Adventures in Businessing: Entrepreneurship, Small Business, and a Healthy Dose of Humor

Fun Sized Teasers

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Show Notes

Hey! You came back! I’m not surprised or anything; just being friendly. We’ve all had to deal with awful coworkers or employees. In this episode, our hosts dive into the world of employee conflict. What do you do when you don’t get along with an employee? Worse yet, what do you do when an employee doesn’t get along with the rest of your team? Those aren’t rhetorical questions, Rob seriously wants to know. Feel free to shoot him an email. Just google The Alderman Group. You’ll find him. During the discussion, James describes how he and Zach, an employee of his company, can get into talks that escalate into heated arguments. At the end of the day, James calls Zach a younger version of himself, which I guess means that he likes to argue with himself? Or he hates himself? Or he’s projecting? I’m not a licensed psychologist, so I don’t know how to properly interpret that. I can barely spell psychologist. Ok, fine, I used spell-check. Out of all the hosts, Jeremy seems to have had the most recent experience with dealing with problem employees. His solution? Just fire ‘em all and start over. That’s what he’d do. At the risk of sounding too serious, Jeremy does give some good advice about making sure that you allow employees who aren’t a good fit to find something that is a good fit for them. On a related note, if you need to fire someone, I think Jeremy may be available to consult. Rob tells a story about Strength Finders™, a job that he wasn’t the right fit for, and how sometimes it’s better for employees and businesses when they discover they are no longer a fit. It took someone on the outside to question why he remained at a job that was making him miserable. Of course, if you don’t like your job, it’s probably much better if you get God to get you fired, like Rob did. Just let God deal with all the little details. Let go, and let God. If Kevin is your favourite host, and let’s face it, he probably is, this won’t be your favourite episode. The team does their best to keep him awake, but Kevin possibly has a cold. Or the flu. Or maybe he’s dying of some exotic illness. Should he have come into the office just to talk over Rob’s nice story about prayer and specific flavours of Evangelical Christianity? Probably not. Is this episode better off because of his Nyquil-induced fugue state? Arguable. Are the show notes better because of his altered consciousness? Absolutely. Overall, you get the feeling that the entrepreneurs are trying to make themselves feel better about firing people. Most of the talk is focused on how letting employees go is often better for the business AND the employee, but definitely for the employee. Want to know the worst ways to fire employees? You’re in luck! Towards the end of the episode, James reads his inaugural top 4 list about this very topic. I don’t want to spoil anything, but James’ list seems to lean a bit towards the left. He throws shade at Wal-Mart for giving raises while closing several Sam’s Clubs without warning and calls out the president for firing someone with a tweet. The whole thing seems like FAKE NEWS to me! James’ list has always been FAKE NEWS. I’ve always said it. James’ Lame List, that’s what I’ve always called it! Kevin recommends getting someone else to do your job for you. Jeremy recommends not working at all. Hmm. There may be a pattern there. James thinks you should listen to a podcast by Jon Acuff, while Rob suggests using an app on your phone to interface with a fax machine. Apparently he encounters a lot of fax machines.

Our Recommendations

• Kevin: TIP - Get a virtual assistant
• Jeremy: TIP - Take more downtime
• Rob: APP - FaxBurner
• James: PODCAST - Creative Slide with Jon Acuff

BONUS

[caption id="attachment_165" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] World's Largest Side Hug-SCL[/caption]   [gallery link="none" columns="2" size="large" ids="166,167"]

Welcome to the show notes! Thanks for stopping by. Do you like to talk about guns? Because 1/4 of the Adventures in Businessing podcast does! James, Rob, and Kevin attempt to steer the conversation about business ethics away from the second amendment, while Jeremy keeps trying to give the wheel a hard spin toward the craggy shores of political division. We briefly discuss Wal-mart and Dick's Sporting Goods' decision to not sell rifles to people under the age of 21. The crew successfully maneuvers the ship through those choppy waters and into the harbour of business ethics, where they run aground on the jagged rocks of reality. Ok. I think I've tortured that metaphor enough. Should businesses get involved in social issues? If they should, what responsibilities do they have? Is corporate activism the future of change? Do people care what their favourite soda brand does with their profits? Should they? Remember when that bakery wouldn't bake a cake for a same-sex couple? We're nothing if not topical and timely. If you don't remember, don't worry, Rob has a story about it. Rob is a libertarian. He thinks that the free market could solve all the world's problems. That's not hyperbole; I promise! Most of the hosts agree that the government shouldn't be involved in deciding which customers a business has to do business with, but obviously there are abusive cases that do need to be legislated. Can the free market solve the problem of the jerk baker? Out of nowhere, James brings the podcast back to how businesses, specifically Kabbage, are responding to the Florida shooting, and Jeremy suggests a Remington sponsorship. Rob suggests that businesses should be concerned with making the world a better place because it's better for business. He uses Facebook's recent content changes as an example of how the market normalises. Initially businesses, and the market, dipped after the strategy announcement. They recovered as businesses dug into the new Facebook content focus. At the end of the day, you're tied to the business decisions you make, and you have to sleep at night. Jeremy discusses Bonlife coffee and its focus on sustainable practices. They've backed off it a bit because most people don't want to be reminded that there are poor people in the world while getting their morning caffeine fix. Kevin pretends to be a dirty consumerist pig who just wants to drink his sugar water. James, Kevin, and Jeremy recommend books, while Libertarian Rob recommends an Orwellian wrist device that sends all your data to the government. Bonus: If you want to hear the funniest thing ever, listen to this podcast at slow-speed. I promise you won't be disappointed. :)

Our Recommendations

• Kevin: Delivering Happiness - Book
• Rob: Fitbit. You can choose your own version, but we linked to the Charge 2.
• Jeremy: Start with Why - Book
• James: All things Profit First - Book, Podcast

When you are good at something it's natural to think the next step is to start a business doing that thing. Is that the right choice for everyone? Are there challenges and caveats you need to keep in mind? In this episode of Adventures in Businessing, Kevin, James, Rob, and Jeremy explore these questions and more.

Our Recommendations

• Jeremy Moore: InnerGuide
• Rob Alderman: Clear
• Kevin Stover: Tip - Remove Facebook...
• James Laws: missinglettr (aff)

James, Rob, and Kevin are at it again and this time they're discussing a some hard truths of entrepreneurship...

• Rob calls out the Gary Vaynerchuk gospel of hustle.
• Kevin questions Apple's brand strength.
• Rob thinks you are a terrible photographer.
• James makes a case for having the right idea... late.
• James, Rob, & Kevin discuss the weight of being the decision maker.
• James reminisces on the television show Wings and has a Joe moment.

Recommendations

In each show we've started wrapping up with some tip, trick, product, service, or resource to help you in your own entrepreneurial journey. This weeks recommendations are...

• Kevin: Book - The Art of Scrum
• Rob: App - Overcast.fm
• James: Book - The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Keeping Your Sh*t Together: How to Run Your Business Without Letting it Run You

For this adventure, the hosts minus Jeremy describe some of the biggest changes they’ve made in their businesses over the years. Rob gives some awesome advice using a hockey analogy, Kevin tries to take credit for James’ great intuition, and James explains how we accidentally increased our monthly revenue by $40,000. Talk about burying the lead...

Recommendations

• Rob: The War of Art
• Kevin: The Forest App
• James: Full Story

Another fun episode where James, Kevin, Rob, and Jeremy discuss different types of entrepreneurs. Kevin and James give a shot at describing each other's entrepreneurial styles. Kevin shares the secret family business. And all four of us discuss the the Doritos product, Lady Chips. All is all it a fun listen and a special shout out to our studio mates, The Punnery Podcast .  

In this episode of Adventures in Businessing, James, Kevin, and Rob discuss their younger selves and how they started exploring this thing we call entrepreneurship. Origin stories, funny families, and epic exits from previous employment are the stops on this episodes journey and it's sure to be a fun ride.

AIB is back with a brand new cast and learning how to record all over again. Not without some poor audio artifacts, mostly some clipping here and there, we are back with some new energy and what I hope will be a great chemistry as we discus entrepreneurship from the perspective of three very different business. Get to know the players a little better as we discuss some of the topics we would like to cover in future episodes. Transcription coming soon.

Keeping up with the AIB norm, the crew takes on a hairy WordPress topic, in the future of the JavaScript Framework. Enter React.

Topics Include:

• An awkward Ebay sponsorship.
• A history of Backbone.
• How Backbone is showing its age.
• What is React?
• What is Calypso?
  • Advantages.
  • Discussing criteria.
    • Some don’t think ease-of-use should determine usage or adoption.
• A React compare/contrast.
  • Measuring the barrier to entry.
• “What helps you make decisions for the future of your business?”
  • (Briefly derailed by nautical terminology.)
• What is the mission statement for your product?
  • How does this differ from your business missions statement?
• The determinate reason for having a mission statement.
  • Anytime you create a focus, you will alienate users.
  • Ensuring you have a scope nailed down, for your product, service, business.
  • Your mission statement has to align with your business objective/s.
  • As silly as it may sound, why you need a mission statement for everything.
  • Missions Statements exist not to infer what you say ‘Yes’ to, but to conclusively decide what you say ‘No’ to.
  • In the end, it’s about freedom.
• “Helping others be successful.”

Mentioned on the Show:

• The AIB episode about the Andon.

In this week's Part 2 story of WP Ninjas, James and Kevin talk candidly about the stages of their business; successes, failures, and general curiosities await.

• Celebrating renewals and sales.
• McDonald’s gets frork'd!
• Making changes in the digital market versus the physical space.
• Getting your product known
• Branding
  • Hiring a design team.
  • Enter FocusLab
  • The investment risk and reward of branding.
• Kevin’s move back to America, from U.K.
• The impact of James and Kevin finding out they would both become fathers.
  • How that revelation translated into kicking the business into the next gear.
• Kevin’s plot to influence James into hiring the first employee.
• Transitioning to the first office space.
• The impact of annual renewals.
  • How ignorance garnered experience.
• How Kevin’s daughter, in part, led to a hiring frenzy.
  • The potential hires that did work out…and the ones that didn't.
• The 2016 office switch.
• Going back to FocusLab to revamp the UI
  • The intensity and lead up to launch.
  • Launching the 3.0 redesign, reaping the benefits.
• Bringing on Jon and KR.
• All business is a risk, there are always investments in startups, and most things are a gamble.
• The Keystones of Growth