Editorial Team

I’m hardly watching TV these days – I use TV only as sleeping pill, but the other day I’ve heard something interesting: “the human energy is the most valuable energy known to man kind”. I have no idea who said that (it was the end of an interview or something) but it’s simply a brilliant piece of wisdom from the entrepreneurship point of view.

Usually we hear that the oil price went up because this resource is more and more difficult to find, recessions due to a weaker dollar, or poverty here and there because the lack of water or other resources. But if you think in terms of accomplishments, getting things done, create value and wealth, then, the “human energy” is the most valuable resource on earth. Because no matter how hard it is, how scarce resources are, the human mind managed to trigger colossal forces for centuries.

Give a country and it’s people all the resources in the World. Give them land, water, sun, and everything else and if they don’t have the right human energy nothing will be accomplished. Looking back in history, who do you remember? Kings that discovered gold? No, I bet you remember the kings that did something extraordinary, like fighting the enemy and rule the World and lead people into battle. And they did that because they were high energy human beings.

I remember one of my ex-bosses staying up all night working for his company. Fighting everybody in the team to get things accomplished. Inspiring everybody else with his dedication and vision. I can now say he is a “high energy entrepreneur” capable of putting things, people and resources in motion to accomplish his goals.

Usually most employees are eating up energy. Then, the entrepreneur has to have enough energy to replenish all the batteries in the company. So, let’s define the high energy entrepreneur:

• no matter how hard it is, he manages to motivate everybody to make their best today, tomorrow and on Friday evening
• no matter how many times he has failed, he learns from the mistakes and it’s ready to try again
• it’s a visionary. Gets passed rough times because he envision the good times to come
• he eats, sleeps and breath the company.
• he never takes the easy path if there is another, more profitable one
• inspires confidence, security and knowledge, even if it still needs to prove things
• thinks in terms of years and not months
• even if he drinks a lot of coffee, he is never to tired to make things that he is supposed to do, or to look into new things that might prove valuable

I wonder how many of you had the chance to meet a high energy entrepreneur? And if you met one did you realise that the things that are happening around him (or her), happen not just because there are resources to be burned, but because of his high energy? What wars did you fight for him?

Good. Now I have to take my vitamins – a sure source of “energy” 🙂 And I should watch Matrix again, I remember they were using humans as batteries to power their machines 🙂 – should check on that. And I will take the blue pill. (or not… as nowadays this can be interpreted as an “enlargement procedure” as spam emails say.)

Entrepreneurs can’t quit in more than one way.

They can’t quit the office before work is done. While employees have a strict 9 to 5 job, you’re the one that shuts the lights down each evening. Ok, if everything goes well, you might get to the point where you can leave earlier or maybe don’t come at all.

You can’t quit to a longer vacation. Are you feeling tired? Need to sleep? Promised your family a nice vacation away? Give me a dollar for every small business entrepreneur that can’t leave his business for a proper vacation, and I promise you, I will invest wisely. Like buying half of Google or something… the rest I would donate!

If you have the entrepreneurship bug, you can’t quit. Get back to the simple employee status, and I can bet you will feel un-complete. You can do more with your life. Once you realize the sky is your limit, any tree is too short for you.

And most importantly, you can’t quit if things don’t go as planned. If you are working for the Man, you can call in sick. You can switch jobs if you are not performing to the level. If it sucks, you have options. Not if you are an entrepreneur. No matter how hard it is, you have to get further. You have bills, employees, and self-pride to take care of.

If you finally get to the point where you realize quitting is not an option, things will get easier. Fewer choices, fewer things to think about. If you can’t quit, you will stop questioning yourself if you took the right decision, and entrepreneurship fear will be an overrated concept.

A bootstrapped company is one without any investors, bank loans, or outside assistance. To succeed as a bootstrapper (an entrepreneur starting a bootstrapped company), all it takes is personal savings, a good idea, and a little bit of luck.

Bootstrapping a business instead of borrowing funds starts your business with a positive cash flow. Revenue earned from sales is reinvested into the company to finance development efforts, daily operations, administrative tasks, salaries, and more.

While bootstrapping has its benefits, it also presents its own unique challenges. Hiring in a bootstrapped business can be a long and difficult process to find the perfect person. Here are a few tips to help you along the way.

How to Hire While Bootstrapping

It’s important to make the right hire when you’re bootstrapping a business. The wrong hire can spell disaster for your company and end up costing you thousands of dollars.

Even if it takes a long time to find the right candidate, it’s better than acting too quickly. When you’re bootstrapping, you need to make the most of every dollar. Hiring the wrong candidate will cost your startup money it doesn’t have.

Working at a bootstrapped business is difficult. The hours are long, and the work is challenging. If your candidate isn’t passionate from the start, there’s a good chance he or she will burn out quickly, and your hiring efforts will be back to square one. Here are a few ways to help out your bootstrapped business when it comes to hiring.

Have the Perfect Employee in Mind

During your recruitment efforts, think about the person you want working for you. While reviewing resumes, keep in mind that there is more to an employee than just their education and background. Since working for a startup is a different experience than working for a larger, more established business, it’s important to look for someone that stands out more than your average candidate.

Their interests, attitude, goals, and values will give you a better idea of whether they’ll fit into your company culture. More important than the skills they have is the attitude they bring to the table. Training is easy compared to the effort it would take trying to acclimate an employee to a work environment he or she is not a good fit for.

Use Social Media to Your Advantage

One of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to recruit when you have very little capital is via social media. When you produce high-quality and eye-catching content, you will attract great talent.

When using social media, track the impact of the tactics you use to attract talent if you have a post that does particularly well, use it as a template for future content.

Be Involved in the Recruiting Process

When speaking with candidates, make your business’ values clear. Having a definitive brand for both your company and yourselves as employers will increase the chances of great talent wanting to work for your company.

It’s a misconception that bootstrapped companies and small start-ups can’t compete with larger companies when recruiting. Instead of being an impossibility, it’s a matter of learning how to hire great talent. Being a bootstrapped company doesn’t detract from great talent wanting to work with you— it’s just a matter of knowing what works to attract the right people.

I wrote before about Entrepreneur fear – now its time to write again. It seems that back in 2005 I have approached the “fear subject” from the perspective of an entrepreneur wanna be that is looking to start a business. Now, almost 3 years later, I feel like writing more about Entrepreneurs’ fear, because I know more about it.

I believe we should in fact talk about 2 types of fear:

• The start-up fear
• The fear to keep it going.

There are plenty of resources on the “start-up fear”. This article on “Entrepreneurs being scared of failure” actually puts some interesting numbers: “Almost four in ten would-be entrepreneurs are too scared of failure to do anything about their business idea”. Director of small business at Orange Business Services, Martin Lyne, says: “It’s not the hard skills holding us back so much as our lack of self confidence and fear of failure”. Back in 2005, I’ve defined the start-up fear as fear of:

• Not having an unique business idea
• Financial insecurity: will I make enough money?
• Fear of trying new things
• Fear of not being up to the standards

Now, after almost 3 years I want to talk about the “fear of keeping it going”. First of all, if you get to this stage, the good news is that you “made it”. Your start-up didn’t failed! But as things get better an better, and everything is growing a new fear will come along. The fear of not losing it. You have some nice customers in your portfolio, probably some money in the bank, few employees to say “hi” in the morning. And if until now, you only feared of not losing some months in your life, and the little start-up investment, as things get bigger the risks actually get bigger. You’re not afraid of loosing that $3.000 customer, you are afraid of not loosing the $30.000 customer. Your not afraid of lacking income for yourself, but you will be afraid for all the employees that will have to get the paycheck at the end of the month.

Not sure about you, but I believe that while the “start-up fear” is bad because it stops you from doing things, the fear of “keeping it going” is a positive thing. It pushes you to move forward, to improve things and make everything better!

I’m not sure if this subject have been validated in theory but here is a thought I have on efficient management. I think that if you are able to use less words in your communication, it’s a sign you have an efficient management style. We can think about it on several levels.

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