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Are You Pretty Enough to Work Here?

“And Kathy, please get rid of that t-shirt.”

That’s how the Skype call with my client just ended. I work with startups all over the country, so I Skype with clients a lot. This particular client seems to have some kind of phone allergy, so every conversation we have is via Skype.

Today, my client was also allergic to my t-shirt. Read more »

Your Boss is Ready to Fail, Are You? Assess Your Startup Risk Tolerance

The odds of a new business succeeding are about the same as those of a new marriage—not great. But like newlyweds, entrepreneurs aren’t deterred by the likelihood of failure.

In their minds, the risks associated with a startup are far outweighed by the rewards. Are they for you?

Fear Itself

For Jason Jacobs, founder of RunKeeper (one of my fav apps, if you must know) becoming an entrepreneur was the dream, not the specific company he founded.

When asked in an interview with Mixergy.com if he feared failure, he responded, “If I fail gloriously and this goes nowhere, I’ll be a failed entrepreneur. But at least I’ll be an entrepreneur.”

Startup Risk Assessment Question 1:

Ask yourself this—if your job, and paycheck, went away tomorrow would you think, “at least I tried?”
Read more »

FREE Work for a Startup ebook – what you must know to get the job and succeed in it

I get great questions from readers, and they always fall into the same three categories;

1. how to get a job with a startup,
2. how to succeed in a job with a startup,
3. how to know if it’s time to quit a startup.

So, I’ve taken the top five tips I give for each of these areas and put them in a free, downloadable ebook. Read more »

Working for a Startup Means Wearing Lots of Hats

Take our (supremely unscientific) quiz and see if you’ve got what it takes to work for a startup or if your corporate is more your comfort zone.

The conversations started like this: “Kathy, do we need a high-sheer agitation vortex to get the carboxymethyl cellulose into the master batch?”

Huh?

You talkin’ to me?

I was asked that question by a vendor during my first week with a startup beverage company. Not only did I not know the answer, I didn’t know half the words in the sentence.

Was I supposed to know what a high-sheer vortex was? More importantly, was I really the right person to ask?

Turns out, the answer was yes, and yes. I was working in a startup; not only was I the right person, I was the only person.

Although some entrepreneurs will hire experts in each primary area of the business, most tend to run a lean ship in the startup years. Cash is king, and payroll is the enemy. So most entrepreneurs believe fewer employees, doing more work, leads to a healthier bottom line.

In most cases they’re right. But what about your bottom line?  Read more »

5 Signs of StartUp Stockholm Syndrome

Your entrepreneur boss throws a chair across the office and you should probably think to yourself, self, this is not a stable boss.

But then again, he didn’t throw the chair at you. So that’s okay, right?

It’s not the type of behavior that would be tolerated at say, IBM, but in the sometimes bizarro world of entrepreneurial start-ups, it’s accepted. Almost expected. In fact, the antics often become part of the office lore. Remember the time –insert entrepreneur boss’s name here– set the office on fire? Forgot to wear shoes to work? Disappeared for an entire week?

The stories are retold to new hires that weren’t there during the “crazy times.” And those new hires lament the fact that they missed out on the turmoil.

The question is why. Read more »

Is a Start-Up Right for You? Or Are You a Square Peg in the Wrong Role?

A very successful friend recently confessed that his job was making him sick. He had held big jobs in the past, with the typical stress factors that accompany big jobs, and he had managed just fine. In fact, he had always excelled. But this time was different. The stress of this job was causing him to lose sleep, lose weight, and he swore it was even causing him to lose his hair.

This time, for the first time in his career, he was working for a start-up. Read more »

Work for a Mean Boss? Man Up, This Ain’t Yo Mama’s House

Robert Sutton (bestselling author of Good Boss, Bad Boss) recently launched an on-line quiz called Boss Reality Assessment Survey System – or BRASS. (Clever Bob) In the survey he asks whether your boss “does a lousy job of comforting and calming during tough times.”

Whatchu talkin ‘bout, Willis, er, Bob? Our boss is supposed to be calming? And did you say comforting? Really?

Our doctor, sure. Our parents, of course. But our boss? Even the entrepreneur bosses? Hmmm.

Bob may be asking too much of this specific subset of bosses. In particular if we are talking about entrepreneurs still in startup mode. Read more »

Dude, Where’s my Desk?

Industrial, loft-style floor plans. Banks of windows. Razor scooters to zip from one end of the office to the other. Basketball hoops. Video games. Ah the super cool, ultra-trendy offices of entrepreneurial America. Not exactly.

My friend Harry recently arrived at a new job to find that he didn’t have a desk or even a chair to call his own.

Harry’s new entrepreneur boss motioned to his own desk saying “I’m not always here.”

An entire drawer was made available for Harry’s use. Welcome to entrepreneurial America. Read more »