Check out our video we made to include pictures from our office, environment, and culture!
OLN Team Night – Volleyball!!
Check out our video montage of team night last night! Every week as an office we get together and do something fun and recreational. This week we chose volleyball! Check it out!
We’re Now Accredited by the BBB!
We’re Now Accredited by the BBB!
We are excited to announce OLN Inc is now accredited by the Better Business Bureau! In case you’re not familiar with how accreditation works, BBB has determined that OLN meets BBB accreditation standards, which include a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints. BBB Accredited Businesses pay a fee for accreditation review/monitoring and for support of BBB services to the public.
BBB accreditation does not mean that the business’ products or services have been evaluated or endorsed by BBB, or that BBB has made a determination as to the business’ product quality or competency in performing services.
Currently we have an A rating with the BBB and we are very honored to have a such a positive rating! Check out the link today!
OLN Inc Step Out walk 2012
Step Out Walk Fundraiser
Elijah Medge and OLN invite you to their American Diabetes Association fundraiser in preparation for this year’s Step Out Walk at Centennial Park.
Come out to The Attic at Piranha’s on Saturday, October 13th at 113 2nd Ave N. between 8 and 10pm. A donation will get attendees drink specials and get OLN closer to their goal of raising $1000 dollars for the ADA by November tenth’s Step Out Walk.
Regardless of giving you great drink specials, each donation will go towards making a positive impact on the 26 million Americans whose lives are affected by Diabetes by funding community based education programs, protecting the rights of people with Diabetes, and funding critical research for a cure.
Whether you pronounce it dia-beet-ees or diabeetus, you can make a difference and have cheaper beer for it. It’s a win-win, so come out and drink to defeat Diabetes once and for all!
Also, visit our Step Out page to make individual contribution and remember… anything helps!!!
http://main.diabetes.org/goto/orange
Why Small Business Owners Fail
Everyone has heard of the rumors…. 9/10 small businesses fail their first year! With such scary statistics looming, there is a reason that less than 8% of Americans are self-employed (and less than half of them are profitable). By reading these stats, you may have better odds going to Vegas and putting it all on black. However, what most people fail to recognize is WHY there is such a high failure rate for small businesses. When observing a bunch of first year small business owners, you realize that productivity is not what determines someones ability to survive in the cut throat business world where your existence directly threatens everyone else in the industry, and therefore makes you unwanted and feeling like you’re all alone struggling to get your piece of the pie. What determines your survival is your outlook on your situation and fully comprehending the reality of the success flowchart which basically states that success is based on making good decisions which is based on having good judgement which is based on having lot of experience. So when working backwards during times of frustration and feeling the eminent illusion of FAILURE one must ask themselves, “Do I have enough experience in what I’m doing to effectively judge the situation I’m in to lead to me making quality decisions on how to handle the situation that will lead to successful results”. If you’re in your first year of business, the answer is undoubtedly “NO!”. However, whether its due to ego, pride, disillusionment, false expectations, or just a lack of understanding of business, a lot of business owners choose to bail and blame their circumstances for the position they ended up in. Economy, employees, competition, vendors, creditors, banks, customers, blah, blah, blah, and many other excuses that one might make as to why their business failed; when in reality the only way to fail as a business owner is to give up and there’s only person ever responsible for giving up, and guess who that is.
The common misconception that business owners fail to realize though, is that “experience” has nothing to do with your craft or skill and your knowledge of that craft or skill is NOT what will make you successful. Time and time again you see bakers opening up bakeries after 10-20 years of baking, or mechanics opening up body shops after 10-20 years of working on cars… and then shutting down 6 months later. In reality, you need to know little about an industry to be successful at running a business in that field. Case in point: Ray Crock, the traveling multi-mixer milkshake machine salesman who bought out the McDonald’s brothers and took over the franchise to build it from a handful of restaurants to a massive multi-billion dollar franchise that is recognized by everyone from age 4 – 104. So essentially a baker can run a successful body shop and a mechanic can run a successful bakery, as long as they understand the rules of entrepreneurship.
Business owners aren’t successful because they’re lucky (luck = opportunity + hard work), or because they have a great idea (Bill Gates got rich off of others) or they have knowledge of the field (Worst team in the NBA owned by… Michael Jordan).
The characteristics of successful business owners is defined by intangibles:
- Resiliency
- Perseverance
- Focus on big picture
- Implementation of systems
- “Eat what you kill” mentality
- Ability to perform in a 100% performance driven environment
- Passion for winning
- Never-give-up mindset
- Stickativity (might or might not be a word)
- Eternal optimism
- Acceptance of delayed gratification
So even though the stats on failure might be accurate, when truly analyzing society, what percentage of people can we say actually reflect these characteristics? Very few. So failure is avoidable… just like laziness, poor attitude, and sub par work ethic. Running a business is about having the guts to deal with the learning curves and growing pains and never refusing to make the sacrifices necessary to improve the situation when times get tough. At the end of the day, the biggest failure to avoid is the failure to realize that tough times don’t last, but tough people do. Stay tough!
Orange provides dynamic and traditional tools to market their clients’ benefits, values, and incentives to their consumers face-to-face. For more information, call (615) 832-2189 or log on to http://www.olninc.com.
How to Recruit the Best
The realm of recruiting has changed since 2000 B.F.B (Before Facebook). Businesses’ best kept secret is no mystery and everyone now knows the rules to the game. Any company can hire a “recruitment manager” who sits at a desk with a telephone and is internet savvy. You have to be cleverer than that! A few key aspects Orange noticed were missing will definitely improve your company’s recruiting skills.
First, figure you out who your perfect employee is. If your company is upbeat and young spirited, do you really want an uptight veteran in account management on your team? No! They will dread walking into the loud and fast-paced office environment. Recruiting for interviews just to meet a quota will serve as a huge setback to your company. This is especially true, if you have recruited unfit and uninterested candidates. It is a waste of yours and their time. Know what you want and stick to it when you are searching through résumés.
Second, get your company all on the same page when it comes to the tone you want your company to set. Personality is the first aspect of your company a candidate gets to witness in person. Implement a company-wide policy. When your Admin answers the phone are they inviting, clear, understandable? Orange uses a method known as S.E.E. (also known as S.E.E. I.) It stands for State, Elaborate, and Exemplify. This method we have implemented makes all the difference between, “No, I’m not interested” and “Can you tell me more?”
So recruiting the best of the best takes knowledge of what you’re looking for, personality, and (the BIGGEST point) a strong web presence. Yes! A strong web presence brings in the best candidates. When someone “Googles” your company they should find a plethora of informative links. If you search our company you will find a company website, a company blog-site, a company Facebook page, a company Twitter page and a few job postings. When our preliminary candidates walk into our office they always express how unique our company is because of our inviting website. College-grads (this generation period!) always Googles their potential employers, and you must control everything they find.
Companies now do not have the upper hand on who applies to their postings. And the majority of the applicant pool knows how to get their foot in the door. The entire pool is not your recruitment pool. The stress to find the best fit can be extremely frustrating so knowing what you’re looking for, how to personally attract them and keep them interested are the main aspects lacking today. If you market yourself well enough the best recruits will come to you.
Happy Recruiting!
Written by Patrice K. Boston (HR Intern at OLN)
OLN
