In this ongoing series, we're sharing tips, advice, and insights from real entrepreneurs who are out there doing business battle on a daily basis. (Responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.)
Please give us your business elevator pitch.
I am John WaldmanCEO and co-founder of small business team management app Home base. We're maniacally focused on giving small businesses everything they need to build unstoppable teams: scheduling, time tracking, payroll, financial services, communications, hiring, onboarding and compliance. We are used by over 100,000 businesses employing over 2 million workers.
How is it different from other payroll platforms?
We are built for local businesses, a very important subset of our economy. So these are the cafes, restaurants and retail businesses in your neighborhood. They deal with a very different and unique work environment than corporations. It is based on shifts. Workers rarely overlap with their managers, which presents communication challenges. There is high turnover, which puts a different kind of burden on onboarding and training. There are many different languages spoken. So we are built to address all of these specific challenges and more.
What inspired you to start this company?
My co-founder and I have very good childhood friends who own and operate restaurants. Some of my friends were in Seattle and opened a salad bar. They were very passionate about healthy food and also cared deeply about providing a great work experience for their team. But they had no experience managing a team and had absolutely no tools to help them. At the same time, my sister worked in restaurants and she was a fantastic shift worker, but there was no easy way to track that she was being paid correctly. So that's what made us formulate Homebase – it was built to help friends and family members.
Having interacted with so many small businesses over the past ten years, what would you say are the hallmarks of successful ones?
I think small businesses are incredibly resilient and they are great employers. We know from our data that workers in small businesses are generally happier than people in larger businesses. So my advice to small businesses is to build on the things that make them great.
We conducted a study Homebase Small Business Fulfillment Index 2024, and we found many interesting points. The study showed that 86 percent of hourly workers enjoy their job more when they are recognized, but only 66 percent of hourly workers said they received a compliment at work in the past year. So there is a simple recognition lever that every small business owner can embrace. Also, the types of benefits that hourly workers in small businesses care about are different than many small business owners think. Fifty-six percent of owners believe the most important priority for the team is pay, but in fact, 86 percent of workers wanted more flexibility in their hours. It wasn't about the dollar amount. It was about being able to schedule work around the needs of their family, going to school and things like that.
What do you say to small business owners who have done things their way for decades and are resistant to “complicating” things with new technology?
We can serve so many different types of entrepreneurs – new business owners who are trying to figure out how to do everything and also people who have been doing it for 30 years. And the reality is true of both: running a small business is incredibly difficult and has so many pulls on your time. Payroll management, tracking time cards and making sure people are showing up. And businesses that have been doing this for 30 years know that it's getting harder because they're dealing with more compliance. They are dealing with more CIRCULATION. So our presentation is pretty straightforward: even if you're using the free version of Homebase, you'll probably save five hours a week. And no matter who you are, you'll get a lot of value by freeing up five hours of your time.
What is your advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
My advice to aspiring and current entrepreneurs is almost always the same: find a problem you're passionate about solving that's bigger than your company. And as your company grows, know that you'll face a fundamental small business conundrum: the reason you started your business is almost certainly not what you'll be spending your time on. For me, after 10 years, the best part of my job is going to talk to local businesses. That's when I'm at my best, that's what keeps me fired up. So my advice is to know the part of the business that gives you energy and make sure you make time for it.