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Years ago, when I was at Pepsi, a few things happened which put me where I am today. The first is going back to school; which was a big step in the right direction. The second was a promotion to being a sales manager. This story starts where those two things intersect.

Four years ago, I was repacking cans (which is what happens when you break a Pepsi Cube in the grocery store..) when I had this sudden epiphany. I was way to smart to be driving truck or stacking Pepsi for the rest of my life. I scored a 1390 on the SAT’s before they restuctured it, why the hell was I putting cans back into their packages! That night, I went home and applied to Mercyhurst College.

About two years after that, I got promoted to being a sales manager. I had control of over 100 stores and was responsible for everything from the driver and his deliveries to selling in displays and new products. The problem was, all my bosses listened to their bosses – and so on. So if I knew something wasn’t going to sell in a store and would go out of date, I wouldn’t send it in!

Well, needless to say, this put my on the shit list.

Then sitting in meetings, I was always the first one to pipe up and tell on of my managers (or my manager’s manager) that what they had planned would or wouldn’t work, and then follow it up with my rationale. There was one time the head of Human Resources misquoted how much you could invest in a 401K for the year, and I corrected him.

Now my name was in bold on the shit list – with a big red X drawn right through it…

All of this was just an outward response to an inner problem, though. Did I back down at Pepsi? Hell no. But the fact of the matter is I can’t stand blind faith, or unbending loyalty to an organization. No employee should ever just accept that what their manager is telling them is the best way, or the only way. The employee should have to make that decision for themselves. Furthermore, I feel it is up to the employee to share with everyone their thoughts and ideas, for the benefit of the group. If you can save time on a process or know something isn’t going to work, tell someone! Just make sure you have the reasons to back it up.

At the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter what goes on at work. But I want to encourage one thing – free thinking. If you are a manager who doesn’t give your employees any leeway or allow them to speak up – settle the f@ck down. What they have to say could save your company thousands of dollars. And if you need to justify it to your boss, then have at it. Approach the situation with the benefits to your company’s bottom line, first. No CEO or upper level manager can ignore that.

If you are an employee – speak up! You are the single greatest asset to your company because you have the experience. Those managers who sit up in their offices all day, swapping emails and seeing who can spend more on hair replacements, big SUV’s, and flat panel TV’s don’t know what you do. They see numbers on a spreadsheet and can’t figure out for the life of them why their newest sales targets aren’t on point, so they blame the salesman, or the delivery drivers, or the time of year. It is up to you to tell them what will and won’t work.

In closing, I just want to say – don’t ever accept anything you are told in the workplace. Figure out why it’s being said, and how you are expected to react. If you agree, that’s great. But if you disagree and you are just going to keep your mouth shut and hope for the best – you have a long, dismal road ahead of you.

Remember, every company is made up of employees who know more about the business than the CEO. Use that to your advantage, and prove you are a leader.

Earlier today, I was reading The Heritage of Shannara by Terry Brooks.  In the piece that I just finished up with, there is a band of people trying to find this mystical sword, when they discover they need help from a group of outlaws.

The outlaw’s main camp is in the middle of a series of ravines with woods and rocks and grass to contend with.  And the trail is so well hid that you wouldn’t be able to find it if you weren’t familiar with the area.  One of the main characters, Par – a half elf, asked, “Aren’t you afraid that if you show people how to get there, they will tell the Federation (the bad guys) where it is?

The outlaw replied, “In order for that to happen, I have to show them the way back home, and it needs to be the same way we came – which it is not.”

The reason I bring this up is to emphasize common sense in business.  In order to run a first class startup that both pleases you and your customers, you need to keep your operation simple.  Don’t offer the customer too many choices, don’t stretch beyond your means, and don’t trust someone with your business right away.

Take your time, watch your details, and use common sense – you will be successful in the end.

Over the weekend, I was watching a commercial and it said something about all day meetings – which sent my mind down this careening, one way path into the world I so often live in… Seriously, what the hell is the purpose of an all day meeting? And why should you waste your time with one?

The answer is you shouldn’t.

Really, you will find that a meeting lasting all day is PACKED with about the same information that you will find in an hour long meeting. But people have this false notion that if you sit there and gawk at the person across the table for the entire day, you somehow get more accomplished.

Basically, my rule is no more than an hour – an hour and a half if there’s food involved – and if there’s beer, then all bets are off. The problem with today’s business world is meetings are poorly managed.

Time Management

Your time is important. Your employees time is important. Why waste either?

Think about this. If you have 15 employees, and you require ten of them to be in an early morning meeting while paying them each $20 an hour, you will be spending $200 per hour plus donuts or bagels. That $200 an hour is not spent on them increasing sales, increasing productivity, or anything else of that nature. It is spent so they can hear you talk.

Invite ONLY who you need to be there

Secondly, invite only the people you absolutely need to be there. Don’t invite the whole first shift when the information applies to only a quarter of them! Only invite the HR department or the sales staff. And if it can be managed through one on one’s, cascading voice mails, emails, or phone calls, then do it that way!

There are simply too many different ways to communicate in today’s world to waste time in a big stuffy meeting room.  Besides, a phone call to your employees will probably get you more respect, but that’s a different story altogether.

Prioritize your information

Make sure you draw up an outline about what you want to cover during your meeting. Have each bit of information weighted, tackling the big ones first, while people are still the most fresh. Don’t wait until your meeting is almost over to tell them that they will be laid off at the end of the month.

Summary

I am not saying that meetings aren’t beneficial, and a lot of very good information can’t be shared.  I just hate seeing organizations that have meetings just to plan more meetings.  Most of the time, the employees in question just like to get together and talk – which puts a huge hit on a company’s bottom line.

If you find yourself in more meetings that you would like, have a talk with your boss.  Or if you are the boss, sit down and prioritize what you would like more – bottom line profit (which your raise might be based on) or employees that have more happy hours than TGI Fridays.

One of my favorite services online is LegalZoom. Why? It is cheap, Legal service.

Bootstrapping startups are short on one thing, usually – cash. In a lot of cases, the act of starting a business is either free or a pretty nominal charge. In Pennsylvania, the only thing you need to pay for is a fictional name. If you are going to open up your doors under your own name, such as Drohn and Associates, it is free.

The one thing that a lot of people forget though, is the Legal side of opening up a business. Should you incorporate? Have a partnership? Be a sole proprietor? Or do you need to get your logo trademarked? Maybe your primary strength is a piece of software that needs to be protected by a patent?

All these things are up in the air when you start. But the fact remains, you need to protect yourself. Oftentimes, a good lawyer can run $200-$400 an hour, and what startup business can afford that? Certainly not any that rely on bootstrap funds!

The best solution I have found is LegalZoom.com. Not only are they cheap, fast and easy – they are reliable. Don’t get me wrong, you still need a real lawyer in case some issue comes up, but to get your feet off the ground, take the easy route.