Key Idea # 1: Gain Knowledge to Increase Flexibility

HATTIE: (IN THE STUDIO) Hi. I'm Hattie Bryant, every week we take you inside a business. You meet the founder and the people who help make the business work. 

There's so little time and so much to learn. 

HATTIE: The woman you'll meet now has timing. She's done it right not once, but twice. 

(Voiceover) The people part of business is hard, but Wanda Brice makes it look easy. Wanda Brice started her first business in 1978, sold it, then opened this staffing company in 1993 because she saw a need and filled it. She's always thought, `If someone's going to make money, it might as well be me.' 

WANDA BRICE (Computer Directions): I started earning money as an entrepreneur when I was five, and I set up a stand and sold my mother's perfume bottles. Then I used to put on circuses, and I'd put on shows in the summer for the neighbors, and we'd charge admission. 

HATTIE: When did this light bulb go on in your head that, `Oh, I'm good at computers'? 

WANDA: Well, of course, I didn't even know anything about computers. I knew I was good in math, and so I had decided that perhaps I wanted to be an executive secretary because they seemed to have a lot of perks. But then since I could not type or take shorthand, this was not a good choice, since... 

HATTIE: And you didn't want to learn how to make coffee. 

WANDA: And I wasn't good at making coffee either. So I talked to a teacher of mine, and she said, `Well, you're really good in math. Why don't you say that you're a statistical analyst?' And I said, `Oh, good.' So I said that's what I was and got a job being a statistical analyst. 

HATTIE: But you didn't know what that was. 

WANDA: Not really. 

HATTIE: You just said that on a resume. 

WANDA: That's what I said. 

HATTIE: Would you advise people to use euphemisms on their resumes to get attention? 

WANDA: This has been a while ago, when I was in the beginning job corps, but I didn't consider it not true. I always thought I could do anything. 

HATTIE: Your math teacher said, `You're good at math; then, therefore, you are a statistical analyst.' Then that was OK. 

WANDA: That was OK, and I really enjoyed that. So I was, in fact, a statistical analyst and I did a really good job. They were very happy with me doing that. 

HATTIE: So this was a job at a big company. 

WANDA: Yes. And so then they came to me and said, `We are going to hire a thing called a programmer, and we want you to teach them how to do your reports, because they're going to make it come out on a computer.' And so I went to the president of the company, and I said, `Why don't you send me to school and let me learn to program this new machine rather than hire somebody to learn how to program things I already know how to do?' 

HATTIE: Do we need to take initiative if we want change in our lives? 

WANDA: Yes. Doing something is not always easy for everybody. It's interesting. I think that's what my parents gave me was confidence, and I don't think there's a greater gift that you can give somebody to let them have the nerve to step up and say, `Well, I can probably do that. Show me how to do that.' I then actually left, went back to school, finished college. And when I decided to get back in the work force a couple years later, nothing appealed to me. And so I thought, `Well, I think I'll be a consultant for a while and see what I want to do.' 

So I was actually a computer consultant for a year or so, and then actually got recruited by a large oil company. And I've talked to my older brother, and I said, `You know, I really hate what I'm doing, and I don't like to not enjoy work,' because I like to work. He said, `Well, lean against the company. You know, lean against the system and see if you can change it.' So I did, and I really couldn't change it. 

And so I went back again, and I said, `I still don't like it.' And he said, `Well, corporate life is corporate life, and I don't think you're really cut out for corporate life. Why don't you think about doing something else?' And so I thought, `What shall I do?' And so I decided that we would start a separate company. 

HATTIE: So did that work? 

WANDA:  Yes. It happened. 

HATTIE:  So how fast did you grow? 

Key Idea # 2: Serve More Than One Customer

WANDA: Well, it was very fast. We had--we were doing a Dallas office of a mortgage company, and they liked it so much, they wanted us to do their offices in--all over--well, four offices first, and the next week it was all the offices in Texas, and then it was four states, and then it was all the states. 

HATTIE: So what lessons did you learn from that business? Because that business doesn't exist anymore, right? 

WANDA: Right. The lesson you learn in that--and this is very tough for a small business--is don't get caught up with one major client. They tend to gobble you up. As you could see, they wanted four offices, they wanted a state, they wanted four states, they wanted all the states. And so a small company's trying to grow reasonably slowly so that you can manage payroll and manage your cash flow and make sure that you're continuing to produce a great product. So the big company uses up your resources, and then if they fall on hard times, so do you. They went bankrupt. 

HATTIE: Your one big customer?

WANDA: Well, we didn't just have one, thank God. 

HATTIE: But your biggest. 

WANDA: But our biggest customer, yes. So we began to size down and regroup and reconsider and find a different niche. And all the time I was doing this, I was providing staff to my clients, a pass-through situation. They would have an office in New Jersey. And in those days, in rapid refinancing for the old wave, somebody would come and steal all your employees. So they would be without people to process their loans. So we would send teams up of people to process. So I'd been providing staff. And also when somebody used the system, I would provide staff to personalize and modify those systems. 

delete for web play HATTIE: Right. You could see the potential there. 

Key Idea # 3: Change To Match Market Needs

WANDA: Oh, yes. I could see the burgeoning need for staffing. People were always asking me to write their specs for them to hire people, to interview people for them, to tell them how to interview people, to pass people to them. It was all around staffing. 

HATTIE: (Voiceover) Based in Dallas, Texas, Wanda and her staff of eight provide computer programmers to some of the country's largest companies. 

Well, now what do you do here at Computer Directions? 

Unidentified Woman #1: At this time, I work on the database, keep the current files for all employees and future prospective employees. But I've done a little bit of everything here. I've been the receptionist, and I can fill in in a variety of positions, whatever she needs me to do. 

Unidentified Woman #2: Well, I recruit computer and mortgage people. On the computer side, I recruit programmers,  administrators, help desk. 

Unidentified Woman #3: I'm a client liaison. 

HATTIE: And what does that mean? 

Woman #3: And what I do, I interact with any problems, good things with the client in helping place people. 

HATTIE: Are we talking about customer service? 

Woman #3: Customer service, finding out what kind of people they want, what positions they want filled, what skills they need and what type of person. 

HATTIE: How do you convince those folks who have skills that a lot of people want--how do you convince them to come to work for you-all? 

Woman #2: Well, you just have to talk to them, become their friends. You know, you have to just create a relationship with them. 

HATTIE: So when did Computer Directions become the company that it is today? Or when did you open the doors of Computer Directions? 

WANDA: Well, I incorporated it in the end of '93, and we actually opened for business in January of '94. 

HATTIE: And can you talk about that trend of outsourcing and temporary placement and all that, not just computers? 

WANDA: I think people have lost the idea--and correctly so--that they're going to start working for company A and work there for 25 years and retire. That's very unlikely these days. And now it's more who you are is what you do, not who you do it for. If I said, `I'm Wanda Brice, systems analyst,' I'm not Wanda Brice, IBM. I'm Wanda Brice, systems analyst. And so is everybody. You have a skill set that you carry with you--your skill set--from job to job. And I think that that's where we are. And I don't do temporary placements like half a day or a week. We do contract placements, and that would be minimum of three months, but for a project. We do project and augmentation staffing. 

HATTIE: The critics, you know, the labor people may argue, `Oh, that's just your way of not having to put people on benefits.'  It's  small-business owners--you guys are trying to elude or evade your responsibility to creat really good work. You know what I'm talking about? 

WANDA: Absolutely. We frequently make that choice with our contracts, what we call field employees. The field employee comes back to me and says, `I don't have as many benefits as the home office group has.' 

HATTIE: These are the nine people you're talking about. 

WANDA: Right.  

HATTIE: The home office people are the nine people right here in this space. 

WANDA: Right.  I would say, `Well, good, if you want to go on salary, this is what your salary would be, and  then--you'd have benefits in addition to that. Now which way do you want it to be? Do you want to be an hourly contract person, or do you want to be a home office full-time employee? Then you're going to make less salary, but the package will be about the same.' Now we also have a policy that when you're here a certain length of time, you begin to accrue benefits as well. So you begin to become like a full-time employee or a home office employee. However, my home office employees are on commission. Everybody has a commission, so that everybody's salary is a function of production. 

Key Idea # 4: Pay for Performance

HATTIE: All right. Let's talk about how you do that, because pay for performance is definitely what we would all like to do. 

WANDA: Right. Well, let's say that you're the receptionist, and let's say that you're brand-new and you might expect to make $20,000, $25,000 a year. If you work here, you will make a percentage of production up to a certain point. So that if we make $5 million, you make $50,000 as opposed to the $25,000. And so the better that the company does, the much better that you do. It's a significant increase. 

HATTIE: Do I get  base pay?

WANDA: You get a minimum that you won't go beneath. 

HATTIE: There's a floor? 

WANDA: There's a floor. 

HATTIE: Then how often are the payments made? 

WANDA: You get paid this pay period based on last pay period's production. 

HATTIE: And your production is measured by how many contract computer operators you've got in the field generating X dollars per hour. 

WANDA: Right. Exactly. 

HATTIE: We've had other business owners say, `I don't pay on profits because  CPAs can manipulate and show that we don't make profit.' 

WANDA: Oh, sure. It's not profit; it's revenues. 

HATTIE: Is  pay for performance here the idea that everybody makes more money when the team does better?

Woman #3: I love the idea of that. I like a team environment. I like everybody pulling and not the separation that can be done if it's only individualized. 

HATTIE: So it works. 

Woman #3: I think as a team effort, that we do make more money. And I think everyone tries harder. 

HATTIE: Every time someone books a job with us you feel this energy around here, right? 

WANDA: We have a bell we ring. 

HATTIE: You do? 

WANDA: There's a bell in the hall. Yes. So when the bell rings, we all run out and scream and yell and clap. 

HATTIE: And find out who made a sale?

(Sound of bell being rung) 

WANDA: (Voiceover) To make a sale is not a single person. It depends on how the receptionist treated you when you came in the door, how she answered the phone, how she got the messages to you and all the other things that she may do to help us. And so everybody's really involved in that process. 
 

Lightbulb HATTIE: (In the Studio) Most salespeople are paid on commission, a combination of salary plus commission or a straight commission. However, everyone at Computer Directions is compensated based on revenues. Each person has a base salary and the opportunity to earn more. Wanda understands the important principle what gets rewarded gets done. And rewarding people as the company prospers, not waiting till the end of the year, keeps everyone excited and working hard. Pay for performance works for Wanda. It can work for you, too. 

Key Idea # 5: Work to Change What You Don't Like

(Voiceover) Wanda is active in the small business United of Texas. David Pinkus is president of that group, which is part of the 65,000 member National Small Business United. 

What caused you to get so interested in what was going on in Austin? 

DAVID PINKUS (United of Texas): I discovered that, through my own personal experience, that if a small-business person got involved, you could actually affect legislation. And because I did do some volunteer lobbying mostly in Washington and in Austin and it was effective. And I figured well, if I can do that on a part-time basis, maybe if I do it full time, I can have a bigger impact. 

HATTIE: OK. What can we do as a small-business owner, in this case in the state of Texas, to help you get the job done? 

DAVID: I think that small-business people need to communicate with us and let us know what their concerns are, and also to talk to their members of the Legislature and let them concerned--I say all... 

HATTIE: Will they listen, David? 

DAVID: Absolutely. I think that all politicians are there because the people voted for them. And they all feel that they are there representing their constituency. And what they do is they represent the people that talk to them. And it's basically, as I say all the time, we are governed by those who show up. 

HATTIE: OK. Why do you spend time being involved in politics? 

WANDA: Because public policy shapes our environment in terms of how we do business. It dictates much of the way I do business and how I do business, how I pay my people, what the benefits are that I am forced to give people as opposed to what I like to give people. And taxes--you know, are they going to put sales taxes on my business? The wage and hour board has always curtailed a lot of the way I'd like to do business. For example, I've had people come to me and say, `I'm pregnant and I'm going to need time off and so I'd like for you not to pay me overtime all this time and save it up.' Well, I can't do that. Federal wage and hour board will not let me do that. And so there are lots of creative things that small businesses would do with their employees and would like to do with their employees that we cannot do because it's against the rules. And if I can get the rules changed, then I will. 

DAVID: Most of the members of Congress and the Legislature want to help small business. They want to do what's right for small business, but I think to a great extent, they're misguided. They get misinformation from consumer advocates, from people who claim to represent small-business people. And unless you go down and speak for yourself, somebody else is speaking for you. 

Key Idea # 6: Hire Nice People

HATTIE: You have surrounded yourself with great people. 

WANDA: Right. 

HATTIE: How did you get them? Because other people can learn from you. What do you do in the interview process? 

WANDA: Well, I have three criteria. One is I look for a quick study, somebody that really gets what you are telling them. 

HATTIE: And how do you know that in an interview, though? 

WANDA: In their communication and in their face. You know, you can see someone's eyes. Do they get it.  And people sometimes make the mistake of not listening in an interview. They're thinking about what they want to tell you to sell about themselves, and they just need to listen and respond to what you're saying. Because an  interviews, I always tell someone, is a two-way street. You need to be happy working for me as much as I need to be happy having you work here. 

HATTIE: And so the second thing you look for? 

WANDA: The second thing--of course, the first thing is a quick study. The second thing is energy. And... 

HATTIE: How do you know that? 

WANDA: Well, my acid test is the handshake. I'm Wanda Brice. If  I can't feel your energy, then it's not going to work. Because people with a high energy level get things done. And the third thing is the hardest to define, which is a nice person. And I really want someone who is a nice person. I guess everybody's got their own subjective definition of nice, but I want someone who likes people, who has a positive attitude, who is going to look at the best side of things, who is optimistic. But a nice person. 

HATTIE: Do you do start a person with a trial period?

WANDA: Yes.  Everybody's here on a trial period. The first 90 days are a trial period. 

HATTIE: So no one is hired for sure until 90 days. 

WANDA: Right. 

HATTIE:  So that's a good piece of advice. 

WANDA: And what I usually say, and this is usually true, if I'm going to have to terminate someone, it's not working out on either side of that equation. It would be a rare situation when somebody was happy as a clam and you were very unhappy with their performance. And so generally the conversation is, `This is not working out.' And they generally will agree with that. 

HATTIE: So as a staffing company, your product is the people part of somebody else's business. 

WANDA: That's right. 

HATTIE: So you must be the total expert. Do people come to you and say, `What do I do with this situation?' 

WANDA: Actually, people do that. Although it's probably because I have a large group of friends who are also business owners, and we do that with each other. 

HATTIE: What have you learned that, you know, maybe you've never articulated or that you've not read it in a book anywhere that  people really need to understand when they're running a business? 

WANDA: Well, if you have an idea that you want to start a business, there's a couple of things you have to do. One, you have to find out if you have the stomach for it. Because if people have the idea that starting your own business or running your own business is less work than working for someone else, that's not true. It's more work. It's more work, it's more responsibility, it's probably more worry. The only thing I can say is that it gives you a sense--maybe a false sense sometimes--but a sense of control that you don't always have working for somebody else. 

I would say that one of the most important things that you have to remember to keep going sometimes is that you're doing something you enjoy, hopefully; that's using more of your talents than if you were trying to fit your skill set into somebody else's needs. And that's rewarding in itself. However, I know that if I sold my company tomorrow, I'd probably take a month off and go, `Yea! How great that was.' And then I'd start another one. And I already know what I want to start next, so--at least the next two. 

HATTIE: The next two? 

WANDA: The next two. 

HATTIE: So you're going to be out there going until you're 100. 

WANDA: I'll be the old lady in the nursing home that's got her own concession stand. 

Delete for web play. HATTIE: Wanda is an activist, and she is involved in the National Small Business United and Small Business United of Texas. Todd McCraken talked with me about the national organization. 

TODD McCRAKEN (National Small Business United): I'm the president of National Small Business United, which means that I'm pretty much in charge of all of our operations, and our primary activity is advocating on behalf of small businesses in Washington. 

HATTIE: Now let's talk about products, processes and people. We believe that every business is just alike. They've got a product, they've got processes and they've got people. So do you have legislation that fits in those three spokes or in those three edges of the triangle? 

TODD: Well, we're working on lots of things in each of those areas.  Right now small businesses are telling us in the existing climate their biggest problem is people. Finding and keeping good employees is enormously difficult. And so we're working on a number of things that can help them with that. One of the things we've found is that small businesses are having huge increases in the use of flex time, work at home, those kinds of options for their employees. And that's tough. And the federal government doesn't help. There's a law called Federal Labor Standards Act which prevents many small businesses from allowing their employees to have chosen flexibility on a 40-hour workweek and using comp time. 

HATTIE: So if I want to offer flexibility as a benefit, saying, `Hey, I don't care what hours you work and I don't care if you work 40 hours in one week and then take off two weeks, cause I just need the job done,' you're saying the government, the feds have a--there's a federal law that says I can't do that? 

TODD: If you tell your employer, `I want to work 20 hours this week, and I'll work 60 hours next week because that works better for me,' the law says you can't do that. 

HATTIE: So you're working on changing that? 

TODD: That's exactly right. That'll be a big benefit for not just the businesses, but also the employees because the employees are the ones who are asking for the flexibility. 

HATTIE:  All of our interface with the government ends up being a piece of paper and a process we have to go through.  For example, we all have to have processes to deal with the IRS.

TODD: Small-business owners are the only people in this country who see every aspect of the tax system. They see both sides of the FICA tax. A lot of employees forget that small-business owners pay the other half of that tax. 

HATTIE: Huge. 

TODD: And if you're self-employed, you pay both halves of the tax yourself. 

In addition to that, they have to worry about all the business taxes and the individual taxes, and a Katie bar the door if you're an S corporation or a C corporation. So small business owners are really the only people in this country that face all of that. And they're the ones who really understand the real impact of the tax system. 

HATTIE: Is there a lot of pressure on small-business owners when they invent a new product, the trademark and patent office and also product liability laws and all that? 

TODD: Probably the biggest problem in that arena that small businesses face is just the lawsuit madness in this country. Survey after survey tell us that the threat of frivolous lawsuits terrifies small businesses, and they spend so much money in many cases settling. So we're working specifically on--support liability reform that should help that a lot. We're not seeking to limit the ability of consumers to file a suit if there's real harm and real damage and negligence on the part of the maker or seller of a product. 

But we need to try to wring some of the frivolous suits out of the system. There are lots of things that are wrong with the way that we encourage and grow small businesses in this country, but after all that's said and and  we've talked about our whole agenda, the fact remains that the United States at the end of the 20th century is the best, most productive, most fertile place that has ever existed in the history of the world for the growth and success of small businesses. And we should all be very proud of that. 

HATTIE: (Voiceover) You can learn more about the National Small Business United by visiting http://www.nsbu.org. 

HATTIE: Don't forget Wanda's advice: pay for performance. It works. We'll be back next week. 

The Closing of the Show.