The simple truth about any successful company anywhere in the world is that at one time or other some individual or small team had what we like to call a “light bulb moment.” You know exactly what we are talking about. It is that moment of clarity when we just see everything in the most simplest of terms and make a decision to go for the gold!
In business, that beautifully clear moment is typically when a successful company of the future starts up, hence the reason that these trailblazers have affectionately become known as “start-ups.”
Once the decision has been made to go for it—and most times, in doing so, change the world—everything starts to get nutty. All of the sudden a start-up needs cash to hire employees, which the founders then realize is the biggest line item on their budget. And then on top of all of that cash they need just for salaries, they also need a benefits package that will attract the right people to the business…and keep them there!
However, setting all finances aside, the ultimate challenge that any founder is going to face is that they likely have exceptionally good product skills, but probably have no idea what it takes to run a successful business; and to be successful, it takes exceptional human relations skills. After all, it is humans that build, market and sell the product, not to mention hire, manage payroll, and keep the lights on.
To get your start-up growing in the right direction (which clearly is up and to the right), spend time at the beginning your business planning your human relations strategy, which includes:
1. Leadership—Every single person in your company needs to understand the strategy and clearly see how their individual work contributes to the company’s overall success. The strategy is the “what.” So that means you are also going to need a stellar set of innovative values to guide “how” the work gets done, too.
3. Communication—Go ahead and get your PR strategy out of the way, but a start-up that misses the opportunity to communicate to employees early and often will soon have a revolt on their hands. People will literally vote with their feet and walk right out the door in the absence of good information. After all, communication is the lifeblood of any organization. So, unless you want to have cardiac arrest, you need a solid internal communications plan that keeps everyone humming along.
4. Organization Social Structures—Unlike established businesses, start-ups tend to require more collaboration, especially across business lines if they are even established. (P.S. Try to avoid creating great big silos…they never work.) However, collaboration doesn’t just happen. You need a system of collaboration that will help your employees bring their best ideas to the table and work with each other in a way that helps you achieve what you started out to do in the first place.
Now, if you are a mid-to-late state start up, never fear; there is always time to get your company back on the right course of action. But, if you see that you are starting to lose people, especially around the 50-employee and 500-employee mark, waste no time in fixing what’s broken. No matter how well you are funded, you can’t just let your most valuable intellectual property walk out the door. It is people who make your company successful, so along with being focused on all of those wonderful MBA strategies they teach in business school, double down on creating a workplace that is happy, healthy, and productive.
