Employees Archives

The Four Types of Questions

Chris Smith April 22, 2024smartPRENEUR Blog Series

I bet you are asked questions all the time I bet you are asked questions all the time, from everyone, about many different topics. The sheer volume of questions is keeping you “busy” (which, by the way, is the worst four letter word on the planet). When you hear these questions coming your way it’s tempting to simply answer them ...

Managing & Hiring A-Players

Chris Smith March 11, 2024smartPRENEUR Blog Series

Years ago I was invited to sit in on a Vistage coaching session with a group of fellow CEO’s. The guest Speaker was Eric Herrenkohl and he discussed his book How to Hire A-Players. Eric taught the group a simple method to create a list of traits that could be used for a given position to help ensure you found ...

Use Meeting Agendas

Chris Smith January 29, 2024smartPRENEUR Blog Series

Meetings can be problematic: too many, not enough, too long, too short, no takeaways, no agendas. If we start with a simple agenda for each meeting we can make sure we stay on track and efficient. Here are a few ideas to help craft an effective agenda. We’ll focus on a “one-on-one” agenda in this example but you would use ...

Am I Overstaffed?

Chris Smith December 4, 2023smartPRENEUR Blog Series

We would all like to run profitable businesses. The largest expense for a business are its people. If we have too many of them compared to our sales volume we can quickly tank profitability. Fortunately there are a few easy things to take a look at to determine if we are overstaffed (or underselling). Once we understand where we are ...

Creating a Training Matrix

Chris Smith October 23, 2023smartPRENEUR Blog Series

Integrators have technicians of varying skill levels. From integrator to integrator those technicians are completely different in terms of their given skills, certifications, titles, pay scales, etc. Even within an integrator there is usually no clearly defined structure for what defines an Entry Level, Mid Level, or Senior Level Tech. The use of a training matrix becomes incredibly powerful in ...

Have a Disciplinary Process

Chris Smith September 18, 2023smartPRENEUR Blog Series

We hire well, have a documented process, onboard employees to that process, and regularly (usually weekly) manage our teams with dedicated time and intention… Wait, you aren’t doing all those things??? Separate article and discussion… but still, not everyone will make the cut. When employees are falling short of what is needed we have to take action. Having a clearly ...

Episode 14: Anatomy of An Hour

Tom Coffin May 11, 2022smartPRENEUR Podcast

In this episode Tom’s guest is Marilyn Sanford, a serial entrepreneur and a CEDIA Fellow. Tom and Marilyn break down the anatomy of an hour and give key tips for how you should be charging for one.

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