Have you ever hired a new employee who didn’t turn out to be what you expected? Hiring mistakes can be avoided! Here’s how:

Step 1: Be clear about whom you’re looking for:
* What are the outcomes I need from them in the first year? Second year?
* Do I need a leader – or someone who is good at following instructions?
* Will this person be interacting with customers?
* Will they mostly work in a team or autonomously?
* Do I need someone innovative and creative, or someone who is organized?

Step 2: Establish deal breakers for skills and experience:
What are must-haves? If you find a person who is a good fit for a job, most skills can be learned. You won’t know if a person with ten years experience is any better than one with five until they start doing the job, so be careful to judge candidates based on these criteria.

Step 3: Customize your interview template for each candidate:
Focus on the candidate’s behaviors/experiences that you are uncertain about and need more information before you make you decision. If every interview is the same, you’re not maximizing your time and may be missing something important.

Ask your candidate to walk you through specific examples of their past behavior, instead of asking simple questions like “What are your greatest strength/weakness?” Dig deep! Get them to paint you a picture of what they’re like at work.

Step 4: Use an employee assessment and have others in your company interview the candidates too.
In hiring and selection, there’s a term for quick judgment, called the “halo effect.” It refers to the impression someone leaves when they first meet that person: if that person has something in common with them, they’re attractive, they can pronounce their name, they like them, etc. The problem with this snap judgment is that it can accidentally anchor an interviewer’s opinion about an interviewee – often inaccurately. This is why some leading companies, like GlaxoSmithKline, are using validated employee assessments in hiring sales employees. The twist is that they perform these hiring assessments BEFORE interviewing any candidates … even before they review applicants’ resumes (resumes are also inherently biased).

Another simple and effective HR tool is to have others at your company interview candidates, to provide their perspectives. This way; you acquire others’ involvement, opinions, perspectives, as well as their support within the organization, if you do hire the person.

Step 5: Check references yourself:
You could discover a lot during reference checks. It’s important that you not only ask for references, but also specify whom you want to speak with – before they offer – or you’ll simply be provided with a list of their friends. Another great approach to reference checking (a la Top Grading) is asking candidates to arrange personal reference calls, and ask them interview questions fronted like: “What would your boss say are your greatest achievements …” instead of just asking them for their own interpretation.

About the Author:
Ben Baldwin is the co-founder of ClearFit.com, a hiring software firm that offers patented HR tools to make hiring employees easy for small businesses. To reach Ben, you can email him at ben@clearfit.com.

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Sometimes wonderful and unforeseen things sprout from a small business. In his bestseller The Art of the Start, author Guy Kawasaki suggests “planting a thousand seeds to blossom.”

It means entrepreneurs should try to embrace those little opportunities along the way that could turn into something big. Here’s how to plant your own seeds:

Meet someone new. When you’re busy running a business, it’s tempting to delete phone messages or ignore emails from people you don’t know and therefore don’t value. Instead, make it your policy to meet briefly with someone new just to see what develops. That contact could become your biggest investor or know someone who works for your dream client.

Help others. Once you’ve achieved success, you’ll likely be approached by someone seeking your advice for their startup. Share your time and wisdom openly.

Just try it. Even the best business plan doesn’t guarantee success. Pay attention to little ideas or opportunities for your business that sprout up. Yes, you must stay focused on your main business, but pour a little water on those seeds to see if they grow. You may have stumbled onto something big.

Conduct market research

No matter how great you think your small business idea is, you must test it by conducting thorough market research. Research involves asking your potential (or existing) customers first – before you launch a new product, open a store or change something within your business. Use the following tools to collect input:

• Surveys. Create a simple questionnaire to collect answers to your business questions. Ask potential or existing customers to comment on issues such as pricing, location, marketing, shopping times, delivery, budgets and competition. Start with open-ended questions and move to more specific ones.
• Focus Groups. Try to get a small group of potential customers together to discuss your business idea. Describe your business and what it intends to do, then ask participants for their comments. Guide but don’t lead the discussions. The goal is to glean insight into what people want and collect some new ideas.
• Secondary data. Check out your industry, the competition and assess market potential by gathering some secondary data. For example, someone opening a pet store will want to know how much money people spend on pets in Canada. Such information will give context to the primary data you collected from your surveys and focus groups. Government websites offer plenty of help at www.strategis.gc.ca or www.statscan.ca or www.cbsc.org.

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