startup founder

Best leadership tips for startup founders

What exactly do great leaders do that sets them above the rest? Here’s a compilation of the best leadership tips for any startup founder that will help you along your journey.

Founding your own company is a brave and exciting choice. As the founder, it’s your responsibility to be a great leader. If you want to see your start-up not only survive but also thrive you need to be at the helm striving to be your very best. Your actions will have a serious trickle-down effect, especially if your company takes off. How do you know you’re leading to your fullest extent? What exactly do great leaders do that sets them above the rest? Here’s a compilation of the best leadership tips for any startup founder that will help you along your journey.

Promote your company in a way that makes you look polished

Even if you’re just starting out and operating from the inside of someone’s garage, the way you market your company to potential clients and on social media can make all the difference. You may already be in fierce competition with another start-up that has a similar vision. Before you’ve built client relationships-resulting in positive word-of-mouth and referrals-you need to be able to attract potential client’s attention away from your competitors. One way you can do this is with a professional introductory video.

When your start-up is new, it might not be clear what exactly you do. Clients like to go with a known variable. By making a video that introduces your company by explaining what kind of services you’re offering and interviewing some of your staff, your company is no longer shrouded in mystery. The unfamiliar is now familiar and potential clients feel like they’re taking much less of a risk hiring your team.

Guide/Checklist from Due Diligence Questions

You’ve already got a lot on your plate trying to run your business. Don’t feel like you need to take care of this video yourself. Consider hiring a videography company in Los Angeles to make you an incredible introductory video. By outsourcing this project, you’ll get quality media and never have to lift a finger.

Look to the future

If you can’t see the forest for the trees, you’re going to find yourself visionless. How do you lead your company without a vision? Although, it’s important to have a pulse on the climate of your start-up from day to day, being able to see past the first few months of operation will ensure your company’s longevity.

This is particularly true when it comes to your financial situation. What’s your long-term plan? Are you investing in places that will give your company the numbers it needs? If you’re looking for financial advice like this, look to the long-standing professionals for your advice.

Mark Wiseman is a global investment manager and business executive who has been navigating the economy for well over a decade. He understands your potential hesitancy over investing right now due to the declining global economy from the pandemic.

However, Wiseman feels it’s actually a great time to get in on the ground floor of investment while buy-in is so low. He cites how “if you stand close, you can see the violent downward swings brought on by the Great Depression, 9/11 and the global financial crisis. Take two or three steps back, those moments are no longer noticeable. All [you] can see is an upward curve.” In other words, your investments will ultimately grow—no matter how hard they’re hit—over a long period of time. If you can, look to the future now and invest.

Engage as much as you feel necessary

When starting a business, you want to throw everything you have into it. According to Forbes, it might not be best to listen to the people encouraging you to find work-life balance while you’re trying to get your company off of the ground, because fast “developing business areas…require constant engagement with the industry.” Follow your gut. You’ll know when you can finally take your foot off the gas.

What is the most indispensable trait a startup founder should possess?

The most indispensable trait a startup founder can possess, and should desire to possess, is respect. For their fellow co-founders. For their employees. And most importantly, in my opinion, their competitors.

Paul Graham, wrote in one of his recent essays,

So if you’re a founder, here’s a deal you can make with yourself that will both make you happy and make your company successful. Tell yourself you can be as nice as you want, so long as you work hard on your growth rate to compensate.

Adding to this, it’s safe for founders to be respectful. And respect towards your competitors the most important of all. While it’s true that fierce competition and pressure-cooker situations almost always get the best of us, it is imperative that founders remain respectful of their competitors. After all, that’s what shows your true character. And you cannot win a war by bad mouthing. Nobody ever has. Wars have been won due to sheer excellence in execution. Exceptions being none.

Respect Enables You To Rise Above Pettiness

Entrepreneurship is definitely not a walk in the park. Behind all the perceived glamour, there is sheer hard work and an emotional roller-coaster that runs all day, everyday. Everyone who has seen early stage startups closely will testify.

It’s important that we remember that our competitors go through, or have gone through, the exact same phase.

Competition might blind us, but it’s a fact nonetheless. Everyone who’s worth being called a competitor by anyone deserves respect. It’s only when we accept this, would we be able to see the struggle, the mistakes, the wins, and learn from it. Pettiness is for small minds.

Respect Enables You Work Harder

It’s when you appreciate someone’s hard work, is when you truly begin to appreciate yours. Among most of the hugely successful companies in the world, you’d hardly see the founders bad-mouth or trash competitors. Smart founders realize if they don’t learn from their environment constantly and improve their craft, the next startup gunning for them in a garage somewhere will definitely take the cake.

Have you ever seen any of the entrepreneur, bad-mouth or trash their competition. Why?

They’re busy building. And growing.

Image credit: www.fastcompany.com

8 Qualities of a startup CEO

What makes some startup CEO great achievers for their organization? Are company founders best suited to be the CEO of the startup?

A CEO of a startup sounds like an exciting work position. One often hears about the success of startups and lot of attention is given to the company CEO. However, a startup CEO’s job can be very stressful and challenging. A startup CEO is one of the key member of a startup team. He/She alone could be a big reason why some startups succeed while others fail. When so much is riding on this position alone, it becomes important to know what qualities are desired in a startup CEO. What makes some startup CEO great achievers for their organization? Are company founders best suited to be the CEO of the startup? We try to list some of the qualities that every startup CEO must possess.

1. Trust: A startup CEO must be absolutely authentic and transparent with his/her dealings. Trust is what binds employees, investors, partners and customers to the company and startup CEO is in the center of this trust relationship.

2. Keeper of vision: Vision is critical to survival of the startup. This is what attracts investors and key employees. The vision may or may not be created by the CEO but he/she must make sure company actions are aligned to the vision. As a startup, one gets lots of offers and opportunities. The key is to seize the right offers and opportunities while passing the bad ones. A right opportunity is the one which is not only profitable but also aligned to the long term vision of the company.

3. Resilience: Not matter how smart is the team, failures are part and parcel of every startup. Sometimes these failures are big, at other times they may be small. If one goes by the statistics, more startups fails than succeed. A startup CEO must have great resilience to bounce back from a defeat. A startup CEO must learn from his/her mistake and start all over again with the same passion and enthusiasm.

4. Hire and retain smart people: A startup CEO must be able to hire exceptionally talented people. Sometimes these hires may know more about the particular domain than the CEO himself/herself. A startup CEO must also empower his/her team to get the job done. This could mean arranging the necessary resources, networking with other domain experts and sometimes just listening to the team members and taking decisions by being in “their shoes”.

5. Leadership: A startup CEO must be able to lead people. He/She should be able to convince people about the enterprise idea and must be able to make the first few key hires. He/She must be passionate about the company vision and must be able to transfer this passion to every employee in the team.

6. Motivator: A startup CEO must be able to engage with his/her team members. It is important to motivate the team especially during crisis which, more often than not, is a norm in startup environment.

7. Communicator: A startup CEO must be a great communicator. He/She must be able to communicate company vision very clearly to investors, employees and partners.

8. Ethics & Values: A startup CEO must have the resolve to stick with his/her ethics and values.

Image credit: www.likeswagon.com

How to stay motivated after a startup failure

Here are four things to keep in mind to keep your spirit and motivation up after flop of your startup.

Achieving your goals and dreams is not always easy. This is especially true when it comes to building a business. Building a business is one of the hardest things anyone can do. It takes years of absolute dedication and effort to truly make a business thrive. The whole process of starting a business is physically, emotionally, and financially draining. And oftentimes we invest all that energy just to see the business we built fail. And that happens quite a bit. According to the Wall St. Journal, 3 out of 4 ventured-backed startups fail. And that’s just venture-backed startups. Bootstrapped startups, with no starting capital, have a higher failure rate. It’s a difficult thing to face for startup founders; seeing something you’ve put your blood, sweat, and tears into crumble. So the question for founders of failed startups is—how do you stay motivated keep going after the failure of your startup? Well here are four things to keep in mind to keep your spirit and motivation up after flop of your startup.

Take Comfort in the Fact that Most Startups Fail

Those who start businesses are extremely smart and talented (for the most part). But even with the talent and intelligence, you cannot get away from the nature of startup heartache. As a founder, you should take comfort in the fact that most startups do not succeed. The reasons for a business failing is plenty and many of today’s top entrepreneurs have emerged from previous startup flops. Andrew Mason, the founder of Groupon, actually founded The Point prior to his successful multi-billion dollar coupon site. Never heard of The Point? That’s because it never took off. Bill Gates, prior to founding Microsoft, was also the founder of the now-defunct Traf-O-Data. Sir Philip Green, the billionaire British businessman, went through at least three startup failures before making his first million in his thirties. So as you can see, startup failure is not an exception, it is almost a rule. Failure with your initial startup is almost a rite of passage for startup success. So take comfort in that fact. Take comfort knowing that even the brightest and richest have failed. Knowing that will give you the motivation to move on and try again. Because, as the famous Albert Einstein would say, “you never fail until you stop trying.”

Also read: 10 Reasons why Entrepreneurship is awesome

Have your End Goal in Mind

I’m sure one of your biggest goals was to make your startup a smashing success. But I want you to think bigger. Reach down deep to think about your ultimate goal. What is the purpose of starting your business? Why did you want to build a successful startup? Was it to provide a valuable product to society? Was it to support your dream lifestyle? Was it to give your family and loved ones the life they have always wanted? The startup isn’t the goal itself; it is a means to getting to the goal. So if one startup doesn’t work out, there are plenty of other opportunities for you to succeed and achieve your goals. Looking at the big picture and having the end goal in mind is an important element to keeping your motivation after startup failure. Without seeing the big picture and the end goal, you will be knocked down by every little mishap.

Also read: 8 Things Entrepreneurial People Do Differently

Giving Up is for the Weak

Being a business owner is a whirlwind adventure. You will feel the ultimate highs and the ultimate lows. It takes emotional resilience and grit to be able to be a successful business owner. And if you are planning on giving up after failing a few times, then you are not meant to be a business owner. So if you want to build a successful business, you have to be willing shrug off the lows. You have to be resilient and keep going. Otherwise, startup life is not for you. Essentially, giving up just means you don’t want it bad enough. And when you don’t want it bad enough, you will not survive in the competitive culture of business. You have to want to succeed enough to want to pick yourself up after momentous failure and embarrassment. Just like the hip hop preacher Eric Thomas said, “When you want to be successful as much as you want to breathe, then you’ll be successful.” So do you want success as bad as you want to breathe?

Experience is the Best Teacher

Your startup’s demise is temporal and momentary. It does not define your whole life and it does not mean you are a failure. Rather you should take the experience learned from the failure of your startup to do better the next time around. You can read as many books as you want or go to a thousand seminars; nothing can teach you as much about business and life as experience itself. Learning from the school of hard knocks and low blows is the ultimate vehicle of learning. So let the failure of your startup be your teacher and learn from the mistakes made during your failed startup to do better the next time around. And remember, many entrepreneurs failed at multiple businesses before finding a successful and thriving business. So take that experience and make something useful out of it. Let that experience motivate you to do better the next time. And trust me, you will.

Putting Everything in Perspective

It hurts to see something you invested so much time, money, and energy into just crumble. It hurts a lot. Because you have so much invested, it can hurt much more than losing a job or even losing a house. But in the end, you need to put everything in perspective and take a look at the bigger picture. Looking at the bigger picture and putting everything in perspective means that the chance of you succeeding with your first couple of startups is small. And just because your first startup flopped does not mean that you have failed. If you are smart enough, tenacious enough, and gritty enough, you will eventually build a successful business. You just need to keep motivated and keep going. You only fail if you stop trying.

Conclusion

Instead of being disappointed that your startup has failed, and start writing a new resume so you can get a job, think twice and learn from failure. Starting a business is not always easy, and it requires patience and a lot of experience.

Also read: The 15 Characteristics of Effective Entrepreneurs

This article was originally published in under30ceo.com

Image Credit: www.entrepreneur.com