Each job requires a different skill set, but the highest achievers tend to have some common characteristics: Passion, Loyalty, Utility, Reliability, and Achievement.

Passion. Jim Collins, author of the venerable Good to Great once said “…the best performers across virtually every field have a single-minded passion for what they do.” During his famous Stanford commencement speech, Steve Jobs said passion was the reason he returned to Apple, the company he created, after they fired him: “I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do.” There are countless quotes on this, and it’s nearly cliché to say, but it’s no coincidence that “passion” runs throughout every great organization. Hire someone that seems genuinely passionate about what the job entails.

Loyalty. Long stays at prior employers is a sign that candidates are valued.

Conversely, if a resume shows 6 different jobs in the last 5 years it’s obviously a giant red flag; the candidate left either because the companies asked him to do so, or because he’s an opportunist. Either way, pass on these resumes. Hire someone with a track record of loyalty.

Utility. Particularly for small businesses it’s important to hire someone with experience, who can hit the ground running. Think of this as the Swiss-army-knife of employees; you can plug them into nearly any role and they will have the tools required to get the job done. Hire someone with experience that can be used interchangeably in many different roles.

Reliability. Many managers take for granted those employees that always show up every day to work, and always find a way to say “yes” to special projects/requests. Hold onto those people because there are fewer of them than you think. The best way to confirm this is by calling each of their past two managers and asking candid questions. Hire someone with a track record of reliability and flexibility.

Achievement. “Past performance predicts future behavior.” In sports, the best players find a way to win games. In business, the best employees find a way to succeed in tough situations; they are usually smarter, luckier, and more driven than their competitors…none of which can be taught. Average candidates will say “I helped the company grow revenue 12%”. Strong achievers say “I managed a team of 12 that received an Impact Award after generating a 12% increase in revenue and a 15% increase in contribution margin due to SKU rationalization.” People that have a track record of achievement always seem to find a way to win and repeat their success. After all, did anybody else see Tim Tebow beat the almighty New York Jets last Thursday? Hire someone with a track record of winning.

For further information, contact Brandon Hinkle at bhinkle@plurafinancial.com.  Brandon is the Co-Founder and CEO of pluraFinancial.com, a free online matchmaker between banks and small businesses seeking debt financing.

State Representative La Shawn Ford (D-Chicago) recently convened the Illinois House Small Business Committee to address the implementation of HB 3185. As a result of strong advocacy efforts by the Small Business Advocacy Council (SBAC), HB 3185 was signed into law this past session requiring 10% of all state procurement contracts to be issued to small businesses.

SBAC lobbyist Dan Johnson, who requested the hearing, noted that convening a hearing on legislation after it becomes law is rather unusual, but was necessary to ensure that obstacles and challenges are identified and addressed.

“Not only has Representative Ford been instrumental in getting this initiative passed, but he is also committed to working with state agencies to ensure it is implemented successfully,” Johnson said. “As a small business owner, Representative Ford has proven over and over again he is a true advocate of our cause.”

Representative Ford requested all state procurement officers attend the hearing to share current data on small business contracts and chart a plan to meet or exceed the 10% requirement. It was noted at the hearing that small businesses only attain 2% of state procurement contracts. And while small businesses number over one million statewide, about 6,000 small businesses are registered with the state, and only 2,100 small businesses are active vendors. Major challenges for small businesses in obtaining state contracts include lack of capital and resources to complete work, as well as lack of education in navigating a complicated and cumbersome registration and bid process.

Many positive suggestions arose out of the hearing to streamline the process and encourage more small businesses to participate, including:

• Simplify registration by automatically certifying a company as a state vendor once certified as a federal government vendor
• Apply recently updated federal government definition of small business to state, and eliminate conflicting classifications
• Require submission of certification documents only once when registering instead of requiring previously submitted documents with every bid.
• Assign only one state agency to oversee certification process instead of multiple agencies

At Representative Ford’s request, Dan Johnson will draft many of these suggestions into legislation to be introduced in the next session. Tune in to the SBAC blog to learn more once the legislation is introduced!

For more resources or to register with the state to become a certified vendor, check out Central Management Services (CMS) web site.

It’s a tough world out there for us business owners and entrepreneurs. We need to know that we’re not alone, and that there’s support out there for us. It’s that need to connect with other business owners that we join organizations like this blog’s publisher, the Small Business Advocacy Council.

But note I said “world” which I meant both figuratively and literally. The figurative part we experience every day. The literal part is that we’ll all part of the growing globalization of entrepreneurship.

Here’s what Intuit says about this global trend in their publication, The New Entrepreneurial Economy:

Small businesses will no longer be confined to Main Street, or the mainland, as online storefronts and social networks help small businesses drive a new wave of globalization.

This new global wave is spotlighted this week starting today, November 14, 2011 through November 20, 2011 under the umbrella Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW). It’s the world’s largest celebration of entrepreneurs who innovate and create jobs.

This initiative, launched in 2008 by former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Carl Schramm, the president and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation whose blog, Growthology, is included on our own blog roll. There are now 115 countries involved with nearly 24,000 partner organizations planning more than 37,000 activities that directly engage more than 7 million people.

And that’s the context in which I want to place Guy Rigby’s just published book pictured above, FROM VISION TO EXIT: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Building and Selling a Business.

Mr. Rigby, with whom I talked this past week via Skype, is a chartered accountant (the U.K equivalent of our CPA). He knows of what he speaks. He’s had an unusually varied career as a business owner, advisor to entrepreneurs, and has built and sold his own accountancy firm. He now heads up the entrepreneurial services group at Smith & Williamson, a diversified financial services group based in the U.K.

Guy takes us through the life cycle of a business, from vision to exit and all the stops in between. His book is a practical guide to the journey we all are on, and it “translates” well into our American business owners’ experience. In this tough economy we’re in, Guy’s book can be a big help.

And being the entrepreneur that he is, Guy offers us a “two-fer”. If you buy the print copy of the book, you can download a digital version at no extra cost.

Despite solid support and championship of HB 3236 by the Small Business Advocacy Council (SBAC) along with a strong coalition of other business groups and consumer organizations, the Illinois Senate adjourned on Thursday without addressing the legislation.

HB 3236 implements health care cooperatives (co-ops) in an effort to control excessive health insurance costs that are so often shouldered by small business. The legislation was passed with large bi-partisan support across the state by the Illinois House earlier this year, but remained stalled in the Illinois Senate. The bill must first be reviewed and passed by committee before the Senate as a whole can vote.  Fortunately, the status of the bill will remain in effect during next year’s session and the legislation will not need to be re-introduced.

Over the last several months the SBAC Health Care Committee, led by Steve Banke of 3Points, served as a catalyst for driving effective advocacy strategies to build coalitions and gain legislative support. With the help of countless SBAC members, a coalition was built of over ten business groups and consumer organizations including the GOA, numerous Chambers of Commerce, the Big Ooga, Illinois PIRG, and Jewish B2B Networking.  Due to direct contacts by SBAC and coalition members, an additional 15 senators signed on to co-sponsor the bill. The SBAC is grateful to those co-sponsors, including Senators Jeffrey Schoenberg, Annazette Collins, Jacqueline Collins, Susan Garrett, Linda Holmes, Dan Kotowski, Emil Jones, III, David Koehler, Steven Landek, Terry Link, John Mulroe, Antonio Munoz, Michael Noland, Martin Sandoval, Ira Silverstein and Heather Steans.

Though disappointed in the Senate’s inaction during veto session, Steve Banke was very optimistic about the future outcome of HB 3236: “This bill is far from dead and we will continue our fight in January.”

Steve Banke also identified additional advocacy strategies the coalition will implement to push HB 3236 forward, including:

• identification of legislators by member and company locations
• designation of member liaisons to legislative offices
• expansion of SBAC across the state, and
• identification and continuation of previous successful educational and promotional efforts.

Stay tuned to the SBAC blog for additional updates about progress with this legislation and how you can support efforts to pass this legislation into law.