How to Overcome Negative Reviews

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Main Street Hub, a tech start-up that manages the reputations of small businesses, has received about $2.6 million in funding, according to a document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The money technically was raised by Keepwheel, which shares a CEO with Main Street Hub. Andrew Allison, the CEO, told the Austin American Statesman that the funding would support the growth of Main Street Hub.

The company charges small businesses a fee (starting at $199 per month) to take care of online reputation management and spreading the (good) word about the company on social media. Main Hub will monitor Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and more, deleting inappropriate Facebook posts, e-mailing the company with their proposed response to any negative reviews or comments, and thanking customers who check-in on FourSquare.

The company also will update you on your social media presence. (Main Street Hub is not the only company that offers these services, but it appears to have the lowest, most straightforward pricing structure.)

Allison and his business partner Matt Stuart met and started the company in March 2010 while earning MBAs at Stanford University. They moved to Austin in May with 11 employees and have expanded rapidly. (The start-up looked at Chicago, Denver, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and San Diego before settling on Austin, co-founder Stuart told Austinnovation.)

By the end of August they had 27 employees. The current number is 41, and Allison expects the number to rise to 50 in November.

“This helps to fuel our growth,” Allison told the Statesman, declining to name the angel investors. “We have been growing a lot this year, and this money helps us continue to grow into 2012 at the same pace.”

For those on a tighter budget, Fix Your Search Results provides an online reputation repair service for a one-time fee of just $179. If a search of your name, or your business name, results in negative information, Fix Your Search Results will work to boost positively worded web pages up in search listings, thereby forcing negative pages down and out of sight.

Tips For Hiring Your First Employee

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If you do everything right during the startup phase, eventually you’ll need to hire additional help. Simply put, you can’t go it alone forever. And the process of hiring even just one employee brings a whole new set of challenges — recruiting, interviewing and more.

Hiring the wrong person can be disastrous for a company, but a great first employee can keep your business headed in the right direction — and help it grow even more quickly. So what’s the best way to embark on the hiring process for the very first time? Here are a few things you need to know.

Make sure you’re financially ready.
When you’re determining whether or not you can afford a new employee, you need to examine your budget and look beyond just the basic salary of a new hire. Each new employee will cost you in recruiting expenses, employment taxes and even potentially rental space if you’re still running your business out of a home or small office. Estimates of the cost of recruiting, hiring and training a new staff member can be anywhere between $9,600 and $19,200. So it’s important to make sure your business is ready for such an expenditure.

Be smart about recruiting.
Many small-business owners initially turn to their friends and former colleagues when looking to hire a first employee. Even though you may have great chemistry with those you know well, that doesn’t mean these people actually have the skills and experience necessary to take your business to the next level. Even if you have worked successfully with a person in a similar business environment, your new business venture exists in a new time and space where old, familiar practices may not work. When recruiting potential employees, “trusting your gut” isn’t enough. Statistics reveal that almost 40 percent of all resumes and job applications are based on completely false or, at the very least, over-inflated information.

Write a clear job description.
Job descriptions and contracts aren’t only important for legal protection — they also help give you an idea of exactly who you’re seeking so you don’t waste time in the recruiting and interviewing process. A solid job description should detail both the duties of the position as well as characteristics of the person who would be best able to perform them. These details will then help you develop interview questions. Make sure you include descriptors to help you determine how a potential new hire will fit in with your company’s culture and any future team members you may need to hire.

Identify what type of employee you want to hire.
Before you start the interview process, you need to set a specific salary and determine the new employee’s classification. Federal law is very clear about the terms of paying and classifying new employees. Make sure you’re familiar with details such as the current minimum wage and what benefits you’re required to provide. First answer important questions: Do you want to hire a full-time or part-time employee? Do you want an independent contractor, common-law employee, statutory employee or statutory non-employee? Do you know what these different classifications mean?