Nowadays, thanks to the Internet, many entrepreneurs can successfully create their businesses and easily master the early stage. However, many are having a hard time trying to scale their businesses beyond the start-up phase, because there are numerous factors that slow this transition. This article will provide some useful tips that might help entrepreneurs to speed up the growing process.
- Build the A Team
It is pretty obvious that a business cannot run at its best performance without a great team. The team members that began working during the start-up phase are best adapted for this stage mainly, meaning they are well-balanced, flexible and generalists overall. However, if you want your startup to evolve, you might need to hire people that are more specialized in particular areas. This will dramatically lessen the workload of the earlier members, who are more generalists because the new employees will be able to focus more on the areas of expertise that they are specialized in. Make sure that the new employees are exceptional in their field, otherwise they won’t be too impactful for the start-up’s evolving process.
- Don’t Pay Attention to Degrees
A university diploma somewhat expresses one’s knowledge and skills regarding the studied domain. However, the lack of education does not assert the absence of skills, therefore during the hiring process, it is not recommended to judge a candidate’s skills based on his or her university or even higher education diploma. Skilled people can be found anywhere, not only at the highly rated universities. Some of the most successful entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg (and the list keeps on going) have dropped out of college at a young age, which makes them the proof that this statement is true.
So next time you’ve got a recruitment interview planned with a candidate, don’t let his/her educational experience be a major factor that will influence your decision about hiring that person. Make sure to go beyond that and analyse the way that person thinks or reacts to your questions. If you are planning to take your Startup to the next level, you have to make sure that your team is made of ambitious and very skilled people.
Start Up
- Master Your Burn Rate
Some start-ups do not commit to keeping their costs at a low level which can be detrimental for the long-term health of the business. Maintaining the costs at a minimum level, for uses that are not a priority will provide start-ups with more opportunities to grow. By focusing your capital on things that are crucial for the business, you’ll be able to prioritize your growth. For instance, you would rather spend more money on your top performing acquisition channel rather than attending an overpriced conference.
- Pick a Suitable Work Environment
The work ambiance can have a huge impact upon the employees and thus, on the work quality. Even though individual offices have their own benefits, using an open-space can provide many more. It has been known that open-floor-plan types of offices can increase communication and strengthen the relationships among the employees. Therefore the increase in employee collaboration will ultimately contribute to a faster evolution of a start-up.
- Widen Your Business Network
One of the biggest obstacles that frequently interferes with the evolution process of a Startup, is finding clients. This issue obviously limits the growth of a start-up, but it can be solved by doing lots of research on the best possible clients that would match your needs and wants. Also, try to get to know them, see what they are interested in and convince them that your company can help them fulfil their needs. By doing this, not only will it provide you with new clients which you can add to your portfolio, but it will also create long-term relationships with them, which will be favourable for your start-up to flourish.
Conclusion
To summarize, kicking off a start-up is the easy part of being an entrepreneur, however maintaining it and trying to expand it is the true challenge. Not everyone can pull this off without the necessary motivation, team and knowledge. Don’t underestimate the power of a well-coordinated and skillful team, because it can ensure the long-term stability and development of your start-up and ultimately lead it towards success. And finally, this upgrading process will not be a quick one, however, it will definitely open new doors for your business and ensure a long-term sustainability.