Small-business entrepreneurs have a love-hate relationship with teamwork. It’s gets even harder as they grow into a big enterprise. Too little teamwork creates skill and knowledge silos, too much to duplicated efforts and bland conformity.

What kind of stats do you need to measure your employees’ abilities? What is enough? And how do you apply them when looking for new talent?

New federal rules that control when workers are paid overtime wages are changing what it means for employees to be “on the clock.” For Texas businesses, the changes signal a whole new set of regulatory compliance challenges come December 1, 2016.

As the vast body of labor regulations continues to grow and ratchet ever tighter, companies must keep abreast of and comply with hundreds of new workplace requirements each year. This means hiring bigger HR departments, contracting with more outside experts, or both.

You love setting goals -- too much, perhaps?

Yes, goals can be great. Used the right way they bring teams together, drive effort and announce to the world your intentions to achieve.

Tobacco use is the scourge of workplaces everywhere, just ask any smoker who works in an office setting. Businesses ban lighting up in buildings, penalize users through their wellness programs, and relegate smokers to taking their breaks in out-of-sight crannies near alleyway dumpsters.

The decision to screen job candidates for criminal backgrounds and drug use is often a hard one for businesses to make. Finding the right balance between protecting themselves from liability while still attracting the best job applicants can be tough. But with the right policies and application process, screenings can help a business without hurting its hiring prospects.

More than stacks of money, more than lines of customers -- even more than the knowledge contained in a thousand books on small business -- an entrepreneur’s ultimate success depends on the people he has at his side.

They’ve been called cocky, tech-obsessed, entitled and impatient, although the same traits have also been described as confidence, tech-savviness and openness to change. These are the qualities of youth -- regardless of generation -- yet we’re told Millennials are a different breed.

Just how different is a matter of perspective. And to motivate them the right way, perspectives first must change.