Tag: starting your startup

Ask yourself these 6 questions and you will find what’s holding back your business

There are many ways to go about discovering where exactly you are going wrong.

Running a business is no small feat, but when you feel like your business isn’t living up to its full potential, something has to change. There are many ways to go about discovering where exactly you are going wrong or how to turn things around, like help from JM Reid Group, but asking yourself these questions will help you find what’s holding back your business from higher heights.

1. Are you comparing yourself to the right people?

It is very helpful to compare your business to other similar business when it comes to analytics and market research. But it is not fair to your business to compare to more established companies that have already gone through the weeds, complications, doubts, failed marketing campaigns and more. When you measure your business against one that is truly not your contemporary, you are destined to come up short. They have had more time to make adjustments and improvements you probably never knew about.

2. Do you expect instant results?

When you implement changes it helps to be patient. Most adjustments you make to your business will not bring about instant results. If you lack the patience for good things to come to fruition, you will experience avoidable frustration and stress. Giving your business the time and space to expand and excel is a must in taking your business to the next level.

3. Are you flexible?

When things don’t pan out how you hoped they would, it helps to have a contingency plan. Being flexible allows you to adapt to the market conditions and to take corrective measures. Having a plan is great, but it’s not always a good idea to stick to it no matter what. Bend a little and see where it takes you. You may be surprised by the results.

4. Are you alone?

It is one thing to be the only employee in your business, but knowing when and who to ask for help is essential to the growth of your business. And if you are not the only one handling the workload, you have to trust your team to play their roles. Keeping others on the outside increases your stress. Not to mention, spreading yourself thin keeps you from putting as much effort as you could be putting into what you’re doing.

5. Do you take action?

Having well crafted plans and awesome ideas don’t count for too much if you never take action. All the meetings, criticisms and visualizations won’t make any difference to your business if you don’t make them a reality. If it doesn’t work out, then you adjust as needed.

6. Do you know when to let go?

Knowing when to let go of an idea, project or client is more important than you might think. When you’ve been patient and flexible and it’s still not right, it might be better to wash your hands and and let go.

Don’t stand in the way of your success. Think critically and rationally about the direction you want your business to go. And when you’ve realistically assessed your situation, make a plan of action and hit the ground running. You can find success.

5 Ways to find a lead developer for your startup

This is the person whose creative vision and technical know-how will determine the success of your product

While you should never underestimate a true geek’s creativity, you want your lead developer to be a leader. Someone who’s not a great communicator can take up leadership courses singapore. This will help them with training and development in the desired field of leadership.

But you probably already know that. You’re probably wondering how you’ll ever find the right person to serve as your startup’s lead developer, when the person who excels in interviews and jumps out on paper may not necessarily live up to your expectations.

Those are some valid concerns, and we understand why you’re holding off from doling out the offer. We’re here to provide you with important tips for hiring your top technical talent, to make sure you hire the right visionary to lead your brilliant idea to technical perfection.

1. Look where they hang out

If you were looking for great athletic talent, you would go to a batting cage, a gymnasium or a track. If you want to meet a brilliant developer, check out a local meeting for programmers.

Flatiron School founder Avi Flombaum recommends checking out Meetup.

“You find the right types of people from going to meetups, where those people might be hanging out,” he says. “Programming meetups are great for finding the people with the right experience.”

Flombaum recommends CTO Meetups for a more senior bunch of developers, as well as Agile Development Meetups, and the New York-local NYC on Rails Meetup and NYC.rb Meetup.

2. Avoid quiet geeks

While you should never underestimate a true geek’s creativity, you want your lead developer to be a leader. Someone who’s not a great communicator really should not be considered.

“We look for the ability to speak to humans,” Thrillist CTO Mark O’Neill told Mashable.

“Can you communicate well with non-geeks?”

Flombaum agrees, emphasizing the potential of developers who teach and write. You should think of the people who you’ve heard speak about programming and whose writing has inspired you.

“I think teachers, people who are teaching courses on Skillshare, make great mentors and leaders,” Flombaum says. “I like to look for people who can articulate their thoughts in writing. You should think, ‘Whose blog do I like reading?'”



3. Seek technical experience and expertise

Though it should seem like a no-brainer, all of the hiring experts we spoke with emphasized the need for dazzling technical credentials.

“The first thing we look for are top-notch technical skills backed by the right experience,” Kony CEO Raj Koneru says. “At Kony we put special emphasis on solid leadership skills, because in order for us to scale effectively, the lead has to motivate their developers to go well over and beyond the regular call of duty. In true developer fashion, leads will only be respected if they prove that they’re technical experts.”

Birchbox CTO Liz Crawford echoed the need for technical expertise. “Our ideal candidates are committed to delivering the best possible customer experience, value software engineering practices and never forget about scalability and reusability when designing code.”

However, according to O’Neill, tech know-how doesn’t guarantee an understanding of the Internet.

“We ask, do they understand the web?” he says. “We’ve seen great technical talent have a hard time adjusting if they’ve never worked on the web before.”

4. Look beyond the usual suspects

The right lead developer for your startup may not be someone who’s currently seeking a job, so look beyond job boards and applications submitted.

 ”The right developer might not know they’re in the market for another job,”

Flombaum says. “There are a lot of great programming newsletters that feature sponsored positions, and they’re read by developers who aren’t looking for jobs.”

In addition to going to Meetups where great developers mingle with other great developers, you should make sure your listing is seen by engineers happily employed or working on a project.

5. Ensure a cultural fit

Working in a startup, there’s not room for a bunch of giant egos butting heads. There also isn’t room for people not willing to be scrappy and pick up additional tasks that are beyond the agreed-upon job description.

“We look for non-divas,” O’Neill says. “Yes, they are smart, but we need leaders who are also grounded.”

Crawford agree, noting that Birchbox seeks out engineers who “love to learn and are team players.”

How did you find your startup’s lead dev? Tell us in the comments.

(Image Credit: nextshark.com)