The Full Value of Mobile in Financial Services

With over a third of customers at major US banks now regularly using mobile banking, it's imperative that marketers realize the full value of this fast-evolving channel. We asked experts from Citi, JP Morgan Chase, H&R Block and CareOne (a market leading debt service provider) to share their insights about best practices. Whether it's customer-centric products, growing acquisitions, or providing seamless access to information, this is how they see the future of mobile developing in the financial services industry.

Sealing the Deal

AUGUST 28, 2012

Closure for closings: Austin Allison of dotloop.

Photo© Marc Royce

In real estate, signing on the dotted line is never really as simple as that. For brokers, it involves driving back and forth, lugging around a briefcase full of paperwork, tracking down unresponsive clients--and a whole lot of "who has what?" panic.

Thanks to Austin Allison, 27, that labyrinthine process may soon be a thing of the past. He is founder and CEO of Cincinnati-based technology startup dotloop, maker of enterprise software that handles real-estate transactions from offer to close. Users create a "loop," a virtual workspace where all parties involved in the deal can collaborate on the contract and other documents, getting everything done in one place.

Two Young Entrepreneurs Get Their Hands Dirty With Urban Farming

From the September 2012 issue of Entrepreneur

Growing up: A Back to the Roots kit.

Photo © Ben Alsop

Nikhil Arora, 25, and Alejandro Velez, 24, didn't plan on being mushroom farmers. In 2009, during their last semester at the University of California, Berkeley, Arora lined up a corporate consulting job and Velez nabbed one in investment banking.

But a lecture on sustainability in a business ethics class changed all that. Their professor mentioned that he had heard it was possible to grow edible mushrooms in recycled coffee grounds.

"No one had ever taken that idea and done anything with it commercially," Arora says. Intrigued by the idea, the students took to Velez's fraternity kitchen, where they set up 10 paint buckets of used coffee grounds fertilized with oyster mushroom spawn. Ten days later, they had sprouted their first crop.

OrigAudio Hits It Big With Fold and Play Recycled Speakers

From the September 2012 issue of Entrepreneur

Listen up: OrigAudio's Fold and Play Recycled Speakers and Designears.

Photo© Ben Alsop

A mere three months after Jason Lucash and Mike Szymczak started their company OrigAudio, they hit the jackpot. It was November 2009, and out of the blue, Time magazine called about featuring their Fold and Play Recycled Speakers among its "Best Inventions of 2009." Inspired by a Chinese takeout box, the ultraportable product--packaged flat and made entirely out of recycled materials--can be folded into a pair of cube-shaped speakers requiring no batteries or external power. It sells for $14.99.

The day the article came out, they sold 1,500 units (before that, their daily best was 10). Just prior, they'd received an order from the Marines for 50,000 Fold and Plays, launching OrigAudio's corporate gifting division with a bang. By Black Friday, the first batch of inventory was gone--resulting in an emergency air-freight shipment from their manufacturer in

Big Claims Aim to Boost Business at Mobile App Startup

From the September 2012 issue of Entrepreneur

Big-time builder: Chaotic Moon's Ben Lamm.

Photo© Sarah Wilson

Chaotic Moon is the most experienced, innovative and awesome mobilestudio out there--according to Chaotic Moon, that is. Over-the-top boasts and tongue-in-cheek self-affirmations are plastered across the Austin, Texas, startup's website, proclaiming its unrivaled mastery over all phases of mobile software development, publishing and management.

"I like to say we're 'justifiably confident,'" says 30-year-old co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm with a laugh. "But really, who wants to work with No. 2? If you don't believe you're No. 1 and don't believe you can build the best products and services, why would anyone else want to work with you?"

Young Entrepreneur Challenges the Way Americans Think About Their Cellphones

From the September 2012 issue of Entrepreneur

Can you hear him now? GSM Nation's Ahmed Khattak.

Photo© Natalie Brasington

In the fall of 2004, when 18-year-old Pakistani squash champion Ahmed Khattak arrived at Yale to play for the university and take advantage of a full academic scholarship, his first priority was to buy a cell phone to call his family back home. But he couldn't. With no Social Security number and no established credit, he wasn't able to get a cell phone service contract.

"I couldn't believe it," he says. "I'd just arrived in the most technologically advanced country in the world, and no one would sell me a phone."

Eventually, his roommate co-signed for a phone. But throughout his studies in electrical engineering and history, Khattak remained bothered by the peculiarity of the U.S. cell phone business model, which forces consumers to commit to pricey two-year contracts, with onerous fees for cancellations. He was also less than thrilled about the $50 per week he was spending on calls to his family in a remote region of Pakistan.

It was a 2007 internship in London, however, that provided the spark that would become his startup, GSM Nation. "At the airport in London, I walked out of customs and right up to a vending machine where I bought a £15 ($23) SIM card for my phone to make calls at cheaper local rates," he says. "I thought, Why can't America be like this?"

5 Young Millionaires Instigating Innovation

From the September 2012 issue of Entrepreneur

What You Can Learn From 8 Kids Already Making a Million Dollars

There’s no age limit when it comes to being a millionaire these days, and a handful of kids have struck it rich well before they can legally vote. They’re small business owners, inventors and entrepreneurs. I started as an entrepreneur when I was around 11 years old with my first candy stand, which grew to four candy stands, but that was nothing compared to some of these kids!

6 Questions to Ask Before You Quit Your Job to Start a Company

By Annabel Acton, October 01, 2014

We’ve all had that moment when you wonder about life on the other side.

Starting a business. Freelancing. Entrepreneurship.

From Broke to Billionaire: How 5 Famous People Did It

Creativity and ambition breed hope in the hearts and minds of entrepreneurs across America. These five incredible people embody the American dream. Though they came from humble beginnings, they now rank among the wealthiest and most successful business people on the planet.

30 Things You Should Never Say in a Job Interview

In an interview, your primary goal is to get across to the hiring manager why you—above all the other candidates—are the right person for the job. That you have the right set of skills, a great personality, and the drive to really make things happen in your new role.

But as you’re preparing answers to interview questions that’ll let you do all of those things, it’s equally important to know what the hiring manager will consider a red flag. After all, a wrong move or two, and it won’t matter how great your sales numbers at your last job were.

185 Powerful Verbs That Will Make Your Resume Awesome

Next time you update your resume, switch up a few of those common words and phrases

This post is in partnership with The Muse. The articlebelow was originally published on The Muse.

Led…

Handled…

Managed…

Responsible for…

Most resume bullet points start with the same words. Frankly, the same tired old words hiring managers have heard over and over—to the point where they’ve lost a lot of their meaning and don’t do much to show off your awesome accomplishments.

So, let’s get a little more creative, shall we? Next time you update your resume, switch up a few of those common words and phrases with strong, compelling action verbs that will catch hiring managers’ eyes.

No matter what duty or accomplishment you’re trying to show off, we’ve got just the verb for you. Check out the list below, and get ready to make your resume way more exciting.

Top Twenty Businesses For 2015

Follow your dream. We have the top twenty businesses for you to start now!

You don’t need to have a lot of money or experience to start your own business. You need to have passion and drive. You need to be detailed oriented with a dedicated follow-through. Are you ready?

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration anyone can start a business and succeed if they have a good idea, a good target market and leadership ability. Do you have what it takes to launch your very own private gold mine? There is something for everyone in our top twenty businesses.

Top 10 Business Trends That Will Drive Success In 2015

In 2015, you have an opportunity to take some risks, change how you market and sell, as well as define your niche in your market. Here are my predictions for ideas and trends that will shape sales and businessdevelopment for top performing companies in 2015.

1. The Role of Salespeople Will Evolve

Savvy customers don’t value old-school, pressure-based, manipulative sales methods. In fact, many executives say they’ll decide to not select a vendor because of a negative sales experience. Customers value subject matter experts (as I highlighted for 2014 Trends).

5 Ways to Boost Your Positive Attitude

So much of success in life has to do with attitude.

If you get your mind in a positive zone, there's little that can hold you back, at work, at home, or anywhere else.

5 Tips for Startups to Make the Most of Black Friday

Black Friday (Friday, November 28) will be the hottest shopping day of the year within the U.S. and your startup has the chance to participate.

Black Friday (Friday, November 28) will be the hottest shopping day of the year within the U.S. and your startup has the chance to participate. Whether your company is a local restaurant, complex B2B software provider, or retail store, you may take advantage of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday (Monday, December 1) hype. Here are 5 email marketing tips:

9 Challenges Every Successful Entrepreneur Overcomes

No entrepreneur sails easily to success. The great ones overcome many challenges. Here are the biggest obstacles and the expert books to help you surpass them.

Seven Free Ways to Grow Your Business

Here are seven tips and tricks to help grow your new venture with no money.

Growing any business is a challenge. Growing a new business--which usually also means limited resources to invest--is many times more difficult.

Tech Startup Valuations Explained – It All Comes Down to Willingness

How do tech start-up valuations work?

Valuation is merely what buyers and sellers agree that a company is worth. Pick any publicly traded stock and look at its market capitalization--that's the equilibrium point, at least for the moment. Think of it as a negotiation that occurs hundreds of times each minute, between thousands of buyers and sellers.

The 4 Types of Business Plans

In their book Write Your Business Plan, the staff of Entrepreneur Media  offer an in-depth understanding of what’s essential to any business plan, what’s appropriate for your venture, and what it takes to ensure success. In this edited excerpt, the authors describe four different types of plans you could write and what you'd use each one for.

How to Buck the Silicon Valley Model and Grow Slowly

Collaborative software company Atlassian wants to grow in a way that ensures it'll be around fifty years from now.

Most young tech companies follow this model: Bootstrap your great idea. Get venture capital money. Grow as quickly as you can, and then sell or go public.
That's not the way collaborative enterprise software company Atlassian sees things, according to its president, Jay Simons. The company, co-founded by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar in 2002 in Australia, has 300 employees in San Francisco, and 100 in Austin. The company is based in Sydney.

So What Is an Entrepreneur, Anyway?

The word 'entrepreneur' means different things to different people. Here are some of their thoughts.

A few weeks ago, I read a great piece by Phil Friedman on what he learned about entrepreneurship through his experiences with Andrew J. Mckelvey, founding chairman and former CEO of Monster.com. Phil's piece is a great read and touching tribute to Mr. Mckelvey, who passed away six years ago.
However this piece started a (friendly) debate between Phil and I about what exactly makes up an entrepreneur.

Two Strategies to Help A Team Go from Good to Great

Your business runs better, your team is happier.

1. Annual, schmannual

How to Avoid Drowning in Your Financials

Small business dashboards make managing finances easy, leaving you time to tend to the issues you're more passionate about.

To Taste Incredible Success, First Eat a Lot of This

Sometimes the perfect flavor is the taste of humble pie.

It's easy to look back on some small successes and start to feel pretty full of yourself.
Fortunately life has a way of knocking us back down--in the best possible way.
Case in point: I took a long bike ride and decided to cap it off with a decent climb before heading home. As hills go the one I chose is neither long nor particularly steep, but is tough enough that I rode by a few people who were forced to walk their bikes uphill.

How to Network Like a Rock Star

If you want to be successful, you need to build a human network.

Lately, there's been a lot of media buzz about the amazing resurgence of vinyl record albums. Wow, what's next, people actually talking on the phone?

Entrepreneurship Is Not Only Hard, It Can't Be Taught (That's What You Think)

Here's what some of the fastest-growing companies in America think about the rise of entrepreneurship.

All you have to do is check out any newspaper or social media platform to witness the growing popularity of entrepreneurship. It's increasingly common for the average person to think up his or her own startup idea as a side project. And the number of entrepreneurs is steadily swelling.

Your Happiness Is Your Responsibility

Contrary to popular belief, it's the way you think, not where you work, that determines whether you're happy or miserable.

I just read an article in The Atlantic about workplace happiness that made me laugh and cry at the same time. I laughed because it was so stupid and cried because millions of people will take it seriously.

How to Learn to Love Your Weaknesses

Stop being angry or ashamed about your less-than-perfect character. Your greatest weaknesses are also probably your greatest strengths.

We live in perfectionist times. Technology is always striving to be just that little bit better, parents are exhausted by an arms race of activities and engagement, and workers, fearing a perpetually droopy economy and the specter of competition from abroad, are bombarded with never-ending pressure to be more productive, efficient and ever connected.

Do the Right Thing to Battle Poor Morale

Many companies chase profits and squeeze whatever they can out of their employees. But that kind of soul-sucking behavior will only hurt morale. Find a worthy cause to energize your talent.

If your company is suffering from poor morale, you need to fix it before it spreads throughout all your talent. Talented professionals don't stay for long in an unhappy environment. This should come as no surprise, but poor morale happens now and then and it has to be addressed head on before it becomes toxic.

Balancing Culture and Benefits

10 Best companies help employees take charge of their financial futures and provide the benefits they need to do so successfully

While they vary widely in size, location, and industry, the organizations recognized in 2014 as The Principal 10 Best Companies for Employee Financial Security -- a national program that recognizes small and mid-sized companies that excel at giving their employees a financial edge -- do share a common trait. Every 10 Best firm focuses on helping employees secure their financial future by building a corporate culture that promotes personal responsibility and by providing the financial and insurance benefits employees need to be successful at that undertaking. They take different approaches, but a number of best practices stand out among 10 Best companies. Chief among them is providing employees with meaningful financial benefits -- 401(k) plans, profit-sharing, defined benefit pensions, ESOPs -- to help them save for retirement and comprehensive insurance benefits to keep them healthy enough to do that.

13 Leadership Tips That Lead to Fast Growth

Leadership development is critical for growing companies. Leaders point the team in the right direction and inspire followers to be productive and engaged with the mission.

Professor Christopher McCusker of the Freeman School of Business MBA program (Tulane University) is leading a dynamic class to identify successful business leadership techniques. Dr. McCusker invited me to share some ideas on leadership and here are the 13 critical leadership development techniques I spoke about with the class:

1. Swim In "Blue Oceans"

Why Self-Managed Teams Are the Future of Business

Could you build a business around teams of people who have no manager and who report to no one up a "food chain"? If you want your business to thrive going forward, you just might want to

7 (Even More) Ways to Become a Better Leader

Good leadership is about making wise decisions and letting people know you are human.

As we look to the last month of the year and into the new year, it's always a good idea to start thinking about your leadership skills. Are there ways you can improve? Is there an area where you need more training? Can you pat yourself on the back a little and say you've excelled at building relationships with your employees?
I've looked back a few times now and realized how I could have done things a bit differently in my previous career as a corporate manager. Here are a few more ideas.

1. Use power words

Power words can help you lead more effectively. They demonstrate a decisive attitude and quick thinking. Don't just tell your team to finish a project--ask them to have some fervency and vigor. Avoid saying you need something now--add a few syllables and say immediately. Add some vibrancy to your verbiage.

2. Only use business gadgets during work hours

Does being a leader mean you have to work constantly? Not really. In fact, if you can lead effectively in an eight-hour span, it means you have figured out how to do the job. Commanding people to do things at 9PM at night shows everyone you are disorganized.

3. Dress like everyone else

I've been impressed with a few founders I've met on business trips who look exactly they are one of the team. It helps tremendously. Wearing a suit denotes power and authority--it also separates you from the masses. Wear a suit or a sharp outfit to the investor meeting. Otherwise, it's best to try and fit in and let you knowledge and wisdom speak for itself.

4. Buy the finer coffee

Wait, isn't coffee just a practical necessity in the office or (depending on how much you need caffeine) a luxury? In a startup, getting the cheap stuff at Costco sends a message to employees that you don't really care about their tastes. Plus, it doesn't cost that much more to spring for the finer roasts and build up morale.

5. Hit the soup kitchen

I've noticed how the best leaders in business have one eye trained on the goals of the company--and another on the trials of society at large. Good leadership sometimes can mean stooping to help the lowly. Volunteer at a soup kitchen and bring along a couple of employees. They will see that you are human, that you care about the needs of others, and that you are not all about work. Oh, and the people you are serving will also benefit.

6. Smile even during the stressful times

Life is short. Try smiling more at work even when you are stressed out. It's one sign of a good leader that you can not just handle the pressure and cope, but you can actually rise above it and stay positive. Everyone notices when your attitude stays consistent.

7. Be true to yourself

One final parting thought in my series of leadership tips. (Well, until I start another series.) Anyone can pretend to be in charge, stomp around and chew out low performing employees. That's not too difficult. Faking authority and knowledge is a good way to convince people you should not be leading them. Be yourself. Admit failures. Show them you are human. Your employees will be ready to follow.

5 Documentaries Every Entrepreneur Should Watch on Netflix Now

Before the tryptophan sets in, bookmark these entrepreneurial, inspiring films now. Make it a truly happy Thanksgiving.

After Thanksgiving dinner, as the food-coma sets in and you suddenly realize the need to capture your extended family's attention--or, let's face it, you need a little "me time"--here are five films you should stream on Netflix.

This film chronicles the humble beginnings of Burt's Bees' namesake and co-founder Burt Shavitz and his Machiavellian struggle with co-founder Roxanne Quimby.

Former secretary of labor Robert Reich, with a little help from entrepreneur Nick Hanauer, explains the increasing problem of income inequality in America and its implications for our economy.

 Scientists, researchers, and thought leaders explain the latest information surrounding happiness (and reveal why your vast salary isn't making you much happier).

For all the winos out there, Somm follows the lives of a few folks compromising time, relationships, and other goals to study for and hopefully pass the Master Sommelier Exam.

With interviews from music's biggest stars, 20 Feet From Stardom unpacks the lives of backup singers and their immense contribution to the hits we all know and love.

Public Relations Tips and Tricks for Your Business

Creating an efficient PR and marketing plan is a cornerstone to building up your organization's success. Marketing and PR, unfortunately, sometimes can be costly, particularly if you're running a lean operation and just starting out.

Creating an efficient PR and marketing plan is a cornerstone to building up your organization's success. Marketing and PR, unfortunately, sometimes can be costly, particularly if you're running a lean operation and just starting out. Thankfully, there will include a few affordable PR and marketing tips and tricks which may offer your small business a cost-effective way to successfully increase sales and grow your consumer base.

The 5 New Rules of Employee Engagement

What really keeps your workers motivated? These true tales reveal the surprising answers.

It's the furtive glances as you approach, the crowd at the water cooler suddenly dispersing. Whispers and snickers during meetings. The staring at the floor as you pass in the hallway, the forced smiles. Is it all in your imagination? You might love your employees, or consider some of them friends--but you also wouldn't be doing your job if you didn't stop to wonder what they really think of you.

Especially when you read the statistics: Just 30 percent of American workers are engaged at work, according to Gallup, costing the nation $450 billion to $550 billion per year in lost productivity. (That includes the price of absenteeism, workplace accidents, and increased health care costs.) Even the best companies--those scoring in the top 10 percent on employee surveys--register only about 38 percent of their employees as "fully engaged," according to consultant Kevin Sheridan, author of Building a Magnetic Culture.

You can quibble with those numbers--and we will--because the human heart is one performance variable that's impossible to measure, despite the business world's obsession with metrics. But that doesn't change an essential truth: Motivating your work force may be the toughest and most important challenge you face as an entrepreneur, especially in the age of social media, when a few disgruntled employees can destroy your reputation. You just know those unhappy campers are out there, sowing seeds of discontent throughout your organization and beyond. So how can you find out whether their gripes are legitimate or just bellyaching? And once you find out, what can you do about them?

Maybe the question is, what should you not do about it? Employee engagement has become such a hot topic that great swarms of consultants and authors are undoubtedly banging on your door as we speak, armed with enough action plans and PowerPoint presentations to make your head swim. Whom to trust? What to believe?

"The problem with employee engagement experts is they take well-meaning concepts and overengineer them to the point that they don't bear any resemblance to what normal people understand," says Neil Morrison, group human resources director for Penguin Random House U.K. "Then we wonder why we have a disengaged work force."

It's tempting to respond by throwing up your hands in despair and doing nothing, or by overcompensating and turning your office into a goofy playpen for coddled employees. But it doesn't have to be that complicated. Instead, consult our jargon-free guide to creating a great place to work.

Rule 1: Don't Sweat Anonymous Reviews

At first glance, social media software startup Lithium Technologies looks like an awesome employer. Located in downtown San Francisco, it has a game room with foosball, Ping-Pong, and a dozen guitars for playing Guitar Hero; a hammock for lounging; and free catered lunches three times a week from a choice of 10 restaurants. Occasionally, some of its 400-plus employees can be seen flying down the corridors on scooters.

But if you were job hunting a few years ago and read the anonymous posts from current and former employees on the career site Glassdoor, you probably wouldn't have bothered to apply. "There is not much positive to say about this company. It's a bad place to work," one reviewer said. "Stay away!"

At the time, Lithium Technologies was still run by CEO Lyle Fong, a computer-game entrepreneur who co-founded the company with his brother, Dennis Fong, in 2001. Of the six reviews posted during Lyle Fong's tenure, four were scathing, earning the company an overall rating of 2.3 stars out of 5.

Then Rob Tarkoff, a seasoned industry veteran, took over in August 2011. You had to feel for the guy, heading up a company selling social media expertise as it was struggling on a prominent social media site (one that nearly half of all job hunters consult, according to an independent survey by research firm Software Advice). Under Tarkoff, Lithium began asking employees to post reviews on Glassdoor and encouraging new hires to do the same as part of their onboarding process, according to Jennifer Trzepacz, Lithium's senior vice president of human resources.

If your employees are already disgruntled, throwing too many perks at them may only create a culture of entitlement.

Not a good idea in general, says Tim Erblich, CEO of the Ethisphere Institute, a global business ethics group. "We know of one company with 600 employees that got bad reviews on Glassdoor and directed employees to post positive stuff," he says. "For every one that wrote something positive, seven or eight employees said it was a bunch of hooey. No company is perfect, so when people see reviews so glowing they border on the obscene, that completely backfires. It's important to be authentic."

But Lithium didn't stop there. It also began paying Glassdoor for services to help improve its image on the site. That's something Glassdoor advertises with the pitch: "Join the conversation."

First, Lithium paid for an "enhanced profile" that included its core-values statement, photos, an elaborately produced "Why Work for Us?" video, and links to its Facebook and Twitter feeds and company blogs. Then it signed up for another paid program to promote its job listings in sponsored search results throughout the site. (Basic profiles are free; enhanced profiles started at $495 per month in 2010. Glassdoor declined to comment on current prices.)

Both the internal and external efforts paid off for Lithium. Suddenly, it became a fantastic place to work, "like a thrilling ride with a bright future," one employee gushed on Glassdoor. "Best company I've ever worked for," said another. The company's rating soared from 2.7 to 4.4 in a matter of months, and as of late October, 61 percent of reviewers said they would recommend it to a friend. Lithium received Glassdoor's 2014 Best Places to Work Employees' Choice award.

Many owners resent a business that allows people to anonymously say nasty things about you, and then offers paid services to help you clean up your now-sullied reputation (see "Secrets of a Very Opaque Glassdoor"). "It really bothers me that people can just slam a company without anybody knowing how accurate it is," says Sheridan. Glassdoor spokesperson Samantha Zupan says that employers can respond to negative reviews without paying for enhanced profiles, and can flag reviews they consider inappropriate. "If it does not meet our community guidelines"--poor grammar and "accusations of criminal activity" are frowned upon--"we will reject it," she says. "If it meets our community guidelines, it stays up."

Companies don't necessarily have to pay up. There are other ways to handle negative reviews--and Lithium did many of them. It responded to reviewer complaints about a lack of communication by instituting weekly staff meetings and by sharing more financial information. It began an annual survey of employees, set up a digital network for posting suggestions, and started hosting quarterly employee roundtables with Tarkoff.

Even these efforts were not enough to stop the bad reviews: "Do not work here, terrible culture and awful leadership," read a recent one-star rating. But in the age of Yelp, job hunters are savvy at recognizing that bad reviews often say more about the reviewer than the reviewed. And people know instinctively what a study by Workplace Dynamics found last year: Glassdoor reviews represent only a tiny slice of employees--on average, 1.6 percent--and most of them are malcontents, with unhappy workers five to eight times more likely to post a review than happy ones. "The overall Glassdoor star rating was a very poor indicator of what it is really like to work at a company," the study concludes.

So don't sweat the negative reviews too much--and don't dress up your Glassdoor page with lots of expensive content. It will only make people wonder what you're trying to hide.

Rule 2: Discover Your Company's Purpose

In 2001, when Andrew Limouris started employment agency Medix Staffing Solutions, he wanted it to be less like his father's bakery and its grueling 12-hour days and more like the offices where his mother worked as a cleaner. For Dad, the business was just a way to support his family. "But Mom became such close friends with the people she worked with that she couldn't wait to go in every day," he says. Limouris wanted Medix, which helps clients find contract employees, to be a place where employees could share their joys and sorrows--like the births of his three children, his mother's death--and truly have one another's backs.

But Limouris is now 43 and most of his 275 employees are Millennials working their first job after college. In the past five years, as the age gap began to grow, turnover became high. They wanted to dress casually; he wanted professional attire. They wanted to work remotely; he wanted them at the office. They wanted to move to downtown Chicago; he wanted to stay in the suburb of Lombard, so he could get home to attend his children's soccer games.

Limouris loosened up about the dress codes and, in a few cases, telecommuting, and even agreed to move the company's headquarters to downtown Chicago. But turnover remained high. Next, he brought in consultants, one of whom asked him: Are people rallying around your company's goals? The answer, clearly, was no--partly because those goals had not been articulated. So Limouris and his senior management team spent an entire day asking a simple question: "Why does Medix exist? What is our core purpose?"

Ultimately, they realized that Medix already had a profound purpose: to find jobs for people in an uncertain economy. The company came up with a rallying cry, "Positively Impacting Lives," and created a goal of helping 20,000 people land employment.

Limouris was discovering what many in the field of employee engagement have come to understand over the past several years: Motivating employees isn't really about the free food and nap pods that companies like Google offer. If employees hate their jobs, perks like that won't keep them around, and those perks can even create problems in the short term. "The employee says, 'My hand is out, make me happy,' which creates a mentality of entitlement," says Chris Gay of Bridge Consulting.

An important turning point for employee engagement experts came with Daniel H. Pink's Drive. The 2009 book argues that while it's important to pay employees well, most carrot-and-stick motivators don't work in the long term, because people get so fixated on the reward that they lose interest in the activity itself. What we really want in our jobs, Pink writes, is autonomy, the chance to get better at what we do, and a purpose that connects us to something larger.

That is especially true of the Millennial generation, which will make up three-quarters of the nation's work force in just over a decade. Studies show that recent MBAs will work for a significantly lower salary if they truly believe in what they are doing.

At Medix, discovering the company's core purpose had a dramatic effect. The new mantra and related team-building exercises, like group-assembling a bicycle, yielded striking results: Turnover dropped, productivity increased, and employee surveys showed engagement levels rose. "We have more people today producing at a higher level than ever before," Limouris says. Finally, Medix was truly becoming more like the type of place where his mom would have loved to work.

Rule 3: Survey, But Keepit Short and Follow Up

When Mike Derheim, Mike Schmidt, and Luke Bucklin founded the Nerdery in 2003, they vowed to make the web production company "the ultimate destination for nerds." They would give employees plenty of autonomy, fun projects, and a laid-back work environment lousy with office dogs. When Bucklin, the company president, died in a plane crash in 2010, the Nerdery honored his memory by giving everyone on staff the title of "co-president," formalizing an exhortation Bucklin gave to all employees a few months before his death, urging them to transcend their assigned roles.

But the Minneapolis startup started to grow so fast--nearly doubling its staff, to more than 500, since 2012--that its vaunted culture suffered. Turnover increased, and departing employees complained about compensation and benefits in exit interviews. Alarmed, the Nerdery's human resources department, in 2013, brought in an outside firm, Modern Survey, to find out what was wrong.

Employee surveys by big consulting firms like Gallup and Towers Watson have been a staple of large corporations for decades, of course--by some estimates, it's a $1 billion business--but only recently have smaller, growing companies like the Nerdery begun to use them too. The trouble is, critics say, these surveys are highly unscientific at best and fraudulent at worst. Leading the naysayers was the late Robert Gerst, a Canadian statistician who kicked up a storm in 2013 with an article in the Journal for Quality and Participation that concluded, "The dirty little secret of employee engagement surveys is that they're largely junk science." Gerst, who died earlier this year, argued that most consultants conducting such surveys have a built-in conflict of interest: First they reveal that large swaths of your work force are out to lunch, and then they sell you services to improve that dismal situation. (Gerst sold a kit, through his Converge Consulting Group in Calgary, Alberta, that allowed employers to create their own employee surveys.)

One reason measuring employee engagement is so difficult is there is no consensus on what the term means, exactly. Gallup says it describes people who are "psychologically committed to their jobs and likely to be making positive contributions to their organizations." But Gerst maintained that it is statistically impossible to accurately predict outcomes like productivity, profitability, sales, absenteeism, and accident rates on the basis of employee-engagement numbers, despite the claims of Gallup and others.

"You can't borrow somebody else's work environment--you'll be miserable at it."Tariq Ford, founder of Edible Arrangements

So what's an entrepreneur to do? In short, follow the example of the Nerdery: Survey your employees if you need to get a handle on how they feel, but don't spend a lot of money, make it short, and ask the right questions. The Nerdery hired Modern Survey to administer a simple five-question poll to get an overview of morale and then drill down deeper to unearth specific complaints. (Modern Survey charges $5,000 to poll 200 staffers.)

The Nerdery received an astounding 97 percent level of participation from its employees and got excellent marks for encouraging teamwork, treating employees fairly, and running a company they are proud to work for. But two big areas of dissatisfaction emerged, about compensation and benefits and lack of training. So the Nerdery responded, authorizing each department head to give raises of up to 10 percent. The company also ramped up dental and short-term disability benefits, and replaced vacation and sick days with "personal time off" days that people can use for any reason. It also created a cross-training program to help employees develop secondary and even tertiary skills across a variety of tech platforms. That helped the company too, by keeping employees busy when there was less demand for their primary skills.

True to its ethos of transparency, the Nerdery kept employees informed about the survey results and the actions it took in response. This is crucial, says Don MacPherson, co-founder and president of Modern Survey, because taking surveys without sufficient follow-up makes employees more cynical and less inspired. For example, one tech company used his services but then "didn't do a single thing--they just swept it under the rug. We came back two years later and the results were even worse," MacPherson says, adding that the miserable work environment eventually got the CEO fired. "If you're doing a survey, you have to realize that employees will expect something to get done."

Even for companies like the Nerdery, which was already doing well, MacPherson says that conducting employee surveys can pay off in the long term, like seeing your doctor for an annual checkup even if you're feeling good. "I've had executives tell me they don't want to do a survey because 'I'm afraid of what I'll learn,' " he says. "That's so discouraging. If you're having health issues, you have to deal with it. Otherwise, the consequence could be the failure of your organization."

Rule 4: There Is Only So Much You Can Do

When Tariq Farid started Edible Arrangements, in 1999, it was easy to train people and correct or praise them immediately. But today the Wallingford, Connecticut, company, which makes bouquets of fresh fruit, has 150 employees and more than 1,200 franchise locations around the world. That growth has been rocky at times; as the company grew to its present size, Farid could feel workers were less inspired and not communicating as well.

Customers complained. Senior employees with great ideas and lots of enthusiasm left the company, some saying in exit interviews that they didn't feel appreciated. "I was surprised they felt that way," says Farid. "Maybe we weren't paying attention."

And then there's the really unhappy former employee who's suing Farid. Tara Perino, who worked as Edible Arrangements' comptroller from 2011 to 2012, alleges that Farid repeatedly harassed her in the workplace, discriminated against white women like her in favor of South Asian and Muslim employees, and, despite her positive performance review and two salary raises, unfairly fired her.

Farid denies all charges and is fighting the lawsuit. There appears to be little middle ground in the case; if Perino's allegations have merit, Edible Arrangements' employees have more serious problems than a lack of engagement. But if the lawsuit is baseless, at least Farid can use it as a reminder of how difficult it is to stay on top of what's happening with his employees.

"You can't borrow somebody else's work environment--you'll be miserable at it," he says. "You have to be real, because that's the kind of leadership people are looking for."

That's a hard-fought conclusion. As employee morale started slipping, Farid tried immersing himself in the literature of engagement and spending more time with his HR people, looking for ways to celebrate achievements and keep people excited. When weekly staff meetings became too predictable, managers introduced karaoke singing to liven things up. They formed flash mobs when an employee had a birthday. They sponsored walks and bowling events to raise money for charity and build a sense of community.

But there's a limit to how much "fun" is good for a company--and its employees. Studies show that while team-building events and public celebrations can decrease turnover, they can also harm productivity. And playing games in the workplace can have a positive effect, but only if the workers want to participate; perhaps not surprisingly, "mandatory fun" has been shown to reduce productivity and job satisfaction.

In other words, it's OK to acknowledge that some problems are beyond a boss's control. "One thing entrepreneurs should not worry about is trying to engage everyone," says MacPherson. "It's perfectly acceptable to write off the employees who will never buy in."

Rule 5: Actually, Don't Worry About Engagement

After decades of rapid growth, the field of employee engagement is now suffering a well-deserved backlash. Though big consulting firms have been sounding the alarm about disengaged workers for more than 30 years, today 79 percent of businesses are seriously worried about engagement and retention, according to Deloitte. Globally, only 13 percent of employees are highly engaged, says Gallup. So if employee-engagement programs are so effective, why are so many workers still checked out?

It might be a problem with the measuring sticks. That's the argument from Morrison, the HR director for Penguin Random House U.K., who last year launched a vigorous transnational debate on the value of engagement with a single tweet: "Every time I hear the word engagement another part of me dies."

In an interview, Morrison says that wrestling with employee-engagement issues in various HR roles over 15 years has convinced him that the field encourages companies to view employees as mere tools of productivity rather than as real human beings.

"Surveys are fine, but simply having actual conversations and asking employees 'What can we do better?' is much more valuable," he says. "If employees can't sit down with their boss and talk about things, it doesn't matter how many anonymous surveys you run; you have a problem."

A useful test, Morrison says, is to ask yourself, "How much do I know about my team? Not just how long they've worked here, what their last job was, or how they like their coffee, but who are they? What are their lives about? What did they do last weekend? If you don't know, you haven't built up a relationship with them, and you probably won't know when things aren't going well."

So don't worry about employeeengagement. Instead, treat people well, listen to them, and give them room to grow. Don't do that just to squeeze more productivity out of them--they're smart enough to see that coming--but because it's the right thing to do. And if your heart is in the right place, they'll see that too.

Top 8 Brand Disasters of 2014

What entrepreneurs can learn from the huge branding mistakes that huge companies make.

This year had its share of brand blunders but this post contains eight that, in my view, were not only disastrous but also could have been easily avoided. Notice that most of them involve social media, which is rapidly becoming a branding mine field.

1. Wal-Mart

As the country's largest retailer, Wal-Mart naturally wants to provide its customers with a wide range of products. That range became a bit too wide, though, when the company's Halloween promotional web pages included the category "Fat Girl Costumes." By the time the company apologized and changed the page, the brand damage was already done.

Lesson Learned: Don't offend a major segment of your customer base.

2. Red Cross

With a history going back over 130 years, the Red Cross has one of most highly recognized brands in the entire world. In October of 2014, though, reports surfaced that after major disasters like Hurricane Sandy, the Red Cross paid more attention to getting good PR, rather than doing good works.

Lesson Learned: Don't substitute branding for getting the product right.

3. Target

Many boys enjoy action figures, especially of fictional characters that they see as role models. However, while hero-worshipping Spiderman or Catwoman is probably harmless, it's probably not a great idea--brand-wise--to include in the "Toys" section action figures of a drug lord and crack dealer from the very adult television show Breaking Bad.

Lesson Learned: Match your products to your customer base.

4. US Airways

When US Airways responded to complaining tweets with a "We welcome your feedback..." auto-tweet, it didn't help the company's brand image when the tweet included a pornographic photo. The offending tweet ended up being retweeted hundreds of times before the company even noticed it had been gone out.

Lesson Learned: Don't let an intern run your social media campaign.

5. Reynold's American

For decades, tobacco industry has claimed that smoking is a personal choice. That brand message wasn't reaffirmed, though, when the tobacco giant Reynold's banned pipes, cigars and cigarettes at their corporate headquarters. Fortunately, for the already addicted, the company still permits employees to use chewing tobacco. (Ewww.)

Lesson Learned: When branding, it's OK to breath your own smoke.

6. Market Basket

When the board of directors at the grocery chain Market Basket replaced beloved CEO Arthur T. DeMoulas with a pair of professional downsizers, the last thing they expected was a wildcat strike followed by a customer boycott. After losing millions of dollars, the board capitulated and sold control of the company back to the ousted CEO.

Lesson Learned: Ultimately, your employees define your brand.

7. American Apparel

While the company's CEO, Dov Charney, had been famous over the years for both his risque ads and his risky behavior, it probably wasn't the best idea (from a personal branding perspective) for Charney to launch an campaign featuring NSFW photos at the same time that the board of directors was considering whether or not to fire him. (They did.)

Lesson Learned: Don't do branding when scandal is brewing.

8. Malaysian Air

After the regional airline lost two planes in a single month, you'd think they'd consider ways to repair the brand damage. Instead, the airline launched a "bucket list" ad campaign where asking people tweet places they'd like to see before they die. I don't know about you, but I'd like to see the inside of the airport terminal before I die.

What Falling in Love (and an Awesome Guitar Player) Taught Me About Setting Goals

We've all heard about the value of setting goals. Here's my story--and the four practical lessons I learned.

You can find a lot of material out there on the value of setting goals. Experts will tell you to design goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely); a few will tell you to forget setting goals altogether.
I'm a big believer in using small goals as stepping stones to reach larger ones. Here's a personal story to illustrate:
About seven years ago, I decided to ask the love of my life to marry me. Of course, I wanted to make the proposal special, so I racked my brain to come up with something she wouldn't totally expect. My girlfriend happens to be a talented musician (she plays two instruments), and she knew that I couldn't play anything...other than my iPod.
So I decided to completely surprise her--by learning to play a song on the guitar. We were a long-distance success story, so we'd adopted "Hey There Delilah" (by The Plain White T's) as our song. Oh yeah, and I completely rewrote the lyrics to fit us. (Hey--I was in love. Cut me some slack.)
I went to a close friend of mine (James, who happens to be one of the best guitarists on the planet) and asked how feasible it was that I learn to play and sing my proposal--in three months. I'll never forget our conversation:
Me: So, is that possible?
James: That depends. How much guitar can you play right now?
Me: Umm...zero.
James: OK (chuckling). Do you want to just play the chords, or like, the real song?
Me: Come on--this is for my future wife here!
James: OK, OK. Well, it's possible, but it's definitely not going to be easy. But if you're committed, I think you can do it.
Me: I'm definitely committed.
We got to work. James met with me every three days for the next three months, and at every meeting, he gave me a new goal. In the beginning, I had to learn how to play four notes at a time. (Sound simple? Trust me, it's not.)
Over the next three days, I would need to master those four notes; then, James would show me the next four. I had three days to learn those; then, we'd meet again...and so on. James did all of this out of the goodness of his heart (and his desire to assist true love), but he named one condition: I had to reach each goal before we would move on to the next.
It took me about two months to learn to play the full song. The next month was learning to play and sing the lyrics at the same time. (For all of you out there who are good at this: respect.)
It was one of the most challenging things I've ever done.
The result?
Well...seven years (and two kids) later, my wife's eyes still light up when she tells our "proposal story."
So what does any of this have to do with you and your business? Let's extract four major lessons:
1. Get yourself a mentor.
I never (there is no way to emphasize this enough) would have accomplished this without James's help. Not only was he a genius guitar player, he was an excellent teacher, an awesome motivator, and the perfect coach. He knew the task ahead was formidable, but he never discouraged me, always remaining positive.
Of course, we don't all have friends that make wonderful business mentors. But I didn't always have access to my own personal George Benson, either. My friendship with James began a few years earlier--as a professional relationship.
Never underestimate the power of your network.
2. You need smaller goals to reach bigger goals.
Imagine James met with me on that first night, showed me how to play half the song, and said: "There it is. I'll see you again in a month."
My first goal was to learn four notes. Four notes. A gargantuan task for me, but a small fraction in relation to the big picture. Those four notes led to the next four, which led to the next four, etc.
Important: You define the ultimate objective, but your mentor can help you determine which goals will get you there.
3. Keep focused on the end product.
There were obvious challenges to finding time to practice every day, and these threatened to impede my progress.
But I had a strong belief in the symbolism of what I was trying to do: Marriage was more than just a piece of paper to me--it would mean a lifetime of commitment and hard work to be truly successful. Undertaking this incredibly difficult challenge was my way of saying to my girlfriend: I'm ready to do whatever it takes to be able to wake up next to you for the rest of my life.
Focusing on this, as well as on the joy of surprising my (potential) fiancée, kept me going...despite the obstacles that got in the way.
Similarly, when you encounter difficulty (and you will), view these as challenges to be overcome--not as dead ends. Focus on your end goal.
Remember: The harder you work for something, the more valuable it becomes.
4. Get started!
I can't remember exactly how long I tossed this idea around before I got moving, but it wasn't long. I knew that every minute sitting around thinking about it was a minute lost--and I was in no position to waste time.
Lesson: There's no perfect time. There are no perfect circumstances. It's not going to be easy...and there will be setbacks. But once you've determined what you want to do, what's holding you back?
So...what are you waiting for? Get up, and get a move on! At the end of the day, you'll be that much closer to what you hope to accomplish.
I can't promise that you'll reach every aspiration you set your heart on. But having set (and reached) a considerable number of goals in my life, I can testify that following the steps above can help you achieve great things.
And if you don't believe me...
Just ask my wife.