Terrie's Job Tips -- Starting Your Own Company - Part Four: Hiring Staff

Probably the biggest burden that any new company owner can take on is the act of hiring and supporting their first couple of staff members. For a start, it requires quite a change in mindset. One minute you are looking after yourself: devoting all of your attention to your customer's needs and having the satisfaction of giving them 100% effort and effectiveness. Then, as you hire in another person or two, you find yourself having to provide training, execution support, personnel management, as well as salary and legal administration.

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Terrie's Job Tips -- Starting Your Own Company – Part Three: Rep Office or Branch?

Both the Godo Kaisha and Kabushiki Kaisha entities I mentioned last week are independent companies and are the most common forms of incorporation in Japan. But what if you are helping a foreign firm get set up here? Well, there are other choices, but before I go into them, I'll just say that I prefer establishing an independent company like a KK because it provides you with "firewalling" of the Japan operation, by limiting the liability of management to the laws and actions made here to the Japanese market. It is for this reason that most foreign firms like to use the KK instead of other options.

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Terrie's Job Tips -- Starting Your Own Company – Part Two: the KK (Kabushiki Kaisha)

Because of these issues with a GK, I usually advise people to consider a proper shares-based corporate entity, and this means moving to a Kabushiki Kaisha. Setting up a Kabushiki Kaisha (KK) is much easier than it used to be, and in practice it costs around JPY140,000 more than a GK to do. Therefore, I see little point in encouraging those wanting to build a business that they can sell one day, to pursue a GK. Although having said that, you can easily upgrade a GK to a KK.

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Terrie's Job Tips -- Starting Your Own Company - Part One: Godo Kaisha

Back in 2003 I wrote about how you might want to start your own company as a future career path option - especially if you're in a job where there is very little opportunity for upwards promotion. Of course it's easier and lower risk to just go find a new job with another employer - all you need to do is update your resume, practice your presentation, and do some interviews. But if you're moving up in age (over 40), or are in an industry where pricing has been commoditized, or you've been pigeon-holed in a particular position and you don't want to take a big pay cut to reset your career, then starting your own business can be a viable alternative.

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Terrie's Job Tips -- Fingerprinting for Foreigners is Back

If you are a long-term or permanent resident foreigner in Japan, from November 20th, you're going to be in for a shock at Immigration. Like many others, after a long trip back to Japan, I have always appreciated the right to be able to pass through the Japanese immigration lines with my re-entry permit. At the same time, I look at the long lines for the Foreigners immigration line, and thank my lucky stars that I don't have to get caught up in that for an hour or more.

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Terrie's Job Tips -- Breaking an Employment Contract

Note: As always, I advise that you seek professional legal and/or labor advice before acting on any opinions given here.

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Terrie's Job Tips -- Team Training: Part Six - Cultural Wrap-up

In the last installment on this training series, I'd like to cover a grab bag of cultural considerations that I have come across in my career. These relate strongly to last week's article about hardened sales guys and how to get through to them. This time around, we look at how to manage the coach-team scenario in a cultural context and how to avoid predetermined or possibly negative outcomes.

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Terrie's Job Tips -- Team Training: Part Five - Winning Over Hardened Teams

One of the biggest challenges for a non-Japanese manager to deal with is when they are parachuted into a situation and are required to take on, train, and motivate a battle hardened crew of veterans - particularly sales, administration, or customer support veterans. This situation most frequently happens when you are part of a merger with a Japanese firm, a joint venture, or you have been appointed to replace an under-performing manager in a foreign-owned business that has been left too long on its own, and whose employees have forgotten who they actually work for.

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Terrie's Job Tips -- Team Training: Part Four - Planning the Course

A lot of managers call for training as a knee-jerk reaction to some problem that they have been experiencing within the team. While this is understandable, just like any business process setting up a training program warrants time, proper planning, colleague buy-in, and a well thought out set of goals. This week we cover some of these considerations.

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Terrie's Job Tips -- Team Training: Part Three - Big Picture Issues

Training really can transform a company, whether you're in the services business or in manufacturing. It helps people see a common goal and to work towards it. It also helps them understand each other a bit better and try to overlook the issues of different value systems and cultures. Further it sets expectations team-wide that help restrain those with "expansive personalities" from trampling over the more reserved.

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