Working with your Spouse

Should you or should you not? A question which may not have a same answer for everyone, but the reasons in favor and against this decision seem more or less the same in all cases.

My wife and I were working together in Beveragewala, although she was not formally a part of the business. She was involved in the daily operations and looked primarily after the packing/dispatching activities. Some of the experiences I had because of this and would like to share are as under:

POSITIVES

Better Understanding: Since we both understand each other very well and also the business, we were able to work together with a common vision.

Shared Passion: Since we both spend so much of time together, our individual passion and energy used to rub off on each other. Working late hours with no resentment back home is a big positive :).

Better Feedback: This is one positive I felt was very good for the business. Your spouse will not think twice before saying anything to you. My wife, from time to time, pointed out a lot of mistakes we were making and she was quite candid about them. A lot of the time we see team members not being very open and honest to each other because they feel uncomfortable and having a fear of being misjudged.

NEGATIVES

More Conflicts: There used to be more disagreements between us as we started spending literally 24 hours with each other. Space is required to analyse matters individually so that you can have a more unbiased view of things.

No Personal Life: Since both of us were working in Beveragewala and extremely passionate about it, we used to discuss it even when not at work. In some sense, we did not have a personal life while Beveragewala was running. This, though, is a more work-life balance issue.

Casual Attitude: Since the only person you need to answer is your spouse, you may tend to be more laid back and casual in your attitude towards your responsibilities at times.

To conclude, I feel there is no 'one size fits all' solution or suggestion. The best thing is to look at the pros and cons in your case and take your call on this.

'We rise by lifting others' ... Robert Ingersoll

I love this quote and feel it's very relevant to all of us. Gone are the days when a business was about individuals and their skills and personality. Today business is about teams and teamwork, and not about individuals. Certain individuals will always perform better than the others within teams, but only a good team as a whole can take a project towards completion/success.

Hiring Challenges a Startup May Face...

A startup is as good as it's team driving the idea. Getting the right people on board is very critical and often tends to get very challenging for entrepreneurs.

Some of the typical mistakes startups make are highlighted below:

Pick the right team – Founders often have little to no experience in building a competent team of employees. The key is to pick a combination of talent, experience and innovation. Team leaders are just as important as programmers or rebel innovators.

Network – That’s the byword today. Don’t be bound by traditional channels of hiring. Look among family, friends, old classmates and past colleagues. Spread the word on social media. Be open to referrals as much as to unsolicited walk-ins.

Manage your weakness – Bolster up weak areas. Bring some stability to your development team by hiring somebody with experience, or throw the caution to wind by hiring some young blood for their bizarre ideas and joie de vivre.

Lack of expertise – In a startup, the founders’ plates are overflowing with a bevy of tasks. Furthermore, it is not necessary that they are an expert at everything. A founder may be good at many tasks, but not necessarily hiring, which may lead to bad hires.

(taken from www.eazyhire.in)

The Importance of a Good Founding Team!!!

This is a very sore point for me. I cannot emphasize enough how important a good founding/management team is. Currently I have some good ideas in my mind and have this great urge to start out again on one of them, I am just staying back because I don't have and am not currently being able to build a good team around the idea. I believe that ideas contribute around 30% of a startup's success, the rest comes from the ability to execute the idea. And to execute well, you need a 'good team'!

Let's take an analogy to understand this. In raising a child, the mother and father both have a significant role to play. The mother can provide the child with the warmth, love, care and the finer things in life. The father is more responsible for the safety, comfort and the more basic needs of the child (this is generally the case and differs totally from case to case :). Hence, the parents need to jointly complement each other and provide the child an environment where the latter can fully grow and realise his/her potential. Same is the case in a startup as well. Founders, with complementary skills, need to come together and create a structure and culture in which the business can grow and flourish. Skill sets of the initial team are key. For example, in the case of a Online Tea Retailing company, ideally founders should have the following skills within the team:
Online - Technology Expertise
Tea - Domain Expertise
Retailing - FMCG Retailing Expertise
Not necessarily will all teams have all requisite skills. But I suggest that each founding team should try to incorporate as many skills as we can within the team as it betters the chance of success.

Startups are all about risk. A good team is a big factor which can help mitigate the risks involved. So the better the team, the better will be the execution and the better the chance of building a sustainable business.