Category: Common Questions

Talent, Tech, or Agility? What’s Most Important for a Startup.

Posted on by Nathan Harrison

Remaining flexible and agile was the clear winner. That’s not surprising, considering the fact that small businesses need to pounce on every new opportunity as it presents itself, or risk losing out to its competitors. With that in mind, here are a few tips on how to keep your small business flexible and agile, ready to tackle anything.

Set growth goals

Many small businesses want to grow, but have you actually set a growth goal for the business? How are you measuring growth success? And, if you’re aiming to grow and already have some measurements in place, have you communicated this with your team? To stay productive and agile, it’s best to have everyone understand exactly what they’re working towards. Whether your growth is measured in revenue, new customers, or new products, it’s your job as a leader to make sure everyone is working efficiently to crush the goal.

Even if you’re a small company, bureaucracy can still occur, slowing down the business when it needs to pivot. However, small businesses have the advantage of implementing changes much more quickly to eliminate inflexibility. Leaders should keep reviewing their training practices, workflow processes, employee tools, and how they hire candidates to ensure an optimized organization that can respond to shifts quickly.

Opportunities crop up all the time, whether it’s an acquisition, product expansion, or new geographical market. If these growth opportunities fall outside of your core business model, you need to be ready to shift gears. Share your vision with your team to get buy-in and support for growth. Cloud computing, which is naturally adaptive and agile, can be a big boon when facing change.

Encourage collaboration, cross-training, and job shadowing; not only do employees gain new skills, but they can also bring a new perspective and fresh ideas to the table. By fostering a change culture and having a flexible business model, your team is at the ready when opportunity knocks.

Prioritize communication

Small businesses and startups often have the ideal structures for communicating and collaborating. With fewer employees, tight-knit groups all working towards the same goal can supercharge productivity. Create an open atmosphere for employees to share ideas and thoughts, and keep everyone in the loop regarding new or upcoming plans, successes, failures, and any decisions impacting them.

When you work at a small business, there are always not enough hours in the day to do all the things that need to get done. It can be tempting to stick to the status quo, or what currently works to speed things along, but you’ll never grow that way. New products, better service, and smarter marketing often result from trying new things out. When you’re a flexible and agile small business, you’re better equipped to take these chances and try new things out than enterprise companies. If you fail, you can fail fast, learn from the mistakes and move on. But if you succeed, you continue to move forward.

Six Essential Skills all Entrepreneurs Need to Master

Posted on by Nathan Harrison

Being an entrepreneur is more than just owning a business. A successful entrepreneur needs to be both a leader and a manager. Entrepreneurs  are not afraid to take risks. They see hidden potential in ideas. They understand the benefit of following new opportunities.

Becoming this kind of leader might seem intimidating, but you can do it if you develop the right skills. Here are six essential skills entrepreneurs need to master:

1. Understanding “why”

When preparing a speech or even a written message, it’s easy to get caught on the what and how of your content. First you need to determine what you are trying to say, and the call to action that you want people to take. You need to set objectives so you can evaluate your content against them. From there, you can craft content that leads them to that action.

2. Being a good listener

Communication is 93% non verbal. If you’ve ever spoken to someone who looked off to the side, crossed their arms, or otherwise appeared disengaged, it was no doubt a frustrating experience.

Pay attention to your movements when someone else is speaking. Nod your head, follow the other person’s movement, make consistent eye contact, and keep your face friendly. The other person is going to be appreciative of your intentiveness, and is more likely to be receptive when you’re the one talking.

3. Managing stress

A great entrepreneur needs to spin a lot of plates at once to keep the business running smoothly, and be making daily decisions that have unforeseen impact. Under this kind of pressure, anyone faces the chance of burning out.

Stop, take a breath, and look at that huge to-do list. What can you delegate to someone on your team? That’s why you chose them right? Remember that success is team effort and don’t be afraid to pass something off if you can. And remember to take breaks! You might feel like you don’t have the time, but you’re going to be more effective if your mind is well-rested.

4. Managing expectations

To avoid disappointment, set clear expectations on what you can deliver to clients, your team, and even yourself. Be realistic, not idealistic, when giving timelines. Anticipate results that you know you can achieve based on past work. Even if you know “you can do better”, don’t assume that is what will happen.

By using this tactic, the worst possibility is you deliver exactly what you promised. If you deliver more,  it’s an unexpected surprise that will leave the other party impressed..

5. Surrounding yourself with the right people

People say “you are who you hang out with”, and this is true in the professional world as well. Build yourself a support system of fellow entrepreneurs, and you will increase your odds of success. These people will be able to give valuable insight and advice because they’ve faced the same issues you have now. You’re also going to be inspired by their success to keep moving forward.

If you’re looking for practical ways to make this happen, search out networking groups in your area. Many events are specialized and you’ll likely find one with entrepreneurs like yourself.

6. Embrace failure

Nobody wants to fail. But when you’re trying something new, it’s going to happen, and it’s going to happen frequently. Don’t shut down in the face of the failure. View it as a learning experience and take some time to analyze the mistakes. You can’t change the past, but you can create a system for a better future, because failure is simply the “data point on the way to success”.

Mastering these skills will not happen overnight, just like building your business didn’t! Be patient with yourself as you seek to improve. Find people who can hold you accountable and check in on your goals over time. You’ll be amazed how much more confident you feel when you master these entrepreneurial skills.