Surrounding yourself with the
right people is vital for anyone starting up a company. I can hear you all
saying that this is patently obvious, tell us something new.
What I’d like to share are some
generalised observations on exactly whom the right people based on my
experience and what I see and hear from others.
Family
Let’s start with family. The best
we can hope for from our partners is that they understand we need emotional
support and encouragement to keep going.
I learned early on with my former
and current partners that if I actually shared my day to day pressures that
they just about imploded from the stress of it all. It’s bad enough that one of
you goes into meltdown, but if the person supporting you also melts down then
you have no support.
What has worked well for me is to
share the dilemmas I am facing and ask for a common sense view on the
situation. E.g. what should I do in this situation with a supplier, investor or
employee.
If your partner can’t stand the
idea of not having regular income and hates that you are taking risks that put
their future plans, or plans of your children in peril, then to be brutally
honest there is a fairly high chance that you are going to lose your marriage.
You have a stark choice between your own ambitions and keeping the stability
your partner craves. Good luck.
Friends
Friends are at the same time best
and the worst supporters you can have.
When you first start out a lot of
friends will be giving you unasked for advice on things.
You might get told that the
finished product you are already selling after a large and expensive production
run is crap and that it needs to be redone.
You might be told that you’ll
never make it – the market is terrible, there’s no money in it, you have no
ability to manage, etc.
Please forgive your friends. What
they are really talking about are their own fears. They are projecting all the
reasons they’d never start a business on to you. Just pat them on the back and
tell them that it’ll be all right, and avoid talking about your business with
them.
You might also get some friends
who admire what you are doing and offer you moral support. Best of all, some of
your friends will act like nothing has changed and catch up as per normal.
What many of us find is that your
closest friends change over time, and those who can’t get over the negativity
end up moving out of your inner circle.
Seasoned veterans
When it comes to obtaining
mentorship/advisors to help guide the business then the well trodden path of
contacting respected senior managers or retired executives with the experience
and connections to help.
I have seen this both work well
and go horribly wrong.
The nub of the issue is that you
are bringing on board a bunch of grey hairs who have been managing others
rather than doing the work themselves for years if not decades.
In other words, they are likely
out of touch with the current market and how things have changed (and trading
conditions, marketing, etc. always change). As generalist advisors they are
great, but on specific matters they may not be the godsend you thought they
were. They may in fact be giving you advice that worked in the mid-90s but is
completely ineffective now.
The worst mistake I have seen is
to put these seasoned businesspeople on the Board, in which case they can
ending up becoming armchair generals of the most pernicious variety. Sure give
them some shares, but keep them in a separate advisory panel for your own sake.
Professionals
Accountants, lawyers and
professional business advisors are an interesting breed. There are good and bad
in here.
The plus side is that they have
seen the inside of a lot of businesses and can help you navigate the pitfalls
of your particular industry and increase your chance of lasting a few years.
The limitation of any
professionals as advisors is that they do not have any startup/entrepreneurial
DNA.
The worst will tell you to have a
BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) or to buy low, sell high and stick to your
strategy. This is just like saying you should eat a good breakfast and exercise
three to five times a week – absolutely correct and of no actual use.
For example, let’s say you are
down to your last few dollars, you have 3 big customers who are delaying
payment by a couple of weeks, your payroll is due in 2 days and your staff have
indicated they will resign en masse if you miss another payroll. In this case
the above professional advice is absolutely useless.
Your focus is on the day to day
matters, hopefully all working to a bigger strategy. You’d love to work on the
business and not in the business – but that is a luxury, not a day to day
reality for most.
In fact, if you ever meet a CEO
who tells you that their company is running smoothly and that they have plenty
of time to work on strategic matters you know they are heading for trouble.
Fellow Entrepreneurs
I think that I have learned more
from my relationships with other entrepreneurs than all the others, including
my university studies.
I finally crossed the line into
starting up a business by being mentored by entrepreneurs. What I learned was
how to see the world in terms of the opportunities available, how much effort
would be involved and what the margins might be to make it work. Not even the
best MBA in the world can give you what spending hours talking to experienced
entrepreneurs can give.
Seasoned entrepreneurs can teach
you how to think, and can point you in the right direction on what you need to
do.
However, as an entrepreneur
myself I know my own time is limited and
that I can’t share everything with those who want it. Nowadays I often find
myself in the position of meeting a bright, passionate and amazing younger
entrepreneur, but I can’t give them too much time as they have so much to learn
that I’d have no time left to run my own
business if I did. They are going to have to learn a lot of things the hard
way, just like the rest of us do. This is especially true of those who won’t
listen to advice but keep coming back to ask how to make their business model
work.
