“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.” — Steve jobs
People started searching for work online and developing their skills. Meanwhile, some thought of starting their own venture. Someone predicted, “The period between the 20s and 30s will be full of new youngsters becoming entrepreneurs.“
So, just in case you’re looking forward to building your startup, stay here! This is the place that you need to be.
What’s the most important thing many forget about?
Many think that the timing of the launch of the product is the MOST important thing in a venture. But, it isn’t. Wanna know why? Keep reading.
Suppose that you have a great idea that can fulfill your potential customer needs as it’s a great time to launch your product. But, what stops you is your lazy and inefficient team. Can you grow with a crowd of people with a negative mindset?
No, right! That’s what I wanted you to know. The team is the most important part of a company.
How long can you work alone?
As long as you can’t afford to give someone a part of your venture or as long as you can do everything by yourself, you choose to get everything done by yourself. It’s mostly something that happens in the first stage of building a startup where your worth is $0/hr.
When talking about your partner in building the venture, consider a co-founder. A co-founder is the shareholder of your company, which means that he/she will be responsible for the profit or loss of the company for a percentage.
So, if you’re curious to know about when to have the co-founder, we are here holding your answers!
When to have a co-founder?
Before choosing a co-founder, make sure the person is trustworthy enough and your thoughts and long-term goals align with theirs.
You need a co-founder when you can’t add a part of the value to the company which the other person whom you’re considering can add. If the value addition is crucial to the company, make sure you let him/her in.
Note: Having a co-founder is like sharing a part of your company with them. They can make changes, and do anything that you can do.
Funding or Bootstrap: Your Comfort!
Funding is when you raise funds. In the first stage of investment, angel investors are the ones who invest in your startup. As the startup grows into a big tree, the public and your potential customers become your investors.
Bootstrap is when you invest your own earned money into your startup. While bootstrapping, you have to make sure that you have enough money because, with the same amount, you have to grow as well, in case you have a team, you’ll have to pay your employees as well.
Choose what’s comfortable for you. Never go for what someone else is doing.
THE 7-STEP STARTUP SUCCESS FORMULA - DR. ANU KHANCHANDANI
Every entrepreneur’s journey is a mix of failures and successes. The probability of failure is higher, however, there is a way to grow and keep growing until you build a successful startup. This book is one such guide to help you with 7 formulas for your success.
Stages of building a startup: Important one
There are four major steps of building a startup and each one takes around more than a year or so to jump onto the other. Let’s start with the first stage.
Stage 1
The first comprises the most struggle one faces while building a startup because here, you don’t have any support system. There’s no team here because your worth is $0/hour.
In conclusion, you are the only one who is a multi-talented human. You are the video editor, you are the marketer, you are the creator… you are everything. It is the most delicate stage because that’s when you learn and work the most on your growth in terms of finance, knowledge, etc.
It takes around 2-3 years to reach the second stage (in most cases).
Stage 2
At this stage, your worth is $13 USD (approx.)/hour which means ₹1000/hour. Now, you can delegate your tasks to other people. Now, you can add a few new employees to your company.
This stage comprises 15-20 employees.
Stage 3
Here, your worth is $386 USD/hour which equals ₹30,000/hour. Here you can hire 50+ employees
Stage 4
Now, after years and over half a decade of hard work, your worth becomes approximately $1930 USD/hour which converts to ₹1.5 lakhs/hour. Now you can hire 100+ employees.
Stage 3 & 4 = Organisational structure
There was no further explanation after worths in these two stages because now, the common thing occurs that both of them need an organizational structure because of the number of employees increasing.
This chart shows the structure that stage 3 would need. The CEO’s office consists of Personal Assistants and Business Executive Assistants. Team leads are for different departments such as Accounts, Video Editing, Operations, Content, etc. This chart just expands a bit in stage four with not-so-complex changes.
Manage your time: Biggest Asset
After you’ve spent your years in the first stage to gain knowledge, now it’s time to execute at its best while managing your time.
Choose to do your most important task as the first task of your day. As you go down in the list, delegate the tasks that are less than your worth according to the stage you are in.
Let’s hire now!
Just like there are rules everywhere for things to work properly, there are a few rules in hiring as well. Let’s discuss all of them below.
1. Less salary = More loss
As you might know, people don’t work well even after a high salary package. How would you expect someone to work well at low rates for you?
To avoid inefficiency and drama in work, make sure you don’t pay less or more than the person deserves.
2. Describe me
Here, you have to note down the job role, salary, education qualifications, skills, job responsibilities, and growth path of the person you are going to hire.
The growth path is an important part. Who doesn’t want to grow? You have to show the person his/her growth path in terms of job role and finance.
3. Broadcast
Now, share on platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook groups, social media, etc., that you’re hiring people for a particular job role. Let them know that you’re hiring.
After the candidates apply, test their skills and shortlist.
Note: Never hire on the basis of a resume. Always go for a personal interview to know the person better as a human.
4. Personal Interview
Interviews are important to test whether the person is lazy, negative, or jumping on your company for increment, or the person is positive, a hustler spirit, and dedicated. Questions to ask…
- Ask them about their life journey. It tells a lot about their personality.
- Know the biggest problem they have solved and cross-question them about it. If they answer it in detail with smoothness, they are true, for real.
- Know what excites them the most to work.
- Ask the bad things about their last company. If they say, make sure you tell them what’s right and wrong and end with a positive note.
- Ask the company culture they’d like to work in.
- Ask whether they are a fixed-time worker or a hustler. Also, if someone works overtime, reward them with food, chills, and candy points in their work profiles.
- Ask if there is a gap in their resume.
- Know whether the candidate has switched his/her recent companies frequently. You might also be a jumping spot for them after you put the energy into them.
5. Detailed Offer Letter and a Warm Welcome
Now, after everything that you’ve tested them in so far and they too, have passed all of them. Send them a warm welcome and an offer letter to join your company and be a part of your family. The offer letter should have:
- Job title
- Date of joining
- Salary structure
- Leave policy (allowance of a no. of leaves in a month)
- Detailed job role
- Defaults or Company Policies
Now, make the new member meet everyone, train them for months until they come to perfection, and give them the time to settle.
Manage them wisely
Manage your team members wisely. If the team members aren’t working properly, maybe it’s not their fault, maybe it’s you who can’t guide them to a proper path.
Coming to the end…
Building a startup isn’t a small thing. It takes years and is not as small as this blog looks. Learn about it from books, mentors, blogs, and everywhere else. This blog just had a part of what a venture can be created from.
Keep on learning and build it with your beautiful team.
With over two decades of experience in the software technology arena, having worked in multinational and SME companies in India, USA and Singapore in the capacity of programmer to CTO – I felt now was a good time to give back to the world what I have learnt in this journey. Even if it ends up benefitting a few of my readers by giving them insight or solving a technical issue, I think I will have achieved my mission!