Regardless of how solid a plan you have, the future of your startup, inevitably, lays on the shoulders of your team. Having the correct startup team is an important determinant of success. Financial backers that are tuning in to your pitch are sometimes additionally keen on knowing the dynamics of your team. Therefore, it becomes imperative for a startup to build a robust, synergetic team.

If you are considering starting a business, you should build a team that sets up your business for success. Mentioned below are some points that a startup can follow to build a dynamic and effective team that benefits the startup.

Get highly driven and competent cofounders.
A startup is like running a marathon. Look for the right cofounders. Cofounders could be 2-4 and would include folks who are committed long term to make the startup a success. Cofounders need to have a common shared vision. They also need to have infectious energy levels and a high degree of competency. These are ideally folks who can do the heavy lifting and take up most of the CxO level positions. Ensure co-founders complement each other and bring different expertise to the table which can include investment, sales & marketing, operations, technology and finance and accounting.

Hiring is a full-time job and is a continuous activity.
Before employing any other person, you and your partners need to settle on how decisions will be made. It is important that the structure and foundation of your startup should be determined beforehand. Once you have narrowed this down, you ought to recognize the positions that are .critical to the business. Occupations in SEO, sales and promoting, programming, accounting executives are a few examples of professions that may be important in your startup. While formulating these positions, ensure you focus on them and discover individuals with abilities that other colleagues don’t have.

After you have narrowed down your applicants, you can proceed to the interviews. An interview will give you an insightful knowledge of their approach towards their work and their contribution. You can also discuss their payroll expectations. Be picky in the initial stages of your startup, and even if you are hiring your friend or somebody known, keep the employment process formal.

If your entire team has a similar approach and is influenced by the same things, all their work is going to be similar as well. It seems like an absolute fiasco, isn’t it? Homogeneity lacks creativity and no startup can prosper without this. This generally happens when the organization dictates every aspect of the employee’s work. As a business owner, it is important to understand that controlling all aspects of your team curbs creativity. Ensure you give your teammates the space they require to showcase this creativity

Training is crucial for team alignment, development and performance
You can’t discuss a startup without talking about vision.  A big part of success in business is building a vision and getting your team to sync with this. There are businesses out there that do not wish to communicate their vision & mission statement to their employees. This becomes detrimental to a business and considering that miscommunication is the cause of a lot of losses in startups, it could be a costly mistake to avoid sharing your mission and vision statement with your team.

Training is as important as hiring; it is significant not only to polish their expertise but also to get them to buy into your mission statement thoroughly. Once the individuals have been on-boarded, team-building activities help members build and strengthen relationships with each other. Some team-building practices will focus on professional aspects while some will enhance interpersonal communication. All in all, the group building training will support the newcomers to settle in with your startup atmosphere.

Today, services and products are more client-centred than ever before. With a startup, the pressure to adapt to the customer increases immensely. Customer satisfaction will eventually make your startup an income-generating company. A good product loses its value if it comes with bad customer service. Observe that all the modern companies have first-class customer service. Thus, finding a team that values customers will eventually be lucrative for your startup.

Disciplined Execution, Governance and Evaluation will ensure you are on right track. 

If you are thinking about how to construct a powerful team, the secret is in ceaselessly evaluating it. Consequently, evaluating your group is a fundamental part of ensuring you have a team that is always congruent with the goals of your startup. It can also help you notice the skill gaps that need to be filled to make your team a well-oiled machine. Not evaluating your team constantly may result in complacency and will therefore affect your business.

Recognizing the laid-back employees and replacing them the action-takers can be a difficult task but is vital to take your startup to the next level. There are going to be challenges thrown every employee’s way. The team is required to keep taking on every one of these challenges and do everything in their power to resolve them. Hence, it is important to have a team that is light-footed, ingenious, and fast.

Ensure you define KRAs. Have regular weekly reviews. Assess individual performance against KRA. Based on the results, take corrective steps. Corrective steps could be job rotation, promotion, PIP etc.

What to Avoid When Building Your Team

Sometimes it is difficult to form the right team. We make mistakes during the recruitment process and bring in the wrong and less deserving people on board. Result: Startup suffers. Although not every process fails, there are steps you can take to reduce the risks.

Here are some points that may help you.

• Try not to be dazzled by a title and believe that a recruit knows it all.
• There are team members who do not have specific skills. Instead of serving a specific purpose, they are everywhere and it debilitates your team. So hire people with specific skills and potential.
• A potential hire needs to see the bigger picture. Not only will they understand their role in your startup, but it will keep them involved and excited.
• It is important to have respect for one another, however, don’t settle. Speak up when something isn’t right and examine the issues appropriately. This will assist you with dodging significant clashes and avoiding grave errors.
• Startups are bootstrapped and team members are usually spread all over the world. This can usually lead to ‘Miscommunication’ and prompts many uncalled issues, so contact them consistently, even if it is just for a couple of minutes.
• Do not rely only on email, as startups are dynamic and require faster methods for communication. Implement conference calls and other ways to have meetings.

Conclusion

Building a team for a startup needs commitment, honesty, and the formation of exceptional relationships from both employer and employee. Since the startup is looking for a candidate who has niche expertise, it is perfectly fine to take your time to hire. Identifying knowledge gaps and filling them periodically is also important to keep the machinery running smoothly. However, keep in mind to find complementary teammates to balance each other.

A great team fuels the startup’s Mission. Thus, construct your team cautiously and it could be the difference between a successful startup and one that isn’t.