As the title suggests this blog is not about poker.
I enjoy following the poker, and went through a phase of writing poker blogs when I was taking the game seriously.
(I don't play so much now)

Would be happy to answer questions about that, or post links here to blog archives if the mods will allow, but here I will try writing some semi-regular updates about business.

I've been posting a bit in the BFI forum and was directed here by jalexand42.

Made this thread around 18 months ago in BFI:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/30...rning-1178520/
Cliffs:
- Left secure job to run a start-up funded by my previous employers
- Year 1 went didn't go well and my salary was cut in half overnight
- Stuck with it despite the salary drop and things improved
- The business is high risk, and our strategy is aggressive
- Predicted year 2 turnover of $6.5M (July '12 - June '13)
- Aiming for $15M turnover in year 3.
- Currently 40 staff, recruited 6 more this month.

I enjoy my work. It's challenging, and throws up some interesting situations which may be of interest to readers here, and maybe people can learn from the many mistakes I seem to have made. I'm sure I will make many more, but i'm learning all the time, and I think it may benefit me to articulate my thoughts in the form of a blog in a poker forum where my staff or investors are unlikely to be lurking.

I've taken a lot from 2p2 and been reading this forum for years, so now it's time to give something back.
(Even if it is just so someone might learn from my screw-ups!)

Will be as open as possible, and write down some of the interesting spots here in this blog.
I'm aware there are some very clever people on this forum (and some trolls)..
But being open minded is important and I will welcome any opinions or advice.

An interesting spot from today:

One of my staff was arrested over the weekend, and didn't show up for work this morning.
His mother called up the office to say he is in the police station giving a statement.
She wouldn't go into details about why but she sounded shaken up by it.

Facebook posts over the weekend indicate he got into a fight and put a guy in hospital whilst trying to defend himself and his girlfriend from 4 men whilst on a night out.

Not sure if he will be charged, but either way I am trying to decide on the best course of action to take. He has only been with the company for 2 weeks, is 19 years old working on an apprenticeship. Quite a junior role and he could be easily replaced.

What would you do?

A: Fire him tomorrow
B: Give him a chance to explain his side of the story, then fire him
C: Keep him on, he's only young, he was defending his girl!
D: Tell him to come back and re-apply for his job after any pending court action is resolved

Thanks for reading

So what do you actually do?

MD / CEO of a global recruitment business

I have nearly 10 years recruitment experience and worked up from consultant level.
My company gets people jobs all over the world, today we have people working in various countries including Italy Spain Romania Nigeria India china brazil Thailand Vietnam Germany Russia Venezuela ...

I would pick C)

Who on earth go out with a gf and initiate a fight?!? He must be defending his gf for sure!

I'm from Venezuela, what kind of works have you find people here? Your job sounds interesting, I'ld pick option C.

I'm also going with C, since it didn't happen on the clock, with a stern warning that the slightest aggression toward any member of the company will be grounds for dismissal and have him sign that statement.

This way if he is serious about the job he will work quite hard to prove himself. If he has anger problems you are covered in case you need to let him go.

If I were him I'd quit instantly, and find a job were my employer wasn't basing my future on suggestions by 2+2ers.
The guy is attacked by 4 blokes, defends his gf, and his 'boss?' is considering firing him for it, if he gets enough persuasion from randoms on the internet.

Although seeing as he's made up, his job is made up, your job is made up, and your life is made up I guess it's all pretty irrelevant anyway. You work in recruitment and have time to post this crap? BS. If you/your job/this scenario were real YOU should be sacked for a) wasting time b) being a **** c) making up bollocks.

Thanks for the responses.
It was a close decision this morning but have ended up going with option B. The decision was never going to be based on 2p2 responses but l can update more on the thought process later...

We get quite specialised jobs for people on vessels & platforms.

Thanks for your feedback here kingericthe7th.
To provide some clarity here no decision I ever make will be based on persuasion from randoms on the internet. I haven't written blogs in years and thought by asking a few questions and getting people's opinions it could make my posts more interactive and thought provoking. I try to make all decisions in the best interest of the company and complex decisions will usually be based on a number of factors. In general, the opinions I value most when making decisions are those of my shareholders, respected colleagues and depending on the situation; expert legal, financial or technical advice.

Not sure if you're serious but am happy to confirm that I am real. My work does sometimes feel quite surreal as things have progressed so quickly over the last year.
I also feel very lucky and blessed have work which I enjoy and allows me a reasonable degree of freedom.

As mentioned in OP, our strategy is high risk. I'm fully aware there is no guarantee that it will be successful, but at the moment it seems to be going well and I will try to enjoy the good times and continue to work hard at building something big.

Expand decision B pls.

Also in some moments you're close to border line tool, try to avoid that.

All the best with your job/career and blog

Decision B was not just based on his reasons for being arrested.

I tried to make the right choice in the best interest of the company.

This guy has only been with us a week so for him the timing of this incident was bad. Perhaps if he had been with us for longer and built up more trust and client base in the job we would have given him the benefit of the doubt and kept him on.

We just recruited 6 more staff who start over the next month. Some of these are high calibre applicants on high salaries and we have more good cv's coming through so an additional factor here was office space which is limited.

Other influences on going for B.
- Are we within our rights to dismiss him (yes)
- His side of the story (that is the only side we have. He admitted himself that he 'flipped' and that his girlfriend was shouting at these guys.
Sounds like its not that they just jumped him out of the blue, although without being there it's hard to know what happened.
- How long has he been with us (not long)
- what message are we sending to the rest of the team / company?
- is he in a highly skilled hard to fill job? (no)
- will be be able to easily get another job? (Yes, I phone his agency and put in a good word for him)
- his line managers opinion (He is ok at the job, but has shown signs of impatience in the office)
- opinions of other shareholders (they agree its close ok to let him go)

I do feel sorry for the guy, Did not enjoy asking him to leave, and agreed to pay him for the rest of the week would provide a reference for the short time he was with us, and put in a good word with his agency.

i hope you get sacked.
You're a ****.

Thanks very much Eric.
Have you ever had a job? You seem like a nice guy. Would love to know more about you.

If this is the only interest my attempt at a 2p2 blog gets I should probably keep my thoughts to myself in future.

why have you fired him?
I mean, you hired him for certain reasons. You expect him to perform in certain way in his job and pay for that a certain salary. What exactly did the incident change on this preliminaries?

and from the points you wrote in "what is going for B". What message do you think you are sending out for your team?

I also wonder if it is good idea to put the shareholder opinion as a basis for your decisions. I mean, in my industry shareholders normally have no idea, what is good for business and are just interested in the dividends for this year.

We hired this guy because he seemed like a sensible hard working guy. He made a mistake in his personal life which spilled over into his professional life when the police arrested him at 4am for assault. This changed m perception of him being sensible.

The message i'm sending out to the team is: I don't care what people do in their personal life as long as it doesn't effect their work in a negative way. Think about what you do when your outside the office. If you live a simple & healthy life you are more likely to do well in your work in general. If you find your self in a situation which could put you in jail, then try to choose the option that would keep you out of jail, such as walking away.

Had he not been arrested he would still be in his role, but his role was a fairly marginal one anyway.
We have not replaced him and have no plans to right away.

If I fire someone I have screwed up.
Either:
1. I recruited the wrong person,
2. Created or had them in the wrong job.
3. did not give them enough support to fulfil their job
4. gave up on someone too soon.

in this case it was a mixture if 1,2 and possibly 4. Either way I take responsibility for getting something wrong.

I spoke to one of our shareholders as he is involved in the running of the business.
Would be interested what industry you work in?


It might make more sense if I explain the company share structure:

Shareholder A - 79% - Has invested over $1m, has little involvement. I might see him twice a year.
He has taken no dividends and is unlikely to any time soon. I think he's more interested in selling his shares for $30m+ in the next 5 years than taking out dividends. (VC)

Me - 9.5% - I invested no money in the startup but take a salary and run the business. Sole director. Dedicate all my time to it.

Shareholder B - 7.5% - Invested over $100k, acts as an advisor. Does not take a salary or any dividends out.
I report weekly to this shareholder and he has a good understanding of the business.

Shareholder C - 5% - Joined the company 2 months ago, he is paid a salary and is involved in the daily operations.
He was brought in to help grow the business more quickly and given some ownership so he will be incentivised for overall financial success.

None of us take dividends. Me & shareholder C are paid in salary and commission.
Any other profit is reinvested in the business to speed up growth.

All 4 of us have worked together in different roles before starting this business.

It was shareholder C who's opinion I asked at the time, and I let shareholder B know about the decision after it happened, they both agreed it was close but ok to let him go.

Picked up my new car yesterday, am very happy with it, and have just got back from collecting a new consultant from the airport who has flown in from Asia for training here in the UK. He's Mexican American Hispanic but lives in Asia.
Once we have trained him he will fly back to Asia to develop new business from the office there.
I'll be going to Norway next week for a few days to see clients and then on holiday the week after so looking forward to the next couple of weeks!

I am in a bigger company in a mining industry.

OK, I see, that since you have not a lot of shareholders, it is possible that you can judge that they have an idea, what is going on. Especially since C is not only shareholder, but is involved in the business.


So you want to write here about this business? Is that right? It is a difficult endeavour. You probably can't write very open. And you see, that you are gonna be judged here.

anyway good luck.

I'd like to write about the business from my perspective, it's been interesting over the last 2 years seeing the business get to the stage it's at.
The plan for the next few years is to fast-track growth of the business so I expect some interesting spots to come up.
I have to leave for the airport in 4 hours so better get some sleep but will update in the next week.

Norway

We decided back in April to attend the ONS Norway Oil & Gas Exhibition this year which took place 19th-21st August in the Oil & Gas Capital of Norway, Stavanger.
Normally a bi-annual event, this year is the first mid-term event, focused on the Norwegian Oil industry.
With 15,000 attendees it was an opportunity to meet with relevant contacts in the industry and the event did not disappoint.
I travelled with a colleague and due to wanting to have as much time there as possible for the least amount of money we had an early morning flight leaving from London at 8am, which meant leaving the house at 4am.
My car delivered was last week so I didn't mind waking up early on Monday morning for a 120 mike drive...