I got this insightful article to share here.
7 mistakes while hiring for startups/small business
basically lists 7 mistakes not to make while hiring. common sense stuff but still it ain’t common, so,
enjoy the read:
Ujw
Kevin boss writes this and it is an insightful experience which our small firm itself has gone through and learnt in the process.
Link to Kevin Boss’s wonderful article
5 Mistakes That Made Me A Better Freelancer
June 9th, 2008
Doing Business, The Internet, Web Design
A few years ago I started offering web design services to those in need of a web site. Ever since, It’s been a constant learning experience. When I advanced from website coding to directly interacting with clients, I was taking a pretty big step. It was hard enough trying to understand this crazy markup language, and now I had to learn how to interact with clients? Sheesh. Thanks to trial and error, I’ve come to understand a few things about establishing and maintaining the best possible relationship with my clients.
My clients shared the same technical background: they had no idea how the Internet works, how websites work and what exactly it is I did. As far as they were concerned I waved my magical wand and poof, a site is born. Wouldn’t that be nice? Unfortunately that isn’t how it’s done (well for me at least). Because of my inexperience, I set myself up for a few nasty headaches. But I also learned a lot of valuable lessons.
The Never-Ending Design
“Hi Kevin, you know i see where that link is and well, can you make it blue instead of black?” Sounds innocent enough right? When you have a backseat designer who is continually revising the design, it can be a little frustrating. Especially when they liked your markups, then had a change of heart after you already coded everything. Getting calls a dozen times a day is also pretty tiring. You’d think your client would have the common sense to not call this often. Think again. When you don’t set guidelines and establish a clear work-flow, you’re just asking for trouble. Have your client sign off on the final mockup before moving to the next step. Define how you want to go back and forth regarding revisions.
The Midnight Caller
“How’s development going on the site? What? Of course I’m awake why wouldn’t I be? You were sleeping?” We don’t all keep the same schedule, and this is especially true if you’re dealing with someone that lives in another part of the world. Then again even when my clients lived 10 minutes away I was still getting calls at the strangest hours. Your client is paying you to get something done, and if you don’t state otherwise, expect them to need to talk to you at the most inconvenient times. If you give out your contact info, make sure you explicitly state how to contact you, and what time(s) are acceptable.
The Chatty Sally
“Hi Kevin, how are you doing? How’s the weather? Are you wearing shorts? I called to ask a quick question about the site and I’ll keep you on the phone for a while talking about general stuff not relating to the project at all” Having a good relationship with your client is important, but remember to keep it professional. Your working on their website, not becoming their new best friend. Socializing with a client isn’t bad, but it can become an issue if you don’t set clear ground rules. When you’re socializing, you’re either not working or at the least, distracted. If you have a time-sensitive project this can become a major issue. Make sure you clearly establish the purpose of your communications, and keep them on track. I’m not suggesting that clients and developers should avoid a social and professional relationship. I’m saying if you don’t set some ground rules it can get out of hand.
The Project that Doesn’t End
“The site looks great, but can you add an image gallery to it? I forgot that I wanted that before” Clients are notorious for wanting more work done than originally anticipated. I can’t remember a single project where the client didn’t want something new added as the project came to a conclusion. It’s natural - if something rattles around in your brain it’ll eventually spit out some new ideas. Since I agreed to make the client a website, I guess I agreed to add whatever they wanted right? Wrong. I failed to outline a specific scope, and as a result got stuck in a loop of additional work. Clearly define the scope of the project and what requirements need to be satisfied to complete the project. If they want to add more work after the fact, simply tell them that it’s not in the contract. Offer them the option of revising the project with added labor and a later completion date.
Hosting Woes
“Help the site is down!!! You suck at hosting!!!” I used to host my clients and charge them a few bucks for it. I figured hey why drive business elsewhere when I can offer a complete solution? Well that worked out well until my host started flaking. The site would be down once every week or so, and the people who I hosted weren’t too happy with it. I couldn’t blame them. I was angry at my host too. I’d constantly get calls about the site being down, call my host, and either get a machine or no answer at all. Now the obvious problem here is that my host sucked, but for a few dollars a month I was also being held responsible for something not in my control. I decided the profit wasn’t worth my reputation. I did explain that the hosting problems were beyond my control, but that didn’t make their site magically work. If you host your clients make sure you’re ready to accept the responsibility when something goes wrong. I do think hosts, for the most part, are more reliable now than 3 years ago. They are also cheaper now too. I refer my clients to the web host I use. I think it’s mutually beneficial that my clients deal with their host directly.
I never completed a project for a client without doing everything I could to completely satisfy them, but I sure did have some tough situations. Most of my work comes from word of mouth, so I place a lot of value on each individual client I have. These aren’t all my adverse situations, but they are my most memorable. Do you have any of your own? I’d love to read about them.
Oh, and not every single client can be satisfied - some people are just unhappy. There are other ways of dealing with them.
enjoy reading it ?
Seth Godin emphasizes on the importance of email checklist that makes us better communicators.
Communication is everything specially while emailing.
He teaches us ways to communicate properly when you are using Emails.
Here are his checklists ..
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/email-checklist.html
here are some of his points.
–>Am I angry? (If so, save as draft and come back to the note in one hour).
Could I do this note better with a phone call?–>Am I blind-ccing my boss? If so, what will happen if the recipient finds out?
–>Is there anything in this email I don’t want the attorney general, the media or my boss seeing? (If so, hit delete).
–>Is any portion of the email in all caps? (If so, consider changing it.)
Enjoy reading it folks , tis a valuable piece of advice going on here…
Aptly titled,
Memo to a Young Leader: What Kind of Boss Are You?, this is a great set of tips for assembling and retaining a great team for any young manager or leader of a team or organization.
it starts up with asking, Why should great people want to work with you?
and includes tips about how a leader should act as an example and how you can start assembling the dream team and what examples you as a leader should set.
Enjoy reading folks,
Ujw
recommended for Leaders and Human resource managers specially.
Joshua Blankenship writes in his blog “why design” is the single most important part of our businesses.
By the way, “Design” is broad and if you think it is skin deep, and pretty looks, please please read this in depth. here is how he defines it.
I tend to define design as “the intentional ordering of components” or “logically solving problems.
So you see, design is a whole lot than what most people (and most clients) seem to think.
Here is the article. in depth. highly recommended.
http://soserio.us/design-will-define-you
Enjoy reading !
Have a look at how people are trying to differenciate themselves from others (through their business cards).
Click on the link below to view the innovative designs of business cards.
http://reencoded.com/2008/05/20/42-awesome-business-card-designs-with-links-to-100s-more/
photos courtesy of above link.
Here is a link that shows how to write a good case study online or offline both.
http://www.wordbiz.com/archive/writecasestudy.shtml
enjoy the link.
Facebook is, per their website, “a social utility that connects you with the people around youâ€. On this site, you can set-up personal profile of yourself, connect with friends, colleagues, join groups and networks, read news, post photos, videos, webs, jobs and many more. Facebook is a social networking site, much like LinkedIn for example, but with a more open community for communicating, setting-up and customizing profiles and sharing of information. The site was originally built for college students to network and socialize with one another, but has since opened its doors to everyone else, and it has really taken off in popularity.
Recruiters, Hiring Mangers and Internet Sources can use Facebook as one of the good sources for finding potential job seekers and candidates. Using this you can also search passive job seeker and approach them to join your repudiated company. Most of the companies in the developed countries like US, UK, Europe have already started to use Facebook for sourcing candidates. But for the country like Nepal and other developing country it’s totally a new concept. Here are a few ways to do this:
1) Use Facebook Friend Finder:
This features automatically scans your email and address books. This will list out your friends, colleagues and other people you know who have already joined Facebook and will provide the option to send invitation to connect them. From here you can see your mutual friends and also look into their other friends as well. You can see the names and minimal information for friends that are “not mutualâ€, but you do have ways to reach out to them and connect directly. In most cases, you can use Facebooks option to “poke†them, write on their “wall†in their profile, or see if they posted contact information on their page - such as a phone or email address.
2) Use search Options:
Facebook offers Basic search by keywords to advance search by tons of options, such as location, company, education, and title). The one drawback on Facebook is that it will only let you search your network (I’m from Pittsburgh, so my network is limited to Pittsburgh connections and anyone else I connected with). One way around this is to connect with others outside of your network, but is only limited to see those contacts in the other networks. Another option is to change what network you want to be designated on Facebook.
3) Posting Jobs to the Marketplace:
Posting are free on this site and go out to your network. There are lots of job categories listed.
4) Join Groups:
This is the best part in Facebook, where you are most likely going to find people and connect. You can join the group which you are interested in and then connect and discuss with the group members. There is a discussion board open for discussion.
There are plenty of other ways to use Facebook, such as asking questions to your network, participating in or sponsoring events and uploading tailored videos for others to see. You can customize your profile and advertise your interests in connecting and job openings that way as well.
We celebrated the birthday of our associate, Mr. Pujan Piya. It was great evening and everyone enjoyed. Once again DMS family would like to wish Pujan a Wonderful Birthday and we wish all his dreams come true, today and forever.
Happy Birthday. Cheers!!!
Great people have great soft skills and technical skills. But in the tight market its very difficult to get the great people with both the skill sets. In this type of market, we should give more preference to the soft skills and teach the technical skills. As the person with good technical skills who lacks soft sills will mostly give problems if they don’t have what it take to to manage the work and working environment.
Thats why i think its always better to Hire for soft skills and teach the technical skills. Some of the soft skills needed are as follows:
Do you agree that soft skills are the best predictor of success?
What would you add to this soft skills list?
Note: Hire for Intangibles; You Can Teach Technical Skills. It’s a person’s attitude, passion, and ability to work with other people that counts for hiring.
- Sakin