Why so hard to find others?
I have attempted a few times in the past to start and grow a company that can give some personal freedom and enthusiasm while giving a good living. I never thought of having a billion dollar company and still do not. What I would like is to have a company that can allow a team of people to really do something that would change the world or at least change the market the company participates in. Does not sound hard does it? I know people who have started companies and made a go of them. Some went well and some after a while did not.
I believe that unless you have a sole proprietorship, the hardest thing you will do with a new company is find a group of people that are all willing to grow and make the company a success. The 2 other times I started a new company I thought I had a team of people that had a vision. But some very important things can out while we discussed things. First most of the people do not care about doing the hard work. I mean the finding clients or customers, developing the working structure and/or putting in the sweat equity needed. They just want to be a Donald Trump and parade around being the big shot. Most after a while find that a new startup is too much work and interferes with their social life and sleep.
That is where I am right now. I have a great idea to build a new company on and I have the technical knowledge to pull it off. If only that was it. There are so many things that I do not well and I am searching for people that fill in the gaps. That would involve financial and sales. I am pretty good with marketing. I have also found that highly technical people have a hard time finding and networking with the other highly effective people in other industries.
I can use the social networking tools that exist in the world and internet today. The issue is that I want to find a team where I am at and not all over the place. These tools will be a good place to try to see how many people live around the Lexington, KY area and would be interested in starting a new company up. There needs to be entrepreneurial groups in cities that people can find each other. Too many times, when people network they do not go outside their own kind. I am guilty of it myself. I attend many technical user groups but not many generic business meetings. I actually do not think that there is a group like that here in Lexington outside of the University of Kentucky.
So what do people think are good ways find good teammates to build a great team? I bet a lot of people ask themselves that questions each day.
1 Comments:
I think the only way you can really get people to buy into a startup is to offer them some form of ownership stake in the business. Few people will actually take you up on this offer though, they'll be happier being employees knowing that they can leave the responsibilities of work behind them at the end of each day.
The problem with those who are interested in some sort of ownership stake is that they're most likely similar people to yourself with dreams of one day running their own business. Unless they had a hand in creating your vision they'll likely regard working in your business as an apprenticeship rather than the realisation of their long term goals.
Until recently I fitted into this second category. I spent almost 10 years working for a startup company (not a technology company but heavily dependent on it). All the time I was working for them I had my own software development consulting business and although I didn't have much time for it my employer understood that I had other goals and made allowances for me. They earned my loyalty through this and over the years I made many sacrifices for them, the biggest being staying those last few years when I really should have left and focused solely on my own business.
By LachlanG, at 4:03 PM
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