Many business travelers are familiar with SCOTTeVEST, a clothing company founded by entrepreneur Scott Jordan in 2000. They make travel clothing such as jackets, vests and pants with built-in conduit systems and specialized pockets for holding mobile phones, tablets and other portable electronic devices. A vest is a great way to get all your tech devices on an airplane without worrying about carrying extra bags or hitting weight limits.
Jordan started SCOTTeVEST with his wife Laura in the guest bedroom of their home, and has since grown it into a $70M business with more than 15 employees. His autobiography, Pocket Man: The Unauthorized Autobiography of a Passionate, Personal Promoter is a must-read for anyone with the entrepreneurial itch or thinking about starting their own business. We asked Jordan to share some of his insights on hiring and leadership.
1. In your book Pocket Man, you write “it takes more than passion, promotion and money to sustain the business, it requires leadership and management.” Did you have to teach yourself these skills? Are these skills that can be taught to others?
Some of these skills can be taught, but you don’t necessarily need to have every single skill that encompasses leadership and management. More importantly you need to identify key roles and skill sets that you are not strong in, then actively recruit to fill the gaps. Laura and I quickly learned that neither of us are particularly good at managing people directly. As our team grew, finding someone to fill a managerial role became priority #1. The key is identifying early on what you are good at, and what you need help with.
2. How did you arrive at your corporate culture so that you could share the core values with your future employees?
We arrived on our main corporate culture values after years of refining and just figuring out how to most efficiently get things done. Often times, “corporate values” are just words. With us, it truly does define what working at SCOTTeVEST is all about.
Don’t lie or try to downplay a tough work environment. Own it! We’ve not grown to where we are today by hiring just anyone off the street. It takes a highly motivated, high-energy, honest and hardworking individual to succeed at SCOTTeVEST.
3. Tell me about your hiring process; you use personality and aptitude tests as well as an interview? What does this help you with?
We found taking personality tests such as
the DiSC helped us understand an employee’s strengths, weaknesses and gaps in between – something a few interviews alone may not expose. What’s even more important is that it shows
how someone likes to work and communicate with team members. This helps identify better ways to manage them, celebrate their wins and improve their overall workflow.
4. You encourage people to learn the phrase “I’ll figure it out,” why is that?
Often times, tons of little questions can lead to a huge waste of time. If a question is to be asked, it should come after all resources have been exhausted. If you forgot your password, figure out how to reset it. If you lost a phone number, use your resources to find it. While we strive to provide the proper training and support for our team members to succeed, being an independent problem solver is a skillset that all employees must possess. All this being said, if any employee does have a question and has done their best to figure it out, we always provide assistance when we can.
5. Since technology changes so quickly, you provide tech training to your employees. Is there a huge need for this and do they take advantage of it?
The need really depends on the department and role. For example, we’d expect a programmer to come in with plenty of coding knowledge and skills. But in general, there is a need for technology proficiency to keep our business running smoothly. All our customer service representatives are trained extensively on our order management system and all CS-related software. Marketing is trained on things like Google Analytics and other tools that help them do their job effectively. And ALL employees are trained on our project management software, Basecamp. This is crucial as it’s the eye-in-the-sky that helps us keep tabs on every project, regardless of department. If any employee requests training on a technology they think will help them do their job better, we’re always happy to accommodate.
6. Talk to me about email etiquette; why is this important?
Email etiquette is HUGE! I live by two letters: F-U. No, not what you think I mean – Follow Up. I follow up on every single email I receive, and expect our employees to do the same. It’s an important form of communication for our business and keeps projects moving along – even if you are occupied working on a something, it only takes a moment to say “I’ve received your email and I will get back to you later today.” Communication is the key to success!
