrepreneurial Culture
Staff Contributors
Here’s Why “Do What You Love” is Bad Startup Advice
I was recently asked to speak at an entrepreneurship-themed conference hosted by a university MBA program. There was an interesting divide amongst the speakers on the whole “Do what you love!” advice that’s often passed around in the small business community.
My take is this: “Do what you love” advice–given as a blanket statement–is completely wrong, and I have a very relevant perspective.
Once Something Becomes Work, It’s Work
It doesn’t matter what you are doing, once you are forced to do it it just becomes another job. People are terrible at predicting what will make them happy. Do you think pursuing your dream of hanging out at the gym all day playing sports will make you happy?
Wait, sorry, that’s what I did and it bombed (more on that below). In general, people have a hard time predicting what will make them happy because of what’s called impact bias — the tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of future feelings.
Hobbies Don’t Make Good Businesses
When you poll a randomly sampled group of people on “what they love” most will come back with answers like: “Going to the park, playing sports, hanging out with friends, having sex, and sunsets.”
Now take a look at the list of Fortune 500 companies and let’s cross-reference their core businesses to the average person’s “what I love” list. Sure, you might love spending time on Facebook, but unless you’re a developer it’s probably not a feasible business decision.
So what’s the magic formula then, Matt? Now this is easy.
Instead Do What You’re Good At
This will afford you the most freedom and financial stability to do whatever you want. I have a unique perspective because I took the statement “Do what you love” at 100% face value. In my second year of college, after hearing this advice, I sat back and asked myself, “What do I love doing that makes me happiest, that I could turn into a career?” Got it! Open a boxing gym. I love sports and fitness and being social. It’s perfect! Eureka! A couple years later Final Round Boxing was open.
So did my hedonistic Richter scale go off the charts and did I find myself live happily ever after? Not quite. What happened? I started to hate boxing. When you become a slave to something, it doesn’t matter what it is. You’ll end up resenting and hating it most of the time.
Consider these Hygiene and Motivational Factors
Here’s a thought exercise:
Subject A is working in a field he/she doesn’t really care for — selling women’s health products. Subject B is doing something he/she “loves,” running her own yoga studio. Subject A makes a great salary (including sales bonuses), has little supervision, and flexible work hours. Subject B has to teach yoga all day, every day, and to make ends meet has to work 10-14 hour days 7 days a week. Which would you rather be?
This all comes back to what’s known as the “two factor theory,” a theory published by Fredrick Hersberg in the Harvard Business Review. In the article Hersberg reasons that there are certain factors that impact workplace satisfaction — known as ”hygiene factors.” This includes pay, hours, job security, company polices, and supervision. If those aren’t done right then you’ll be unhappy (I think everyone can agree on that).
YFS Magazine – Startup, Small Business News and Entrepreneurial Culture
YFS Small Business Contributors
7 Questions to Consider Before You Pin On Pinterest
Women Entrepreneurs – The Secrets of Success blog
The Curator: UK vs. US Startups, #Smallbiz CRM, Coworking, Corporate Ecosystem, Business Plans, Make Change Happen
Here’s our weekly link roundup of small business buzz, musings and muchness. A curation of the best small business talk around the web.
Survey Finds UK Startups Upbeat On Growth And Revenues, Downbeat On Fundraising
“Startups in the UK are upbeat about the future and usually more profitable (comparatively) than their US counterparts (which tend to focus on growth over revenues). But they find raising Series A money difficult, with 90% of entrepreneurs saying the UK fundraising environment is “challenging” …” (TechCrunch)
Why Your Small Business Needs CRM
“A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is probably one of the most valuable systems that any small business can implement. It is as important as the people that are hired and will have a more significant effect long term than any one employee.” (Forbes)
Five Reasons Startups Should Consider Coworking Spaces
“Co-working schemes are on the rise, which is great news for startups looking for their first office space. They are a fantastic alternative to leasing your own office, which brings with it long term contracts that can be impractically inflexible for a small business.” (TechVibes)
What Startups Need to Understand About The Booming Corporate Entrepreneurship Ecosystem
“Every year, large corporations spend billions of dollars on supporting, investing in, marketing to, and donating to small businesses, startups, and the organizations that support them. These numbers are rising dramatically as interest in the entrepreneurship ecosystem rises. Startups who understand this new landscape stand to save money via discounted products and services, receive money via loans, investments, licensing, procurement, and acquisition, build brand & customer base via partnerships, and access startup support.” (Forbes)
Real Entrepreneurs Don’t Write Business Plans
“Steve Blank pities those poor professors stuck teaching tired business plan courses. ‘I’d be embarrassed if I was on a faculty teaching ‘How to Write a Business Plan for New Ventures,’ says the serial entrepreneur turned business school professor. Blank is at the forefront of a growing movement of B-school professors teaching the next generation of Mark Zuckerbergs. Entrepreneurship, he argues, is about getting out into the world and doing—not simply researching and writing.” (Bloomberg Businessweek)
10 Questions Startups Use to Make Change Happen
“Change is hard. I see entrepreneurs every day who are trying to change the world with a new idea, and startups that are trying to survive their hyper-growth phase by changing processes to meet demand. In both cases, it’s easy for them to become frustrated and give up, since most have never been trained in change management, and don’t even know what questions to ask.” (Forbes)
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YFS Magazine – Startup, Small Business News and Entrepreneurial Culture
Staff Contributors
Going Mobile: Does Your Business Need an App?
Considering launching an app? Consider the negatives, and ask yourself these three key questions first.
YoungEntrepreneur.com
Adam Toren
Six Profitable Tips to Consider When Pricing Services
When customers ask “How much does it cost?” do your palms sweat?
In talking with hundreds of young entrepreneurs I know that for many, pricing goods and services can feel random and stressful. For example, new freelancers and consultants tend to undercharge, while female business owners tend to drastically undercharge.
Fear of turning customers off with steep rates can undermine an entrepreneur’s desire to make a profit. This is a direct path to burnout.
In contrast, it is ideal to be that business that makes enough to actually put money back into the business. You are investing in marketing and proactively attracting new clients that you want to work with—clients that can afford your services and appreciate your work.
Pricing services is one of the most important things you will do for your business—after all if you don’t get paid you can’t keep the lights on. So, when you come up with a proposal you must consider not only your labor, but also the additional costs of running your business.
Your pricing should account for costs such as health insurance, office space, gas for your car and your technology. Also, if you are an entrepreneur living on one of the two coasts you can charge twenty percent higher than suburban, Midwestern and Southern counterparts. I live in the Bay Area—housing is a pretty penny.
No Need for Hourly Billing
Over the years it has been considered “status quo” for consultancies, PR agencies and service-based companies to employ hourly billing practices. However in the age of the knowledge worker, hourly billing no longer makes sense.
Alan Weiss, a pre-eminent authority on consulting, has written incredible books that navigate the waters of opening your own practice. Weiss is a pioneers of value based fees—charging a client on the value generated rather than hourly billing.
In his book Value Based Fees, Weiss asserts that “if you leave $ 50,000 ‘on the table’ each year because you’ve failed to charge that equitable compensation, in ten years you’re a half-million dollars poorer, and that is revenue you will never, ever recapture. If that number is $ 100,000, then you’re a million dollars poorer.”
Did you perk up? That is a million dollars you could use to grow your business, start another business, or put toward your retirement.
Weiss believes hourly billing doesn’t make sense when it comes to an agency or consultancy. He notes, “the client is best served when issues are resolved and improved quickly, but the service provider is best served when the time involved is lengthy.”
Hourly billing ends up costing the client possibly more. It’s also a headache for consultants to keep track of billable hours which often don’t factor in knowledge, creativity, and relationships.
So, if you are just starting a business, or need to revamp your current pricing strategy, here are six profitable tips on how to improve the pricing of your services:
1. Get paid “at least” fifty percent up-front.
No entrepreneur wants to chase down a client for money owed. Tracking down late payments is embarrassing for us and for them. Sometimes clients are just busy, and they forget. For whatever reason, rendering payment isn’t a priority and this is a challenge since you have to get paid.
While the more you get paid up front the better, meeting a client halfway can help build respective trust. You do this by getting paid half up front and half upon completion of the work. If you could use the cash, consider giving the client a discount if they pay the full amount up front.
YFS Magazine – Startup, Small Business News and Entrepreneurial Culture
Blake Landau
Raising Money Through Crowdfunding? Consider These Best Practices for Success
At a conference in New York City, industry experts shared tips for tapping the crowd.
The Curator: Happy Startups, Young Entrepreneurs, Selling to SMBs, Visual Media, E-Commerce Predictions
Here’s our weekly link roundup of small business buzz, musings and muchness. A curation of the best small business talk around the web.
How to Stay Happy at a Startup
“There’s a widely held belief that startups are fun places to work and all employees become overnight millionaires. But once you get over some of the perks –- like free snacks and no meetings before 10 a.m. –- it becomes clear that startups are actually a grind. And for every Instagram or Airbnb that seems to materialize out of thin air, there’s tons more startups that trudge along slowly. In fact, the median time from initial VC investment to IPO is 10 years. That leaves a lot of time for workplace politics, blunders, boredom, and mistakes. Here’s how I’ve learned to stay happy along the journey…” (Venture Beat)
The Young Entrepreneur Advantage
“Young entrepreneurs have it made. While most start-ups are struggling to find resources, funding, mentorship, and talented employees, college start-ups have no shortage of incubators, accelerators, college entrepreneurial programs, and a pool of super-talented classmates to help them get off the ground… But, of course, every business won’t succeed. There will inevitably be a few standouts that have that magic combination of skill, resources, intelligence, drive, and resilience to create and run a scalable business.” (CNBC.com)
6 Reasons Startups Should Consider Selling to Small Businesses, Not Big Enterprises
“With all the buzz these days about how sexy and cool the enterprise has become, there is a segment of business customers that startups are overlooking: small businesses. Small businesses tend to have far less capital than large enterprises, but as customers, they offer startups a number of advantages that make them ideal customers to focus on… The interests of your target are often quite different from one context to the next. If your business is built to serve them, you will need a sales approach that is designed to address their main concerns head-on.” (Venture Beat)
A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Likes: Visual Media Tips for Small Businesses
“From blogs to short 140-character tweets to pictures, social media content is transforming from text to images. In 2012, visual pinboard site Pinterest saw the largest year-over-year increase of any social network, says the Nielsen 2012 Social Media Report. Here are some tips for how small businesses can make their social media more visual:” (Forbes)
The Future of E-Commerce for Small Businesses
“The future of e-commerce looks promising for small businesses. Let’s take a closer look at how independent merchants can continue to sell more and stand out in competition with big-box retailers who also have moved online. Consumers are adopting new technologies quicker than ever. According to a recent study by Pew Internet Research, nearly half of all Americans now own a smartphone. That’s a 28.5 percent increase versus 2011 – and the market still has great potential for growth.” (Forbes)
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YFS Magazine – Startup, Small Business News and Entrepreneurial Culture
Staff Contributors
Looking to Bolster Your Cashflow With a Home Mortgage Refinance? Consider These Tips
With interest rates at record lows, refinancing your home mortgage is one way to create some wiggle room in your budget. Here’s how to be prepared.
Five Things Teen Entrepreneurs Should Consider When Starting a Business
The benefits to becoming an entrepreneur are clear and obvious; money, notoriety, freedom, and the list goes on. However, the potential downsides (and associated risks) of teenage entrepreneurship are hardly ever examined.
Let me shed some light on five reasons why entrepreneurship can potentially be harmful at a young age along with tips Read more …
Original article: YFS Magazine – Startup, Small Business News and Entrepreneurial Culture. All Rights Reserved.
YFS Magazine – Startup, Small Business News and Entrepreneurial Culture
YFS Small Business Contributors
