Should you build your team now for the business you want later, or grow the business first and then add the team later?
There are two schools of thought on how to get your team started. Both have pros and cons. You have to decide what is most important to you based on your values and critical priorities. Once you know your values and critical priorities, you can then identify which tactic best fits your desired outcomes.
The “Lean Machine” Tactic This method is to keep your team and budget lean until the very last minute THEN build a team. The benefit to this is that the business owner is able to keep profits at a premium during the initial growth period. This approach is to have a “low budget” team with “make-do” skill sets where everybody does a little of everything. The perception is that this is an easier way to manage the business because fewer people are involved.
The dangers to this approach may outweigh the benefits. Quality is usually sacrificed because of limited bandwidth and breakdowns are inevitable. The business has limited growth potential due to inadequate manpower. There is usually little or no focus on team systems leading to time lost due to mistakes, lack of quality control and the necessity to recreate the wheel for repeated tasks. Turnover of team members is inevitable due to stressful working conditions and the business owner incurs huge costs to retrain and time loss due to anticipated learning curves. The business’ reputation can be compromised due to non-delivery of goods or services promised. Most costly of all are the missed opportunities due to chaos in the team model.
The ‘Strong Foundation’ Tactic This method recognizes the future growth of the business and begins to build a solid foundation for success early. The benefit to this method is in building a strong team during “calmer” times so they have time to learn, practice and work as a team to discover and solve issues and “bugs”. This method creates harmony for the business owner, support team, vendors and clients. The business owner will experience faster and higher payoff results because the owner can replicate themselves, work more systems and achieve greater accomplishments. The short-term investment in building a proper foundation for success will position the business for exponential growth. The drawbacks to this system are a few, but worth mentioning. There may be a sacrifice of short-term profits. The business owner may experience an illusion of “standing still”, or lack of accomplishment while building systems and foundations. The business owner may experience a fear of investing short-term without a corresponding financial payout.
Melanie Benson Strick, CEO of Success Connections & Virtual Team Building Expert, helps entrepreneurs kick overwhelm to the curb so they can exponentially grow and have more time for what they love.
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