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Things I learned from working at a dysfunctional small business for 10 years.
It’s time for my first thread.
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="🧵" title="Thread" aria-label="Emoji: Thread">X1/XX 1/X. .
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It’s time for my first thread.
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1. Be clear about incentives/bonus structure, have it in writing, and make sure everyone is on the same page about how metrics are being tracked. 2/X
I can only remember one time that the director level team made bonus despite several times achieving what we thought was within bonus range sales numbers. There was always some *reason* why the sales didn’t quite qualify each month. The goal posts were constantly moving. 3/X
2. Treat your customers well, but your employees better. Employees are the beating heart of your company. Don’t be so focused on getting an extra dollar out of your customers that you lose sight of the team that is driving your revenue in the first place. 4/X
3. Invest in your employees. Yes sometimes that will bite you in the butt when someone leaves and joins another company, but you’ll attract a higher caliber of talent if you have the reputation of being a company that invests in the professional progress of their employees. 5/X
4. Don’t have standing weekly meetings (that last 3 hours) for the sake of “having a meeting.” If a meeting is necessary, have one. Make it short. Let your directors lead the discussion in their areas. 6/X
No one wants to hear their CEO pontificate, yell, grandstand, or otherwise waste 3 hours you could have spent being productive. 7/X
5. Respond to internal emails. When I first started working @permanentequity I was shocked how responsive @brentbeshore was to emails, sometimes even walking into my office to discuss an email I had sent. *Cue me picking my jaw up off the floor. 8/X
Usually emails from your employees are asking questions or pitching new ideas. Both of which deserve a reply. Even if that reply is “no.” When emails go forever unanswered it breeds a culture where people stop asking questions and stop bothering to pitch new ideas. 9/X
6. Don’t operate in gray areas. Just because you *can* do something, doesn’t mean you should. We used to hold mandatory meetings for our hourly employees that were unpaid. If employees didn’t attend, their job was on the line. 10/X
I never once fired an employee for not attending these meetings. I couldn’t do it. Not only did this seem illegal, but it felt unethical. After some complaints the wording changed from “mandatory” to “highly recommended.” The vibe was the same. 11/X
7. Change is good. Adopt new technology. Just because something worked for you in 1983 doesn’t mean it’s still the best way to do things. Maybe it is, but then again, I was using a spiral notebook and highlighters to track my leads. This was 2017. 12/12
