I get asked a lot if there is a secret of how to hire great people. The answer is YES and there are many secrets that need to work together. Here is my short list.
1) Have a clear vision of who YOUR company is. Suprisingly many CEOs don’t have or articulate a clear vision and purpose. Make sure your “Why” you do what you do is crystal clear and is reflected in your culture.
2) Define what YOU want – what specifically will this person do? “He’s our new biz dev guy” doesn’t cut it. Write it down – make a SHORT job spec. What are the TOP 3 things you want? Don’t clutter with all sorts of details that fills 2 pages. If you can’t laser focus on the top 3, your new hire won’t either!
3) Outline a hiring process you will follow religiously – outbound (looking yourself or with a recruiter), drive inbound leads – targeted ads, LinkedIn posts, professional networks, refining candidate leads, managing your interview process to a consistent, repeatable process. Whatever you do, make it 100% standard for both candidate comparison and liability protection. I recommend checking out Bradford Smart’s Top Grading Hiring tips
3) Be very specific of the outcomes and results you want. Make an objective list of what you want and by when. A top person will do the rest and make the plan to get you there.
4) Test, Assess and evaluate. I am a HUGE fan of DISC and values assessments to understand what makes the person tick. I have used them in my businesses and they deliver great insights on who the person really is and what makes them tick. I offer them to all my clients and I urge you to make this a mandatory part of your process. You can Contact me if you want to offer them as part of your hiring process.
5) Never hire because “you like them” – Here’s a great post from Seth Godin about killing the initial hour interview for just a 5 minute interview You will see a lot more people and then can take the top folks and go the next stage.
6) Have a clear consulting or employment agreement that you refer to in your offer letter. Review it in person and make sure your new hire signs BEFORE they start doing any work for you. MAKE SURE you have a “winner prevails” clause in case of litigation so if you ever get sued for weak grounds, the loser pays both sides’ legal fees. This is an effective deterrent to frivolous lawsuits.
7) Have your new hire’s desk, cards, phone and everything else ready for their first day. Throw a “welcome to the team” party for them. I always offered to have them have a celebration dinner on me – invite your friend, spouse, housemate or whoever and bring me the bill.
Have fun, celebrate the wins and hold your new person accountable to your initial top 3 goals.

With all the clutter on Internet marketing, SEO, SEM, CPA, CPL, optimization, ad serving, ad networks, ad exchanges – where is a CEO to start?

I was focused on growing our business at GameDaily by driving inbound traffic, page depth and engagement. The end results was simple – Focus on your Internet marketing RESULTS and understand click streams

As entrepreneurs and business people, we constantly are looking for faster, more effective ways to do things we need done – quickly. A big “thank you” to my friend Ron Merrill (Follow him on Twitter @ronmerrill) for showing me these 2 great free tools (premium versions are available for a small cost).

Most business people I know want to put up a good website quickly and without involving designers and programmers. Hey, that’s why my site is on WordPress (though I used a great designer Jen Hartford for my look and identity) Check out Moonfruit – SUPER easy to use and great results from my non-techy friends. This the drag and drop tool we’ve been promised since FrontPage that actually works!

Everyone wants a cool presentation. Most of us are sick to death of Powerpoints and wish we could do cool video trailers to make our points. Now you can with Animoto – super slick, easy to use.

Both these tools will help you get stuff done, fast and cheap!

50% of execs surveye think its wierd to “friend” a direct report or a boss.  See the numbers here

The downturn is tough, no doubt.  Certain sectors, such as tech, are doing better than others and the innovations in efficiency from Internet-based services, technology and good management are great building blocks to build your company’s success while most everyone else is on defense. Click here for a few ideas

I saw this nice resource in Inc.com and thought it might be helpful for you http://www.inc.com/ss/10-free-or-cheap-tools-start-ups