What is the dirtiest word in business? Chances are that the word ‘outsourcing’ comes to mind. Many Americans despise it, many business owners shy away from it and many entrepreneurs depend on it. Regardless of what side of the issue you are on, it is important to know that it exists and will continue to exist. Why? Because there are a lot of things to love about outsourcing.As a business owner and tech entrepreneur who exists in a hyper-competitive market, I have used outsourcing to accomplish a variety of tasks. Whether it is data entry, design, research or basic programming, the...

Wow, I remember how idealistic I was when I was about to bring on my first employee! After dealing with bad bosses over my career, after doing a whole lot of thinking about how I was going to be a great boss, and after doing a whole lot of reading about how to hire effective people, I was really looking forward to it. I was going to:-- Hire people smarter than myself, who get things done!-- Trust them to do their job, let them do their job and give them enough resources to do it!-- Pay them WELL and offer great benefits! Work at home! Sure, why not?-- Give people second chances! Don't throw ou...

Do your employees drag themselves into work? Is office laughter a vague memory? Your employees' morale may need a boost.After all, low morale can lead to poor cooperation, low productivity and increased turnover -- and ultimately hinder a business from reaching its goals.Since employee morale can quickly build or break a company's success, effective leaders often keep a close eye on it and enlist simple and creative approaches to strengthen it. Here a few tactics to think about adapting for your business:1. Keep employees feeling their work is more than just a job.Everyone wants to feel that h...

Over the last few months, we have been recruiting developers, and we’ve started to get a sense for the type of developer who is a good fit for our team.  These attributes probably apply for developers at most web startups, so I wanted to share them with you.Before I get into it, the most important thing to know is that technical skill is a threshold requirement.  The assumption is that any person who is a fit for our team will have the relevant technical experience to do the job.Beyond that, here’s what we look for in someone as a good fit…PassionOne of our g...