Welcome back to the second half of our two-part series on why it can help to work with an entrepreneur mentor who has been in your business-founder shoes and understands what you’re going through. Not only can they help you with techniques for handling the pressure and multitasking, they can also recommend a few business best practices and software solutions that have worked well for them in the past. Last time we talked about the benefits of experience, attitude, and IT and today we’ll start with staffing.
With your first few team members, you’ll want to choose managers for the essential roles that will eventually grow into their own departments. The Chief Technical, Financial, and Marketing officers should be designated and hiring plans laid out, and your mentor can help here as well. They have had some close personal experience highlighting the difference between good and bad startup officers and can help you choose not only the right skills but the right personality for each role. Choosing these people is also vital to the formation of your company culture, and then the sub-cultures of each department that forms beneath them. Your choice of candidates is important, and your mentor can help you make a solid long-term decision.
One of the easiest mistakes you can make as an entrepreneur is treating your team either too casually or too formally. There is an ideal balance between professionalism and personal connection that forms a strong, loyal team that works well together without inviting the complex and tumultuous environment of ‘close personal friends’. Your mentor has seen every stripe of startup team relationships and can help you build a company culture of professional relationships in which team members are brought the most closely together through their shared love of the project.
Business is always about finding the better way. Brainstorming, streamlining, increasing costs, and cutting efficiency are only a few ways to name the kind of thinking and changing that is constantly reshaping modern business for the better. Your mentor has experienced a number of small businesses and has had time to develop a few personal or industry-shared tips and tricks for the trade. These tips can fall into a wide range anywhere from interesting maintenance tips about cleaning your carpets to faster ways to fill out industry unavoidable paperwork. With an entrepreneur mentor, the tips and suggestions will be a constant source of advice and new techniques to try for the benefit of your startup company.
Finally, in order to reach your best possible scenario, you will need to build up the right amount of capital, product, ability to serve, and ready customers in order to launch out of startup and into the growing small business stage effectively. Your entrepreneur mentor has seen this process enacted more than once and wants to help you achieve the same great accomplishment. Through a long coaching period, you can have access to their attitude, expertise, contacts, and incredibly sound advice about the ups and downs of launching a new business. When your company builds momentum and launches, then you will have gained your first entrepreneur mentor point.
Business mentoring is an incredibly useful resource, especially for first or even second and third-time entrepreneurs trying to get a new company off the ground and making a profit. While you can always fly alone, you have the option of bringing in an old pro who’s been through the process before and can help you prepare for the future and improve on every aspect of your company from the very beginning. Whether you are already neck-deep in founding your own startup or are just starting to consider the possibility, contact us today to talk to someone who’s been in your shoes.
David Michael Gilbertson is the founder and president of 3 Elements Lifestyle, LLC., a Fitness and Weight Loss company that specializes in YOU!. With more than 15 years of experience owning, operating and managing clubs of all sizes, David lectures, delivers seminars and gives workshops on the practical skills required to successfully help you with your health and fitness goals. David also helps you build the teamwork, management, and training necessary to open your own fitness center. For more information on Licensing and Consulting Services Visit his Web site at: www.3elementslifestyle.com or email at daveg@3elementslifestyle.com or call (805) 499-3030.
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