Will it be through stock options, catering services, parties, cool office digs, free educational training courses or competitive compensation packages? It’s a predicament that many a CEO has grappled with, because as much as you’d like to offer all these perks (and more), it’s simply not possible or fiscally responsible. So it boils down to a choice that has the potential of defining (or redefining) your company’s culture.

Netflix’s innovative and unconventional comp-based model is a prime example of how investment choices can lead to high employee retention and satisfaction. The on-demand video streaming giant promises its employees top-of-the-market compensation packages, giving them a choice between stock-focused or cash-focused salaries. And, as if that isn’t enticing enough, the company’s vacation policy is that it has no policy or formal tracking system.

The concept, which Netflix laid out in a slideshow presentation that has been viewed more than 14 million times online, was an instant hit with employees, and the market was quick to take notice. “[A] great workplace is stunning colleagues. [A] great workplace is not espresso, lush benefits, sushi lunches, grand parties or nice offices,” Netflix wrote in its presentation. “We do some of these things, but only if they are efficient at attracting and retaining stunning colleagues.”

Luckily, lucrative comp packages aren’t the only way to achieve this goal. I personally have found that money isn’t everything. Of course, salaries must be fair; your employees shouldn’t be underpaid. In essence, salary is the enabler of retention, but it doesn’t stimulate retention. The IT market is competitive. There is always going to be a company, like Netflix, that is going to offer (a lot) more money than you. You need to give your employees reason to work for you. They need to feel like they not only have a purpose, but that they belong. Here’s how you can achieve this:

Focusing on Employee Retention

At my company, we offer a couple of standards, like free food, educational events, gym memberships and easy access to top management. But what we decided to pour our hearts, souls and a big chunk of our profits into is a really cool office space.

People spend the majority of their lives in the office. It would be a shame to spend those hours in a hole. The quality of office space has always been one of our topic investment priorities, and as it turns out is key to our employee retention strategy.

Keep in mind, it’s simply not possible to make everyone happy, especially if you’re running a large, growing company. We have around 150 employees, a significant increase from 2015, when we were a small staff of 50. A decade ago, there were essentially just two of us manning the ship.

As our team began to expand exponentially, my co-founders and I found ourselves moving from a dinky 860 square-foot loft-like office space into a 3,770 square-foot unit in a well-established commercial complex. We expanded it to 9,150 square feet less than a year after moving in.

But last spring, it became clear that we were rapidly outgrowing even that spot. We decided that our next move would be for a long-term commitment, and we wanted space that would not only be big enough to someday accommodate a development team of 500, but one that would also have pizzazz. After nearly a year-long search, we settled on a 59,200 square-foot space in a new office development along a leafy riverbank, and immediately set out designing a headquarters our employees would feel like was their second home.

Creating the perfect work environment is not something to shortchange nor is it something that can be done in a week or even a month. Hand this task off to dedicated professionals. Finding a team of experienced interior designers and architects should be at the top of your to-do list once you settle on a new office location.

We tried to steer clear of trendsetters, and did not want to emulate office digs like that of Google or Facebook. Instead, we opted for something unique — a design and feel that closely relates to our own brand. Our new offices cover three floors, and includes two terraces and a large multipurpose event space, where we hold developer meetups and hackathons. In addition to themed meeting rooms, several kitchens and a bar, gym, pool table and an outdoor jacuzzi, our offices feature sleeping boxes, swings and a birch tree forest.

Having an office that feels like home will not only help increase employee retention, but will also increase overall morale, which should be any company’s key goal. Whether or not a comfortable office space is one of your business’s top priorities, focus on the perks that help employees feel like they matter.

Who is your hero? (In business, life, or both.)

Gary Vaynerchuck. He worked like crazy to get to where he is now. He never complains about how difficult it was to attain his goals but always encourages his audiences to stay positive and go after their dreams.

What’s the single best piece of business advice (unorthodox tips welcome!) that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why?

Say no. It might sound counterintuitive to say no, but I have found that they only way to grow your business is to stay focused on your goal. Projects will come up, prospective clients will ask you to work with them. If both are not a good fit, just say no. If you continue to say yes to everything, you will spread ourselves too thin and not focus on what’s important and what’s really driving our business. If we lose track of our focus, then the whole operation can fall apart. Identify your goals early on in your business. Stay true to them and don’t stray. Keep your focus sharp and only work on the projects that are in line with your company goals.

What’s the biggest mistake you ever made in your business, and what did you learn from it that others can learn from too?

My biggest mistake in my business was thinking that I know it all as an entrepreneur. I have had several businesses that have failed before my current business and at the time I first got started 10 years ago, I thought it was going to be a piece of cake. In retrospect, I didn’t have a clue. I didn’t know how to set up my company as a corporate entity or that I had to file quarterly taxes with the IRS. I learned a couple of things from my mistakes.

The first point I learned was that starting your own business is difficult and there will be failures along the way, but it’s important to get up and keep going. The second point I learned is that being an entrepreneur means being a life-long learner. Although we might think we know it all, there is still so much to learn. It goes beyond just learning our own areas of expertise to learning how to be a good leader, people manager and creator of a company culture.

What do you do during the first hour of your business day and why?

I do yoga, stretching and mindful meditation. The yoga and streteching helps me get the kinks out of my body so I can take on the day from a physical perspective. The mindful meditation has been a key component of focusing on my goals and creating a positive mindset.

What’s your best financial/cash-flow related tip for entrepreneurs just getting started?

If you are just getting started, I would suggest not quitting your full-time job until you have at least six months of savings to weather any storm. One of the biggest mistakes I see when it comes to entrepreneurs is that they start businesses expecting them to explode right away. That may not always be the case, so it’s best to plan ahead than be in a scenario where you can’t keep the lights on.

Quick: What’s ONE thing you recommend ALL aspiring or current entrepreneurs do right now to take their biz to the next level?

Create content and use social media to get your content in front of the right audiences. If you are an expert in any field and you can create value through your content — whether it’s video, blog posts, articles, etc. — you are on the right track. Your audiences will love you for it and you will be solving their challenges.

What’s your definition of success? How will you know when you’ve finally “succeeded” in your business?

To me, the definition of success is multi-faceted. I think there is no one definition of success, but if two of the following are applicable to you, then you are on the right track. Being an expert in your field with a growing business and a fair market salary for yourself is one part of being successful. Being successful also means having the ability to step away from your business, so it doesn’t depend on you being there every day. It means you have hired the right people and set up processes that allow you to spend your time how you wish, whether it’s building more startups, spending time with your family or doing what you love personally. The third definition of success means you have perfected your craft so well that now you can teach others to do what you do successfully.

As a business founder and mother, I’ve found myself in this position many times, trying to balance my entrepreneurial ventures with my efforts to create a warm and loving environment for my son. I won’t lie, I’ve struggled to find harmony between these two roles and more than once has one part of my life been momentarily overshadowed by the demands of the other.

With practice, however, I’ve learned some lessons that make it easier to create symmetry in my life between these two roles. Whether you are thinking of starting your own company (or becoming a mother!) or you’re already deep in the trenches, these seven tips to balance entrepreneurship and motherhood can help you make the most of both roles — and maintain your own sanity in the process.

Enlist Deputies at Work and at Home

One of the first notions that you have to rid yourself of as an entrepreneur and a mother is the idea that you have to do everything yourself. The belief that you have to have a hand in everything is often seen as embedded in the concept of being an entrepreneur, but attempting to tackle everything on the job and at home guarantees that things will fall through the cracks. I fell victim to this misguided theory when I first launched my business. However, I quickly found that relying on my talented team at work and extended support network at home produced better results across the board.

Create a Routine for Yourself (But Allow for Flexibility)

Between my company and my son, every second of my day is filled. Without an established routine, it’s too easy to lose track of what I’m doing in the middle of doing it, wasting time and leaving me feeling unnecessarily stressed. Even worse, without a plan, one role can easily overwhelm the other. Establishing a weekly routine with time set aside solely for my business and my family alike helps me stay on top of things and be more effective. That said, flexibility is key. Otherwise, that unexpected doctor’s appointment can throw a wrench in your whole week.

Set Goals on a Daily Basis

I’ve found that outlining my life’s big aspirations is easy. I have a clear vision for my company’s long-term growth and I know the important principles and values that I want to instill in my son. The smaller, day-to-day goals that will lead me toward fulfilling these ambitions, however, can be harder to set. Putting aside time each morning for a quick daily goal-setting session has helped me enormously. First, it allows me to see more clearly if I’m forgetting something important. Second, the action of checking off a completed daily goal — no matter how small — gives me a sense of satisfaction that helps nurture my own mental well-being.

Be Able to Roll With Life’s Punches

The key caveat to the practice of daily goal-setting, of course, is that you have to be OK with failing to meet those goals from time to time. Start by making sure that your goals are realistic. I personally found that my intention to go to the gym every day was too ambitious. Even the best-laid plans are going to fall apart every now and then. Every entrepreneurial mother will face baby spit-up on their dry-cleaned suit at some point. Accept that this is going to happen, recalibrate and move on. Dwelling on these setbacks will only mess up your routine even more.

Be Mindful

Multitasking seems like it was designed for those of us balancing a company and a child, but trying to do both roles at once can easily result in doing neither role well. Before I figured this out, I definitely had times when I short-changed my son by attempting to answer a work email while playing with him. And I didn’t do my colleagues any favors, either, by missing an important question while trying to soothe my son. Whether you’re doing something for work or something for your family, dedicate all of your attention to that task. Being mindful can actually end up saving you time.

Make Family Meals a Priority

Carving out time dedicated solely to your family can be tough, and it’s easy to let the lovely idea of a family meal at the dinner table together fall to the side in favor of eating a sandwich in the kitchen while typing on your phone one-handed. If you’re able to fit just one daily activity into your life that revolves around your role as mother, however, family dinner is the way to go. Researchers have found that dinner-time conversations improve literacy and behavior.

Don’t Forget Self-Care

In balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship, forgetting to take care of yourself is easy. But you’re the glue that holds everything together! I learned the hard way that neglecting my own health, physical and mental, can lead to worse performance as a boss and as a caregiver. Between sleep, exercise and unplugging mentally, finding time to fulfill my own needs and recharge makes me more effective in everything I do. Sometimes this requires a little creativity; maybe gym time has to be slotted in at 5:00 a.m. But remember, building harmony between your role as entrepreneur and your role as mother starts by finding balance in yourself.

Although there are no set boundaries, millennials are the generation born somewhere between the early 1980s and 2000s who, as Sinek describes, are accused of being “entitled, unfocused, lazy and tough to manage.” What’s even more controversial and interesting about Sinek’s take on the matter, however, is his affirmation that it’s not their fault. He describes that this is a generation who grew up being told that “they could have anything they wanted, just because they wanted it,” distorting their view of the world and leaving them unprepared for what awaits them. And yet, this brings a whole new idea and adamant belief into their lives: that work goes hand-in-hand with happiness.

A large majority of previous generations have seemed to surrender to the fact that true and genuine happiness in the workplace is an unattainable, utopian idea, while for millennials, it is an absolute essential. Millennials have grown up their entire lives with a hunger to work in a place with purpose: where they can truly make a difference and feel valued as individuals.

I believe this is an idea everyone should have incorporated into their workplace a long time ago. Millennials have so much potential to change the way we work and function in the best possible way.

Companies shouldn’t be forcing millennials to fit into their mold, as is often the case. Rather, companies need to understand and adapt to this generation. Forcing them to change would make for an unhappy, demotivated and uninspired workforce that is inevitably the key to our entire future. Companies should build — or rebuild — themselves to be able to attract this fresh wave of young talent by creating core values that focus on people. Companies should be based on foundations of trust, support, tolerance, communication, self-management, self-fulfillment and happiness.

Sinek speaks to the impatience of the millennial generation and their need for instant gratification, but it is organizations that must learn to be patient. This change won’t come easy, but it’s imperative.

So what exactly can we, as companies, do to welcome the millennial generation?

Create workspaces where people are put first.

We can never forget that our businesses only function because of the people who work for them. The most important asset in any organization is the team members who make its existence possible. Their happiness and wellbeing is something that we must strive for.

I have seen that if young people feel that they play an important role within their company and are given responsibilities and goals to achieve rather than feel oppressed and micromanaged, it builds their ability to work fervently. This develops tolerance and patience toward the inevitable mistakes along their arduous path to success.

Promote emotional as well as professional growth.

I talk a lot about the importance of a team’s continuous learning and growing their professional skills. It is equally as important, however, not to forget about our emotional skills. Patience, effort and tolerance are complex matters that require a different kind of learning based on a team’s open communication and intelligent leadership, where the leader supports these young people both professionally and emotionally to develop their skills.

Have a purpose and an impact on society.

The millennial generation has different values than those of its predecessors. They no longer strive for lifelong employment positions; they will change workplaces every several years. That’s why they look for a place where they feel fulfilled, happy, and where their contributions bring a change to the world, even if only small. They want to identify with what their company stands for. 

My company has three core values: admire people, always find a better way, and obsess over customer experience. Each and every one of us strives to live these values out every day, which makes us a united, satisfied, eager and motivated team. 

Create teams from different generations.

Each generation has its strong points, and the millennial generation is full of digital natives. They grew up surrounded by computers, smart phones and the internet. Previous generations however, are better versed in tolerance and dealing with frustration. Creating teams with members from different generations will create the best of both worlds, where they will learn and teach whatever they know best.

Millennials are onto something, and it’s something that we need to embrace. They bring with them an innovative and revolutionary way of thinking, where work and happiness are not only compatible but indispensable, and where people are put first. The future is here, and they are ready to change the world.

The best leaders of today recognize the importance of excellent customer experience. They do their due diligence when designing great experiences and taking the steps needed for those experiences to happen. At my company, we add meaning to our customer experience by maintaining our Net Promoter Score (NPS), which is an active, fluid way of measuring customer loyalty.

The Dollar Shave Club is a prime example of a company with an above-average NPS score that contributed greatly to its value. With a consistent commitment to enhancing their core customer experience, it recently sold to Unilever for $1 billion. Here are three ways you can add value to your own customer experience and start building an above-average NPS of your own:

Empower Employees Not to Take a Customer’s Emotions Personally

Most businesses will provide tools and education to help employees boost their knowledge and emotional intelligence, but they often leave out a key skillset that sets the stage for the best customer experience: personal control (AKA the control quotient). This is the ability to stay calm when things become challenging — not just once — but when handling every challenge as they come.

The key to increasing your employee’s CQ is creating the right environment. The Effortless Experience, a method for building stronger customer loyalty, defines the three necessities an employee needs to up their CQ. They include: the need to feel trusted to make the right choices, the need to feel connected to the company’s bigger mission, and a strong peer network for support. Businesses that create support and education around these three factors create a positive and supportive environment where customer experience can thrive.

Don’t Aim for Customer Satisfaction. Aim for Customer Loyalty.

If you want an NPS that tells you your customers feel great about the experience they’re having with your business, you have to go beyond simply meeting their needs. After all, customer satisfaction is only one part of the customer experience. Without focusing on how the customer feels throughout their entire experience with your business, customer loyalty is much harder to achieve.

Reduce the amount of effort required on your customer’s end to get the experience they expect. Customer experience requires constant proactive thinking to identify and prevent the next issue before it happens. This can be attained through client feedback, but a business must also continuously discover what its customers’ pain points and goals are, and apply this knowledge. Another way businesses can ensure a proactive experience is by putting together tutorials, guides and other information that answer questions your customer is likely to ask. This way, solutions are easy to find. Again, it’s about constantly getting to know and understand your customer, and nuture that relationship continuously.

Take Care of Your Employees

Happy employees take care of customers. As Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, once said: “If you want the people in the stores to take care of customers, you have to make sure you’re taking care of the people in the stores.”

If you truly want to serve your customers and offer them the best solutions, you must adopt an employee-centric management strategy. When employees aren’t treated well, they’re too frustrated to focus their time and energy on providing a good customer experience. Richard Branson said it best: “If the person who works at your company is not appreciated, they are not going to do things with a smile.”

Employees also give customers clues into what your company really stands for. If your customers see employees who are mistreated and undervalued, it speaks volumes far beyond what any marketing campaign or product solution could repair.

In order to achieve the highest NPS score, businesses need to prioritize employees first, customers second and shareholders third. When you follow this model, all three stakeholders get exactly what they were looking for out of your brand.

Survey Findings

The survey found that today’s entrepreneurs are very optimistic about the current and future state of their business, including the potential to grow. Many attribute this confidence to the current economic climate. Yet, there are issues related to digital transformation processes, a lack of government support and the need for more resources. This includes the need to improve infrastructure, minimize the regulatory environment and continue improving the tax structure.

The survey also revealed that female entrepreneurs tend to struggle more during their first year of business than their male counterparts. Many noted that the challenge of leaving the confidence and financial security of their jobs to create their startups was the biggest issue. However, over time, this faded and those that have continued to build out their startups have mostly been able to survive and continue growing.

Struggling for Support

Over a quarter of black first-year startups and a quarter of Hispanic first-year startups have one or fewer business owners they can turn to for support or advice within their network. Financial support also appears to be an area where all entrepreneurs, including startups and older businesses, could use greater assistance.

There is a lack of support when it comes to understanding the basics of business setup, such as how to get payment systems and benefits for employees up and running, selecting a business structure, getting the appropriate licenses and becoming compliant with all regulations. Lack of advisory and support has even prohibited many from pursuing loans or grants that might help them continue to grow their startups and businesses during an economic environment they view as positive.

Room for Advisors

In serving as a business advisor myself, I see that there is a big opportunity for more current and retired business leaders to take on roles and fill in these gaps, providing support in the form of mentoring, networking and connections, education and strategic direction. First, you need to locate these entrepreneurs like those within this survey.

Reach out online through networking groups and share your interest in advising or mentoring any startup or company that needs help. If you participate in conferences, this is another good place to announce on stage or throughout networking at these trade shows.

Fill the Gap

Focus on an industry where you believe you can provide the type of support these entrepreneurs are seeking. Or, if you have any type of regulatory or government experience with lobbying or other connections, you could focus on this level of support. Look for the places where you can deliver the support rather than seek out a leadership role just because that’s where your experience lies. This goes beyond making a list of recommendations. Any consultant can do that.

I realized early on as an advisor that businesses didn’t necessarily need another leader — they could really benefit from an expert who could bring them up to speed on a particular area or build plans to propel the business forward. That means rolling up your sleeves and working wherever needed to help that entrepreneur. Even if you are pitching in with someone who has considerable experience, identify what they may not see and focus your assistance there. It’s a temporary position where you are filling a gap, not taking over the company.

Bring Results to the Table

Entrepreneurs are very much like the customers you seek among a consumer or business audience. They are unsure, untrusting and unaware that they may need a business advisor. That means presenting your value-add to them. Personalize what you can provide for them. Utilize past experiences and provide specific examples of what you have done in terms of various types of support. It helps to put together a list of references they can check. All this points to your capabilities and builds a case for how you can help.

Other Ways to Help

If you don’t want to go it alone as a business advisor, work as part of nonprofit or operate in conjunction with other organizations designed to help these entrepreneurs. Getting involved gives you more opportunities to build knowledge and experience across an industry or business niche. Also, it provides you with a sense of satisfaction that you are giving back or paying it forward in relation to all the support you might have received when you were in the same shoes.

For example, Techstars is an accelerator who created a nonprofit division called the Techstars Foundation to directly support minority tech entrepreneurs. They offer financial support, such as grants and scholarships. They also partner with numerous other organizations that have initiatives, programs and advisors directed at helping minority entrepreneurs. They are always seeking business experts and seasoned entrepreneurs to assist their efforts to support these entrepreneurs and work past these issues.

While the reality is that most people do not dream about being in an office from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., what if they were able to make steps toward fulfilling their personal goals while meeting the goals and necessities of the business? This may seem taboo, but I believe there’s something here.

When co-founding my e-learning company in 2012, the No. 1 goal I knew I wanted to embed into our culture was employee happiness. I asked myself, “What do people need to be happy?” With this top of mind, my co-founder and I developed a culture that allows employees to feel like they don’t have to hide plans to travel — or maybe even start their own company one day — from their bosses.

This leads us to one of the most important pieces of designing a business with a focus on employee happiness: Leadership must be 100% committed to this vision, and have a willingness to see people succeed at what they love doing.

With this commitment, we then adopted a management philosophy supporting this vision called Positive Leader, developed by Paul Fayad (my father and business partner) and Chak Fu Lam, which helps businesses design a positive work environment that promotes creativity, happiness and positive thinking. Here are five takeaways we’ve gleaned from this experience.

1. Hire For Culture Fit

We realized that personality was as much a part of the hiring process as education and experience. We use a personality assessment called the Positive Assessment Tool (PAT) that allows us to hire individuals with who have high amounts of empathy and compassion, embodying a service attitude. We call our team members “rowers,” because they are constantly in motion, steering the company in the right direction.

2. Prioritize The Onboarding Process

This is where you get to know an employee, and they get to know you. This window of time filled with enthusiasm is often squandered and neglected by businesses. We’ve found great success in pairing our new hires with mentors. It’s also important to make sure you take this time to educate them about whatever else they need to be successful, such as your company’s culture, policies and products.

3. Use On-the-Ground Leadership

To put it simply, being an “on-the-ground” leader means being both visible and available to your team. To understand what employees want and need, you have to be around — which is why we work alongside our teams in all three of our offices across the country. We make ourselves available via office hours every day, and also conduct weekly one-on-one meetings with leaders on our team. Never underestimate the impact of employee facetime.

4. Be Transparent When You Communicate 

Communication is the “make or break” component of every company: communicate too sparingly, and your employees will feel like they have no say in the company. Unless you’re dealing with personal, private information, there shouldn’t be an element of secrecy in the company. You either have transparency or you don’t. Transparency only works when everyone is on board and comfortable being open with their communication. 

In one-on-one meetings, we not only set company and department-specific goals, but we have employees write out their personal achievement aspirations so we can understand what gets them excited. We also have found great success in our monthly all-hands meetings for company-wide transparency, and Slack communication for the day-to-day transparency.

5. Look Towards The Future

One of the most important elements of our company’s culture is that it gives employees the freedom to be able to create and shape their future. This includes reinventing their job duties and responsibilities.  

Throughout my career, I’ve made it my personal mission to seek out what it means to be a leader and develop a culture where employees don’t drag their feet every morning to wake up. Now more than ever, we’re choosing to embrace the dreams and goals that employees have outside of the office, and empower them to work towards those and apply them to their work for us. This is what will open up the floodgates for engaged, fulfilled, and happy employees contributing to the success and future of your business.