Building a Team for Success

Entrepreneurs do not have the benefit of an experienced, professional, and cohesive senior leadership team when they start and grow their companies. In order to expand the company and be successful in the long term, Entrepreneurs must build a capable leadership team.

A proper blend of in-house, on-the-job trained leaders complemented by key, experienced outside professionals (hired over a period), provide the Entrepreneurs the most cost-effective team. Identifying in-house managers and training them to be leaders should be the Entrepreneur’s focus once day-to-day operations have been delegated. Assessing the gaps in leadership, determining the management needs and recruiting appropriate outside leaders becomes the next step.

Having a leadership team in place is not enough. Entrepreneurs continually need to develop teamwork and cohesion to make the executives more effective for the long term. Entrepreneurs should find ways to train, motivate and reward the leadership team in a way that facilitates a group that can successfully grow the company, and allow the Founder/Entrepreneur to pursue other ventures.

Ravi Patel

http://www.patelCFOservices.com

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Fostering the Thinking Process

Entrepreneurs start businesses because they have new, innovative ideas as a result of “thinking outside the box.” They identify underserved niches in the marketplace and find unique ways to fulfill unmet or unrecognized needs.

Do Entrepreneurs, once they start and grow the business, foster the culture of “Thinking Outside the Box” in their employees?

The reason for the Entrepreneur’s original initiative due to creative thinking is also applicable to his/her organization. If the culture of the company is one of innovation and finding unique ways of doing things better and faster, it will promote not only continued success for the company but also tremendous job satisfaction for the employees.

Entrepreneurs should be careful not to create a control-oriented impression that “Thinking Outside the Box” is only meant for them. It gives a feeling of “Do what I say, not what I do.”

Empower your employees and let them come up with creative ways to perform their jobs better and improve processes in the company. Entrepreneurs for this employee performance management philosophy should also think outside the box !

Ravi Patel

Prepare for Growth

Entrepreneurs are mostly focused on growing their companies and would like nothing more than rapid growth. Compared to the alternatives, managing growth is a nice “problem” to have.

However, is rapid growth always good for Entrepreneurs? Not necessarily.

Being ready for and managing rapid growth requires tremendous preparation and infrastructure. In addition to unique product and services and a solid management team, items such as adequate facilities, reliable IT infrastructure, communication systems, developed business processes, working capital lines of credit, access to growth capital, a group of professional advisors (lawyers, accountants, etc.), an industry advisory group or Board, and so on must be in place.

Most Entrepreneurs have a few of these things in place as they expand, but reach a crisis point when certain required elements are not readily available or in place.

While rapid growth is desirable, Entrepreneurs must ensure that they have in place the requirements to manage such growth . Otherwise, rapid growth may not be good for them.

Ravi Patel

http://www.patelCFOservices.com

Excellence in Moderation

Striving for excellence in everything is a worthy goal.

However, if one becomes too focused on perfection on trivial things or items, the benefits may outweigh the time and resources devoted to achieving excellence.

Entrepreneurs need to be aware that they cannot ask themselves and their organizations to strive for excellence in everything. Focus on a few goals and aim for excellence on those, but de-prioritize lower-level projects and accomplish them well. The resources of your organization should be allocated judiciously on higher priority goals requiring excellence.

It is okay to be excellent on major items, but good on minor ones.

Ravi Patel

http://www.patelCFOservices.com

Reality Check

Entrepreneurs come up with new ideas to start businesses to make a difference. Their passion can be ignited only if they dream big.

However, Entrepreneurs should first see things as they currently are before visualizing what they could be.

Taking an assessment of the situation as it currently stands is critical before embarking on a dream. A reality check, often with advice of trusted confidants, helps to bring facts into the situation. Ignoring the current state of affairs and only imagining where you could be might pose a problem if not dealt with correctly.

It is not wrong to dream, but in order to achieve one’s Vision it is necessary to start from facts as they are now and then chart a realistic plan to get where you visualize your end point. Depending upon the current situation, the path might be easy, difficult or not possible at all. Ignoring the difficulty of the path is not rational.

Do the Right Things!

Ravi Patel

http://www.patelCFOservices.com