An entrepreneur is someone that has seen a whole in the market. They’ve come up with an idea that manages to solve a problem that has not yet been solved. But coming up with an idea or a solution is not enough because there are hundreds of obstacles between coming up with an idea and making it available to the public. There is designing and developing the product or service you have come up with. There is the need to draw up a business plan. You have to have funds and be able to market yourself. There are hundreds of things to consider and battle, and that is why so many believe that the skills you need to be successful far outweigh the individual’s ability.
Ask any successful business person what the key to their success was and they will tell you that they surrounded themselves with the right people, smart people, people with knowledge and experience that far outweighed their own. If they don’t say this, then they are not as successful as they think they are, it is that simple. We knew the owner of a digital learning company, and he always bragged that he had been in business for 40 years. What he hadn’t accepted was that his business hadn’t grown in that time. Google is only 20 years old. A warped sense of success had stopped him from employing the best people and that ultimately harmed his business. That is why it is so imperative you surround yourself with the right people.
But which people do you need to employ – or surround yourself with – in order to be a success? Well, that is the question we are here to answer.
- A Great Accountant
Accountants manage the four most critical areas of any and all business – cash flow, cash flow, cash flow and cash flow. The reason so many startups fail within the first two years is because of cash flow. Either they didn’t have enough funding, to begin with, or they didn’t know how to manage the funds they did have or know how to reinvest in themselves. As such, there is a valuable lesson that all startup entrepreneurs can learn from this; it doesn’t matter how amazing your product is, it doesn’t matter how many sales you make, or how well your marketing strategies operate, or how many clever people you employ; if you don’t know how to manage your cash you are destined to fail.
Business acumen is the most crucial thing to have when starting a business, and having someone that is money-savvy next to you, to teach you, is going to be your single best move. Every decision you make is going to have an effect on revenue and income in some way or another, so you need to learn what impact this decision will have. Hiring an account – and a good one at that – is going to cost you in the short run. But in the long term, in the future, well, the benefits you will reap far outweigh the initial expense. Trust us on that one.
- A Sales Force
The success of your company is determined by your ability to increase your sales. Chances are, when you first launched, it was you who sold your first product, and this gave you a warped view of selling. It made you believe you can do it on your own. After all, you did it once, and that once is what got you here. But a great sales force is more than just a single sale. It is more than just picking up the phones and increasing sales. It is the ability to delegate the responsibility of selling and bringing in a workforce that is experienced in it.
However, a lot of sales techniques and methods are ignored. Selling is also about marketing. It is about your brand. People these days buy into brands, which is why hiring the right sales director is not enough. You also need to build a relationship with people that can sell your first impression, such as this web designing company. It is about having a logo that people recognize and using this as a sales tactic. It is about having great customer service, knowing that the experience a customer gets is what will keep them returning. All of these facets have a huge role to play in your selling ability, and yet so many entrepreneurs overlook these or don’t classify them as selling.
- Leadership Is What you Crave
This responsibility is going to land on your shoulders most of the time, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spread the load. TAs you will see in this article, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246326, almost all business success is built on the ability to employ leaders throughout a company. The reason for this is it creates a unified vision that everyone can work toward, no matter what department they work in. Leaders motivate, educate, inspire and help employees to achieve greatness, and this is a hugely valuable asset to all companies.
With an effective team, your company is able to expand rapidly, and this will be thanks to those you employ in leadership roles. They are going to be your ambassadors that communicate decisions with your workforce, that promote transparency and celebrate milestones as a unit. When you start out, all the joy and pain you experience as the owner is echoed by those that work for you. They sacrifice themselves for a vision, for hope, and that is where great leaders excel. They will get to know your team on your behalf, be able to learn what makes them tick and where they struggle.
What’s more, this thorough and in-depth understanding of your operations will allow you to focus on leading the charge. Your responsibility is helming the ship, growing the business, building investor relationships and communicating with the board, all of which demands time and effort. It can be hard relinquishing control on the ground, but by employing people you trust to get the job done – and get it done well – you will see success come your way.