Gene Marks on Attracting Top Talent

 
Running your own business can be tough, especially when it comes to finding the right employees. Business expert Gene Marks explains how a small business can attract the best talent.
 

Video Transcript

Small businesses often compete with big businesses when we’re trying to attract top talent and there are, there are many reasons why somebody would want to work for a small company versus a large company and, as a small business owner, you’ve got to play up those reasons. Big companies will, for the most part, pay more. Big companies will, for the most part, offer better benefits and, you know, health benefits or vacations or things like that, because bigger companies have more money than small businesses so they, they can do just that. But, as a small business owner, I know that if you work for my company you’re, you’re part of a team. You’re part of something different. If you, if you – you are working for somebody that you care about or that you’re interested in or you’re into what that little company is doing, it’s adding a little bit something more to y our life than just collecting a paycheck. You know, you know, people do want to be part of something else – a team. Something bigger than just going to a job. Some people, just they – they look at their lives and they’re like, you know, I wanna go to my job and collect my paycheck, do a good job during the day, but then what’s important to me is my family, so I can clock out at 5 and be home and that’s great. But there are other people that are looking more – you know, for more for their lives. They want flexibility, they want to work directly for somebody that’s got some kind of a vision. They want to be able to communicate with, with the person – the owner of the company. They want the ability, maybe, they can have some equity in the company someday because remember that, you know, as an employee of a small business I am, I am always looking for somebody to work closely with me. Every client I know has this enormous, enormous, um, ah, open wound – this gap, where they’re looking for like top good people that can take up the work for them. Because every business owner I know would rather be out playing golf than running their business all day. And, you know, because they have to run their business, ah, because they don’t have those kinds of people in their company, that can allow them to just go and play golf for two weeks in a row and not have to worry about it. We’re all looking for those people to do that. And those people, when they rise to the top, they not only get the compensation, they get the equity, they get the long term commitment and relationship with the small business as it grows, that you would never really get at a big company. And I think that that’s an advantage that a business owner needs to play up.

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