Work.com Small Business Community Blog

How to Hire a Software Developer: What Small Businesses Should Look For

Rob Walling, principal of the Numa Group in Altadena, CA, and a big advocate of  the human side of software development, advises businesses on how to go about choosing a company to build your software. As more and more small businesses embrace technology and build their own desktop and web applications, the more important it is to find fantastic people to create the best software.

Rob says:

Building software is a complex process, and hiring your 17-year old brother-in-law to build an interface to your accounting package is like handing a hammer to a 3-year old - they might hammer in a nail, or they might destroy your home.

Here are tips to keep in mind to find and evaluate software firms, according to Rob:

• Ask for work samples (a good website will tell you a lot)
• Check references
• Consider offshoring if you can specify your project to a high level of detail, in writing
• Certifications and publications show is developer is involved
• Smaller firms will give you more one-on-one attention than larger firms
• Developers with public faces, such as bloggers and those who publish books and articles, have more accountability since they are in the public eye.

One added tip from my personal experience with working with developers is to find a developer who has an intuitive sense of user needs - that will make it so much easier to create a winning product. One of the best developers I've worked with also was a writer, and had a great feel for the user interface (in fact, he ended up quitting to become an international correspondent, but that's another story...).

If you want help from experts with your developer search, the Numa Group offers candidate evaluation for technical hiring -- they will evaluate software developers for you in a 25-minute phone interview.

Technorati tags: software development

digg this: Guide to Choosing a Company to Build Your Software by Rob Walling

Local Search & Small Business: Be Found on Online Maps

Greg Brown, editor of Latin Trade and author of more than 60 Work.com guides, explains in his latest guide how to make sure your store or office is found when people do a local search via online maps. Do you want people under 35 to find your business, and be prepared for this new era when people search for restaurants, gas stations, or laundromats on their mobile phone? Find out how to see if you're listed on the major map sites such as Google Maps and Yahoo Maps, and how to tell the map services where you are.

Technorati tags: local search, mobile search, online maps, small business

New Business Ideas for Entrepreneurs: Pick Up a Shovel, Design a Shirt, or Cater to Transumers

Are you an entrepreneur looking for new business ideas? Work.com is full of new business ideas for and from entrepreneurs: have you considered starting a gardening business, a pool hall, a community art gallery, throwing up a few t-shirts on CafePress, selling handmade items, or starting a vending-cart business?

Springwise also has some great business ideas, such as facilitating fractional ownership of luxury pleasures for "transumers", who are consumers driven by experiences instead of possessions. See Bag Borrow or Steal for an example, or study the massclusivity trend...

Hiring Employees: If Not Interviews, Then What?

According to the Harvard Business Review, 80% of turnover is caused by bad hiring decisions. This is really important when you think about the time and money you invest in training a new employee about your business, your products, and your customers. In a small business, the entrepreneur often selects new employees, especially the first employees, because of his or her gut reaction during an interview.

"Seems like a really nice guy," is a common reaction after the interview. "I think he can help me." Poof, the new employee is selected. Bad move.

In his Guide to Pre-Employment Testing, Work.com Editor Daniel Kehrer suggests that putting pre-employment checking to work for you can make you less dependent on your gut reaction to candidates. In Recruiting and Selection Tips, David Meyer, Ph.D. suggests that job analysis will help you match the right person to your job. And developing a large candidate pool gives you more potential employees to select.

Maggie Rauch makes key points about the importance of background checking in her Guide to Checking Backgrounds Before Hiring. So does  W. Eric Martin in his Guide to Checking Job References. You would be amazed at how many employers don't do these background checks.

A large study conducted by John and Rhonda Hunter at the University of Michigan on the predictors of job performance found that a typical job interview increased the likelihood of choosing the best candidate by less than 2%. Bad hiring decisions can be avoided. If the interview is not golden, what is?

(Source Study:  John & Rhonda Hunter, "Validity and Utility of Alternative Predictors of Job Performance", Psychological Bulletin, July 1984, p. 90.)

Note from Shara: Susan Heathfield, Work.com Employee community leader, is a management and organization consultant who specializes in the people side of business, and is the owner of Heathfield Consulting Associates in Williamston, MI.

Technorati tags: HR, employees

Doing Small Business on the Internet

Evan Carmichael, entrepreneurship expert, says one of the most important small business trends for 2007 is the continued rise in doing business on the Internet.

From his post on the Selling to Small Business blog:

"Small businesses today can't just have a one-page website," he says. "The division between IT and business is shrinking. From e-marketing to selling products online to offering podcasts, small business owners need to embrace everything the Internet has to offer."

Small business is moving online in huge waves. Do you know how to promote your local business online? How to monetize your website and drive business through Google Adwords and business directories? The top ways small business uses the Internet? And about RSS, Web 2.0, HTML, ISP's, podcasts, and marketing your business with a blog?

Technorati tags: internet business, small business, internet marketing

Learn About Small Business Podcasts

Hendry Lee, owner of Marketing Loop of Brandenton, Florida, describes to us the benefits of business podcasting in Start Podcasting for Your Small Business:

"For the first time in the history, business owners can reach global/international audiences using their own voices -- a thing that even most radios and TV stations can only dream of. Voices...convey information at the closest level to direct communication. No matter what the size of the business is, all can play at the same level as multi-million dollar corporations."

According to Lee, a podcast can help your business to:

1. Build relationship and trust with the audience.

2. Establish yourself as an authority in your niche.

3. Build your brand by keeping your name in front of the listeners.

4. Capture sales leads by having listeners respond to your offer.

5. Generate revenue from advertising or product sales.

A final tip Lee offers is: "Podcasting is about communicating with your listeners at the level that is much closer than formal corporate speak. Personality is the key because people expect the kind of interaction they usually don't get from conventional business communication."

Lou Bortone, freelance writer and video producer from Exeter, New Hampshire,  wrote another highly useful guide to podcasting for small business, which focuses on step-by-step instructions on how to create a podcast. Anita Campbell, Work.com Startup community leader and Internet radio show/podcasting expert, offers her tips in comments on Lou's guide:

"Add good text that describes your podcasts. Create an easy-to-scan index of all your shows. When it comes to guests, first call on your close contacts. Prepare a show outline in advance, with the questions and the schedule laid out. Advertising-supported shows are a tried-and-true way to monetize your hard work at podcasting. Internet radio has an advantage, because (i) you have a wider audience usually for your show, making it easier to demonstrate value to advertisers, and (ii) advertisers understand radio but some do not understand podcasting. The concept of paying sponsorship dollars seems easier for advertisers to buy into, with a radio show."

On Small Business Trends Radio, you can listen to the lessons Anita has learned over 20 months of podcasting and a year of Internet radio experience (by podcast of course), or listen to last year's top 10 small business podcasts.

Technorati tags: podcast, podcasting, internetmarketing

What Entrepreneurs Most Want to Know

What do entrepreneurs and business owners most want to know about these days? Let's take a quick glance at today's top 20 most popular business how-to guides on Work.com:

• Starting a new business (6) -- including low-cost and home business ideas, creating a business plan, logo design, finding venture capital, and starting specific businesses such as a pool hall

• Doing business on the Internet (5) -- including search engine optimization, business blogging, and making money through ecommerce

• Hiring and managing employees (3)  

Potential Work.com how-to guide authors always ask me what they should write about to have the best chance of a popular guide -- a guide linked-to from many sites, that appears high in search engine results, that hundreds of strangers email to each other. I suspect that guides that offer very specific ideas about starting new businesses on a shoestring, such as a window washing business, a dog-walking business, or a cleaning business will do well. Also, guides that deal with emerging topics at the intersection of business and technology on which the small business world is hungry for information (Do I need a blog for my business? How can I market my pizza restaurant online in my local area? etc. etc.) have a good chance of carving out a good presence for themselves.

Technorati tags: startup, entrepreneur

Low-Cost Startup Business Ideas for 2007

I just read an interesting BusinessWeek.com article on the best home-based business ideas for 2007. Karen E. Klein interviews Manvinder Saraon, the vice-president of marketing and business development at Homestead Technologies, which helps entrepreneurs design and maintain their Web sites. Homestead has come up with a list of the best home-based business opportunities for 2007. These include:

1. garage organizing
2. B2B eBay consulting
3. outsourced business functions such as sales, customer service, debt collection, and pre-employment screening
4. pet sitting
5. professional scrapbook artist
6. children's art education

Get more ideas from Matt Alderton in his guide to low-cost businesses you can start.

Technorati tags: startup, entrepreneur

How to Remove Spyware

Mark Richer, who runs the Able Minds Internet consulting and hosting company in Boulder, Colorado, wrote a great guide on how to remove spyware from your computer.

Mark recommends: If you use your computer frequently online or share it with others and it contains data that is important to protect, then a commercial anti-spyware solution is well worth the investment to protect against possible loss of data or loss of your time combating infected files that have been downloaded to your computer.

Find out more from Mark what to do if spyware strikes your computer.

8 Tips for Finding a Great Accountant

Steven Hastert, general manager of Shred Nations, a shredding service, has just written his fourth Work.com guide on finding a great accountant:

Good CPAs are easy to find, but if you’re really serious about building a great business it’s worth the extra effort to find a great CPA. Great CPA’s all have the following qualities:

1. Have a wealth of business experience. Experience with other businesses in your sector is even better.
2. Think strategically about your business options. They should offer suggestions on how to grow your business next year and not just compile reports from last year.
3. Help you execute a tax plan that legitimately allows you to keep more of what you earn. This extends past the taxes that the business pays and includes the income taxes paid by the investors and principals.
4. Are candid and direct in their conversations and communications. It is easy to find an accountant to meekly agree with your decisions but you want someone to tell you when they think you are heading down the wrong road and why.
5. Help you protect your business from embezzlement, fraud, and dishonest employees through good financial controls and procedures. They should also help you implement internal procedures to more quickly detect any errors or omissions.
6. Provide an objective perspective about your business performance. Your sales manager will overestimate sales and the operations manager always fails to add in one-time expenses so you need a
7. Save you money and increase your profit by helping you identify “best” practices. This is where their experience gives them actionable insight into the business.
8. Be involved in the business community. They should have contacts that can help you grow your business and form strategic alliances.

Technorati tags: accountant, accounting, cpa