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The Safest Place to Grow your Business

Growing the Skill Set in an Early-Stage Company

Nick SturgeCentre Director

SETsquared Business Acceleration

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

If everyone is moving forward together, then

success takes care of itself

Henry Ford

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

Agenda

• Intro

• The Beginning - Choices

• The Middle - Building, motivating, communicating

• The End - Succession, exits, firing

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

The Motion Media Story

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The Official List & the crash

9/11Headcount

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

The Beginning - choices

• Understand yourself …– Why? Aspirations. Abilities / Weaknesses. Resources

• Type of business– Lifestyle or Growth?

• On your own?– Pros & cons of starting on your own – Shareholder agreement!– How to find a partner?

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

Pre-incubation

Company Value (££)

Time

Incubation

Pre-incubation Grow-on

1st mile 2nd mile 3rd mile

It’s a (relay) race not a sprint….

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

The Middle

Any one can hold the helm when the sea is calm.

Publilius Syrus

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

DOOM

• The four hats:–Director–Owner (shareholder)–Operator (workforce)–Manager

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

DOOM

Shareholders (O)

The Board (D)

EMT (M)

Workforce (O)

Investors (shareholders)

Part owner + Director + Manager + Operator = The Founder?

Director + Owner + Operator + Manager

= The Founder

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

Building the Team

Strategy

Tactics

Delivery

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

Building the Team

Delivery

Tactics

Strategy

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

FunctionsSales

Technical

Delivery

Finance

Support

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

Team Dynamics - balanceProducer

AdministratorEntrepreneur

Integrator

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

Recruitment

• The challenge of a Techie founder hiring ….• Be wary of hiring friends & family• Better to work with a gap than hire badly• Which are the key hires, and which aren’t• Motivation of candidates• Importance of cultural fit• Technical ability vs. aptitude• Pros & cons of multi-skilling

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

Recruitment – where from• Networking• Web – eg. GumTree• Agencies• Research – targetted “poaching”• Universities - eg. www.bris.ac.uk/CAS

– Grads – departments directly– Interns– KTPs – eg. www.bris.ac.uk/RED – u/grad projects – departments directly

• Employment Contracts– Incoming employees – restrictive covenants– For your employees

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

Business Plan Considerations

• If you are not the “2nd mile bod” – be honest– Identify the succession plan

• Identify the gaps• Identify the key strengths– the ability to deal with the unforeseen

• Be realistic about costs and time-to-recruit

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

Other tools

• Belbin – www.belbin.com - £30– Team roles

• eg. ‘Plant’, ‘Co-ordinator’, ‘Completer Finisher’ etc.

– Work preferences– 360 degree

• Myers-Briggs - $29– psychological preferences of how you perceive the world and

make decisions

• TMS Wheel– Explorers, Organisers, Advisers, Controllers

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

Motivation

• Communication• Alignment of interests• Pay vs. rewards vs. risk• Praise & acknowledgement• Promotion – pros & cons

Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.Dwight D. Eisenhower

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

The End

• Planning for exit• Succession planning• Firing– Discipline– Performance– Redundancy

The Safest Place to Grow your Business

Now for the real story….