SYNERGY in your Startup Team

I have written a lot about the importance of a good team. Also how a team should be structured with regards to domain skills, business skills, tech skills and so on. There is another important way to look at the composition of a startup team.

An ideal startup team should consist of 2 people.

The Systematic Guy: One who is organized and is able to channelize the energy around in the right direction. He is generally involved in planning and the business planning decisions.

The Energy Guy: He is the guy who brings in the energy into the startup. He is constantly thinking 

of new ideas, innovating and bringing the zest into running the startup.

Together they are able to create SYstematic + eNERGY – SYNERGY. This synergy is value additive and is the force which drives the startup.

'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)

Business works on Relationships!

A startup should always keep this is mind. Making a new customer is much more difficult and costs much more than retaining an existing one. Hiring a new employee costs much more than retaining an existing one. Business is all about creating and then maintaining these relationships. In startups, we often to tend to concentrate on 'acquisitions'. Acquisitions create growth. However, 'retention' is a more important formula for a business to sustain.

- Customer Relationships: At Beveragewala, in our initial days, we were only looking to acquire new customers and were totally focused on that. As we matured, we realised that repeat customers were nearly 70% of our monthly revenue month on month. We realised that besides having a budget for acquiring new customers, we must ensure that our existing ones are happy with our service and started focusing on how we could improve their experience and strengthen our relationships. We started taking constant feedback from them and acted upon it. We saw a steep growth in our sales, despite virtually no marketing budget. Our existing customers had started using our portal more frequently and also we saw organic growth in our customer base, i.e. the number of customers were growing with no marketing effort. 

- Team Building: I cannot stop emphasizing how important this is. Building a good team is one of the most difficult challenges an entrepreneur faces in this competitive environment. Finding a new team member is an expensive and highly cumbersome task. Hence, it becomes imperative for an entrepreneur to build a strong culture and bond to ensure a motivated and long-lasting team.

We should always focus on building relationships to create a sustainable organization. This also includes strong relationships with all other stakeholders which a business may have like vendors, suppliers, lawyers, auditors, media agencies etc. The rule should as far as relationships should be 'Create, Build & Strengthen'.