Staff often calls me Teacher more then Boss….

Posted by Michael Michelini on May 25 2010

Man….i guess I have seen what it takes to manage workers….and from my going to other offices of companies, I notice I am not alone. Hiring someone is difficult, make sure they are qualified, they want to do the job, they are honest, and hard working. But I want to see the best in everyone….hard to disqualify someone who so badly wants the opportunity. And when someone is applying ….they will work hard to make their resume (CV) look as full of experience and professional as possible….pushing it to the limits. Sure there are references, but if you call them, what story are you going to get, the real story?

Then, when you find a hard working and skilled worker – to keep them challenged and ready to keep on going…

I don’t want to say this is isolated to a china thing, but I think the high growth here makes it the most tempting – once a staff has learned the inspection and outs of the business, has spent the company time to perfect their skills, it is this point they feel they can do better on their own.

I do support it, really I do. I also enjoy summer interns coming for a few months, and so many times I am called teacher at the end of their terms. Which, sure is honorable and great….but…..haha, is that what I want to be.?
I think in chinese culture it is an honor, and because of the good things some interns felt from experience with me, I have guest lectured at their university.

And by being an expert in the field, you will have many that want to work here for the opportunity and experience.
And hopefully that will bring hard working, loyal, and energetic people….

People is the most important part..growing and becoming the best possible. In the grand scheme of things, even if the trained worker leaves, the aura will continue. Sometimes I joke and feel maybe I am better off investing my my summer interns startup then my own!

Take for example some great university students that spent a few summers with me. Eric Chan and Simon He started a chinese ecommerce website Body Shop China (screenshot in this blog post) that is selling health care products into mainland China. That is amazing, right! So proud of them, they contacted me a few weeks ago to show me their new project and I can’t wait to sit down with them and hear the story. Now they will understand the pressures and stresses I went through as the boss, and can apply it towards their own startup.

Maybe one day, that would make me proud.

Incoming search terms:

can teacher be a boss
i didn\t check your message how to say in chinese
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Piotr

yes sensei – wax on wax off. ha ha all kidding aside i bet you are a good boss and a good teacher mike. keep that chin up, don’t let your guard down. enjoy your posts – im working hard these days have time to read but not to comment
http://blog.michaelmichelini.com mike

my main weakness as a boss is my lack of patience and my lack of making an organized plan……..but i think both are improving

overall my students (i mean staff) that stick with it understand my unending passion and seem to thrive from it…..glad it passes down to them.
Jane

HI,Mike teacher,It is nice tthat you share knowledge with us all. I think you can open a training school in china about ecommerce and SEO. I like doing trading,but i want to have my own ecommerce web. would you please give me some ideas about have an online ecommerce store?
For example,1.I need ask someone build a website.2.upload my prodcts? and ?,,,I have no clear idea how to make it,though i search online about it.

how about this shop? I wish i can have one like that.or one which is better^^
http://www.lj-shop.com/

I know you are busy,,so hope it will not disturbe you. hope get a reply,and have a good day teacher!
http://shop60434419.taobao.com/ judy

hahahaha..mike techer!pls teacher me more about THE SEO
http://blog.michaelmichelini.com mike

hi Jane….
thanks so much for your compliments…..i thnk i get the most benefit in life from these kind words and enjoy helping people learn and grow.

Well ecommerce is great, it is the combination/union of internet and trading.

so to help with your questions, first I must know if you mean it is for which market. -international or domestic china?

I will assume its for the international/export market from China to the world (or USA)

first you need to build a shopping cart, which is the website. This, depending on your skill level and budget, can be easy/cheap or complex/expensive. To start, maybe a yahoo store via http://stores.yahoo.com or prostores.com (ebay company) but I have a feeling you’ll need a USA bank account. A more complex cart is oscommerce or zen-cart but needs programming – once you get that shopping cart setup, it will have its own way for you to add the products and set up the payment.

Hope this helps. I would try prostores.com or stores.yahoo.com to get a low cost and ready to go start.
http://blog.michaelmichelini.com mike

haha, hi Judy. But there are so many online courses to read!!!

I would go to http://www.seobook.com or http://www.seomoz.org to get tons of tutorials.

Lessons, in person, it takes me a lot of time, and nobody wants to pay!!! haha
Jane

Ok,Mike teacher,i will try prostores.com or stores.yahoo.com first.I will let you know the result.

Judy-I agree with Mike,there are lots of on-line resource, but you have to put it in practice.

Lessons, in person, it takes me a lot of time, and nobody wants to pay!!!—oh,,,haha my teacher,,in china,we all respect teacher,i will invite you for dinner if you have time! ^^
http://blog.michaelmichelini.com mike

Thanks student Jane – thanks for supporting me about the “personal classes” – everyone wants FREE classes…but the real people who learn the internet learn by reading and doing and testing it themselves. Then when they know more details, they can have detailed discussions with other people who also study it, and it is a fun conversation for all people involved.

sure grab dinner when back in Shenzhen and go over things.
Jane

sure grab dinner when back in Shenzhen and go over things—great! waiting to see my 师父！hihihi
http://blog.michaelmichelini.com mike

sure, sounds great maybe monday ok
jane

Hi,teacher,I didn’t check your message at weekend,so I have arranged things to do tonight. At the daytime i need go to work,,,at night i went back home quite late as I need to work overtime soemtimes,somtimes went to gym. sorry sorry for this
How about we meet at this weekend? are you free at weekend?(as we don’t want to bother you like last time,hihihi) So i can take more time to collect information about the ecommerce( I don’t want to talk some boring things ,like,,do you like chinese food,do you like china,,blablabla:-),,
what food do you like? so we can invite you^^
http://blog.michaelmichelini.com mike

sure no worries, but this friday morning I am going to philippines, we can wait till i am back in the middle of june, ok so makes lots of notes
Jane

no problem,see you soon^^

Have a nice trip!

About

American ecommerce guy, I've been living in South China - Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Dongguan (+ a touch of Philippines) since end of 2007.

Successfully selling online since 2004, took it fulltime early 2007. Love international business & connecting, and working on ways to give hard working people global opportunities. (Read More...)