Small business expert and author Jane Applegate joins the Forbes.com team this week with a new column dealing with entrepreneurship's intangible element: "The Human Element."
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May 14, 2008
"Business is great, except for the people," a cranky entrepreneur warned me when I started in journalism.
He was right, of course, which is why I write as much as possible about the "people" side of business. And having owned and operated several small companies (I'm down to one communications shop), I know first hand that hiring, firing and managing people takes up most of an entrepreneur's time.
In future columns, I'll discuss a potpourri of people issues, including how to deal with contractors, vendors, suppliers and consultants. For now, though, let's start with hiring employees.
The good news about hiring in a recession: There's an awful lot of talent looking for a home. Between April 2007 and April 2008, an estimated 755,000 jobs were shed, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Thanks to the housing crisis, a good chunk of those folks were in the construction business. But other areas are bleeding talent, too, such as financial services (93,000 jobs), manufacturing (47,000), information services (66,000) and leisure and hospitality (52,000).
While having a bounty to choose from is a good thing, the hard part is finding the right fit. If you don't believe me, consider this story:
In 1991, after leaving my cushy reporting job at the Los Angeles Times to start a marketing consultancy, I decided to hire a recent graduate from the Marshall School Of Business at the University of Southern California to help me beef up my own marketing strategy. The dean, whom I met at a press briefing, graciously agreed to pre-screen a few candidates and said he had found the "perfect" one.
A week later, John C. strode past the horse corral and chicken coop into my world headquarters in Sun Valley, Calif., a funky, rural community north of Burbank. Muscled, tan, with gelled blond hair, John wore the requisite light-blue, button-down shirt and pressed khakis.
I babbled on about the great opportunities for a savvy marketing director, a pending event-production deal with American Express (nyse: AXP - news - people ) and other marketing projects for several big banks. He asked a lot of MBA-style questions about my "mission" and "vision"--all while taking in the cheap nylon carpeting and do-it-yourself shelves in our remodeled garage.
The next morning, John accepted an embarrassingly low salary--$800 a week, with no perks or benefits. Although most of his colleagues were heading off to jobs at places like Bank of America (nyse: BAC - news - people ), American Express and Wells Fargo (nyse: WFC - news - people ), John thought he had more of an entrepreneurial spirit. What better place to nourish it than at a bare-bones start-up?
I splurged on a new IKEA desk and a $100 ergonomic chair for John. Our "executive suite" overlooked the driveway, so I could keep an eye on the kids playing outside.
John arrived every morning at 9 a.m. sharp, after a grueling, hour-long commute. He filled spiral notebooks with ideas and strategies to make our tiny company appear bigger and more professional--liking hiring a top graphic designer to come up with a snazzy logo, and investing in luxuriously thick stock for our business cards. Smart ideas, but not exactly stuff we could afford.
Lunch time was especially tough for John. While his classmates were wining and dining clients at pricey restaurants, he ate a sandwich on a bench under a tree in my front yard (all while trying to ward off a noisome array of farm-animal scents). John stomached most of it silently, though he did finally complain when I invited Ruby, my pet chicken, to sit on my lap for a few minutes during meetings.
Three weeks later, my consulting partner's wife dropped by to check out the new digs and the new marketing director. Later, we stood by the chicken coop. I tossed in some cracked corn.
"How can you not see the huge storm cloud hanging over the office?" she asked.
"What storm cloud? John's great. He's fresh out of USC ... "
"And, completely miserable," she finished my sentence.
She didn't have to. Much as I hated to admit it, I knew John hated his job. What I loved most about working at home in a rural community--the kids, the chickens, the cranky old horse--was driving him crazy. John was no more cut out to work for a small business than I was cut out to be a foot solider in a big corporation. Clearly he was talented, but he wasn't the right fit. And he was too polite to say it.
The next morning, before he sat down, I asked if John was happy. He looked like he was about to cry. I told him we'd made a mistake, and he must immediately find a fabulous job with a bigger company. He jumped up and hugged me so hard I could barely breathe.
Three weeks later, John called me. He landed a six-figure marketing job at a major office products company. His 25th story office overlooked the Pacific Ocean, and his leased Mercedes nestled in his very own parking spot. I eventually found another marketing person--a quirkier sort who insisted on working from his home, but clearly a better fit. (He ended up having an affair with my assistant, but that's a tale for another time.)
Moral of the story: There's plenty of talent out there, but the trick is finding the right fit.
Jane Applegate is the author of The Entrepreneur's Desk Reference and 201 Great Ideas for Your Small Business, both published by Bloomberg Press. Visit www.theapplegategroup.com for more information.
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