It takes more than a good business idea and an entrepreneur to create and maintain a successful business, there’s simply too much work and not enough hours in the day! We’re not saying you need to go out and buy a huge office space, and hire 10s of employees, but you do need some support mechanism that can help you cohesively execute your business plan.
Building a new brand from a startup can be challenging, but having the right team around you can make all the difference.
Hiring the right employees is so important, but it doesn’t just stop there, you need to shape your great hires into an even greater team.
After all there’s no I in team right?
One of the top reasons a startup fails, among obvious reasons such as running out of money and no market demand, is not having the right team members around you.
Strengths & Improvements:
As a business owner and team leader, you’ll have to take time to identify individual’s strengths within your team and utilise these in the best possible way. By taking time to identify these strong areas, you can then use these to support other team member’s areas of improvement.
Not everyone is going to be good at everything, after all many professionals specialise in certain areas, it’s the coming together and combining these specialties that makes for a strong team.
‘Our Business’ Rather Than ‘My Business’:
Including your employees, and utilising phrases such as “we” and “our” instead of “I” and “my” particularly for startups, is a great way to make everyone feel apart of a team.
This can also encourage employees to work harder and increase productivity, because they feel more connected to the brand/ business, and partly responsible for it’s success.
Don’t Just Be A Boss, Be A Mentor:
Proactively block out periods of time to spend with each employee, understanding what they may need support with, for example extra training or just a piece of advice to get past an obstacle that’s facing them.
The more mentoring you do, the faster your team will develop and in turn bring success to the business.
Personal & Professional Development:
Making sure your team feel valued in their roles is so important in their development, but also mental health. It can be easy for managers to focus on just professional development and how an individual is performing on KPIs etc.
But, personal development works hand in hand with professional, if an employee isn’t emotionally connected or is experiencing issues in their personal life, then their work is likely going to be affected.
Taking the time to get to know your employees and prioritising their health & wellbeing is a great way to build a successful team.
Fun Team Building Activities:
Get out the office! (Occasionally) taking part in fun team building activities is a great way to establish and nurture relationships, understanding who your employees are outside of work, and getting to know their personalities on a deeper level.
Some ideas of activities that get you out the office are:
-Paintballing
-An Obstacle Run/ Course
-Go Karting
-Escape Rooms
This doesn’t always have to be a large scale, expensive activity for example here at The Good Food Group we have a Friday ‘End of Week Social’ which gets together all our office and WFH employees on one zoom call.
Find A Team You Trust With Your Brand:
Find team members who can make decisions on themselves and on your behalf, who can be authoritative and proactive whilst representing your brand in exactly the way you would. This takes the pressure and tasks off yourself and frees up your time – something that doesn’t come by often as a new business owner!
This trust comes through communication between you and your team, so that everyone is on the same page. As with anything in life, communication is key – another skill to look for when recruiting.