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By
Wayne McVicker
Start-ups can be scary. Whether you're heading up a new division of an established corporation or launching your own small consulting firm, uncertainty comes with the territory. So many variables are involved—business and societal trends, employee personalities, competitor attacks and investor pressures, to name a few. Still, there are some principles that transcend time, place and type of business.
I can't stress enough how important it is to pay particular attention to commonsense keys to the development of a strong corporate culture. They are the rocks in the shifting sand. The whirlwind nature of a start-up makes it difficult for many entrepreneurs to stay focused on them. You get distracted. You second-guess your decisions. You allow yourself to be swayed by others. Fear takes precedence over logic. And often, even though luck plays a role in the success of any start up, it’s failing to follow the tried-and-true principles that hurts or even destroys a new operation.
I wrote my book, Starting Something: an Entrepreneur’s Tale of Control, Confrontation & Corporate Culture, to share the lessons I learned as the co-founder of Neoforma, the first health care B2B dotcom. It’s my hope that others might benefit from seeing how adhering to commonsense principles can help any entrepreneur overcome the tumultuous realities of "starting something."
12 Things to Keep in Mind When Starting Something
- Be who you are. If you aren't true to yourself, your company’s culture will suffer—and so will you . A recurring theme during Neoforma’s early days was determining how to present the company to potential investors. Investors wanted to hear that we planned to pursue fast and furious growth for the company. Frankly, we would have been quite happy to sell a few million dollars' worth of software a year.
- Hire for culture first, experience second. If someone looks good on paper, but feels wrong, don’t hire him. However exhausting and distracting hiring is, don't delegate the job until after the first hundred employees--and then only very carefully. Learn to listen to your “gut.”
- Communicate empowerment. In the chaos of a young company, it’s easy for employees to feel helpless or isolated. All employees powerfully influence a company’s success and direction. Let them know they are valued and their voices are heard. Don't waste the potential of any employee.
- Learn to release, without letting go. When you delegate (and you must) you can neither control every detail nor allow the idea to get diluted. Make your plan clear and monitor progress regularly. If you hired well, everything will work out.
- Balance is not always found in the middle. Make and communicate clear decisions. Changing a position is better than not having one. Be decisive; a half-hearted decision conveys uncertainty. The best course of action may not always be the most popular. Your job as a leader is to do what is right for the company as a whole.
- Do one thing well, then do it better. Then, while you are still improving the first thing, consider doing one, and only one, related thing well. And so on. Too many features can end up overwhelming you company’s resources to the point that they completely obscure what is good about your product or service.
- Regularly walk in your customers’ shoes. Many entrepreneurs come from the industry they are trying to serve, but when confronted by the challenges of starting or running a business, they quickly lose touch with the customer experience. What’s good for your customer is good for your business.
- The unsatisfied customer is your most important customer; therein lies all opportunity. Find out why an individual is dissatisfied. You may uncover a problem that pervades many of your customer transactions. If you can fix it, you’ll please all of your customers, even those who never spoke up about the problem.
- Never let your competitors drive your business decisions. If your competitors come up with something good, your customers will let you know. Beware of transparent, unfounded threats by customers to take their business elsewhere.
- Never let your investors drive your business decisions. Sure, they’re smart and, yes, they can be intimidating, but they aren't as familiar with your business as you are. Their viewpoint is short-term; yours should be long-term. I faced constant pressure from investors when I started Neoforma—from opinions about the company logo to insisting that I hire certain people. One issue caused a huge rift between myself and my partner. I allowed my investors to manipulate me into putting my fear of losing everything above my loyalty to a friend.
- Listen to all advice, but trust what you know. Don’t go against your core beliefs. Be patient. Don’t depend on high-priced consultants to convince yourself that you’re wrong.
- Enjoy yourself. It is very easy, during the inevitable times of monetary starvation and market inertia, to lose sight of how much fun it is to create something new and useful. Ironically, as Neoforma rose to success I found myself sliding into depression, anxiety and marital distress. I found out later that such an experience isn’t unusual. It would have helped to know earlier that I wasn't alone, that it is okay to admit limitations and to seek help.
Although following the above tried-and-true principles is no guarantee of start-up success, guarantees aren't what drive the entrepreneur in the first place. There are rewards inherent in creating something new—you meet lots of fascinating people. You learn something every day. You get that intense feeling of accomplishment that comes only from running on pure passion and adrenaline. There is nothing like conceiving a new idea and bringing it to fruition. Of course, much like having a child, you can't predict with certainty how things will turn out. But regardless, parents are seldom sorry they had the child. That’s the lesson I most want to convey.
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Author Bio: Wayne McVicker is the co-founder or Attainia. His five-year tenure as co-founder, board member and president of Neoforma is the basis for his book Starting Something: an Entrepreneur’s Tale of Control, Confrontation & Corporate Culture (Ravel Media, 2004), upon which this article is based. Starting Something won the 2004 DIY Book Festival Book of the Year Award. For more information, please visit www.startingsomething.com.
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