Do You Know How To Properly Assemble The Right Team To Raise Your Start-Up From Scratch?
If not, in this short article, Melany Muraour will uncover How To Properly Assemble The Right Team To Raise Your Start-Up From Scratch.
Tips For Building A Team That Won’t Sink Your Start-Up
Do you know? The Top 3 out of the Top 20 reasons why startups fail is:
- “No Market Need” at 42%
- “Ran out of Cash” at 29%
- “Not the Right Team” at 23%
The right people can set your business up for massive success. By the same token, the wrong people can drive your business into the ground. Luckily, there are many ways to ensure that your start-up doesn’t sink! Learn the following strategies and apply them to your team-building process, because, the quality of the team that you bring together will have an instrumental impact on your business:
1. It Starts With You
The same as we highlight in our Leadership Essentials Course, self-awareness is the foundation of everything good. A formidable team starts with you. So, evaluate your own skillset first. Think about:
- What are you great at?
- What do you lack? (consider your soft and hard skills)
- What is your personality like, what are your core values, and beliefs?
After you’ve got a good idea of what you bring to the table, you can start thinking about your team. Do what you’re great at and then find the right people to handle the rest. It’s as simple as that.
2. Hire Action-Takers
Your business won’t magically start off just by coming up with an idea. It is an action that transforms your idea into a real, money-making machine. So, focus on building a team that’s capable of DOING things instead of a team that just TALK about them!
3. Don’t Just Build A Startup Team
Here’s a summary of failure rates for small businesses across 10 years of operation:
- 1st Year – 20%
- 2nd Year – 34%
- 5th Year – 50%
- 10th Year -70%
Consider the long-term vision for your business. Write down all the departments that you will need to bring that vision to life and then build your team with this fully-fledged company structure in mind. Departments / functions typically include:
- Marketing and sales
- Product design and development
- Accounting and finance
- Research and development
When you have those set out, hire people who would be leaders for each of those functions. This way, when you’re ready to upscale your business, there’ll be far less resistance; you’ll already have a leadership structure in place, so you can seamlessly expand your team when the time is right.
4. Hire People With A Passion For Customer Service
When you’re just starting off, you may not have the means to hire a big team. So that means everybody may be involved in sales and marketing and, that involves direct interaction with potential and existing customers. So make sure your team is committed to “serving with the right attitude.”
5. Personality Counts
A certain way to sink your startup is to hire people who don’t get along. Constant friction will get in the way of work that has to get done.
6. Be The Ringmaster Of Your Own Circus
This point relates to the previous one. When you know what the individual traits and goals of your team members are, you can be a better leader. Be the ringmaster, a person whose job is to orchestrate a circus performance. As ringmaster, you’d ensure that each person performs and works together to create a flawless show.
7. Consider Investing In A Recruiter
It can be tough to find the right people. Simply posting a job on a job board won’t cut it. So get help with building your team. Consider hiring a recruiter. This will cost you some money but if you don’t have the time or ability to find the right people, the cost can be worth the gains. You can also consider more cost-effective options by leveraging your personal and professional networks.
8. Don’t Be Homogenous
Homogeneous teams inherently have the same strengths and weaknesses so there’ll be no one to create balance. If everyone has similar weak spots, there’ll be no one to check the other’s performance. Mistakes will be made. And this could be the reason why you sink your startup. You should encourage a degree of pushback within your team. This way, you can build a solid business.
9. Get Your Team Members To Buy Into Your Vision
You can’t mention startups without talking about vision. An indispensable part of success in business is coming up with a vision and then selling your team on that big idea. Some business owners prefer not to communicate that ultimate goal to their team, which has lead to teams not being invested in their grander vision. Do this, and you too will have a hard time keeping your crew motivated.
10. Apply Sports Industry Principles To Build Your Business Team
The truth is, just as in team sports, you need to put your company’s team in a position to succeed. Below are team-building strategies taken straight from a sports coach’s playbook, that is critical to making that happen in a business sense:
- Every team member plays a part that is their primary concern…
- Each person is only held accountable for their own performance…
- Each player is trained to have the agility to switch up play as the game changes…
- Competitor analysis is a paramount part of training…
- A sportsman never loses sight of his driving force…
Bonus Tip: “Hire Slow, Fire Fast”(1) Or Train ’em
Have you heard the “hire slow, fire fast” mantra before?
Hire Slow
Take your time appointing the people you bring on board. If you hire someone that you haven’t thoroughly appraised, it will end up costing you even more. Naturally, a poor fit will not last but you’ll still have to spend more time and money looking for a replacement. You can easily avoid that by taking a bit more time with the recruitment process.
Fire Fast (1)
What’s the “fire fast” part about? If you notice a person is a bad hire, there’s no benefit in waiting months to pull the plug, right? They’re going to keep making mistake after mistake and the cost of this can be dire. You’ll spend more time and money cleaning up messes instead of spending your energy on growing your startup. The negative impact of a bad fit will be felt in every part of your business.
Train ’em
Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of training your recruits. Both old and new. In any event, you need to be on top of your team to know what they need from you to deliver the best efficiency from your team.
(1) NOTE: You cannot just dismiss/fire your employees at a whim. As an employer, you will need to be familiar with and follow the country’s labour laws, policies and procedures, and any other regulations that apply to your business.
Want to learn more?
“How To Properly Assemble The Right Team To Raise Your Start-Up From Scratch” is just one of five lessons in the E-Cademy “The Essential Guide for Entrepreneurship” Training Course as shown below:
- Lesson 1: Quickly And Leanly Start Your Business
- Lesson 2: Pitch Your Business Perfectly Using Guy Kawasaki’s “10 Slides” Hack
- Lesson 3: Rapidly Raise Money For Your Business Using Our Tips And Easy Reference Guide
- Lesson 4: Properly Assemble The Right Team To Raise Your Start-Up From Scratch
- Lesson 5: Effectively Promote Your Venture Using Entrepreneurial Marketing And Evangelism
To view the E-Cademy “The Essential Guide for Entrepreneurship Course” Overview, click here
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