SPOTLIGHT BUSINESS Employee Acquisition, Motivation and Retention Noel Flynn explains the art of finding and keeping employees who are a good fit for your business. flect, you’ll likely see how three elements — acquisition, motivation and retention of employees — are inexorably linked. T 20 Welcome to the Club It’s early on a Monday morning. You’re gulping down a cup of coffee from your favorite mug and running a bit late, as usual. You worked in the field all last week, including on Saturday. (What else is new?) Most of Sunday was spent doing business paperwork and planning next week’s work… and also perhaps trying to squeeze in some time to be a parent and spouse or partner. Oh, and any hope of success faded for your Fantasy Football team, but you’ll get another chance next season. Suddenly, it hits you. You’ve been playing this entrepreneur game for a while now and — despite the many scary moments (and some of your really big newbie blun- ders) — this business thing seems to be actually viable, and you’re still here. What a roller coaster ride and so much harder than anticipated. All those delusions about how much easier life would be when you become the boss/owner have long since va- porized. You ask yourself, “What was I thinking when I started this adventure? Is there something wrong with me?” It also dawns on you that you have arrived in a strange netherworld or limbo that is oſten described as “too big to be small, and too small to be big.” Yes, you have the tiger by the tail and dare not let go. It’s a pivotal time when you must decide to either remain a one-person operation (maybe you have a helper or spouse who lends a hand) or begin to take your business to the next level with more staff. KEYNOTES DECEMBER 2019 his is the sixth article in the “Tools for Managing Your Business” series. We’ll discuss dealing with the fundamental chal- lenges related to building and maintaining a workforce. Although this article won’t tell you whom to hire, it will offer some real-world tips and suggestions of what to do and avoid. As you read and re- The Path That Took You Here Fundamentally, small business owners typically enter the entrepreneurial arena via one of three routes: Family business legacy: second, third or even fourth generation Created a job for yourself: needed a job. Downsized, unemployed or needed more income Created a business: tired of working for dumb people or giant corporations Whatever your path, welcome to the world of the small business owner/en- trepreneur. It’s not a common endeavor (studies suggest that only about one in 100 people are a good candidate for self employment), but it can be rewarding for those who are driven, possess the requi- site attitude and can deal with a never- ending stream of challenges. It’s also a potentially good choice for those who just can’t work for someone else, for whatever reasons. You know, the ones who many parents and teachers said, “S/he doesn’t play well with the other children!” Planning Your Expansion You should begin by reviewing the rela- tionship between your flow of work and your capacity to handle it. If you are al- ready maxed out, then you waited too long, but better to get started now than not at all. Quantify (in terms of demand volume versus your capacity to service the work) where your business has been, where it is now and where you’re going (or trying to go), within the next 12 to 18 months. The key here is to step back, take a wide-angle view, smooth out the peak and valley ex- tremes and focus on the trends. Compare your current “steady state” (stable/con- tinual) workload to your capacity. If you continue to grow, whether be- cause of managerial brilliance (in your case, the obvious reason) or in spite of WWW.ALOA.ORG
