Secrets Of A
Self-Made
Billionaire
Who Turned Aging Bananas Into A 10-Figure Company
Global entrepreneur Jeff Hoffman knows how to scale a company . The founder of multiple companies and author of “ Scale ,” Hoffman has been involved in startups that include Priceline . com / Booking . com , uBid . com , and ColorJar . During a recent Technology Marketing Toolkit Producers Club meeting , Jeff talked with businesses about what he used to scale eight companies that he started with a half a dozen people into global companies and even became multibillion-dollar companies . Looking back on the mistakes he made , he shared the things that worked and helped him turn his companies into industry dominating successes .
Hoffman ’ s Biggest Lessons Learned
Get Out Of The Way . Hoffman invented the kiosks at the airport where you check yourself in . When he started a company to make them , he was offered some investment money . But when he was asked for the company bank account and legal company name , neither of which he had set up , he quickly realized he didn ’ t know a lot about running a company . “ That day I thought , ' What else do I not know how to do ?'” Hoffman confessed . “ I don ’ t know how to hire . I don ’ t know finance . The list of things that you are good at is maybe one . It turns out I have never hired an engineer who also did my taxes and wrote all our marketing copy . It ’ s not the way the world works .”
When Hoffman realized he should focus on the one thing he was best at and hire smarter people than himself for every other area of the company , that ’ s when his company started to grow . “ You can ’ t scale until you can get out of the way ,” Hoffman said . “ It amazes me how many people come to me and say , ‘ Jeff , I ’ m working harder than I ever have . I ’ m putting in more hours than ever , and I ’ m not growing faster .’ The problem is that YOU putting in more time running the business is not the solution . Building a team to grow your business is where a chunk of your time should be spent . Being able to trust and empower and grow a team is the key to make your business really grow and take off . And the key to that is surrounding yourself with people smarter than you .”
Hire Quality Over Quantity . Rather than hiring a higher quantity of people , it ’ s more productive to invest more money in hiring better quality people which Hoffman refers to as “ rock stars .”
“ A valuable lesson I learned is if I have enough money to hire five people , instead of hiring five average people , I ’ ll spend all that money on two rock stars and they will far outperform 10 average people ,” Hoffman said . “ You can ’ t build greatness on the backs of average people . Rock stars make companies , average people don ’ t , so stop focusing on the number of people you hire and spend your money on the quality of people you hire .”
Overcompensate — Don ’ t Be Greedy . Don ’ t be penny-wise and pound-foolish . Hoffman pays his rock star employees above industry compensation scale . He also offers every employee equity in his companies , including the receptionist . The return on his investment is far greater than
6 | WWW . IT-RADIX . COM