In a small business, the impact of a single team member can be enormous. Every person you add to your team must be a star. Is that possible? Absolutely. First, make sure you define what a star is within each role of your company. Then you can go find them.
We dedicate an entire chapter to the Power of People in our book StartupNation: Open for Business to highlight the critical importance of building a superstar team.
We’ll focus on four action items in this step:
- Understanding the Power of People
- Find the stars to bring onto your team
- Keep your stars
- Importance of a mentor
The Power of People
The single most important factor in the success of a company is its people. It all starts with you as the entrepreneur and flows from there to everyone on your team. Great people can take a mediocre idea and turn it into success. But no matter how great the idea is, if you have mediocre people on the team it will not succeed. We have asked many angel investors and venture capitalists what the most important factor is in determining whether they will invest in a company. It’s the quality of the people. Successful entrepreneurs say the same thing. It’s star people that have made their businesses shine.
In tapping into the power of people, you must understand that it is the personal relationships that you have or can cultivate that will make the difference in your ability to attract stars to your team. If you are proactive about building those relationships, you will have a much greater opportunity for success. The challenge is that it’s not easy to invest your personal energy and time. It seems like a slow process. The reality is that you are at a great advantage as a small business. You can utilize your personality and uniqueness in a way that larger businesses cannot. Take advantage of that.