I am now writing a monthly newsletter. The Oct 2017 edition has gone live. I am for the time being providing free consulting using the concepts explained in the book, and will publish my analysis and recommendations about particular business problems in the newsletter. The goal is to bring concepts to real world application, and I hope to detail the success of each real world application.
If you are interested in explaining your own small business problem, please email me at [email protected]. I will try my hardest to protect anonymity.
Thomas Simonds
Author
Really. Do you want dishonest or lazy employees? Is there anything worse? What’s the point of highly skilled labor with loads of experience if the employee gives you bad information or doesn’t do a whole lot? The resumes are full of lies and claims on other people’s work and accomplishments.
The interview process as we are taught is extremely biased towards hiring dishonest and lazy people. I once sat through a series of classes on how to find a job. They teach you how to nail correct answers to interview questions, practice them and refine them. Some of the worst employees I’ve ever hired have had the best interviews ever.
The books on hiring practices crutch this useless answer: interviewing is bad, but what is better? Ugh. Interviewing is not just bad, it is completely and utterly useless. Screen screen screen is the mantra. Guess what? Most jobs don’t require people to be good with set answers to predictable questions. In fact most jobs don’t require a whole lot of talking in general. Why are you hiring actors? Why are you hiring future friends? Are you starting a fraternity/sorority? Sociability is required for certain salespeople and certain service personnel, not much else.
Here are my favorite interview questions: “Will you be willing to work nights and weekends?” “If work requires you now and then to stay until 10pm, will this be a problem?” Both questions force an honest and work ethic answer.
“We need someone in the office to clean the bathroom, this job falls to the newest employee. Do you understand this?” Dishonest and lazy people will start running for the door.
- Slurs and other sorts of mean behavior are not permitted here. Calling anyone an idiot, etc, will be deleted.
- Poorly written or unintelligible comments will also be deleted. I’m not going to let space fill up with useless junk.
- Trolling is expressly prohibited. Go bother someone else. I will ban trolls on the forums.
- This is not a political or social advocacy platform either. There is more than enough of that on the Internet already. Go find your corner of the Internet for that sort of stuff.
This is a platform for serious business professionals. I respect our users’ time above all else.
If your intention is to advocate your business (use this platform to advertise), I will allow your post if it adds value to the discussion. I will limit advertising to direct email addresses only (no info@ style addresses). If your comment is banal or useless or remotely spam-like with exaggerated marketing claims, it will be deleted and you may be banned. I am not interested in advertising revenue. I want to promote my book, and engage on an intellectual and practical level with other entrepreneurs.
The book, website, blog and forum (collectively “platform”) is about small business owners and my goal is to create a community of learning and support. Small business ownership has particular problems and challenges and that is the only focus of this place. For all intents and purposes, small business is defined as 1-200 employees. Ownership is defined as more than 5% ownership in a business (however structured). This platform is also appropriate for people who intend to be small business owners, or are just intellectually interested in small business ownership.
This is not a government or political advocacy platform, but government is a legitimate topic as it pertains to small business management. In other words, it is not a place to advocate government policies (i.e. it is not a politics website) but a place to discuss how a business can proactively or reactively respond to changes in government policy or regulation.
This is not a legal or financial advice platform either. You have to pay professionals for that. It is OK to discuss legal and financial advisors and how to manage them. I’m not going to permit free advertising unless the provider is “generally known”, like Vanguard is generally known as a major mutual fund. As the website is intended to be transnational in nature, I would prefer people to use general descriptions instead like: use a major bank instead of a local bank. Or “any major insurance company will do”.
The website is now live. My goal is to blog every 3-5 business days outside of major holidays.
I encourage users to email [email protected] to suggest topics or ask questions that may appear here. Users are also encouraged to question and comment on the book on the Forum. I will address the best questions and comments on this blog as well.