Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

Another “Everyone knows that” post, from my experiences working with start-ups. (Then why isn’t “everyone” doing it, hmmmm? We “all know” we should floss after every meal and regularly rotate our tires too.)

I’m a big fan of planning, even if it’s just a crayon scribble on a stickie note. Plan the work. Work the plan. (And, know when to go off plan and way outside the box.) However, even the best plan can fail if you don’t have the right people in the first place.

Here are five ways you know you’ve got the right people:

1. Everyone gets very excited when talking about the business. Lots of arm-waving, interruptions, and heated discussion about how best to do something - from product development to marketing. And, you laugh a lot. (If you’re not having fun, you should stop right now and go work for somebody else.)

2. Everyone is accountable. That means responsibility for everything from internal deadlines to making your own travel reservations. “You didn’t tell me” wasn’t a good excuse in kindergarten. And, your co-founders aren’t your Mommy and Daddy.

3. Everyone focuses on solving the problem. When things awry (and they will), you focus on solving the problem and moving ahead, versus fixing blame. That time you spend finger-pointing is time in which your potential investors and customers are talking to your competitors.

4. Nobody is too important to talk to a potential customer. Nip that case of empty-suit CEOitis in the bud. (You left Corporate America to get away from that, remember?)

5. Nobody is too important (or busy) to answer the phone. That annoying interruption could be a key customer or investor.

And, you don’t have to do group hugs - but it helps immensely if you actually like each other. You’re going to spend many long, tedious hours together.

Related Posts:
Start-Up Success: Look Stupid. Be Silly!
Start-Up Suicide: Free Business Plan Help.
Start-Up Suicide: Mine is Bigger than Yours.

Tags: business planning, strategic planning, entrepreneurship, entrepreneur sanity check