Wim GE De Vos

Small businesses with a BIG impact

Who should you fire?

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Integrity is essential
Feel the Force

Who should you fire from your company? Even if you let them go easy, who should you let go for sure.

In order of urgency (and includes a kind suggestion on how to go about).

Someone who lacks integrity. 

Integrity is the foundation of everything. Without integrity things break down. They rot. It is misery. So get rid of it. Yesterday.

To let this person go I suggest you do 2 things.

Internally, burn 🔥 dishonest people on a stake. So the message is clear. Dishonest = game over. Period.
Publicly, complete silence 😶. People will smell dishonesty from a mile away. Rotten apples may ask for a recommendation letter on the way out if. Never ever consider this.

Rotten apples leave stains on the good fruit. So get rid of them and avoid being attached to them in any way possible.

Possibly they will even join or become your competition. Relaaaaaaax. They can fuck things up there instead.

Someone who lacks energy. 

High energy is crucial in a start up. It is about getting things done. It is about moving forward no matter what. It is about not giving up.

To let this person go I suggest you do 2 things.

Internally, don´t blame them for not making the cut. Rather praise the team for being high energy. Often it is not the persons fault. It is how they are. Give the person some time to find something new if possible.
Publicly, help this person to find a spot in a big structured organisation (not necessarily a company). Praise their skills when asked by such an organisation.

NOTE: Do NOT FIRE someone who merely lacks results

You should not fire honest high energy people who lack results. Work with them, stand in their shoes, ask yourself and others why. Figure out how to fix it.

Because honest & high energy is hard to find. And often a tweak or a twitch can make things click.

 

Product or customer centric ?

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Ask yourself the following 2 questions and figure out what type of start-up you are.

Q1: Are you building products for your customers?

Q2: Are you looking for customers for the products you have built?

The answer lets you determine if you are

  • customer-centric or product-centric
  • considering marketing as the start or the end of the process
  • comfortable with individual and changing customer desires or have wet dreams of uniform eternal customer tastes

The answer may be a mindset or it may be a phase.

Either way the answer will bring perspective that can help you deal with challenges and opportunities ahead

platimun-ice-cinema-designs4
ICE Cinema “sherlock”

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Recruit high energy ⚡ optimists

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high energy
optimist

Small businesses looking to have a big impact rely greatly on their teams. The people on the bus. They are instrumental to your success.

And I believe high energy optimists are who you need. Much more than experience, skillsets from a curriculum or realists. Supercharged dreamers.

Optimists are people who see things that can be. And that is exactly what is always in short supply when building a small business.

High energy is required to cut through the crap and keep moving forward. To make stuff happen. And even when there are stretches where it feels you are running in the sand they have what it takes to keep going.

Do not consider anybody else to get on the bus. High energy optimists are the jedis we need.

Why start a business?

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inspirational-smll-business-quotes

Why start a business?

Simple question, so let´s look for a simple answer.

You want to

  1. make lots of money 💵
  2. be free and work less 🏄‍♂️
  3. have impact 💥

Pick one and organise your business in accordance.

Brutally. No compromise.

You have to pick one – the others will be a consequence of your choice.

And then when you succeed you will become either:

  1. rich
  2. free
  3. change agent

My take: choose impact 💥 and have a shot at being all 3…

Closing with this video, a Pearl of Wisdom from Apple´s history:

Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

S. Jobs (1955-2011)

Thunder Lizard - IMPACT, this is why we play
Impact, this is why we play

the domino effect 🁳

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ICE Cinema “sherlock”

Let me start todays post with the answer first: The Domino Effect. 🁉

And now the 3 questions to which the domino effect is the answer…

Why do some simple habits trigger other more powerful ones?

The domino effect proves it is within your power to spark a chain reaction of good habits by building new behaviours that naturally lead to the next successful action. There is an astounding interconnectedness between the systems of life and human behaviour is no exception.

The inherent relatedness of things is a core reason why choices in one area of life can lead to surprising results in other areas, regardless of the plans you make.

Why do I blog?

When a friend of mine asked why I started blogging daily I explained: the domino effect it has on how I live my day.

By blogging daily I am creating a self-discipline and consistency around daily learning moments. I start from the premise there must be something interesting to learn and share every day.

So I created a habit of reading, observing and analysing at least 1 thing every day that is worth learning. So I keep my mind and eyes wide open so I am more aware and conscious for this daily learning moment.

And then I write it down and share it publicly. This implies I have to think the learning moment through and structure it into small understandable tasty pieces 🍕.

How do you create a successful channel business?

An example. Today I spent half a day with Mr S., a new sales partner for ICE cinema (one of the cool ventures I am deeply involved with – mixed reality spaces etc…).

I passionately explained everything I know on the subject. Transmitted not just my knowledge on the product but also on the market, clients and logic behind why people an ICE cinema.

While I share my passion for how an ICE cinema really delivers on the promise of the suspension of disbelief and how it becomes the families favourite room in the house I am actually applying the power of the domino effect. I am helping to create yet another domino that will have a positive effect. Another small business that will have a BIG impact.

That is how you build a successful channel business. One domino at a time.

✌🏼 out. W