Business By The Bay Ajay Saini

When businesses grow fast, many times they don't have a good HR infrastructure in place. People start a business because they love their products or services they are offering, not because they love HR. So things like a good job description, employee handbook, onboarding, performance management, etc. may get neglected. Companies should look into if they are ignoring key HR tasks and even the ones they are doing, are they spending too much of their valuable time on those tasks or not. Outsourcing certain tasks to good HR professionals may save companies lots of problems and can also help employees feel that the management values them. Stacey believes that tenacity, perseverance, consistency and looking for ways to get better help businesses succeed.

Jeff Katz explained various senior living options for the elderly population. Multiple challenges like physical or mental health issues, loneliness or financial costs may make it difficult for seniors to stay in their homes. Independent senior living, assisted living or memory care communities can be good options and it is not easy for seniors or their families to find the right community. A good senior living coach can help through this process. Jeff believes that for a senior living coach or for that matter any business owner to be effective, it is very important to be a good listener and continuously look for building long term relationships.

Rene discussed various aspects of HR. Small and mid-size companies struggle to attract the best talent because they don't have deep pockets to compete with the big companies. Then keeping the employees engaged and retaining them can also be very challenging. Rene suggests that looking for soft skills can widen the candidates pool and then specialized skills can be  taught. She suggests that for 100 employees, a company should have a dedicated HR person. For less than that a part-time HR person can be engaged, either in-house or an outsourced professional. It is important to have the right personality as an HR professional who can connect with both the management and the employees. Rene believes that having a mindset of coming up with a creative solution is very important in business because there is always a way to get the job done.

Neil explained that the majority of the seniors fall in bedrooms and bathrooms. Some of the available solutions provide wearable devices that the seniors don't wear in the bedroom and bathroom. Camera based solutions are also not practical because of the privacy issues. Neil's connected home solution offers the following:




Radar based sensors that are installed on the walls or  the ceilings and have no cameras to maintain privacy.
AI based learning that notices any change in pattern. Then make use of the remote care coordinators to proactively check upon the well being of the seniors.
Use a bed sensor to issue an alert for people who get out of the bed when their health doesn't allow them to walk without supervision.

Neil says that having mentors and the ability to listen actively are big factors that have contributed to his success.

Bryan was a product manager in the tech industry and while recovering from a serious injury, he realized that eating healthy is not easy if you are eating out. Bryan started a restaurant business because he believes that you can be your best self if you are healthy and you can give all the gifts that you have to others if you are healthy physically, mentally and emotionally. Food is the foundation for being healthy and so his restaurant offers hearty meals without using gluten, soy, dairy, peanuts, refined sugar and seed oils. He offered some great suggestions for people who are planning to enter the business world. He said that first think about why you are starting one and when the business would be successful, what your life would be like and is that actually what you want. Secondly, figure out as quickly as possible the most important assumptions if your idea would be successful or not. He also experienced that systems and processes that worked initially may not work when you see a good growth. So having the right leadership with clearly defined roles and outcome is very important.

CPA Chetan Shah says that most of the businesses come to him because they struggle because of not maintaining clean records. They are good at what they do in terms of products or services, but not necessarily in accounting.  Not having the right advisory team, especially in the beginning when they are very cost conscious creates a challenging situation. He suggests that it is important to hire an accounting firm that has experience in dealing with in the areas you need help. As an example, a CPA focusing on individual tax returns may not be a right fit to support business accounting. He emphasized that it is critical to plan and know where you want to go.