Why Predicting Customer Behavior Is Problematic

Using data to predict your customers' moves is a tricky art and science--and it's not for the uninitiated.

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A new start-up, Grokr, is in the beta stage of a mobile search service that it hopes will eventually help make mobile search "autonomous, predictive, and personalized in order to provide people with the information they need to know, just when they need it." By letting user behavior fuel predictive analytics, the company aims to alleviate much of the data entry required to do a Web search to free people up for more useful things. (Like playing the next level of Angry Birds?)

Predictive analytics are all the rage. They can do amazing things: improve weather forecasts, let retailers better find fraud attempts before theft actually occurs, identify potential new markets for a product, and help stop crime by sending officers to where it is likely to happen.

And yet, like anything, you can be harmed by too much reliance on the technology. Take the Grokr example, for a moment. Apps that find things for you can be a time saver. Google does it on a much larger scale. Facebook uses predictive analytics to try to determine what ads might most appeal to a given user.

But prediction is still a difficult science and art, and gets even harder when you try to narrow the field to what one given person would want, versus a likely outcome of a majority of a large group of people. The more focused on the individual, the more individual quirks can complicate matters. The statistical methods start to break down. Plus, depending too much on predictive analytics might mean your customers miss out on the benefits of accidents that can't be predicted.

Making analytics work well is difficult even for experts in the field. It can be foolhardy for the barely initiated. We're talking about a playground for PhDs in mathematics and data science. Many entrepreneurs will want to use predictive analytics to improve their businesses and add a cutting edge to their products and services. But getting the right help can be difficult at best.

As someone in the industry was telling me the other day, there aren't enough experts in the field to come close to satisfying all the demand. Yes, there are increasingly expert system tools that can do much of the work, but using them is like trying to do statistics with an Excel spreadsheet. You can get things to work, but getting them to work out right means really knowing what you're doing.

Make no mistake, this is powerful technology that every entrepreneur should learn. Just be careful not to underestimate how badly things can go wrong and how much experience and knowledge you need to steer them the right way.

Erik Sherman's work has appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, and Fortune. He is a blogger for CBS MoneyWatch and InsideInvestorRelations.com. @ErikSherman

Dennis Crowley: 'Our First Instinct Was That We Broke Something'

The Foursquare co-founder describes how he adjusted the app in response to the way people used it (differently than he expected).

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Hiring a Social Media Manager? 7 Common Mistakes

Hiring someone to manage your company's social media? Don't make the same mistakes everyone else is making.

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These days, it seems like everyone's looking to hire someone to manage their company's social media presence. That kind of demand can lead to poor hiring decisions. Why? Well, you may be impressed when you see someone's extensive Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest presence. But just because someone can use social media for personal benefit doesn't mean they know how to manage it for a business.

To help business owners better identify what to look for in a  social media job candidate, I recently interviewed William Ward, social media professor at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. According to Ward, these are the seven most common social media hiring mistakes.

1. Don't conflate personal and professional. Ward says smaller businesses commonly make the mistake of confusing personal social media fluency with social media professionalism, and there's a notable difference. A social media professional should be able to describe how they select, curate and/or create content; how, who and why they select followers and connections; and how they integrate social media initiatives with other media.

You should ask what kind of professional social media training and certifications candidates have. Candidates with proper training and who demonstrate maturity, Ward says, make better hires.

2. Don't take their word for it. Instead of drawing assumptions about a candidate's social media experience, Ward stresses that you want them to log into their social media accounts with you--have them show you what they do professionally. "Do not rely on their word of mouth or resume," cautions Ward. Instead, have candidates walk you through the social media management tools they use and justify why they choose them. (Ward's program, for example, uses HootSuite to manage many of his students' social media activities).

3. Don't ignore inconsistencies. Ward advises employers to check out both the professional and the personal social media accounts of candidates you're considering; if you see breaches in social media etiquette or inappropriate conversations, posting or updates, that's a red flag. If someone is going to represent your business online, that person should also be able to demonstrate restraint and decorum in their personal social media accounts as well.

4. Don't shun mistakes. With the public nature of social media, it's almost impossible for someone experienced to not have made a least a minor mistake along the way. Ward says that every candidate should cop to some kind of faux pas, but more importantly, be able to explain what she learned from that mistake. What you learn from the confession can also help you, even if you don't hire that person.

5. Don't forget the point.  A social media professional should know how to track and translate their efforts into real world actions, how to measure the impact of these efforts, and how to refine initiatives based on performance. Ward recommends that you ask social media job candidates to describe campaigns in detail: which of their activities drove actions or sales and what their specific plans and outcomes were.

6. Don't forget the strategy. The person who runs your social media will bear large responsibility for the public voice of your company. It's up to you and other company leaders to establish the appropriate criteria and boundaries for your social media specialist. Don't just give your social media hire free reign to do whatever he wants. Your social media strategy should align with and support your business objectives, which this person will need to understand in order to develop and execute a strategy. "I'm not a big proponent of 'do not's' as much as I am of 'do's," says Ward.

7. Don't turn your back. If you expect a social media hire to perform to a certain standard, it's up to you to tell them what your campaign and job performance expectations are and what the consequences will be if they don't reach them. "To achieve this, you'll need to routinely monitor the activity your social media hire does on your company's behalf and have regular communications with him or her," explains Ward. In other words, don't just turn a blind eye and expect everything on social media accounts to run smoothly without your oversight.

Client advocate, digital strategist, and thought leader Hollis Thomases, founder of Web Ad.vantage, helps companies navigate the complexity of the ever-changing digital marketing landscape and develop digital strategies. @hollisthomases

4 Non-negotiable Traits of a True Entrepreneur

Successful founders are as different from each other as they are from everyone else. Except they all, without fail, share these four indispensable traits.

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You say you want to start a company, but do you really think you have what it takes? You may be a detail-oriented geek or a visionary, a hyper-active multi-tasker or an obsessive, and have an equal chance of success. But there are certain character quirks that entrepreneurship simply demands. After building startups myself and investing in many others over the past 20 years, I hold these four traits to be non-negotiable.

1. You must be up for an adventure.
Starting a company or investing or joining a startup is like embarking on a four-week backpacking journey with enough food for one week. You don't know where you or your company will be a year out; you don't know how many people will be with you. You have to be comfortable with uncertainty. You should a clear vision on the end point, but the journey is very unknown.

Look back at the times in your career when the future has been uncertain. Were those the times that you thrived? Were you the irrationally positive person in the room? Were you the one firing up the team when everying seemed bleak? If you were not, let me say this: You at least have to be smart (and honest!) about your shortcomings, then hire someone who can do that for you.

As an investor, I prefer to see an entrepreneur who can do a little bit of everything without stressing when things fall outside his or her comfort zone. But I also recognize that a crack team of founders can be just as effective (if not more effective) than a one-man show.

2. You have to be patient.
Success will not happen overnight. This may be hard to believe if you're constantly reading tech blogs, in which it seems to be gospel that billion-dollar valuations come to everyone who shows up. But the fact is, the companies that have endured took years to build. Starbucks opened in 1971, and eight years later they still had only operated a handful of stores. Spotify has been around since 2008. Amazon took 9 years to turn a profit.

You need to understand that the problems truly worth solving, the big industry problems, will not be wrapped up neatly in a year or two. It may take decades, and you will almost definitely have to make many adjustments to your initial vision. You'll have to persevere through unfavorable conditions. But if you don't easily discourage, you will always have a better chance of succeeding.

3. You can't be a perfectionist.
This is not a business where you will be able to spend all of your time and energy fixing one problem.

Good entrepreneurs can find a way to jump into the fray and start implementing ideas and solutions, even if they don't have all the answers. You have to be comfortable covering a wide territory, with knowing a little bit about a lot of things, rather than a great deal about one thing. Compromise is essential for survival.

If you can easily check off all the risk factors when looking at a problem, it's probably not a problem worth solving. So embrace the messiness. You're going to learn more about what your battle plan should look like, and what challenges you need to expect, as you go along.

4. You have to be your company's best sales person
Finally, it's essential to remember that you must be, at your core, a great salesperson. You need to be able to sell your vision to potential partners, investors, and customers. If you can't successfully do this, you'll have a tough time getting very far. You're going to be the first person to introduce the world to your product, and first impressions are important. Everyone wants to hear about your passion from you.

Learn the most common questions and reservations that people will have. They'll want to know why what you're doing is valuable. Cut out the jargon and speak to the heart of the matter. Start at the core, and then fill in the details. You have to hook them with the big picture before they can appreciate the nuances.

You wouldn't be reading this if you didn't have great faith and excitement in your idea. But you don't have a real business until you can enkindle that faith and excitement in others.

Mehdi Maghsoodnia is the CEO of Rafter, which provides a cloud-based platform designed to help colleges make educational content more affordable and effective. He was previously SVP at CafePress and Intellisync. @mehdimaghsoodnia

Anxiety: How It Impacts Decisions

Think anxiety heightens your senses and makes you cautious? Research out of Wharton and Harvard finds quite different results.

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Should you open a new location or invest in your existing premises? Is a new supplier the answer to your prayers or a potential money-suck? Fire that high performing jerk or let him continue rake in revenue and dent your company culture?

Business owners face tough, consequential decisions like these routinely, and it's natural that such difficult calls produce some degree of anxiety. But how does that anxiety affect your thinking?

The hopeful might speculate that anxiety heightens your sensitivity and makes you careful, prompting you to gather all the relevant facts and carefully weigh information. But according to new research out of Wharton and Harvard Business School, only half that common sense hope turns out to be true.

In a series of experiments, the research team asked study subjects to perform estimating tasks after inducing different emotional states in the participants. Some were shown tense, anxiety-producing movie clips or asked to reflect on anxious times in their lives before producing the estimates. Others were either prompted in similar ways to feel angry or shown a neutral clip of a nature documentary about sea life.

Anxiety, it turns out, does make people more likely to seek out advice. The only problem is, it also makes them lousy at distinguishing whether that advice is any good. Knowledge@Wharton reports:

The most striking results' looked at how anxiety impacts one's ability to discern between good and bad advice. The experiments used the same writing task as the prior study, followed by the same estimating task. Some participants were given bad advice; others were given accurate estimates for the number of coins in the jar. Those who were in a neutral state were more likely to take advice when the person giving it was purportedly very accurate; anxious participants, however, tended to make no such distinction. "The most surprising thing was [participants'] inability to discern in an anxious emotional state," [researcher Allison Wood] Brooks notes. "People in an anxious state were really bad at differentiating between good and bad advice."

[Wharton professor Maurice] Schweitzer adds that these results also show just how dangerous anxiety can be. "The problem is that those two things--being receptive to advice and being less discriminating--can combine in a way that can be harmful for individuals." In the final experiment, the researchers found that anxious individuals were more open to, and more likely to rely on, advice even when they knew that the person offering it had a conflict of interest.

The takeaway is simple. When you're feeling anxious about a decision, feel free to seek out all the opinions you desire. Just don't act on that input until you're calm and can evaluate its usefulness without being influenced by anxiety. 

Schweitzer "suggests that people refrain from making major decisions until they are in a relaxed state and are able to clearly reflect on the matter at hand." 

 

Jessica Stillman is a freelance writer based in London with interests in unconventional career paths, generational differences, and the future of work. She has blogged for CBS MoneyWatch, GigaOM, and Brazen Careerist. @EntryLevelRebel

8 Ways to Be Innovative (Even if You're Not)

Can't be creative on demand? Not many people can. Fortunately, it's a skill you can improve.

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Trying to be innovative is, at least for most people, nearly impossible.

Don't believe me? Try it. Right now. Think of something innovative. Come up with something new and different. I'll try it too.

Back so soon? Don't feel bad; I was back long before you.

Creativity isn't a switch most of us can turn on at will, so the key to being innovative is to view a problem from a different perspective. Necessity is the mother of innovation, so creating a little artificial necessity automatically stimulates creativity.

Here are easy ways to flip your innovation switch:

1. Imagine the worst that could happen.

What if you lose your biggest customer? What if your industry tanks? What if a major competitor enters your market?

The answers could uncover unexpected opportunities or lead to changes in your overall strategy.

2. Play the "Why?" game.

Five Whys is a standard tool in the root cause analysis toolkit; the premise is to ask "why?" at least five times to hopefully find the real reason for an error.

But you don't have to wait for a mistake. Pick a current practice or approach and ask yourself why you do it. Then keep asking why you do it. The more times you ask "why?" after each answer the more likely you are to start to see things in a new way.

3. Pretend you just ran out of money.

Solid cash flow is great, but a steady stream of revenue or a decent chunk of capital can hide opportunities to save money or optimize a process.

If you ran out of money, what would you do? Think through as many scenarios as possible and then implement the best ideas. When your back is to the wall and you feel you have no choice, you'll toss out the sacred cows and focus on what really matters--and what will really make a difference.

4. Pretend there are no rules.

Every business has unwritten and written rules, and every one of us follows self-imposed rules.

But what would you do if you weren't allowed to use current guidelines to solve a problem? What if you no longer had to ask someone--anyone--for permission? What if your partner couldn't bail you out or cover for you? What if you could change the way you train and develop employees?

Mentally break a few rules--especially if those rules are your rules.

Often a "rule" isn't a rule at all; it's just the way you've always done things.

5. Pretend you only have five minutes to solve a problem.

Speed is also the mother of innovation. Pick a problem and force yourself to make a decision within five minutes.

Imagine you only have five minutes to decide how to deal with a cash flow crunch. If you had to do something right now, what would you do?

It's easy to play out multiple scenarios and get lost in the weeds of options. Snap decisions can be the right decisions because they often cut to the heart of an issue.

6. Imagine perfection.

Say you want to improve a process. We're trained to approach improvement in terms of percentage gains: reduce costs by 3%, reduce rework by 4%, etc.

But what if your goal was perfection? If something had to be perfect, what would you need to do?

I've shared this story before but it's worth repeating. Prior to a budget cycle I didn't ask a machine operator if he had any ideas for how we could increase productivity by 3%. Instead I said, "What if you had to ensure your machine never went down unexpectedly? What would we need to do?"

He spent an hour listing every conceivable reason his equipment shut down and then we thought of ways to eliminate each reason.

Then we implemented his ideas: We changed a lot of processes, put an employee on a different lunch schedule so he could perform preventive maintenance while the line was idle, increased the usage of a number of components. We never got to perfection but within three months productivity was up 32% and the ROI on additional expense was over 800%.

7. Screw up intentionally.

Innovation experts recommend constant experimentation, but just thinking of an experiment requires a level of creativity I often can't manage.

If you're like me, pick a task or process that works well. Then intentionally screw it up and see what happens. (Pick something that doesn't cost money or impact a customer relationship, though.)

Say the first thing you do every day is check your email. Tomorrow, wait an hour and see what happens. I'll bet you notice at least one advantage to waiting: You checked in "live" a little sooner with your employees, you handled a few tasks that helped others get a jump on their day, or you just had time to be proactive instead of reacting to emails.

"Screw up," and adopt what worked.

8. Take a field trip... and borrow away.

Industry cross-fertilization rarely occurs because we typically stay in our own silos. I learned more from a trip to a food processing plant than I could implement in a year at our book manufacturing plant.

A lawyer friend bases how his firm "touches" clients on what he learned from a high-end retailer.

A heavy equipment manufacturer tours a different plant every month to improve its safety programs.

Somewhere, someone else is doing something really well. Borrow what they do. Why not? To your business, what you borrow looks a lot like innovation.

Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry. Everything else he picks up from ghostwriting books for some of the smartest leaders he knows in business. @jeff_haden

6 Habits of Extremely Likeable People

They're charming. They're genuine. And they can make an entire room full of people smile.

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Johannesburg. Former American president Bill Clinton meets with Nelson Mandela to discuss their charitable organizations.

When you meet someone, after, "What do you do?" you're out of things to say. You suck at small talk, and those first five minutes are tough because you're a little shy and a little insecure.

But you want to make a good impression. You want people to genuinely like you.

Here's how remarkably likeable people do it:

They lose the power pose.

I know: Your parents taught you to stand tall, square your shoulders, stride purposefully forward, drop your voice a couple of registers, and shake hands with a firm grip.

It's great to display nonverbal self-confidence, but go too far and it seems like you're trying to establish your importance. That makes the "meeting" seem like it's more about you than it is the other person--and no one likes that.

No matter how big a deal you are you pale in comparison to say, oh, Nelson Mandela. So take a cue from him. Watch how he greets Bill Clinton, no slouch at this either.

Clinton takes a step forward (avoiding the "you must come to me" power move); Mandela steps forward with a smile and bends slightly forward as if, ever so slightly, to bow (a clear sign of deference and respect in nearly every culture); Clinton does the same. What you have are two important people who put aside all sense of self-importance or status. They're genuine.

Next time you meet someone, relax, step forward, tilt your head towards them slightly, smile, and show that you're the one who is honored by the introduction--not them.

We all like people who like us. If I show you I'm genuinely happy to meet you, you'll instantly start to like me. (And you'll show that you do, which will help calm my nerves and let me be myself.)

They embrace the power of touch.

Nonsexual touch can be very powerful. (Yes, I'm aware that sexual touch can be powerful too.) Touch can influence behavior, increase the chances of compliance, make the person doing the touching seem more attractive and friendly.

Go easy, of course: Pat the other person lightly on the upper arm or shoulder. Make it casual and nonthreatening.

Check out Clinton's right-hand-shakes-hands-left-hand-touches-Mandela's-forearm-a-second-later handshake in the link above and tell me, combined with his posture and smile, that it doesn't come across as genuine and sincere.

Think the same won't work for you? Try this: The next time you walk up behind a person you know, touch them lightly on the shoulder as you go by. I guarantee you'll feel like a more genuine greeting was exchanged.

Touch breaks down natural barriers and decreases the real and perceived distance between you and the other person--a key component in liking and in being liked.

They whip out their social jiu-jitsu.

You meet someone. You talk for 15 minutes. You walk away thinking, "Wow, we just had a great conversation. She is awesome."

Then, when you think about it later, you realize you didn't learn a thing about the other person.

Remarkably likeable people are masters at Social Jiu-Jitsu, the ancient art of getting you to talk about yourself without you ever knowing it happened. SJJ masters are fascinated by every step you took in creating a particularly clever pivot table, by every decision you made when you transformed a 200-slide PowerPoint into a TED Talk-worthy presentation, if you do say so yourself...

SJJ masters use their interest, their politeness, and their social graces to cast an immediate spell on you.

And you like them for it.

Social jiu-jitsu is easy. Just ask the right questions. Stay open-ended and allow room for description and introspection. Ask how, or why, or who.

As soon as you learn a little about someone, ask how they did it. Or why they did it. Or what they liked about it, or what they learned from it, or what you should do if you're in a similar situation.

No one gets too much recognition. Asking the right questions implicitly shows you respect another person's opinion--and, by extension, the person.

We all like people who respect us, if only because it shows they display great judgment.

(Kidding. Sort of.)

They whip out something genuine.

Everyone is better than you at something. (Yes, that's true even for you.) Let them be better than you.

Too many people when they first meet engage in some form of penis-measuring contest. Crude reference but one that instantly calls to mind a time you saw two alpha male master-of-the business-universe types whip out their figurative rulers. (Not literally, of course. I hope you haven't seen that.)

Don't try to win the "getting to know someone" competition. Try to lose. Be complimentary. Be impressed. Admit a failing or a weakness.

You don't have to disclose your darkest secrets. If the other person says, "We just purchased a larger facility," say, "That's awesome. I have to admit I'm jealous. We've wanted to move for a couple years but haven't been able to put together the financing. How did you pull it off?"

Don't be afraid to show a little vulnerability. People may be (momentarily) impressed by the artificial, but people sincerely like the genuine.

Be the real you. People will like the real you.

They ask for nothing.

You know the moment: You're having a great conversation, you're finding things in common... and then bam! Someone plays the networking card. 

And everything about your interaction changes.

Put away the hard-charging, goal-oriented, always-on kinda persona. If you have to ask for something, find a way to help the other person, then ask if you can.

Remarkably likeable people focus on what they can do for you--not for themselves.

They "close" genuinely.

"Nice to meet you," you say, nodding once as you part. That's the standard move, one that is instantly forgettable.

Instead go back to the beginning. Shake hands again. Use your free hand to gently touch the other person's forearm or shoulder. Say, "I am really glad I met you." Or say, "You know, I really enjoyed talking with you." Smile: Not that insincere salesperson smile that goes with, "Have a nice day!" but a genuine, appreciative smile.

Making a great first impression is important, but so is making a great last impression.

And they accept it isn't easy.

All this sounds simple, right? It is. But it's not easy, especially if you're shy. The standard, power pose, "Hello, how are you, good to meet you, good seeing you," shuffle feels a lot safer.

But it won't make people like you.

So accept it's hard. Accept that being a little more deferential, a little more genuine, a little more complimentary and a little more vulnerable means putting yourself out there. Accept that at first it will feel risky.

But don't worry: When you help people feel a little better about themselves--which is reason enough--they'll like you for it.

And you'll like yourself a little more, too.

Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry. Everything else he picks up from ghostwriting books for some of the smartest leaders he knows in business. @jeff_haden

Why Perks Aren't Company Culture

Just because you let your employees have dogs in the office, doesn't mean you have a great company culture. Here's why.

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One of the most misunderstood concepts in the business world is company or organizational culture. If you ask entrepreneurs or business leaders to describe what it is, their answers are likely to be all over the map. And if you ask them to describe their own company's culture, don't be surprised if you get some new-age mumbo jumbo or even a blank stare.

Don't ask me why, but on that particular subject there seem to be far more questions than answers:

- Are corporate cultures designed or do they just happen?

- Do great companies arise out of unique corporate cultures or is it the other way around?

- Is it something you have to have to build a successful company?

The other day on TechCrunch, Venture capitalist and former entrepreneur Ben Horowitz wrote a well-informed article on the definition and design of company culture. It was good stuff that got me thinking so I thought I'd expand on it to further demystify this notoriously amorphous subject. 

What is it?

In practical terms, company culture is a description of behavior. While business success is always a function of successful products or services, the unique actions or methods of entrepreneurs often play a distinct role.

Describing that behavior is usually done after the fact as a means to replicate it and, hopefully, keep a good thing going. In my experience, that usually happens on an ad-hoc basis. Founders or leaders usually reinforce certain behavior they think is key to delivering great products and becoming a market leader.

What isn't it?

If it isn't a behavior, it isn't part of the culture. Organizational culture isn't a thing.

Horowitz says startups do all sorts of things to set themselves apart from competitors but 'most of them will not define the company's culture.' He points out that yoga and having dogs at work are perks, not culture.

Unless your company makes yoga mats or dog biscuits, there's no way in the world those things can have any material impact on achieving your business goals. If it can't in any way impact your business, it's not part of your culture.

I think what Marissa Mayer is doing at Yahoo provides a pretty good distinction between what company culture is and isn't. Kara Swisher at All Things D has written quite a bit about Mayer's Googification of Yahoo. The Friday afternoon all-hands meetings, free food, and collaborative work spaces are all transplants from her days at Google.

While perks like free ice cream and smartphones might delight employees and improve communications, they're not going to impact the core business. They're not culture.

Likewise, Mayer's relentless push to make Yahoo's aging sites relevant again is not in itself culture. But if she's successful, the behavior she exhibits and reinforces to make it happen might very well become part of the company's new culture.

Which brings us to what I think are the two most important takeaways about company culture:

First comes behavior, then comes success, finally, there's culture.

The most important thing for entrepreneurs to grasp is the cause and effect. When you start developing a product or a company you never know if it's going to work or what's going to work.

But you do know what you want to do and how you want to do it. So do that. And when (not if) that doesn't work, do something different and try again. Repeat until something good happens. Then, and only then, should you look back and consider what you did that worked and find ways to reinforce that behavior. 

Company culture is not permanent, nor should it be.

We live in a fast-paced, ever-changing world. While some behaviors or methods are timeless, most are not. As long as they continue to generate results, then by all means, abide by them, reinforce them, and keep them around.

But don't hold them sacred.

Don't get me wrong. You probably shouldn't change your culture with the weather. But much like your vision and strategy, I wouldn't advise you to cast it in concrete, either. The corporate graveyards are full of once-great companies that held fast to certain beliefs and ways of doing things that proved to be their undoing.

 

 

Steve Tobak is a management consultant, executive coach, and former senior executive of the technology industry. He's managing partner of Invisor Consulting, a Silicon Valley-based strategy consulting firm. Contact Steve, follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. @SteveTobak

Where to Invest Your Tech Budget

Before you decide how to spend your tech dollars, check out where other companies are investing.

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When it comes to keeping your finger on the pulse of what's happening in technology, sometimes it's worth trying to looking at those trends from a less than obvious angle.

Here's one to try: Follow the freelancers.

Freelancer community website DoNanza recently recently released some statistics about where the hot jobs are for independent contractors in the technology industry. It's no crystal ball, of course, but it does provide a window into where other companies are investing their tech budgets.

Mobile

Android has a wide lead in global smartphone sales, according to such market research firms as Gartner and IDC. But broadest use doesn't necessarily translate into the biggest market.

According to DoNanza, when it comes to the mobile world, the king of the hill is the iPhone. Demands for programming for that particular device family are higher than for both all Android devices and for the iPad. (Demand for these last two is about equal.)

That isn't simply a factor of the release of the iPhone 5. The demand for iPhone skills has remained higher than either of the others since at least January, although as more Android tablets hit the market, you might expect a bump there.

HTML5 or Flash?

Choosing between HTML5 and Adobe Flash has been tricky for companies. Both technologies can be used to make websites interactive or to support video, among other things. Apple has completely walked away from Flash, with neither iPhones nor iPads supporting the technology.

Adobe has apparently seen the writing on the wall. The company has stopped supporting Flash on newer versions of Android. So, it would seem to be HTML5 or nothing.

However, just like with iPhone versus other mobile devices, that doesn't mean everyone is looking for HTML5-only development. Companies that have spent significant money in the past on the technology may not move off quickly.

That's what DoNanza found. Although there's been a big drop in demand for Flash development, it's still about equal to that for HTML5 work. However, HTML5 has grown quickly and should be something Web development houses embrace with all deliberate speed.

Other technologies

The most in-demand skills include HTML, PHP, graphic design, WordPress, and website design. Clearly the people who go to DoNanza have a heavy focus on websites. If you provide such services, or your firm focuses on marketing, e-commerce, and similar activities, it's still good to know.

All that said, remember that information from any one freelancing site is only a single point of data for you. Check others and weigh everything by the types of work the site attracts. If your expertise and business is in another technical area, like writing back office financial applications or creating embedded computer systems that go into other types of products, then you'll have to consider how applicable the information is to you.

Erik Sherman's work has appeared in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, and Fortune. He is a blogger for CBS MoneyWatch and InsideInvestorRelations.com. @ErikSherman

Expand Your Definition of 'Great Salesperson'

Entrepreneurs gripe that great salespeople are scarce. But the real problem is that most companies' concept of a great salesperson is too narrow.

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At the Inc. 500|5000 Conference in October, I had breakfast with some entrepreneurs who were talking about their problems recruiting salespeople. "There are plenty of salespeople out there, but really good closers are hard to find," one of them said. "I mean, you have to be able to ask for the sale. If you can't handle that, you'll never be a good salesperson."

I couldn't disagree more. There's a lot more to selling than closing, and all good salespeople aren't closers. Some of the best I've known have been great at everything but closing--weeding out prospects, romancing them, making them feel warm and fuzzy. When I was CEO of CitiStorage, we created a system to help out salespeople who had trouble asking for the sale. When they thought it was time to close, they would bring the prospect to me, and I would finish for them. Salespeople in our industry brought in, on average, 15,000 units of new business per year. At CitiStorage, the number was 100,000.

Of course, this kind of system won't work unless your salespeople think of themselves as a team, rather than as individuals out for themselves--which brings us back to the shortage of closers. The problem is not that there are too few closers. The problem is that most companies need to hire closers and only closers, because of their compensation systems--because they pay salespeople on commission, and there's no room for nonclosers in such a system. After all, if they can't close, they won't get paid.

I believe that a well-managed team of people with complementary talents will always outperform a collection of hotshots out for themselves. You see it in sports, and you see it in business. That's why I instituted a salary-plus-bonus system. Not only did it allow us to harness the different talents of our salespeople, but it also removed the greatest obstacle to teamwork. Because bonuses were based half on the company's success and half on each individual's contributions in various areas--not just closing--salespeople worked closely together, covering for one another when necessary and helping one another out in difficult situations.

So here's a thought for those of you who are having trouble finding closers: Maybe you're better off without them.

 

Street Smarts columnist and senior contributing editor Norm Brodsky is a veteran entrepreneur who has founded and grown six businesses. @NormBrodsky

Boost Your Energy at Work: 10 Ways

Feeling tired at work? Forget the triple shot latte and try these 10 tips instead. You'll be raring to go!

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You may have read the stats. Workplace productivity is up and employment is down. That can only mean that fewer people are in the workplace but now they have to work harder and longer. No wonder so many people are always tired and sucking down coffee and energy drinks.

Since there are still only 24 hours in a day you not only have to be more productive, but also maintain high energy and stay happy. Otherwise you'll drag yourself down, end up a miserable, grumpy, scrooge, and take a lot of folks with you on the way.

The demands of work are keeping people so busy these days sometimes they forget the simple things that make them feel energized. Here are some tips to keep your energy soaring that don't require the use of drugs or an unlimited Starbucks card.

1. Start Your Day With a Workout

You would think a big workout would make you tired, but actually getting that blood pumping first thing will keep you going for the day. Don't forget a good breakfast as well, solid fuel to stoke the day's fire.

2. Take a 20-minute Power Nap

Of course you don't want your colleagues to see you sleeping on the job, but studies have shown that a brief power nap can help revitalize you for the whole day. One employer I know actually set up a motorized massage chair in a designated "nap room" for employees and requires they use it for breaks. Check out Inc. columnist Jessica Stillman's power nap primer.

3. Remove All Personal Grudges

All that emotional baggage takes its toll day in and day out. Whether it's anger you feel for a coworker or even someone who is distant from work, the emotions can be distracting and absorb energy. We like to think we can ignore the feelings, but often we just mask them and that takes energy in and of itself. Make a list of your grudges and commit time to reconcile each of them until they are gone. Soon you'll feel like someone added minutes to your clock every day.

4. Take a 15-minute Humor Break

Laughter is a natural energizer. Those endorphins from chuckles are as good for you as a solid workout. Sign up for the joke of the day, or cruise YouTube for some funny videos. Grab some colleagues and have a joke pow-wow. You'll lighten the atmosphere all around, and help everyone feel good about the rest of the day. This is a good one for 2:30 in the afternoon when the classic after lunch doze is coming on.

5. Take a 15-minute Walk

Sometimes we just need to get out. It doesn't matter if the weather is hot, cold or rainy, getting up from that chair and computer can rejuvenate your body and your mind. Leave the smartphone behind as well. Stretch, breathe and take in the outdoors to feel refreshed and awake.

6. Read Something Fun During Lunch

A little escape is good to clear the mind and reset your energy. Short stories are my favorite for lunch breaks. Not only are they entertaining, but finishing one at lunch gives you a sense of completion which helps boost your confidence to get back and fight through the day. Try a classic like Mark Twain or Rudyard Kipling, and you'll feel like you are doing something worthwhile with your time. 

7. Resolve Any Conflicts With Your Boss or Colleagues

Concern over conflict can eat away at your attention and tire you quickly. Don't hold back.  Confront issues head on. If you are open, empathetic, and diplomatic in your approach you may forge a closer bond that will make coming days easier to enjoy. 

8. Do Something Nice For a Colleague

Energy is easily transmitted from person to person. This tip helps on so many levels. It's energizing to think about someone else, the actual act of giving creates a natural high, and of course gratitude provides plenty of energy as well. Try this hat-trick every day for a week and feel the surprising buzz.

9. Call a Good Friend and Chat for 15 Minutes

Nothing perks up my day more than time with a close friend. Whether it's quick catch up, or a chance to vent some of the day's frustrations, this short, fun reconnect will recharge your batteries and give you the support required to battle any tough day. The best part is that you will give your friend the same benefit.

10. Make Sure Your Work Activity is Fulfilling

If you hate what you do then none of my suggestions and no amount of caffeine will energize you enough to grind out depressing workdays continuously. Find a way to get paid doing what you enjoy. No need to make yourself and everyone around you miserable. Life is short and you are entitled to enjoy every day of it.

An Inc. 500 entrepreneur with a more than $1 billion sales and marketing track record, Kevin Daum is the best-selling author of Video Marketing for Dummies. @awesomeroar

Why Every Company Is Now an Incubator

From Microsoft to PayPal, it seems every day another business launches an incubator. Here's what's motivating them to get in the game.

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These days, it seems, there's an incubator for everything. In fact, the National Association of Business Incubators estimates there are some 1,250 of them operating in the United States. There are incubators for every race, gender, industry, and region in the country. Some incubators combine several requirements to narrow their niche even further, like La Cocina, a San Francisco-based incubator for low-income, minority women, who want to launch food business. 

Now, even businesses are getting into the incubation business. Recently PayPal announced it would be incubating companies at its new Boston offices. Earlier this month LinkedIn broke the news about [in]cubator, an internal incubator for LinkedIn employees. Microsoft's launching a tech center in Rio de Janeiro. Google's launching one in Tel Aviv. Even smaller companies are doing it. This year, Tough Mudder launched an internal angel fund for employees who want to pursue a business idea, and the ad agency Ignited pays employees to take part in a business plan competition.

But unlike most incubators that aim for a monetary return on their investments, the businesses operating these incubators seem to have different motivations, entirely. Here are a few we came up with:

It's R&D reinvented.

For some, the term "incubator" is more or less another word for "research and development." The LinkedIn [in]cubator, for instance, will foster only those products and services that can benefit LinkedIn's customers or employees in some way. Once a quarter, LinkedIn employees can pitch an idea about a potential product offering to the executive staff, including founder Reid Hoffman and CEO Jeff Weiner. If the idea is approved, the employee gets paired up with an executive mentor, and is allowed up to three months (if the progress is satisfactory, that is) to work solely on the project. So far, five projects out of 50 submissions have been approved. One of the most successful so far is go/book, a tool that changes how meetings get booked at LinkedIn.

According to Florina Grosskurth, who runs the company's engineering programs, "LinkedIn sees [in]cubator projects as small investments that have the potential to become big wins for the company."

It's an acquisition primer.

For others, like the telecommunications giant Qualcomm, incubation is a strategic investment strategy for potential acquisition targets down the line. In May, Qualcomm partnered with an existing incubator called EvoNexus to launch a program called QualcommLabs@evonexus. The idea is for companies that are already incubating at EvoNexus to apply for up to $250,000 in funding and guidance from Qualcomm. So far, the company has doled out a total of $550,000, divided between three start-ups focused on the wireless and telecom space. "It's a directed investment initiative," says Liz Gasser, vice president of business operations at Qualcomm. "We're encouraging growth in the segments we care about."

It keeps ideas fresh.

PayPal's incubator started off as a co-working space in PayPal's Boston office, which was being underutilized. That experience, says David Chang, COO of PayPal media network, reminded the company how invigorating it is to work in a start-up environment. Now, the company is welcoming nine start-ups to its new offices in Boston, where they'll get access to PayPal executives and leads to PayPal's vast network of investor contacts (hint hint). According to Chang, PayPal's motivation is to reinvigorate a massive corporation with start-up sensibilities. He also says networking with so many bright young developers and their personal networks will be beneficial to recruiting. "We get to be really plugged in to these problems start-ups are solving. It's great to be on the cutting edge, but not have your foot fully in," Chang says. "The incubator, we hope, will keep us really sharp."

It's an employee perk.

Will Dean of Tough Mudder, an obstacle course company, is a culture junkie. The company is full of clubs, retreats, and traditions to keep employees on their feet and engaged. This year, Dean realized that a lot of the people work at start-ups because they have dreams of launching their own businesses one day. He decided it's better for the company culture to help those would-be entrepreneurs along, rather than forcing them to work in secret. So this year, Dean and his co-founder Guy Livingstone set up a $2 million angel fund to invest in employee ideas. This summer, the company launched an internal business plan competition to encourage employees to pitch new business ideas, even if they weren't considering it before.

Unlike [in]cubator, Dean says he hopes many of the companies Tough Mudder invests in will be able to stand on their own someday. "A lot of people came here to work out of business school and wanted an entrepreneurial experience. We said, 'We want you, and it's completely fine to stay for two years,'" he says. "We're an entrepreneurial company, and I think it'd be great if we could have our own alumni community of successful entrepreneurs like, PayPal does."

It's a licensing pipeline.

Through Procter & Gamble's Connect+Develop program, entrepreneurs can pitch a product and develop it under P&G's supervision, leveraging their equipment, contacts, and expertise. For a lucky few entrepreneurs, this program is a direct path to commercializing a product, as P&G regularly mines its Connect+Develop portfolio for potential licensing agreements. In fact, more than 50% of P&G's new products have come from collaborations with external partners. The Connect+Develop program is responsible for the birth of products like Glad ForceFlex bags, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, Swiffer Dusters, and Tide PODS. As Lisa Popyk, a spokesperson at P&G, put it, "Connect and develop continues to deliver winning results because it's rooted in, and continues to develop from, the core belief that together we can do more than any of us can alone."

Issie Lapowsky is a reporter at Inc. magazine. She has covered lifestyle and entertainment for the New York Daily News, and her work has been published in BlackBook magazine and The Brooklyn Rail. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

2013 Trend: Social Media Takes Over

Facebook just hit 1 billion users. Brace yourself for the backlash.

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This article is part of Inc.'s special report on How (and Where) to Make Money in 2013 (and Beyond). Follow the links at the end of the story for more game-changing trends, bold predictions, and hot markets to watch next year.

Remember everything you've learned about the power of Facebook, Twitter, and other social-media sites to promote your business? It remains true, with one caveat: In 2013, expect to see a backlash to the sheer massiveness of these sites--as well as the emergence of smaller-scale, niche networks. "In 2013, we'll see more users start to expect, if not demand, some tangible benefits in exchange for all the time they spend online and the personal information they're sharing," says Trendwatching.com's David Mattin. Adds Howard Tullman, CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy, partner at Chicago High Tech Investors, and columnist for Inc.com: "Consumers are starting to understand the value of their information and asking to be compensated, whether with badges, rewards, preferred pricing, or discounts and perks." Tullman's prediction for 2013: "We'll increasingly see new kinds of virtual currencies and services--like Ticketmaster's Facebook app that lets you see where your friends are sitting at an event."

At the same time, the sheer massiveness of Facebook is creating opportunities for smaller-scale, niche networks. People aren't likely to flee Facebook outright, Tullman says, but they will increasingly augment their online social experience by using other networks whose size, privacy, and more customized parameters are better suited to specific tasks and goals.

Some good examples are Path, a free personal-social-network service that limits users to a 150-person circle; App.net, a subscription service that lets users create their own social networks; and NextDoor, a private social network that helps users connect with others in the same geographic area. MindMixer is a sort of virtual town hall that enables communities to define and discuss ideas. Yammer, meanwhile, helps businesses create internal networks.

The emergence of more and varied social networks will present a challenge to businesses accustomed to Facebook and Twitter. For one thing, many people use such networks specifically to avoid the increasingly commercial aspects of Facebook; in that case, you would be smart to start by limiting your presence to participation and listening, rather than selling. Eventually, however, smaller networks could become effective ways to reach specific geographic areas or professional groups, or build communities around a brand. The goal here, says Tullman, is less to attract new customers than to build deeper, longer-lasting, and more lucrative relationships with the ones you have. When you have that, word of mouth will naturally bring in the new business.

 

A former editor at Real Simple, Adam Bluestein writes frequently about innovation and new technology. He lives with his wife and two children in Burlington, Vermont. @AdamBluestein

8 Leadership Moments That Matter

Leadership is just a series of moments where you do the right thing. Here are eight ways to do that in the coming year.

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Leadership is comprised of a series of moments, and it can be difficult to sort out individual moments over time.  A continual leadership challenge is to be aware of which moments matter and what to do about them.

As the year comes to a close, take a minute to reflect upon some of the key moments of your leadership in 2012. If, in hindsight, you could have made better decisions, how will you remind yourself to make different choices in the coming year?

Here are a few positive moments of leadership to work toward in the coming year.

The moment you don't let someone off the hook

Organizations are full of dropped commitments.  Keeping people 'on the hook' until their commitments are fulfilled can be uncomfortable for them, and for you.  It is tempting to let them off prematurely, because you are causing their discomfort.  For the greater good, resist.  Accept that progress requires pressure, and it is your job to apply it responsibly.

The moment you deliberately deflect attention from yourself

When you sincerely refocus the spotlight, the immediate impact is to help others thrive.  The secondary effect is that you get time and space to observe others. Leaders must be excellent observers in order to decide where to go next.  It is hard to observe while in the spotlight.

The moment you ask a different, deeper question

Many questions skim the surface of an issue, or are asked when one already knows some of the answer, or are really statements masquerading as questions.  How can you avoid these un-helpful questions?  During an important conversation, how well do you choose a different, deeper question to get to the heart of the matter?  How do you decide what to ask, and find the courage to ask it?

The moment you simply say, 'Well done'

This two-word statement carries tremendous positive influence when offered genuinely and on time.

The moment you gather yourself before doing something uncomfortable

It can be easy to shy away from the build-up to uncomfortable events, conversations, and decisions.  We often create distractions rather than embrace uncertainty and fear.  And yet, it is precisely the sensations of discomfort that signal the need for preparation.  You can decide how best to prepare only when you sense the moment - so be aware.

The moment you pursue what's best, even if it's inconvenient

A leader must consistently demonstrate commitment to the shared purpose of the organization. When a leader decides not to pursue a complicated or messy problem, it can easily appear that the leader is simply taking the path of least resistance.  Conversely, when a leader embraces an inconvenient challenge, the message is clearly one of devotion to the shared purpose.

The moment you let something pass

As important as deciding what to pursue is deciding what to let go.  Distractions abound, real and imagined, and making the time to decide what is better left unaddressed will maintain your focus on the wider view and more important tasks.

The moment you rightly give yourself a break

As a leader, critics are all around - and none may be louder than the one in your own head. Lowering the volume of self-criticism is always a good idea, because too much internal noise will interfere with your ability to reflect, and drown out the helpful perspectives of others.

Recognizing the importance of individual moments will allow for more authentic and effective leadership. 

Have a Happy New Year!

Brian Evje is a management consultant with the organizational-effectiveness practice Slalom Consulting and an advisory board member of Astia, a global not-for-profit dedicated to increasing women's participation in high-growth businesses.

Fix Your Mistakes: Danny Meyer's 5-Step Plan

Priorities: Want to Please Investors? Put Them Last5:43

The founder of Shake Shack and Union Square Cafe on why investors come after employees, customers, vendors, and community.

Set Goals for 2013 You Can Achieve

You have big goals next year. Make sure you set out to achieve them in a way that works for your brain.

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If you're a left-brained thinker who behaves in a calm, focused manner, read another article. You already think rationally, schedule fastidiously, document your objectives clearly, and check them off your list. So stop reading this already.

For the rest of you--the right-brainers, the multi-modal people, who are known to be gregarious and abstract thinkers--pay attention.

You need to set big goals in 2013. You already know that. The challenge for you is to turn those big goals into action, keep yourself accountable, and do what you say you're going to do.

You have the ability to do this, but, the truth is, when it comes to setting goals, especially in business, it's a left-brained and logical, process-oriented, structured world.

Your challenge is that you're not going about goal setting and goal attainment in a way that aligns with the way your brain works. 

You've been coached on goals the old way: 

1. Write down your goals.

The stats even back up how important this is. People who write down goals are 33% more likely to achieve them!

2. Cull a detailed, organized list.

Tie your goals to specific dates with smaller deliverables every step along the way.

3. Make each goal SMART.

SMART goals are specific, meaningful, achievable, relevant, and timely.

These steps are useful--for left-brainers. They won't work for you. You probably wrote down a careful list of SMART goals, but how many times did you look at it? Are you still even working on the same goals you wrote at the beginning of the year (or even the day)? I doubt it.

The key for you--an outgoing right-brainer--is to look deeper at what your goals are about. Give yourself manageable and actionable deliverables that will result in productivity. And tap into your brain. 

Here's how:

If you're a social thinker, record your goals on paper, but also in conversations and interactions with other people. Have others keep you on task. It's amazing how well this works and you'll actually enjoy it!

If you're conceptual, writing down goals probably seems pointless. Instead, dream big and trick your brain by thinking of your goals as a vision for the future. Draw a metaphor of your goals and revisit those images frequently.

If you tend to think in a multi-faceted way, you'll find many different goal-setting models helpful. Don't be constrained to one; instead experiment with many to find the best (or a few strong) fits.

In addition to how you think, know your natural behavior propensity, and set goals that match it, to help you succeed at your goals.

If you're quiet, you're probably perfectly comfortable writing down your list and personally checking it. But if you're more on the gregarious end of the spectrum, you should use that fact to your advantage--get others involved with your goals, and ask for their help. Be loud about what you want to achieve.

If, however, you have a competitive and driving personality, try not to push objectives purely for the sake of it. Or if you're more of an amiable person, create goals that will make a difference, and commit to doing them even if you rock the boat.

When it comes to flexibility, if you prefer clearly-defined situations, you probably already know that goal setting comes naturally--just make sure you revisit goals frequently to know if and when you need to change something to achieve them. If, on the other hand, you're comfortable with flux and welcome change, goal-setting probably seems tough. Use your adaptability as a strength; since you're open to new things, try out different goal-setting styles to hone in on the right path.

Goals are made to propel you to be successful. Use your brain to achieve big things in 2013!

Geil Browning is founder of Emergenetics International, an organizational development firm in the U.S., Singapore, and the Netherlands. She co-created the Emergenetics Profile, a psychometric thinking and behavioral workplace assessment. @Emergenetics_

Why You Should Be Your Worst Enemy

This entrepreneur talks about how being his own worst enemy actually worked to his benefit--and it still does.

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When I was a young man, I joined a couple of early stage start-ups. One of them actually made it. So what did I do? I went head-to-head with the CEO and got fired.

That's the abridged version of the story. The real version is a lot longer, a lot gorier, and a lot funnier, especially if I've had a few drinks. Nevertheless, the cause and effect are the same. I was headstrong and shot myself in the foot.

I was my own worst enemy.

You know, I could have kicked myself for being so damn stupid. I think my wife actually did (kick me, that is). But you know what? Immediately following that series of events, my career really took off.

Getting fired from that job turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me for a number of reasons.

For one thing, the company fell apart soon after its IPO. By the time I left, it had already seen its best days.

More importantly, since I lost my job in a recession, I had to get creative. I was a sales executive in southern California at the time and the only jobs I could find were in marketing in Silicon Valley. So I did my best to fake it and somehow landed a top marketing job with a hot chip company in Santa Clara.

That turned out to be the key that unlocked my future. I ended up making quite a name for myself in marketing with a couple of high-profile companies and today, twenty years later, I'm still here in Silicon Valley.   

Who could have predicted any of that would have happened? Who knew? Not me, that's for sure.

But get this. There's a funny twist to the story that I bet you'd never imagine. That early stage start-up may have been the first time I shot myself in the foot, but it definitely wasn't the last. And that CEO who canned me? He wasn't the last, either.  

To this day, I'm still my own worst enemy.

And it may have taken me a long, long time to realize this, but you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way. The reason is simple. There are two sides to that coin. It's a double-edged sword that cuts both ways.

It's a defining characteristic that makes me who I am.

I believe in myself and trust my instincts. I push myself hard, and everyone around me, too. I don't mince words and I don't pull any punches. Sometimes that gets me in trouble. And sometimes the results are pretty cool. In any case, that's me.

Now, I can't say I have no regrets. There were one or two things I might have done differently. But the truth is -- and this is the lesson I'm trying to get across here -- that that's a fool's game. You can't go back and you shouldn't waste your time thinking about it.

We all have faults and we all change over time, hopefully for the better. But there are some things about us that we shouldn't change. They're what make us unique, what enable us to do great things that others can't, even if they sometimes turn us into our own worst enemy.

Sure, I'm a bit smoother around the edges in some ways. But in others, in ways that count, I've still got the same double-edged sword thing going on. And I'm eternally grateful that, so far, those edges haven't gotten dull.

 

Steve Tobak is a management consultant, executive coach, and former senior executive of the technology industry. He's managing partner of Invisor Consulting, a Silicon Valley-based strategy consulting firm. Contact Steve, follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. @SteveTobak

Take a Guilt-Free Holiday Break

Stressed about balancing holiday festivities and your responsibilities as a business-owner? Here are tips to beat your anxiety.

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It's late December, the season for gathering with family and friends, toasting the holidays, and taking stock of the year that's been.

Well, you small-business owners may see things a bit differently. For many of you, 'tis the season for additional stress.

Nearly half of business owners failed to get away this summer on vacation, so it stands to reason that with clients and employees as demanding as ever, the holiday season is often also far from restful for many entrepreneurs. Getting away can feel like putting your business at reach, making the end of the year festivities a minefield of guilt.

That's bad news for family members who have to deal with the entrepreneur in the family spoiling the festive cheer with constant tapping on a smartphone, and it's bad news for business owners themselves. 

"If you don't get a break, you're going to burn out, and you'll never achieve the level of success you're aiming for," Debra Condren, founder of Manhattan Business Coaching, recently told the New York Times regarding business owners' reluctance to actually switch off.

So is there a way for you to actually enjoy the season without stressing yourself out and frustrating your loved ones?

Small business cloud accounting company FreshBooks recently offered some tips on its blog, ranging from the sensible but obvious (tell your clients you're taking off) to the less expected. The advice from writer and entrepreneur Justine Smith includes:

Pay Your Bills in Advance. Who wants to pay bills while on vacation? I certainly didn't, which is why I always tried to pay my bills before I took my time off. Besides the traditional bills, I also made sure to pay my contractors earlier so they too could enjoy the funds for their holiday needs.

Make Your List, Check it Twice. Before you officially leave, think about creating a schedule of projects and deadlines you have in the New Year so you can jump right back into work upon your return. You may also consider creating a hearty to-do list for the New Year so you can get all those gnawing tasks out of your head before you take time off. The free app I use for my giant to-do list is Wunderlist, which allows me to sync my lists across different devices (iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows and Mac). So even if you've started your vacation and realize you forgot to add an important task to your to do list, with Wunderlist you can actually just hop on quickly from wherever you are, add it in and get back to enjoying your day off.

Smith isn't the only one with tips. The New York Times also has advice, including: "set a schedule. Some small-business owners are able to cut the cord and eliminate communication with the office completely. More often, however, they set aside times during the day when they check e-mail or make calls."

Here on Inc., Selena Cuffe, president and CEO of Heritage Link Brands, has shared her personal techniques for forcing herself to get away. And Mike Pugh, a vice president at cloud communications company j2, suggested ways you can channel your vacation anxiety into productivity improvements for your business by honing your delegation skills and piloting new, more efficient tech tools.

 Do you stress out about being away from your business over the holidays?

 

Jessica Stillman is a freelance writer based in London with interests in unconventional career paths, generational differences, and the future of work. She has blogged for CBS MoneyWatch, GigaOM, and Brazen Careerist. @EntryLevelRebel

5 Tips to Become a Click Magnet

Living on the edge of the Web is no place for an ambitious start-up. Get noticed and boost your pageviews with these tips.

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How do you make your company a click magnet--without venturing into shady, underhanded tactics?

I asked a few search engine experts to share their secrets.

1. Make a great YouTube video.

This one might seem obvious, but it works. Web surfers love to click on videos, and a well-done video can entice a load of extra clicks, says Mike Essex, online marketing manager at Koozai.com (www.koozai.com). Start-ups don't need to make a super professional video--even an interview with the founder about why the company exists can help. Most importantly, a video with good metatags and links to your site helps improve search results.

There is something to be said for a highly produced video, however. If you have a bigger budget, consider making a movie trailer for your next product launch, says Robert Granholm, the CTO at IT support company IT Arsenal. A well-made trailer can be like an adrenaline boost for people to start searching. After you watch this video of Tim Ferriss's book on cooking, you'll probably want to do a search to find out more.

2. State your mission clearly.

Stating the mission of the company clearly--and in as many places as you can--taps into a basic human need, says SEA specialist Ben Nesvig. People want to know, without thinking about it too much, why your company exists. The best way to tell them--and get them to click--is to be consistent with your branding verbiage across your entire Web footprint, from your site's metadata to your YouTube page to all of your social network pages.

3. Start a fight.

Nevig says another good SEO strategy is to stir up controversy. People tend to click on links related to a controversial topic or an opinion that is the opposite of what everyone else says. He points to two recent example. Bucky Balls, which are magnets that help with stress reduction, had no name recognition, he says, until the government thought they should be banned. A book by Tucker Max was destined for a search engine black hole until someone threatened to sue the author. It probably goes without saying that this tactic comes with some risk, depending on what kind of fight you start.

4. Target celebrities to share your content.

There is no better way to generate traffic than to get a celebrity to share your content, says Larry Kim, the founder of search marketer WordStream. Short of barraging Ashton Kutcher with tweets, Kim says you should try to connect with luminaries on topics that are of interest to them. He says Tim O'Reilly once shared a link on Google Plus for a WordStream article. Within hours, the article had 10,000 page views.

5. Make sure you're a registered webmaster.

Both Google and Bing offer admin sites where you can register as a webmaster. Jason Squardo, the managing director for ZOG Digital, says these accounts can alert you when these search engines are having problems crawling your content. Squardo also says to make sure there are links back to your site all around the Web. Using a press release service or posting to Stumble Upon helps search engines to know your company site is legit.

John Brandon is a contributing editor at Inc. magazine and writes the Tech Trends column in every issue. He also writes the Tech Report column for Inc.com. @jmbrandonbb

Meet the Entrepreneur Who's Now Google's Great Idea Man

Serial entrepreneur John Hanke created the first iterations of Google Earth, Maps, and Street View. For his second act, he's now re-imagining the world through augmented reality.

Kathy Willens/AP

John Hanke smiles as he to London via video teleconference from Google Earth's offices in New York.

John Hanke keeps a low profile around Silicon Valley, but his creations speak for themselves.

Twelve years ago, Hanke took notice of a few interesting developments. First, consumerized 3-D graphics had become affordable and easy to use. Second, broadband and high-speed Internet were rapidly becoming available to people all over the world. Third, and perhaps most importantly, he began to notice the commercialization of satellite spy technology, which had previously been off-limits. In other words, the time was ripe to build a product that would change the way people visualize the world.

In 2000, he did just that. Hanke co-founded Keyhole, a software development firm in the then-nascent field of consumerized "spatial visualization." It didn't take long for Google to notice their work. In 2004, the search giant acquired Keyhole and Hanke's team, and developed Keyhole into what is now Google Earth. From 2004 to 2010, Hanke ran the Google Geo team, which has been responsible for the creation of tools like Google Maps and Google Street View.

A true entrepreneur at heart, Hanke left his role at Google in 2010 to start Niantic Labs, an incubator inside Google that's recently released its first two products--Field Trip and Ingress. Inc.'s Eric Markowitz and Hanke discussed augmented reality, creating a start-up within Google, and his obsession with maps.

You were the product leader for all things "geo" from 2004 to 2010. Why give up that role?
At the end of that time period it went from being very much a start-up with Keyhole with a few dozen people inside Google to something that was hundreds of people spread all around the world. At the same time, there were some things related to maps that I wanted to do, that didn't really fit in terms of the mainstream [company] focus. So after six years I was ready to clear the slate and start fresh and go build another product.

I looked into doing something outside of Google--that was my first reaction. I said, "I want to go do another start-up." But I talked to Larry and some other guys inside of Google, and we found a way to create an environment inside the company that felt like a start-up.

Staying at Google gave us the advantage of being able to tap into the data we have in Geo and the infrastructure in Google. There were a lot of advantages to doing that from inside Google with everything we could leverage.

Field Trip was the first app to be launched out of Niantic. Why did you choose that to be your first?
The inspiration for Field Trip is very directly related to my experience with Google Maps and Earth. One of the things that those products spawned was this movement to visualize information on top of Maps and Earth, and lots of companies started out with the goal of creating map layers of various things--everything from restaurant reviews to history to images.

And as we started thinking about Geo on a mobile device, one thing that intrigued me was: How do you make these cool layers of information available on mobile, so that in addition to the basic functions of getting from A to B, of driving directions and restaurant reviews, what about all this other information about the world?

The more we saw it as a problem, the more it became clear that a lot of times you don't actually need the map in mobile. What would be interesting would be to take those layers of information and put them in front of you at the point in time when you're at that specific location in the world.

So it all kind of led to this idea where we could build up these layers of info that would be really useful and interesting in terms of informing you about the world around you and just drop it in front you at the right time as you're walking or driving.

Plenty of people have used the phrase "augmented reality" to describe your work. Would you say that's accurate?
Sure. The reality is people think about augmented reality as Terminator-style glasses and the hardware side to it, but our angle was if you had hardware like that, what would you do with it? If you could put a bubble around the world, what would you want the bubble to say?

Again, it comes back to it thinking about what's interesting about the world. What's worth noting?  And that led us down the path of history and historical markets. Field Trip has a deep collection of local history through a partnership with Arcadia. We want to help people learn. When you think about a museum, you have annotations on each exhibit, so the notion was, 'Let's make the whole world like that.' This lets you see beneath the surface to tell you something interesting that you might not know.

Where did the name "Niantic" come from?
The Niantic is the name of a whaling ship that came up during the gold rush and through a variety of circumstances got dragged on shore. This happened with other ships, too. Over the years, San Francisco was basically just built over these ships. You could stand on top of them now, and you wouldn't know it. So it's this idea that there's stuff about the world that's really cool but even though it's on the Internet, it's hard to know when you're actually there. It's hard to stop every 10 feet and do a Google search to try and find stuff about what's in front of you.

You mentioned hardware before, which brings up an interesting question. Do you collaborate with other divisions in Google--like Google glasses, for instance--to integrate what you're working on?
We collaborate with other teams. We definitely have discussions with people in the Glass group about what could be an interesting way to expose what we're doing with that hardware.

Let's talk about Ingress, because it seems like there's a lot of mystery in the air surrounding the game. What is it exactly?
In the case of Ingress the activity is layered on top of the real world and on your phone. The inspiration was that it was something that I always used to daydream about while I was commuting back and forth from home to Google. I always thought you could make an awesome game using all the Geo data that we have. I watched phones become more and more powerful and I thought the time would come that you could do a really awesome real-world adventure-based game. I also have three kids and I grew up playing and writing video games, so I have a soft spot in my heart for video games. But as a parent, I sort of brindle at the sight of my kids just parked in front of the TV for long periods of time.

There's been speculation about how Google will use the data generated by the game. Is this an active conversation?
Right now we're focused on building a great gaming experience. I think you're right that mobile applications have the opportunity to potentially generate a lot of data that can be useful for various kinds of services. So you could look at Foursquare Check-ins or photos coming from Instagram. Those are the two canonical examples. With Ingress, people are going out and interacting with people in the world, and they're submitting photos that are interesting to them that can be incorporated into the game, so there could be ways to make use of information to improve Google Maps or Google mobile, but that will come later for us. None of that will be interesting if we don't have a very successful and entertaining game.

In your opinion, what's been the most successful part of the game?
Honestly, Ingress surprised me in terms of the response. Ingress is much edgier and in some ways a riskier product, but it seems to have really struck a chord. What I love is people going out and discovering the history of their town in the process of playing this game. Parents are doing this with their kids. We've gotten emails from parents saying 'We took our kids and visited 12 historical sights in my town I've been by hundreds of times and never bothered to stop before.' It's super cool.

So, last question, and I want to get a little more personal. Why are you so obsessed with maps and location?
[Laughs] I just think the world is an interesting place and exploring it is fundamental to me. It makes life interesting. I grew up in a really isolated town in West Texas, so I kind of grew up daydreaming about other places. And I think a lot of people who grow up in small towns share that feeling of 'I can't wait to go out and see the wider world.' I've always carried that with me. And as a parent, the idea of appreciating what's in front of me is important. And maybe it's the economy, or maybe it's just a trend, but people are trying to figure out what can make their communities better, versus, I don't know, daydreaming about that trip to Europe or going off to Hawaii.

This interview has been condensed and edited.

Eric Markowitz reports on start-ups, entrepreneurs, and issues that affect small businesses. Previously, he worked at Vanity Fair. He lives in New York City. @EricMarkowitz

How to Build Customer Loyalty in 2013

You can be successful in sales next year, regardless of the economy.

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As we enter 2013, the business world remains in a state of uncertainty. Will the economy recover? Will new taxes be in place? Regardless of what happens, your key to success will lie in one thing: customer loyalty.

Customer loyalty builds your business when times are good and keeps you in business when times are bad.

Customer loyalty makes your revenue both more predictable AND more profitable since it costs far more to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one.

How do you keep customers loyal? Simple:

1. Be more than just a vendor.

Create and market products that make it easier for your customers to sell to their customers. When building your strategies, start with the needs of your customers' customers and work backwards to discover how you can be the most helpful.

2. Be more than just a vendor.

Anticipate what your customers might need from your firm and handle it long before they're aware they need it. Your goal: provide such incredible service that your customers feel like they'd be crazy to even consider buying from anyone else.

3. Be more than just a vendor.

Provide extra value that goes far beyond the customer's expectations of your products and services. For example, find customers for your customers so that they can build their own business and thus give more business to you!

4. Be more than just a vendor.

Whenever possible, meet your customers in social situations rather than purely business ones. Trade shows and industry events are great, but attending a charity event where your customers will be present is even better.

5. Be more than just a vendor.

I think you get the point. Have a great 2013, everyone!

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Geoffrey James writes the Sales Source column on Inc.com, the world's most visited sales-oriented blog. His newly published book is Business to Business Selling: Power Words and Strategies From the World's Top Sales Experts. @Sales_Source

6 Reasons You Hire the Wrong People

No business can afford to make hiring mistakes--especially the mistakes that come up again and again.

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Hiring the right people is critical for any business, and that's especially true for a small company with relatively few employees.

Bringing in the wrong person not only not only wastes time and money, it also creates a ripple of negativity that impacts every other employee--and therefore your business.

Here are six reasons why you wind up with the wrong candidate:

1. You ignore the total package.

Every employee has to follow company rules and guidelines, whether formal or unwritten. Still, some people can't... or just won't.

The skilled engineer with an incredible track record of designing new products while berating support and admin staffs won't immediately turn over a new interpersonal leaf just because you hired him. The programmer who only works Selene hours as if she'll melt in sunlight won't magically transform into a standard-issue 9-to-5er.

For some people, the work, and how they perform that work, is what matters most--not the job. Don't assume you can change them. You won't.

Instead: One, decide you'll accept the total package and all that comes with it. If you desperately need engineering skills you might decide to live with the proven engineering superstar's diva behavior. In the same way, letting a vampire-style programmer work nights may be fine even if everyone else works normal hours and communication will be less than optimal.

Always assume that if compromises need to be made then you will need to be the one who makes them. If you aren't willing to accommodate or compromise, pass.

2. You hire for skills and ignore attitude.

Skills and knowledge are worthless when they aren't put to use. Experience, no matter how vast, is useless when it is not shared with others.

Think of it this way: The smaller your business the more likely you are to be an expert in your field; transferring those skills to others is relatively easy. But you can't train enthusiasm, a solid work ethic, and great interpersonal skills--and those traits can matter a lot more than any skills a candidate brings.

According to one study, only 11% of the new hires that failed in the first 18 months failed due to deficiencies in technical skills. The vast majority failed due to problems with motivation, willingness to be coached, temperament, and emotional intelligence.

Instead: When in doubt, hire for attitude. You can train almost any skill, but it's nearly impossible to train attitude. See the candidate who lacks certain hard skills as a cause for concern, but see the candidate who lacks interpersonal skills and enthusiasm as a giant red flag.

3. You sell your business too hard.

You absolutely need employees who want to work for you. But never try too hard to sell a candidate on your company.

Good candidates have done their homework. They know whether your company is a good fit for them.

Plus, selling too hard skews the employee/employer relationship from the start. An employee grateful for an opportunity approaches her first days at work much differently than an employee who feels she is doing you a favor by joining your team. (Best case: You and the new employee form a mutual admiration society.)

Instead: Describe the position, describe your company, answer questions, be factual and forthright, let your natural enthusiasm show through, and let the candidate make an informed decision.

Never sell too hard, even if you're desperate. Trust that the right candidate will recognize the right opportunity.

4. You reflexively hire friends and family.

Sure, some successful businesses look like an ongoing family reunion.

Still, be careful. Some employees will naturally overstate a family member's qualifications when they make a recommendation. The employee's heart may be in the right place, but their desire to help out a family member doesn't always align with your need to hire great employees.

Plus friends and family see each other outside of work, too, increasing the chances of interpersonal conflicts. In extreme cases, especially in small companies, your company could turn into an episode of Survivor. Three relatives working in your six-person business may end up wielding more effective power than you do.

Instead: Either set up an appropriate policy, like "no family members in the same department," or do an incredibly thorough job of evaluating the candidate.

In fact, do both: Establishing and following a policy is the cleanest solution, if only because you will never appear to favor one employee's request to interview a friend over another.

5. Ignoring gut feel.

Nothing beats a formal, comprehensive hiring process--except, sometimes, a little dose of gut feel and intuition.

Always weigh impressions against qualitative considerations. And feel free to run little "tests." I always took supervisor candidates on a tour of our manufacturing areas. Sometimes an employee would stop me to ask a question. I always took the time to get involved because employee needs always come first. Any candidate--especially one who wanted a job leading people--that seemed irritated or frustrated by the interruption was a cause for concern.

The same was true if an employee was struggling to keep up on a production line. I naturally pitched in while still talking to the candidate. Most job seekers would also pitch in, some self-consciously in an obvious attempt to impress, others naturally and without affect. (It's easy to tell the people who automatically help out from those who do so only because you are watching.)

Instead: Let your experience and intuition inform your hiring decisions.

And don't be afraid to conduct your own tests. A classic is the waiter test: How someone interacts with a person in a position to serve them is often a good indication of how they will interact with your employees. Courtesy and respect should be granted to all, regardless of position, social standing, etc.

You should know the intangible qualities you want in your employees. Determine a few simple ways to see if a candidate has or lacks those qualities.

6. You take the wrong chance.

There are two kinds of chances you can take on a potential employee.

There are the good chances: taking a shot on a candidate you feel has more potential than her previous employer let her show; taking a shot on a candidate who has few of the skills but all of the attitude; taking a chance on a candidate you feel certain brings the enthusiasm, drive, and spirit your team desperately needs--those are good chances to take.

Then there are the bad chances: the candidate with a history of attendance problems who you hope will suddenly develop a strong work ethic; the candidate who left each of his last three jobs within weeks because "all my bosses were jerks;" the candidate who has no experience in your industry and only wants to talk about how quickly and often she can get promoted.

Why do you take bad chances? You're desperate. Or you're lazy. Or you have "better things to do." Or you figure a bad apple won't spoil the bunch for very long because your turnover is already high.

Instead: No matter how hard they try, everyone makes hiring mistakes. Don't take bad chances--those almost always turn out poorly.

Take good chances. Good chances often turn out to be your most inspired hires--and your best employees.

Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry. Everything else he picks up from ghostwriting books for some of the smartest leaders he knows in business. @jeff_haden