Entrepreneurial Reflection: Getting Things Done

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion. Jack Welch

As an entrepreneur it's important to be aware of certain things that you are good at, and certain areas you have deficiencies. And for young entrepreneurs, especially first-timers, you learn a lot of this in the early stages of your entrepreneurial development. When you write your business plan, you might recognize that the needs of the business are not in line with your skills or the skill set you have in your team.

You have a problem.

Do you try and learn how to program? Do you partner up with a coder? Do you offshore? Do you locally outsource? Or, even search for an intern? I've done all of these, and boy have I learnt some lessons. No matter how simple, be smart about how you use your resources; i.e. your time, money and effort.

First of all, I am a big believer in sticking to what you are good at. If you are aware of your strengths and they can add value to your business, then work on developing those to a level of expertise that you own that niche ability. Too often I see people not properly utilizing their skills, rather they want to do something in clean tech, mobile apps, medical devices, etc just because they think they should. Sure if you have a great idea in that area, it's something you know a lot about, have the industry connections, then it's a great fit for you. But really stick to what you're good at.

No doubt there is definitely a movement toward online collaboration and the virtual boardroom from globalization, cloud computing and generally better monetization of the industry. With collaboration tools such as Collonas, WikiWikiWeb, Google Apps for Business and Team Space just to name a few, communications through Skype and Grasshopper, and accountability platforms such as JourneyPage, it appears to make more sense then ever to be working on your business with people anywhere in the world.

Let me warn that I have tried to do this, and it can definitely be challenging. This week I spoke with my business partner in Chicago, my Operations Manager in Sydney, my Regional Director in Sydney, a sales lead in Munich, and yet the most productivity and creativity still came from spending a day with my team in Boston talking about the progress of the last few months.

I am yet to find a reliable offshoring platform that is actually worth the effort and headache. Do not send your work to Bangalore, just because it's in vogue and the bidding price is 30c per task. If it is truly data entry and has minimal risk, then I would recommend Mechanical Turk. We outsourced our initial website launch. It was affordable, we wanted to be involved with the creative side of the process, and could manage it effectively by picking up the phone and going over to the guy's place. So, we did it again. The website relaunch we're currently working on has is being done by Trollsmash, this team of techies who work just an hour away from us in Boston. It's comforting to know that worst case scenario, our crucial website relaunch is only being done an hours drive away. And there is no replacement for energy and creativity when sitting in the same room.

If you really want something extremely cheap, how does free sound? We've picked up a three interns in the last month, all working full-time over the summer. But beware that there is no such thing as a free lunch. I say to all my employees as well as interns is that the benefit of being with a start-up is that they have a chance of being CEO, and fast. It is really your responsibility to empower them. If my interns learn the business inside out in three months, are adding value, there is every opportunity for them to stay on. I tell them that it is there job to get to a point by the end of the summer to be adding so much value to the company that they become invaluable and by definition I will do anything to keep them. And it's my job to give them the resources they need to work, inspire them, and do everything I can to keep them.

There is no reason why they can't do a better job of running the company than I can. Naturally I have a big head start, but there is every possibility that the future of the company is in the hands of one my employees, or even one of my interns, and if I don't realize that, then I am only limiting the growth of the company.