Internal Reputation Management: Employees and Culture
You have decided to go it alone, you have become an entrepreneur. You may have the skills, knowledge and start-up capital but do you have the business acumen to make it work? The vast majority of start-up businesses fail and they often fail for the same reasons. The service can be great, the staff can be talented, but the way you manage the operation as a whole dictates whether it will sink or swim. Here are some of the key reasons that cause new entrepreneurs to stumble, and they’re not taught at school.Utopic Corporate Culture Ideals
The reason most people decide to go it alone is flexibility. Dreams of creating the best workspace where there are no set hours and flexible holidays and Google-esque office toys littering the trendy converted warehouse office space. In reality, these ideals will not work without high professional expectations, the right employees, and strict rules. Utopic ideas of work are unfortunately out of reach in most cases and are more likely to cause disorganisation, rather than productive synergy.Over Emphasising Expansion
A new business cannot afford to make mistakes when it comes to recruitment. As the leader, you need to plan expansion strategically, rather than hiring based on expectation. We’ve all seen Dragon’s Den. Some poor entrepreneurs predict the future values of their business, sometimes up to 5 years ahead, based on an activity period of 3 months. They draw the line going up and tell the investors their predictions. Unsurprisingly, they are often shot down within a matter of minutes and left wondering what they did wrong. Faith in your product is one thing, but realism must be a counterweight to avoid potentially life destroying disappointment.
Treating your Employees as a Unit
Your employees are not a unit, they are not ‘your people’. It is very easy to forget this obvious fact when caught up in the momentum and excitement of seeing your venture succeed. These people did not know each other before ending up sharing offices. They each have different life priorities, backgrounds, and skillsets. The way you manage them must reflect these factors on an individual basis if maximum potential is to be achieved and staff turnover minimised.
