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After sitting through two days’ worth of sessions here at RailsConf 08 I’ve learned a very important lesson: the value of information increases with comprehensibility. In other words, if your audience doesn’t understand you then the information you provide is far less valuable.

This is obvious on so many levels, so I’m wondering why this isn’t clearer.

Some do this really well.

Others, not so well.

If you can communicate and have valuable information, this is an opportunity.

The developers in our office were more interested in the job postings that focused on culture and opportunities, while caring very little about requirements or even benefits.

A hiring manager thinks about what he needs: a programmer skilled in [x, y, z] languages, n years experience, and [arbitrary criteria].

There are likely thousands of candidates who meet these requirements, and many of them will not meet the manager’s needs. Meanwhile, there are likely thousands of candidates who do not meet these requirements but would be perfect in that position. The biggest problem is that the manager won’t find the people who will fit, whether or not they meet the minimum requirements. That’s because he’s thinking about his needs, rather than the employee’s.

The best marketers think about the customer’s needs and desires and speak to those. A good job listing does the same.

Do it right

A great example of a job listing that does this: Rails Developer at The University of Iowa It starts off with the usual, somewhat dry requirements. But then it dedicates the rest of the posting to the prospective employee’s real interests: culture and benefits.

Our culture reflects a work-hard play-hard mentality where flip-flops and shorts are considered business casual. Our office is located on The University of Iowa main campus overlooking the beautiful Iowa River and is a five-minute walk from downtown Iowa City.

Flip-flops and shorts, a downtown area nearby, and a good view of the river. Iowa is betting that programmers will be attracted to this – it’s the polar opposite of Dilbert world of tie-wearing programmers trapped in cubicle dungeons. I’d bet they have cool offices and let their people work flexible hours, too. They have to overcome the perception of what it’s like to live and work in Iowa.

A mini study of job postings

In an unscientific study of about 20 job listings from the 37 Signals job board, I rated each posting based on the proportions dedicated to requirements, benefits, culture, and opportunities. I found that the developers in our office were more interested in the job postings that focused on culture and opportunities, while caring very little about requirements or even benefits. A fun place to work trumps a place that pays well. A job that advertises how it can propel your career is far more attractive than ones that talk about specific skills they’re asking for.

Job Postings : Commercials :: Culture : Marketing

A job posting is an advertisement. As I often tell clients, marketing doesn’t get tacked on to the end of a project. Marketing starts with the product itself. If you make your product inherently attractive, then marketing practically becomes invisible. This is how it is with employers, too. The job is the product, and you have to make the job attractive. Culture, opportunities, and benefits are all parts of the job that make employees want to work there.

Just as a hiring manager must sift through many resumes to find the best ones, an amazing employee must sift through many listings in hopes of finding the perfect job. If you’re struggling to find top employees, look to your listing.

I tell clients the most important thing they can put on their homepage is their elevator pitch. As most of my clients are academics with little or no business background, they usually don’t know what this means.

You’ve stepped onto an elevator and you realize there’s a potential [customer | investor | donor] next to you. He turns to you and says, “so what do you do?” You have maybe six floors to ride up the elevator before the conversation ends. So you have maybe 20 seconds to tell your story, pique his interest, or otherwise sell yourself.

With your website, like the casual interactions we have while networking, you get mere seconds to engage a new visitor before she bounces. Those seconds will be spent scanning wildly – glancing around your page to try and make some sense of things and decide whether it’s worth her time to stay any longer. (Aside: is this not like meeting people in a bar? hmm… future post idea.)

The elevator pitch is short and sweet. It’s informative, engaging, and relevant. It’s driven by value and hints of action.

And it’s really hard to make.

Many organizations have a mission statement. They might have a vision statement. There’s no shortage of descriptive copy about your company’s who, what, why, etc. But almost every one of these statements is ridiculously long. Hundreds of words. At least a couple of paragraphs. Sometimes pages of text.

Throw them all away and write one sentence. Maybe two, if it’s earth shattering. Try it.

It’s hard to distill so much into a single sentence, especially when you have a wide range of products or services. So start by creating an elevator pitch for your own job. What do you do?

My elevator pitch to clients when they ask what I do: “I keep projects on time, on track, and on budget.” (I’m a web project manager at Notre Dame.)

Maybe I should start an elevator blog.

The deadline isn’t moving, but you’re not getting the work done. The mass stays the same, but the volume is decreasing. Density (and therefore pressure) increases.
The only way to alleviate the pressure is to change one of the two variables: the amount of work or the deadline.

When the project scope changes, the mass changes. Every day that creeps toward a firm deadline decreases the volume.

If you’re really smart, you’ll charge based on pressure: amount of work vs. the amount of time.
This brings us to my favorite standby—fast, good, cheap: pick any two. Ultimately, these factors equate to quality, time, and price. Find out what’s most important at the beginning (and your quality is less variable than you realize) and adjust accordingly.

When should you charge your customers?

Answer: When they are happiest with you. A happy customer recognizes value and will gladly pay for it.

How do you get customers to pay an initial deposit?

Answer: By asking for it. Refuse to do any work until you’ve both signed an agreement and are satisfied with the terms. Include the deposit in this agreement. This puts both of you at ease with the risks you’re taking.

How do you raise your rates without losing your customers?

Answer: Balance their pain with pleasure. Provide new features, free upgrades, or other perks. Give plenty of advance warning and increase in reasonable increments. Position the rate hike alongside extra value and the change will be acceptable.

The stereotype threat is a psychological theory where a person’s performance can be influenced by hearing about a stereotype.

A classic example involves a group of black women on the SAT. Before the test, they are told that black women traditionally do poorly on the SAT. On average, the group will perform poorly. That’s the stereotype threat.

And there’s one key component: It doesn’t matter if the person agrees with the stereotype. The stereotype threat influences their confidence, which affects performance.

And it works in reverse. Tell that same group of women that their demographic tends to excel, and they will perform above average.

An aside: In psychology, no matter how consistent the results, you can’t claim it has been proven—like gravitational theory. I get a bunch of interesting stories and blog posts from my psychologist wife.

We’ve known for a long time that performance is influenced by factors such as this. I knew a guy in college that wore a suit to every test because he believed that looking good made him feel good and that feeling good meant superior performance. When parents drop their kids off at summer camp, the kids are more likely to be homesick if their parents fuss and tell the kids that it’s alright if they get homesick. Going into a meeting expecting the worst often produces a poor outcome.

Why don’t we take this into account in our schools and workplaces? If employees are set up for success, they will perform better and be more likely to succeed.

What are some ways that you encourage success (such as celebrating small victories)?

Most people love food and I’m no exception. I cook a lot and I take pictures of my meals. I have lists of restaurants I want to go to and try, and I’m enough of a regular at a few of our area restaurants that they know what I’m most likely to order. My fondest memories usually coincide with good meals.

But I also love to do business over food. I’ve heard a lot of debate over this, with people claiming it’s a distraction from the meeting or insults your guest (client/donor/employee) with the informality. But I find it’s actually an advantage.

Because food makes people happy, meetings are more positive. It’s hard to eat a meal angrily. It’s just not natural.

Business Breakfast

Early morning meetings are rough. But a cup of coffee and a muffin or an omelette can go a long way. I can get up early for a breakfast meeting. And caffeine (for coffee or tea drinkers) increases your sense of energy – which people associate with positivity and optimism. Just eating breakfast can have this effect as well, especially for people who tend to skip this meal. And even a classy breakfast place doesn’t usually cost that much.

Business Lunch

This is the least advantageous, in my opinion. Going out to lunch during the work day is so common that it doesn’t feel as special. Bookended by hours of work, lunch is a reprieve from working. So doing business at lunch can often rob a person of a needed break. However, a free lunch still feels pretty good. I like to schedule brainstorm sessions over lunch and have lunch brought in.

Business Dinner

This is my favorite and can have the best results. Taking your time, having a drink or two, and talking business over a good meal is a relationship builder. So what if the conversation strays? It’s all part of communication and building trust. To illustrate, I want to show you a clip from The Office, where Michael Scott shows a glint of brilliance and lands a big sale over a dinner meeting. I wish that NBC didn’t fight the tide of YouTube videos so I could show you here, but the next best thing is to watch the first minute or so of this clip from “The Client”, season two (after their ad).

It’s not about the money

I mean that in two ways. First, if you go into sales thinking about the money, you’re going to get distracted by the money (which isn’t what the client wants to think about). Second, don’t worry so much about the cost of the meal. If you’re in a low-margin business, this might not be for you. But if you’re selling someone a $5,000 contract, what’s $50? There’s a reason why big companies spend tens of thousands to land a new client – because they want to land the $2 million contract.

There’s one other part of this that you may wish to consider. Meals and entertainment only fetch a partial tax deduction, so it doesn’t count the same as a normal business expense. I can’t speak for all situations, but for my S-corporation I get a 50% deduction. I don’t mind this – I’m still saving money.

One final tip: take your client to a restaurant off the beaten path. Something unique, like a sushi bar or a really great Mexican place. Avoid chain restaurants. And bonus points if you’re a regular there and get special treatment.

This is part nine of a series exploring factors in self-employment and traditional employment. For more about this series, read the opening article.

Time

How much time your work requires and your influence over it

Self		Boss
Pros	Cons	Pros	Cons
Drop everything! Go play golf! Vacations and weekends whenever can be any time you like When you’re not productive you can stop working Pick your own hours – work 1am-9am if you like	It’s hard to stop working when the benefits are directly yours There may not be anybody to take over for you when you stop Time is money – the more you work the more you make Vacations aren’t paid – because you only get paid when you’re working	Paid vacations You can work 9am – 5pm and actually stop at 5pm	Unpaid overtime Having someone ask you to work on weekends Can’t just take off in the middle of the day

Conclusions

One of the biggest myths about self-employment is that you’ll work less and make more. But because your time directly affects the amount of money you make (especially if you’re billing hourly!) you’ll find it hard to stop working. However, when business is good you have as much control as you like. Some small business owners make time a priority by setting the number of hours they’ll work and building their model around that. If you want to work 30 hours a week, make sure your business can support that. And the extra hours are very rewarding because you know they make a difference. Still, there’s nothing like calling it quits at noon and hitting the golf course.

Winner: Self-Employment