A Startup runs on morale

I saw this statement the other day on the y-Combinator site, and this did resonate with me as I have battled a few morale issues of my own over the last few months.

There is nothing that kills a business more when a staff member doesn’t believe in their company they work for, we are confronted with staff like that on a fairly regular basis as we go through a weekly lives and they are usually the ones that will stuff things up as they couldn’t care less about you or the company.

So what happens when your morale as the founder goes down, yep so does the companies morale and all its staff and the future is not bright, so what are you doing to protect your morale ? Who is on your side to barter better working conditions and better working hours ?

Take the time today to make sure the most important employee in your business is happy, can you buy something to make the work environment better ? Can you treat yourself by sleeping in tomorrow morning ? Maybe just be happy with what you have built ?

I would love to hear what people do to treat themselves.

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An offer you cant refuse

We all remember that famous line spoken from Don Vito Corleone in the Godfather movie of “Ill make him an offer he cant refuse”. Wouldn’t that would be great if we could make a deal that nobody would refuse, I am sure a business and personal lives would benefit greatly.

So is there a way for us to make a business offer that cant be refused without resorting the the tactics of that infamous gangster ? Well the answer is well yes for some offers, the secret is making sure the offer is a win win for both parties.

Next time you put an offer forward on a potential business deal make sure you take the time to look at the deal from the other parties position first. So here is a list of questions I think you should be asking:

Is it such a sweet deal that it cant be refused ?
What parts may the party have issues with and how have you addressed them ?
Have you outlined in very clear language what the benefits will be to them ?
Have you backed your claims of benefits with facts that can be trusted ?

Put a deal with these questions answered forward and it will be become an offer that cant be refused.

What I would do if I ran a bizspark camp

Thought I would post about what I would do if I was allowed to run a bizspark camp, not because I think the ones that have been organised stink or people that organise them need advice but because I would really love to see an event like this.

So what is the camp I would like to see ? Firstly it would be a series of camps focused on the business of technology not a technology itself. Using the underlying Microsoft skills base as the glue that brings people together. The first camp would be over a weekend, then other camps 3 – 6 months apart so we cant build a real businesses over just a weekend.

This first camp will be a “pitch and dating camp”, basically everyone before the event lists their skills ie coding, design, UX, management etc, desired role and the amount of time they can put into a project. On the first morning of the camp if you have an idea you can open the floor or hold private interviews with people that or on the list that you would like to join your project. In the afternoon you buddy up with the people that have accepted your invites into your project to work together in planning your go forward.

The second day we will run some adhoc advice sessions that your free to join by either sending none, one or all to the session to learn about things such as remote team working, legal issues etc. Also during the day we will run a closed pitch session where you can sit with some real investors to hear your idea get some advice and maybe some investment.

All project participants will be invited back after 3/6 months for a casual afternoon to hear how things are going and what has been built and to learn what Microsoft can do to assist your business.

Would you come and participate ? If so tweeter to @bizspark_au & @jamesmcc that you would like to see this or leave a comment as I would love to here your thoughts on a camp like this ? A retweet would also be great to spread the word for having an invite like this as the more the better the event would be