These days, we no longer discuss new businesses as new businesses. Every new business is now a “startup.”  I guess to most, a startup often refers to a technology company, founded by a couple people or less, that has potential to bring in large amounts of investment capital and can scale quickly.  The term is used so often now to categorize new businesses, that we’ve even coined up the hashtag, #StartupLife, which is now tagged 377,329 times on Instagram alone.  I can’t go a day without seeing someone, somewhere, say or use the term “Startup Life.”

You don’t exactly have to scour the internet in order to find great ideas for company outings, as there are thousands of blogs and articles with lists of ideas.  However, we’ve gone ahead and narrowed those lists into what we believe to be the three very best outings for building great company culture.

We live in a digital world, and in this world, productivity and efficiency have become exponentially more accessible.  We have a mountain of resources at our disposal to help companies of all sizes create the most effective teams, build great culture, and improve their bottom line.

There used to be a time when CRM’s, analytics, and fancy email marketing applications were designed purely as enterprise solutions for the large companies that could afford them.  With the influx of software developers, we’re fortunate to now have all of these fancy tools now available even for individual entrepreneurs.  In fact, most of them are completely free!

We talk a lot about culture around here, obviously.  We talk about what makes great culture, and where building great culture starts.  We really suggest thinking about culture as early as when you are an individual founder seeking a partner.  One of the biggest reasons why startups fail, often, has to do with their team.  Think about it this way, when you are building a company and the entire company is only made up of five people, when one person is gone, then technically 20% of the company is gone.  When one of your team members doesn’t get along with others, the result is the same.  You lose 20% of your company.  Identifying good culture vs bad culture is so easy especially with smaller teams.  When it’s bad, your productivity drops, efficiency, organization, communication, and more.  Your whole business suffers.

Hi, we’re VibeCatch.  You may call us, a “startup.”  That’s okay, because we think we are, and we have a message for other startups.  One of the most important things that all startups need to do in order to be successful is to do something called, “Customer Discovery.”  If you go join a startup accelerator, they will beat this into your brain until you start having nightmares about it.  So what is it about customer discovery that makes it so important?  It really starts with asking questions.  

Here it is folks, the Top 50 Best Places to Work according to Glassdoor.  Airbnb has received a lot of news lately, and not exactly the most favorable news.  With renters trashing condos, and controversial advertising messages, initially to see them at the top was a bit of a surprise.  However, it goes to show that you can STILL have great company culture and STILL be a great place to work.

Another interesting point is that there are two solar companies that made it on this list for having great company culture.  Solar City is quickly becoming a household name, if not already being one.  Great to see them here and eager to see if they can move up from the 50 spot.

Want to find out how your company culture is doing? Go ahead and find out your Quality of Work Life Index with VibeCatch.  

The holidays are a very special time.  One thing that we can all agree on, is that is should be a happy time spent with those who are close to us.  It should be a time when we are able to share memories and laughs with our friends and family.  However, companies that have great culture can also find ways to incorporate the spirit of the holidays in the workplace.

As the year’s end approaches, we can take this opportunity to spread more smiles, and more selfless acts, and close it all out on a great note. Here are a couple things to think about during our final week of 2015.

Meetings.  Yay!

If meetings don’t excite you, well, you aren’t alone.  We all can recall a time that we sat in a meeting that seemed to go on far too long.  You find yourself making awkward faces, holding in those yawns hoping to make it look like you are alert.  Thirty minutes have gone by and yet it feels like a full hour already.  No one wants to be in those meetings.

Let’s talk about some of the most basic steps that you can take to ensure a productive meeting, and one that people actually enjoy.