client growth

We had to find new clients, serve clients,
develop our website, answer incoming phone calls,
manage the books, pay receivables, negotiate
partnerships, and so on and so on.

Like other successful entrepreneurs, as we grew
our company, we knew we had to hire great people.
There is no way that Jay and I could have
possibly managed everything the company had to
accomplish.

In fact, according to management guru Peter
Drucker, an entrepreneur must narrow their role
as they grow their organizations. The
entrepreneur must focus on the areas that provide
the most value to the organization, and delegate
the rest.

Yes, your ability to determine what to delegate
and to delegate to the right people is the only
way to grow a successful company. As author Jim
Collins states, "the most important decisions
that business people make are not 'what'
decisions, but 'who' decisions." That is,
determining "who" should do the work is
absolutely essential to the work getting done
right, and the company being successful.

As a result, it's no coincidence that new
ventures succeed, or fail, based on the quality
of people they hire. It's no coincidence that
Apple was so successful with a key early employee
like Guy Kawasaki. Or that PayPal was so
successful with Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed
Karim as key early employees? (Steve, Chad and
Jawed would later found YouTube.)

Simply put, your ability to hire the right people
is absolutely critical to your success as an
entrepreneur.

In order to teach you how to hire like an expert,
I interviewed Dr. Geoff Smart. Dr. Smart is the
Chairman & CEO of ghSMART, which helps companies
and investors identify the right people to hire
to ensure that they can achieve success. He is
also the co-author of the current New York Times
Bestseller "Who: The A Method for Hiring."

Interestingly, part of his research in conducting
his book was interviewing more than 20
billionaires and 60 CEOs, investors, and other
thought leaders, so Dr. Smart was able to learn
real-world methodologies that allow entrepreneurs
like you to hire with precision.

During our interview, Dr. Smart gave tons of
actionable information. Some of the highlights
included:

* Tap referrals when seeking new employees: 77%
of successful hires come through referrals. That
is, by asking your employees and
advisors/friends/colleagues who they know that
could be "rock stars" in the open position, you
can find great talent.

* Don't just create a job description. Rather
than simply creating a job description for your
open position, create a "scorecard." Among other
things, this scorecard should focus on the
desired outcome of the employee. For example,
rather than saying that the employee will be
responsible for calling on prospects in Indiana,
the scorecard must include numeric sales and
prospecting goals (e.g., must make 10 to 15 sales
calls/day and close $250,000 worth of sales each
quarter). Importantly, entrepreneurs should also
use the scorecard to judge employee performance
after hiring them.

* Probe in your interviews. Most interviews don't
unmask the real information and insight you need
to make quality hiring decisions. For example, if
a salesperson said they generated $2 million in
sales in their last job, it might seem very
impressive. But, only by asking the three "P"
questions can you really tell if it was. These
questions include how the $2 million compared to
the Previous year's sales in that territory, how
the $2 million compared to the Planned amount of
sales, and how the $2 million compared to sales
by the individual's Peers.

Dr. Smart made tons of great additional points
that entrepreneurs can use immediately to start
building stronger teams and achieve more success.
In fact, we are in the process of hiring more
customer support staff for entreprenuers University,
and will be employing his techniques immediately.
To Your Success!
--
Venture Capital Intl., Thomas Duffy, CEO
Cell: 203.775.9999
Fax: 203.648.4942