Wednesday, August 26, 2020

MSW vs. Ph.D. vs. DSW for a Career in Social Work

MSW versus Ph.D. versus DSW for a Career in Social Work In contrast to numerous fields, social work has a few advanced education alternatives. Numerous candidates considering professions in social work wonder which degree is directly for them.â MSW Careers While single men degree holders in social work are utilized in social work settings and work nearby social specialists in numerous helpful jobs, they should be managed by MSW-level supervisors.â In this sense, the MSW is the standard section necessity for most social work positions. Progression to boss, program chief, right hand chief, or official executive of a social help organization or office requires an advanced education, at least a MSW, and experience. With a MSW a social laborer may draw in exploration, support, and counseling. Social laborers who go into private practice require, at least, a MSW, managed work understanding, and state confirmation. MSW Programs Master’s qualification programs in social work get ready alumni for work in a particular field, for example, with youngsters and families, teenagers, or the older. MSW understudies figure out how to perform clinical evaluations, direct others, and oversee huge caseloads. Master’s programs by and large require 2 years of study and incorporate at least 900 hours of managed field guidance or temporary job. Low maintenance program may take 4 years. Look for programs that are authorize by the Council on Social Work Education to guarantee that the alumni program you pick will give a suitable instruction and meet state necessities for licensure and confirmation. The Council on Social Work Education certifies more than 180 master’s programs. Doctoral Social Work Programs Social work candidates have two options of doctoral degrees: the DSW and the Ph.D. A doctorate in social work (DSW) gets ready alumni for the most exceptional occupations, for example, organization, oversight, and staff preparing positions. As a rule, the DSW is an applied degree as in it gets ready DSW holders for jobs by and by settings as chairmen, coaches, and evaluators. The Ph.D. in social work is an exploration degree. At the end of the day, like the PsyD andâ Ph.D. (degrees in brain science), the DSW and Ph.D. contrast with respect to an accentuation on training versus research. The DSW accentuates preparing by and by, so graduates become master professionals, while the Ph.D. accentuates research, preparing graduates for professions in examination and instructing. School and college encouraging positions and most exploration arrangements by and large require a Ph.D. what's more, at times a DSW degree. Licensure and Certification All States and the District of Columbia have permitting, accreditation, or enlistment necessities with respect to social work practice and the utilization of expert titles. Despite the fact that measures for authorizing fluctuate by State, most require consummation of a test in addition to 2 years (3,000 hours) of managed clinical experience for licensure of clinical social workers.â The Association of Social Work Boardsâ provides data about licensure for all states and the District of Columbia. What's more, the National Association of Social Workers offers willful certifications to MSW holders, for example, the Academy of Certified Social Workers (ACSW), the Qualified Clinical Social Worker (QCSW), or the Diplomate in Clinical Social Work (DCSW) qualification, in light of their expert experience. Accreditation is a marker of experience, and is especially significant for social specialists in private practice; some medical coverage suppliers require affirmation for repayment.

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Local Government Amalgamation and Financial Sustainability

Question: Talk about the Local Government Amalgamation and Financial Sustainability? Answer: The jobs of customers, retailers, producers and the administration offices in the gauges and characteristics of food in the United Kingdom are tremendous (Fagotto 2014). Purchasers assume a crucial job in such manner (Lovelock et al. 2014). They have the rights to anticipate that the food, which they are purchasing or devouring, is protected to be expended and is of acceptable quality as well (Lovelock et al. 2014). Buyers can opine about the systems followed for food control, the principles and the exercises, which are utilized, by the legislature and the businesses for determining that the food, which is offered, has these highlights (Osborn 2013). Regardless of whether the clients, government and the others assume a vital job to guarantee the security and nature of the food, at last even with rivalry, the ability to put resources into the physical and the administrative assets that are required for execution of legitimate controls lies exclusively with the food business (Osborn 2013). It is perceived by the private firms that the buyers assume a significant job in deciding their prosperity concerning productivity (Grant 2015). In the event that the shoppers purchase a similar item on a nonstop premise, it is shown that the item fulfills them (Grant 2015). The food makers and advertisers, along these lines, have a commitment to their item characters which they need to protect. Along these line s, building up and controlling the controls is significant for them to ensure that the item satisfies the desires for the buyers on wellbeing and quality (Oliver 2014). The administration offices to have a significant task to carry out since they are answerable for: Setting up the norms of security consistently with the goal that equivalent measure of insurance is accomplished by all the clients, Applying comparable security levels with the goal that all the food makers are dealt with impartially and Advising the clients in regards to the gauges that are followed with respect to the security (Oliver 2014). Retailers assume a significant job too by: Proffering created medical advantages over a differing item and an area accordingly advancing ceaseless shopping on account of closeness to lodging and networks. Impacting arranging contemplations by depicting the advantages of agglomerated chain of stores Advancement of culture and relaxation Building up the earth by advancement of neighborhood gracefully chains Most of the retailers utilize the nearby wholesalers, and numerous customers go to the area oftentimes, lessening the need to visit the shops by utilizing private vehicle (Ozuduru et al. 2014). The makers have an essential impact in the measures and the characteristics of the food. It is on the grounds that the customers will be influenced if the quality and principles of the food are not up to the gauges and recommended characteristics. The buyers on occasion to check its dietary or restorative worth screen the fixings, which are placed into the produce. There are sanitation prerequisites too since it are critical that nature where the food is made is spotless and the food, which is delivered, is protected (Troller 2012). Shoppers, retailers, producers and the administration organizations are identified with one another intently with regards to principles and characteristics of food in United Kingdom (Buzby et al. 2014). It works like a cycle where every last one of the above is connected to one another. The purchasers are toward the finish of the cycle since they are the ones devouring the item, which is fabricated after the item passes a few phases and steps (Solomon et al. 2012). The makers (Solomon et al. 2012) remember them while planning and assembling the item. There are matters identifying with principles and quality, which must be investigated, by the makers or the makers, and it is likewise to be seen that the soundness of the customers subsequent to expending the item isn't influenced inconveniently in any capacity (Solomon et al. 2012). The makers come after the customers where they need to watch certain rules for creating the item as endorsed by the administration. It is to be seen that t he shoppers are determining most extreme advantages out of the delivered food and that they are expending it frequently, which thusly demonstrates their similarity for that specific food. The retailers present the food from the producers to the purchasers. Consequently, they structure an immediate connection in the middle of them along these lines satisfying the basic role of assembling. They make the purchasing procedure simpler by encouraging the clients by giving choices in different structures. The administration organizations are connected to this cycle intently as they endorse the standards and guidelines, which should be trailed by all the others in the cycle aside from the customers. These standards are given with the goal that the food, which is delivered, is sheltered to be devoured by the shoppers. The fundamental lawful base in the enactment of food in the United Kingdom RE THE Food Safety Act, 1990 and the General Food Regulations, 2004 (Rouvire and Latouche 2014). In UK, there is no corporate qualification between the appraisal of hazard and correspondence of hazard from chance administration. The evaluations of dangers are commonly distributed on the Internet if there are no legitimate arrangements to disallow that. The FSA is the principle overseeing body, which oversees the security of food in the United Kingdom (Devaney 2013). It relies upon the non-ecclesiastical government division Government Department, which is represented an autonomous Chairperson and a non-official board which oversees the complete vital course of the Agency, and to ensure that it is meeting its legal commitments (Devaney 2013). It is responsible to the British Parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly of Wales through the clergymen of wellbeing. A longside the inquiries with respect to the wellbeing of food, the obligations of FSA additionally incorporates watching and caring for the neighborhood specialists of requirement. It is a body, which is generally in UK, headquartered in London, and its workplaces are available in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales for guaranteeing that its needs are introduced in the nation explicitly, and the workplaces work in various zones of work. On issues of importance, FSA works with the neighborhood specialists. The Meat Hygiene Service, which works inside FSA, is liable for assessing meat in the premises of meat, which are new in zones. FSA works in alongside different things, food added substances and sullying substances, microbiological sanitation, feed, GMOs, novel nourishments, and the added substances of the food. Its activities likewise incorporate territories like nutritive nourishment for the wellbeing, naming of the food and the guidelines of the food items. There is another body named Defra, which is managed by the administration and alongside its different offices is liable for the bills and for executing and to screen the wellbeing of the food on the off chance that it doesn't go under the domain of FSA. Veterinary Medicines Department is an organization, which alongside different obligations is subject for surveying, giving and keeping up the approvals for promoting broadly for restorative items utilized for veterinary purposes and cautiousness for buildups of those, ill-conceived things in creatures and its items as well and co-appointment of the work with respect to against microbial uncompromising nature. There is an administrative body for pesticides, which deals with sake of Defra, in particular Chemicals Regulation Directorate. Its exercises other than the wellbeing of food incorporate completing of a program on the pesticides authoritatively of the remainders of the pesticide testing of the food in the United Kingdom about the endorsed guidelines, and the reports are distributed on quarterly. It is the duty of the body to make the correct move of an application on occasion if the administrative penetrate of the buildup of the degrees of pesticide happens. There are positively different exercises of Defra, for instance, for administering, executing and investigating, the obligations go under Agricultural/Rural Affairs Departments in the Devolved Administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Defra distributes the appraisal of dangers in the field of creature wellbeing and their government assistance. They additionally co-work with the working gatherings of FSA any place it is required. It is the obligation of Defra to deal with all the variables of the water strategy in England and it works with the Drinking Water Inspectorate, which is a body that manages the drinking water quality. The conditions are indistinguishable in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The domain of exercises of Delta c overs alongside the security of food stretches out to creature wellbeing, the government assistance of the creatures, and the strength of the plant. There are four nations in UK, and their structure of organization is single-level. The units are exclusively liable for all the undertakings, which are provincial and privately managed (Andrews 2013). They manage the laws identifying with the food, feed laws, and do investigations as well, and they are liable to FSA since they report straightforwardly to them. At the point when it controls the nearby government authority, the Local Authorities Coordinator of Regulatory Services, it speaks to the specialists, which work locally, and it performs coordination of the exercises of the neighborhood specialists and among them and among Defra and FSA. Reference List Andrews, R., 2013. Neighborhood government amalgamation and money related supportability: the instance of England and Wales. Open Finance and Management, 13(2), p.124. Buzby, J.C., Farah-Wells, H. what's more, Hyman, J., 2014. The assessed sum, worth, and calories of postharvest food misfortunes at the retail and shopper levels in the United States. USDA-ERS Economic Information Bulletin, (121). Devaney, L., 2013. Spaces of security, reconnaissance and sanitation: investigating impression of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland's overseeing sleuth

Friday, August 21, 2020

GuideSpark

GuideSpark INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi, today we are in Menlo Park in the GuideSpark office. Keith, who are you and what do you do?Keith: So I’m Keith Kitani and I’m the CEO and one of the co-founders of GuideSpark, a company that is really designed to help organizations communicate and connect with their employees better through video and mobile communications.Martin: And what did you do before? Because you‘ve had something like a really rollercoaster life over the last fifteen years or so.Keith: Exactly. It’s my second startup. I was originally, a long time ago an electrical engineer but went back to business school and changed my direction. But I started a company in the late nineties, it was a company called Presedia that we sold Macromedia that was then bought by Adobe and that was Adobe Connect so it was really in the eLearning and communication space and decided that while I loved Adobe and that company that I wanted to start over and so we started this company 2008.Martin: How did yo u come up with the idea for GuideSpark?Keith: Well, I’d like to tell you that I just came up with it one day and all of a sudden it was rocket ship but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. So we started this company in 2008 and originally around the idea of helping people with financial education and financial health but that was right before the recession and that was not a great time to sell wellness products. So that was a tough time for a couple of years.But what ended up happening is we started talking to customers and customers really pointed us in a direction about helping them communicate better with their employees, around things like benefits and compensation programs. And so the way we came up with the idea overnight is that we kept listening to customers over the years of time and finally realized we had a big huge market opportunity and really around 2012 the company really started to grow very fast.Martin: Especially yourstory’s very interesting because you did a big pivot of your business model. Can you elaborate on how the business model was looking before and after?Keith: So, we were in an area of financial health, of financial education and financial wellness and that’s a business actually we are back in but at the time it was not a great time for HR. So we were actually running out of cash so we had to really find a business that we could really have that would sell to customers. So we talked to a lot of prospects and customers and found that they had this need to communicate more effectively around benefits and compensation. So they spent a ton of money here in the US on benefits and it’s hard for employees to really understand the value of those programs and so we were able to create video and mobile education around it and it worked well.BUSINESS MODEL OF GUIDESPARKMartin: Let’s talk about your business model for GuideSpark. Basically and currently who are your customers and what type of value proposition are you doing to them? Keith: We have an interesting customer base that has been around different startups and companies. But our customer base â€" we have over 600 customers, they range in size from 100 employees all the way up to the large Fortune 10 companies. And in fact we’re now in 20 percent of the Fortune 500 so it doesn’t matter what size company you are.The other thing interesting about our business is that we have almost every industry; so we have city governments, we have high tech companies, we have trucking companies, we have mining companies, we have pretty much every industry. And so if you think about it, every company has employees, every company has to communicate to those employees and we’re really starting to hit all of those different people.Martin: Mainly in the US because of the different kinds of regulations for benefits?Keith: Yes, so we’re US-based but we’re supporting some of our multinationals internationally. But the real value proposition is if you think about how companies communicate today, it’s really the same way they’ve been doing it for the last ten, twenty, fifty years. It is employee manuals, it’s PowerPoint presentations, it is long text emails and if you think about how you connect and get information in your daily lives it’s probably video, mobile, interactive. And so what we’re doing is really helping companies transform their traditional communications into these new forms of communication that really are more effective in engaging employees.Martin: And do you see some kind of increase in conversion rates from showing employees that information and then to really sign up to a specific benefit program?Keith: Absolutely, that’s one of our key value propositions but there are a lot more value propositions around that. So increased participation in programs is one of them but also reduced call center time, reduced travel, there are a lot of different opportunities that have been incredibly valuable for corporate companies to utilize.Martin: After you pivoted the business, how was it like to acquire the first customers? How did you tackle them?Keith: The way we pivoted the business and it’s interesting when people say ‘pivoted’, it feels like it should be a sharp turn. And for me it took a while because for many years we were telling every investor, every employee, every customer how financial wellness is the greatest thing in the world, so it takes a little while. Because we were listening to customers it actually wasn’t that hard to actually get them to sell because they would tell us what they wanted and then like any small company would say, “Hey that’s great that’s what we do”, as we started to sell it and started really to refine that offering and that value proposition.Martin: Did you first focus only on the Bay area in terms of customers or did you say, “Okay, let’s sell it nationwide?”Keith: So what I would say is for the first year or so we focused on the Bay Area but very, very quickly we realized it didn’t matter where you are. You are a company, you need to communicate and so we quickly grew all across the country because we’re able to really access them through telephone.Martin: How are you currently managing the customer relationships and trying to re-nurture them? So are you doing something like conferences with them or monthly walk-ins or steady calls?Keith: We do a variety of things: we certainly have an annual customer conference. But we also have a customer success team and our customer success and account management team check in at least quarterly with our customers to really you start doing business reviews because our goal is to make sure that our solutions adding value to their business. We are subscription-based model and so if we’renot continuing adding value they’re going to cancel. So it’s very important for us to constantly be in contact with them to make sure that our system and our solution is adding value to that them and their business.Martin: So you said that you’re based on a subscription model, how did you decide how to price your model?Keith: That’s always the hardest question when in a new market. Generally, if you’re in a market that already exists you can start to price off other people. But what I would say is it was kind of iterative. We had an idea of what this might cost and then you start to test in the marketplace and try to get an understanding of our value. And so we’ve been able to arrive at a good place in terms of different prices for different company sizes and different sizes of library.Martin: So over the last 18 to 24 months you’ve been growing extremely fast, did you perceive any types of growing pains or some obstacles that you say, “Wow, that was really hard for us. And this is how we solved it.”Keith: Solving it, seems like we’re constantly growing so I’m not sure if we fully solved it. To give you an idea in the last three years we’ve grown fro m about 10 employees to three hundred and so you can imagine that there are growing pains every step of the way there and it’s systems and processes that break. The other thing that’s hard is also people. If you think about their skill sets, initial managers two years ago would have teams of two or three people, and now they could have 15 and it’s a totally different job, totally different skill set. And so for us it’s really making sure that we’re examining each stage of our business what’s right at that stage. And it can be tough because you have processes that you just implemented and you sit back and go, “Well maybe that’s not the right one” or you have a system that breaks.I mean this funny story that I always talk about is we found out that our payroll vendor had a maximum capacity of a hundred and fifty paychecks and how did we find that out? We ran a hundred and fifty-two. But when I first started with that payroll company last thing I was thinking about is what’s your maximum and you just run some paper checks and then you can find a new system. So I think it’s been a lot of kind of learning along the way. But the key thing for us is to make sure you realize that that’s part of what your business is that you can’t be too locked in because of that growth rate you have to constantly realize that business is going to change, systems are going to change, processes going to change and people have to grow and evolve.Martin: You’re mainly based in the Bay Area but you have other offices, so how are you trying to solve the recruiting issues that you’re currently facing because in the Bay Area because the unemployment seems to be very low. What kind of measures are you taking to raise offers for extending your growth?Keith: We’ve been very successful in getting people to join here in the Bay Area but it’s incredibly competitive. And so what we’ve done is we’ve selectivelyadded some offices, so we have a Boston office and a New York office primarily for sales. That’s not only for us to attract great people but also a lot of customers on the East Coast and so it’s a great opportunity for us to grow there. And we just added Portland so we wanted to addâ€" one of the other types of roles we have today are for designers and writers and a lot of creative people and so we’re adding office up to Portland and planning a big presence there. So all of those will supplement the Bay Area, we think talent here is just great place for us but we also needed to realize that we have a huge growth targets and we’ve got to complement elsewhere.Martin: And are you also planning to enter international clients because from my understanding the benefit system or the offerings are very country or regional specific and so once you’d like to enter India or China or some other country, I would guess you would need to produce a new content?Keith: So we do support multinationals. So we have companies like Adobe, where w e support them internationally. So we have different content for each of their regions so somebody in Japan see something different than US, somebody in the UK see something different than in India. So we already have that model and we could translate content to about 15 different languages but realize that benefit programs are different, compensation programs are different but communication is still necessary no matter what language or what country you’re in.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM KEITH KITANI In Menlo Park (CA), we meet CEO and Co-Founder of GuideSpark, Keith Kitani. Keith talks about his story how he came up with the idea and founded GuideSpark, how the current business model works, as well as he provides some advice for young entrepreneurs.INTRODUCTIONMartin: Hi, today we are in Menlo Park in the GuideSpark office. Keith, who are you and what do you do?Keith: So I’m Keith Kitani and I’m the CEO and one of the co-founders of GuideSpark, a company that is really designed to help organizations communicate and connect with their employees better through video and mobile communications.Martin: And what did you do before? Because you‘ve had something like a really rollercoaster life over the last fifteen years or so.Keith: Exactly. It’s my second startup. I was originally, a long time ago an electrical engineer but went back to business school and changed my direction. But I started a company in the late nineties, it was a company called Presedia that we sold Macromed ia that was then bought by Adobe and that was Adobe Connect so it was really in the eLearning and communication space and decided that while I loved Adobe and that company that I wanted to start over and so we started this company 2008.Martin: How did you come up with the idea for GuideSpark?Keith: Well, I’d like to tell you that I just came up with it one day and all of a sudden it was rocket ship but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. So we started this company in 2008 and originally around the idea of helping people with financial education and financial health but that was right before the recession and that was not a great time to sell wellness products. So that was a tough time for a couple of years.But what ended up happening is we started talking to customers and customers really pointed us in a direction about helping them communicate better with their employees, around things like benefits and compensation programs. And so the way we came up with the idea overnight is that we kept listening to customers over the years of time and finally realized we had a big huge market opportunity and really around 2012 the company really started to grow very fast.Martin: Especially yourstory’s very interesting because you did a big pivot of your business model. Can you elaborate on how the business model was looking before and after?Keith: So, we were in an area of financial health, of financial education and financial wellness and that’s a business actually we are back in but at the time it was not a great time for HR. So we were actually running out of cash so we had to really find a business that we could really have that would sell to customers. So we talked to a lot of prospects and customers and found that they had this need to communicate more effectively around benefits and compensation. So they spent a ton of money here in the US on benefits and it’s hard for employees to really understand the value of those programs and so we were able to crea te video and mobile education around it and it worked well.BUSINESS MODEL OF GUIDESPARKMartin: Let’s talk about your business model for GuideSpark. Basically and currently who are your customers and what type of value proposition are you doing to them?Keith: We have an interesting customer base that has been around different startups and companies. But our customer base â€" we have over 600 customers, they range in size from 100 employees all the way up to the large Fortune 10 companies. And in fact we’re now in 20 percent of the Fortune 500 so it doesn’t matter what size company you are.The other thing interesting about our business is that we have almost every industry; so we have city governments, we have high tech companies, we have trucking companies, we have mining companies, we have pretty much every industry. And so if you think about it, every company has employees, every company has to communicate to those employees and we’re really starting to hit all of those dif ferent people.Martin: Mainly in the US because of the different kinds of regulations for benefits?Keith: Yes, so we’re US-based but we’re supporting some of our multinationals internationally. But the real value proposition is if you think about how companies communicate today, it’s really the same way they’ve been doing it for the last ten, twenty, fifty years. It is employee manuals, it’s PowerPoint presentations, it is long text emails and if you think about how you connect and get information in your daily lives it’s probably video, mobile, interactive. And so what we’re doing is really helping companies transform their traditional communications into these new forms of communication that really are more effective in engaging employees.Martin: And do you see some kind of increase in conversion rates from showing employees that information and then to really sign up to a specific benefit program?Keith: Absolutely, that’s one of our key value propositions but there are a lot more value propositions around that. So increased participation in programs is one of them but also reduced call center time, reduced travel, there are a lot of different opportunities that have been incredibly valuable for corporate companies to utilize.Martin: After you pivoted the business, how was it like to acquire the first customers? How did you tackle them?Keith: The way we pivoted the business and it’s interesting when people say ‘pivoted’, it feels like it should be a sharp turn. And for me it took a while because for many years we were telling every investor, every employee, every customer how financial wellness is the greatest thing in the world, so it takes a little while. Because we were listening to customers it actually wasn’t that hard to actually get them to sell because they would tell us what they wanted and then like any small company would say, “Hey that’s great that’s what we do”, as we started to sell it and started really to refine that offering and that value proposition.Martin: Did you first focus only on the Bay area in terms of customers or did you say, “Okay, let’s sell it nationwide?”Keith: So what I would say is for the first year or so we focused on the Bay Area but very, very quickly we realized it didn’t matter where you are. You are a company, you need to communicate and so we quickly grew all across the country because we’re able to really access them through telephone.Martin: How are you currently managing the customer relationships and trying to re-nurture them? So are you doing something like conferences with them or monthly walk-ins or steady calls?Keith: We do a variety of things: we certainly have an annual customer conference. But we also have a customer success team and our customer success and account management team check in at least quarterly with our customers to really you start doing business reviews because our goal is to make sure that our solutions adding value to their business. We are subscription-based model and so if we’renot continuing adding value they’re going to cancel. So it’s very important for us to constantly be in contact with them to make sure that our system and our solution is adding value to that them and their business.Martin: So you said that you’re based on a subscription model, how did you decide how to price your model?Keith: That’s always the hardest question when in a new market. Generally, if you’re in a market that already exists you can start to price off other people. But what I would say is it was kind of iterative. We had an idea of what this might cost and then you start to test in the marketplace and try to get an understanding of our value. And so we’ve been able to arrive at a good place in terms of different prices for different company sizes and different sizes of library.Martin: So over the last 18 to 24 months you’ve been growing extremely fast, did you perceive any types of growing pains or som e obstacles that you say, “Wow, that was really hard for us. And this is how we solved it.”Keith: Solving it, seems like we’re constantly growing so I’m not sure if we fully solved it. To give you an idea in the last three years we’ve grown from about 10 employees to three hundred and so you can imagine that there are growing pains every step of the way there and it’s systems and processes that break. The other thing that’s hard is also people. If you think about their skill sets, initial managers two years ago would have teams of two or three people, and now they could have 15 and it’s a totally different job, totally different skill set. And so for us it’s really making sure that we’re examining each stage of our business what’s right at that stage. And it can be tough because you have processes that you just implemented and you sit back and go, “Well maybe that’s not the right one” or you have a system that breaks.I mean this funny story that I always talk about is we found out that our payroll vendor had a maximum capacity of a hundred and fifty paychecks and how did we find that out? We ran a hundred and fifty-two. But when I first started with that payroll company last thing I was thinking about is what’s your maximum and you just run some paper checks and then you can find a new system. So I think it’s been a lot of kind of learning along the way. But the key thing for us is to make sure you realize that that’s part of what your business is that you can’t be too locked in because of that growth rate you have to constantly realize that business is going to change, systems are going to change, processes going to change and people have to grow and evolve.Martin: You’re mainly based in the Bay Area but you have other offices, so how are you trying to solve the recruiting issues that you’re currently facing because in the Bay Area because the unemployment seems to be very low. What kind of measures are you taking to ra ise offers for extending your growth?Keith: We’ve been very successful in getting people to join here in the Bay Area but it’s incredibly competitive. And so what we’ve done is we’ve selectivelyadded some offices, so we have a Boston office and a New York office primarily for sales. That’s not only for us to attract great people but also a lot of customers on the East Coast and so it’s a great opportunity for us to grow there. And we just added Portland so we wanted to addâ€" one of the other types of roles we have today are for designers and writers and a lot of creative people and so we’re adding office up to Portland and planning a big presence there. So all of those will supplement the Bay Area, we think talent here is just great place for us but we also needed to realize that we have a huge growth targets and we’ve got to complement elsewhere.Martin: And are you also planning to enter international clients because from my understanding the benefit system or the offerings are very country or regional specific and so once you’d like to enter India or China or some other country, I would guess you would need to produce a new content?Keith: So we do support multinationals. So we have companies like Adobe, where we support them internationally. So we have different content for each of their regions so somebody in Japan see something different than US, somebody in the UK see something different than in India. So we already have that model and we could translate content to about 15 different languages but realize that benefit programs are different, compensation programs are different but communication is still necessary no matter what language or what country you’re in.ADVICE TO ENTREPRENEURS FROM KEITH KITANIMartin: Keith, let’s talk about the learnings that you generated from your first two companies, maybe there were some other companies. What have been your major learnings?Keith: There’s a long list of learnings and mostly learned th e hard way. I touched on one of them already. I think the key is  to always be open to change. I think when you’re in business and business is growing and especially at the early stages you have to be very flexible. We had to pivot our business now at this chief growth stage we have to really make sure that our systems and processes are right and constantly re-look. I think one of the key things is to always be flexible.The other one for me is, you know,  you’ve got to be passionate about what you do  and you got to really realize it’s a long road. In GuideSpark here, the first four years we had almost no growth. I was telling you earlier we went from zero to four employees in the first three years. And it was like three to four employees and that’s all we had. And then all of a sudden, we took off. I think it’s about being passionate about what you want to go accomplish and sticking with it. Entrepreneurship can be hard at times.Martin: What do you like most about entrepr eneurship?Keith: I really like building, building products, building teams, building organizations. I think I’ve loved being at a larger companies like Adobe but I just get excited about building something new and that’s what I’m get to do here at GuideSpark. It’s fantastic, I love what I’m doing.Martin: Great. Keith, thank you so much for your time and sharing. It was a pleasure.Keith: Thank you.Martin: And next time if you’re thinking about what should you do next and you really enjoy entrepreneurship, just go out there and build a great company. Thank you.