Chris "The Brain" Hoyt

My middle daughter informed me that she will be moving out of her meager housing, which I provide for her, and moving in with some friends, getting a second job at a factory, a nose ring and to top it all off, a tattoo. Wow.

As any father of a 18-year old would attest to, my blood started to boil. But before I spoke, a sense of calm came over me…call it God inspired wisdom, because I can’t say where I could have come up with what came out of mouth next. “Great honey, I know you’ll be fine.” Talk about taking the fight out of a dog….she didn’t know what to say. I think she was expecting Armageddon to ensue, but got a smile and a vote of confidence instead.

Great story Todd, but what is the point. What if I fought her, talked her out of it? Told her it was a mistake, that it was going to be hard? Try to “protect her” from making, in my opinion, bad choices? If I would have done that, I would have deprived her of experience. Learning through success or failure is, I have found, one of the most poignant ways to have something ingrained into your being. To deprive our children, friends, employees or family members of the chance to learn from experience is easy to do. Give bad advise, direct them in a way which will “protect” them, keep them out of harms way or worse, keep them from an experience that would help them somehow in their later years.

One could say I have made lots of “mistakes” in my life. Joining the Army, getting married and having two kids before I was 25, quitting a solid job…twice, starting my own businesses, growing to fast, need I go on? But one thing I tell everyone, is that each choice, every experience, has made me the person I am today…and for that, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Everyone has their own definition of the word respect. When talking about a person, you might admire them. When it’s a company, you may like the way they run their business or love the quality of their products. When it comes to a religion, you may be tolerant of other’s ideas. But as a business owner, how can you “Respect” your employees?

Don’t Think Negatively - You have hired a person to do their job, don’t think they aren’t just because they take a vacation day, a long lunch or an unexpected sick day. Respect that the person you pay is making good decisions for you.

Meetings – Everyone has them and nobody likes them. Respect your staff’s time. Just because it’s urgent to you doesn’t mean it can’t wait an hour or a day. Plan your meetings in advance and don’t just assume that if your employee is sitting at their desk they can be interrupted without creating some sort of havoc.

In Trouble – Sometimes you have to sit down and correct an employee’s attitude or behavior. As business owners, we almost all hate confrontation, but sometimes you cannot avoid it. Respect the fact that the person you are talking to is a grown up and makes mistakes, too. Talk factually and to the point. Don’t get caught up “in the weeds” and keep your tone level.

Firing – In the book Double Double, Cameron Herold talks about firing with dignity and respect. Don’t disgrace the person you have to let go. Don’t take the years of service they gave your company and make them meaningless with an off hand remark. Furthermore, don’t let others talk despairingly of the employee who was just let go.

In the last month, I have had to keep all four items above fresh in my mind, as I have been through each. Looking back over the last month, it has been hard, but I know whatever the outcome going forward, my employees will respect the decisions I had to make.

It is so easy to confuse urgent with important.  Things that need done quickly usually fill our day, while things that are important tend to just slip by undone.  It is hard, but surviving in business requires learning to prioritize important OVER urgent.  Important has its own way of becoming urgent, usually when you are about to go broke.

Urgent things are client demands, project deadlines, emails, voicemails, etc.  Important things are infrastructure, process improvement, R&D, and employee development.  The important things make you competitive, grow your business, and make you profitable.  The urgent things manage your cash flow, which is why they tend to get priority.  The irony is that you can cash flow yourself to death.

There are times when you just have to get the bills paid, but the danger is paying the bills while your business shrinks and becomes irrelevant.  So how do you pick between urgent and important?  I think it is a struggle every business owner has, and I don’t think there is one answer.  In my opinion, the key is to just not let the important go by the wayside when the urgent is “out of critical.”  When your business can live a few days without you, you should consider it urgent to use that time to start looking into the important.  Is your business just paying the bills, or is it really maturing and growing into a money making machine?!?!

This world is full of jaded, discouraged, and broke people who thought they had a great idea for a product or businesses. It all seems so perfect in their heads, and then when the time comes to get out and implement it, they fall flat on their faces. What people need to learn, and experienced investors already know, is that ideas are almost worthless. The ability to execute an idea, to lead, to propel it into the market, to maintain quality, to manage a sustainable business… these are the skills that pay the bills. All of which we can sum up as “competency”.

The Absurdity of Conceptual Patents

When someone discovers a new substance that can cure a disease, a new form of combustion, or other very tangible discoveries, patents are very useful and deserved. However, business and innovation today are tied in knots with absurd patents and lawsuits around loose concepts. Everyone and their uncle tried to sue Apple over the iPod. Just as asinine, Apple seems to sue everyone who uses icons on a smartphone. People can copy ideas all day long and still not produce a comparable product to a competent competitor.

Who cares if someone copies a feature or element of your software or process? Are they capable of supporting it? Do they have the expertise to use it like you do? Can they keep it updated? The reality is that copycats have to imitate good businesses because they are incompetent. Ultimately, consumers and clients can tell the difference.

Avoiding Entitlement Mentality

A lot of people crash and burn in a new business because they feel like “it was their idea” and they have contributed their full measure. The “idea guy” will often feel underpaid, undervalued, and yet do almost no work. Everyone else is riding the wake of their brilliance and should feel honored they even have a small piece of the pie. The reality is that the idea doesn’t sell itself; the selling is a lot of hard work. So is the building, the distribution, the fulfillment, etc. If you have a great idea, find great people to work with and be generous!

Learning to Let Ideas Go

As habitual entrepreneurs, Todd and I have had a lot of ideas over the years. We used to froth at the mouth over each one. We have probably started/stopped over a dozen businesses. Over time, as the one we stuck with took off, we realized that ideas aren’t special. The character and discipline we have learned in growing our main business are much more valuable than any ideas we can hope to think of. The best part is, there are always ideas out there, but competency is rare.

In the mist of another hectic week, I found a little time to do that one thing I believe we all should do more of…read. While surfing my RSS feeds, I came across a short article written by Jeff Haden. Jeff is a ghostwriter for some of the smartest business leaders in the country, and he wrote a great top ten list that expresses the thoughts I have accumulated since opening my first business in 1999. After reading his list, I sat in awe, reflecting that other business owners might have the same thoughts I do…I’m not alone! Below is my personal take on his list…to see Jeff’s article in its entirety, click here – http://bit.ly/zF8rtg

10 Things I Wish My Employees Knew

I care about whether you like me. It’s hard for me to be “one of the guys,” but I really want to. I’m sure most people don’t want to “hang out” with their boss after hours, but I would like to…I count you as my friends.

I don’t think I know everything. Far from it. As a matter of fact, I love hiring smart people. Not only does it make my job as a business owner easier, I really like to be around people who are “thinkers” and can talk about more than news.

I think it’s great when you’re having fun. Don’t stop on my account. I love to see people laughing, goofing off and having a fun time at work. It makes me feel that I have employees who are more than robots and feel comfortable being themselves.

I want to pay you more. I know you work hard and I want to reward you for it. As the business grows, please understand that I will pay you more….in benefits and salary. My goal isn’t to be rich and I want to have all my employees share in the success of the business…I’m not greedy.

I want you to work here forever. It’s unrealistic I know, but I do. When people leave, it hurts me. I have tried to create a “family” and when a person leaves I take it personally…even though I might not show it.

Selling isn’t easy. When I sell a client, we don’t always know what we are getting into. Sometimes our clients suck….please understand that I know that. Other times we land clients that I know are going to be bad; I don’t say it aloud, but I’m taking them on to make payroll and keep the lights on. Thanks for doing your best with the good and the bad ones.

I love it when you take control. I have better things to do than your job and to worry about if you are doing a good job. I hire people to do the job they can do for the company, not to fulfill a job description written on a piece of paper. I want you to own your position and make it better.

I notice when others don’t pull their weight. I’m not blind; I can see when members of the team are not doing their jobs. And it’s not that I am not doing anything about it…I’m just not broadcasting it to everyone. I believe in giving everyone many chances to do their best…Someday you may need that same empathy.

There are some things I just can’t tell you. I hate the old fatherly adage, “because I said so,” but sometimes I either can’t or don’t have time to explain all my actions. When that happens, don’t think it is because I don’t trust you, just know that I believe I am doing what I think is best for you and the business.

I worry all the time. I love the fact that my employees can leave work and forget about it…but I can’t and don’t. I want everyone on staff outside of work time to forget about deadlines, meetings and their to do list….use non work time to recharge your battery and have a life…and leave the worrying to me.

As a follow up to my last article, “How to Stop Talking to Yourself,” you may be wondering what to do with all that new-found silence you find yourself sitting in.  All businesses wish they could do a better job of explaining the benefits of what they do to potential customers.  This passion for their products or services usually leads to lots of desperate talking and explaining.  No matter how much you talk or explain, people just don’t seem to “get it.”  So what if I told you that you could communicate better without trying?  Communicate better through shutting up.

Questions Are Better than Answers

When you are lucky to find yourself in a meeting, it usually means that you are talking to someone who is aware of some need they have, and they have a set of criteria in their head about how to fill that need.  Jumping into a huge pitch before you know what that criteria is means you are more than likely to talk yourself into being unqualified to them.  Instead, asking questions about what the clients need, what caught their interest about you, what their goals for their business are, etc. will help you understand what “hidden criteria” they have.

Educate as You Go

My favorite piece of sales advice I’ve heard is “don’t answer an unasked question.”  You may think a client would hire you if they only knew everything about you, but you’re wrong.  You don’t need to tell them everything because you have something to hide, but rather because you have no way of effectively communicating everything about yourself to a client without tripping over misunderstandings and irrelevant information.

Keep your sales pitch to a minimal representation of your values, products and services and then wait for the customer to ask you questions.  No questions?  Then YOU ask questions.  Just don’t stand there talking into an abyss while you guess what they want to hear.  No matter how long you have been in the business, what have you, don’t guess.  Answer their questions and then ask them more questions.

Letting Customers Sell Themselves

Politicians know this trick really well.  If you speak in terms of positive moods, emotions and vision, you leave the door open for people to “imprint” their criteria on you. This is mostly because everyone knows what they want, but no one knows how to get it.  Every now and then you get someone clear minded enough to know exactly what they want, which is fun (as long as what they want is what you can fulfill).  Otherwise, most of the time you are navigating a fog and the best thing to do is lead the client one step at at time.

I think most people who are gainfully employed would agree that our lives split into three parts: home life, personal life and business life. Not only is it a challenge to balance the time we spend in each of these parts, it is even harder, in my opinion, to keep one area from bleeding into the other and affecting it adversely.

Things challenging at work? How difficult is it to keep that from your family when they ask how your day was while eating dinner together? Or a blowup fight with your spouse the night before leads to an unproductive morning or worse, week. And the one most people don’t think of is that focusing too much on your work and family can leave you void of fulfilling your personal goals of working out, continuing education or investing in friendships.

I try to use the following three tips daily to help me fight the ongoing battle:

1) Leave it at the office. Easier said then done, but either before you get out of your car at home or walk in the front door, take a deep breath, scream…anything that will help your brain get the signal it’s time to switch roles.

2) Plan a date with your spouse and/or family. Seems easy enough, but we all get busy and days turn to weeks, weeks to months and one day you wake up and 10 years have passed. At least once a month, make a date with your spouse, kids and family together.

3) If you’re not healthy and happy personally, work and family will suffer…so don’t take this one for granted. Make time for your hobbies, activities and friends. Again, you have to plan these things, they won’t usually happen on their own.

Love to hear your thoughts on this topic!

I always say there are three sides to every story: what he said, what she said and then the truth, which lies somewhere in between. As a business owner you have highs and lows, sometimes daily. The trick to sanity, and a full head of hair, is to learn to be somewhere in between the two opposing emotions.

I love talking to people about my business; this process is called selling. I get a little high when I make a sale, but I get wild when we close a large contract…almost euphoric. Accompany a sale with clients paying on time, and I would be having an awesome month.

Conversely, I get down when things turn south. Losing a proposal to the competition, slow paying clients and even the dreaded loss of a client…I could be put on suicide watch. The lows hurt…a lot, and I hate to be there long.

But what about the middle? I don’t think the middle comes easily or naturally, you have to work at it, at least I know I have. The middle takes control, temperament and a long term vision. Get a big contract…good. Have to take 10K from the line of credit to make payroll…it’s ok. Employee decides to put in their 2 week notice…no problem. An existing client has a new project for you…thank you.

Put the middle into action. First, know your triggers for the highs and lows. Second, when either one hits, think of the long term vision you have for your business. And third, don’t overreact. Take time to contemplate the action that caused the high or low and learn from it.

Lastly, people are watching. Your employees are watching. Your spouse and children are watching. Be a leader and take the highs and lows in stride. It’s not easy, but when you can, it will make you a better business owner.