Today's entrepreneurs are getting more and more creative because they know the old rules no longer apply! From hiring to time management, mail processing, fundraising, today's entrepreneurs are leaving behind their past syllabuses. More and more businesses even break one of the core rules of the past - running businesses with good friends and ultimately succeeding.
We interviewed many entrepreneurs and their successful experiences, but more often they broke the rules.
Hiring outside the industry
Kara Goldin, founder and CEO of Hint, tells us that her trick is always to recruit outside the industry. "I've learned slowly over the past eight years that if your business is an industry innovator, you never hire people in the industry who are often trained in a particular way in the industry. Their thinking patterns There is a definite form. Indeed, you should have a face-to-face approach to customer, marketing, and product creation, but non-industry people often come up with a few fanciful suggestions and see many missed opportunities in the industry. Competence is lacking in many well-trained people. "
Make time for your team
Ofa Kind co-founder Erica Cerulo believes timing is crucial to the effectiveness of the team. At his team, almost everyone started work at 10:30. In their team, almost every member of the team has many activities at night, such as dinner, party, drinking and so on. These arrangements will allow players to have no time in the evening to take care of their own lives, such as: clothes to wash and so on. In this case, if the employee arrives at the office earlier, they are not taken care of by the day and feel that they have a lot of things left unattended. After thinking hard, the founders decided to postpone their work hours and give employees enough time to handle their own affairs.
3. Everything is done, even those most boring jobs
Chelsea Kocis, chief operating officer at Swerve Fitness, usually motivates employees. In her early career, she and her founding team tried to save every penny. They take care of all the living, including cleaning the toilets. She said it helps a lot for their team. When employees see that everyone desperately wants to do their jobs, there are no hours to be completed and they will work harder to participate in the work.
Turn off everything
"Get out of your time," says Tracey Noonan, owner of Wicked Good Cupcakes, as a key factor in her entrepreneurial success. "In the early days, you probably had multiple roles, from CEO, COO, CFO, CMO to HR Director Your company is just like your child, setting a time to switch off your phone and be separated from your "Baby," so that you can become a good entrepreneur. "
5. Transparency - even Human Resources
Dane Atkinson, president of SumAll, believes transparency is the key to the company's success. Each employee will experience a 45-day trial period at their company. Through these 45 days, the company will determine whether they are consistent with the company's culture. In the process, everything is transparent. Similarly, at the time of the last hiring, the assessment of wages is fixed, and there is no chance of someone taking more than a few thousand. This fair and more recruitment process more effective, but also makes a sense of increased fairness between employees.
6. Learn to order to stop
Sarah Milstein, president and founder of Lean Startup Productions, believes that it is important to get the job done in time. She will ask employees to stop sending mail after 7 o'clock in the morning, especially not staying up late. When you have to work overtime, you will make sure that everyone in the company alternates rotation to ensure that everyone is at their best at work. With Sarah's explanation is that a person's effective time is only so much.
7. A long-term vision, especially in financial management
Troy Hazard, the founder of a former entrepreneurial organization, was once also a manager in financial distress. In his experience, he did not fully understand the importance of financial management until his fifth company. He said: "Never wait until the beginning of a loss to reduce the investment in the market and manpower .A good manager should plan all this before .Central focus should be on product inputs, in addition, I know exactly how much power To develop the rest of the market and invest in. At the same time, I should invest in managing finances as soon as possible. "
8. Attention to those easily overlooked details
Stitch CEO Katrina Lake cautions entrepreneurs to focus more on details that can be easily overlooked. Many e-commerce companies consider the user experience to be just websites and interfaces, but what they overlook is that small details such as shipping can be fatal. For example, some companies deduct the cost of transportation as much as possible. Products such as the user has been broken or worn. Even without shattering, tattered cardboard boxes make people look uncomfortable. Therefore, a very important suggestion is to pay attention to the details.
9. When looking for investment, you can throw away those financial plans - your business is you
Lawyer Emily Chase Smith advises entrepreneurs not to follow those old plans and throw away those budgets because angel investors are more inclined to look at the entrepreneurs themselves. Through the entrepreneur's experience, knowledge, and personal charisma to decide whether to invest for him. Because most investors are well aware that the initial business plan is often discarded as waste paper, personal branding is even more important to invest in.
10. Use a hybrid business model
Josey Orr, co-founder of Dyer and Jekins, sees a hybrid business model to help businesses survive better. As a startup, they use some of their products online, communicating directly with their customers. Another part of the product, they will be used offline, combined with the business. This can share the risk and help businesses to find out the best business model for them as soon as possible. At the same time, there is no fixed rules to help enterprises better pilot and innovation.
You do not necessarily need a headquarters
Spyglass Digital spread their workforce around the world and connect people with computers, cell phones and emails. In addition, their new system helps employees upload the files they need anytime. In them, employees do not have to come to the unit not only to save costs, but also to employees the maximum freedom.
12. Only valid meetings
"We do not like meetings, our meetings are only about 30 minutes or less," Kinoli CEO Luke Knowles proudly tells us his recipe for success. He said many companies are unable to realize the real purpose of their meetings. Instead of repeatedly opening up some useless, it is better to save time and cost. Not everyone needs to be involved in the project. All we need is to find the people involved and get things done.
13. Learn to use cc in mail
Erica Cerulo, CEO of Of a Kind, believes that CC has a vital role to play in emails and that she and her partners likewise require employees. "CC can save on communication costs. If there are countless emails in your mailbox, and you really do not have time to read them one by one, then at this time, instead of reading these emails in the middle of the night, CC can help you share the risk with At the same time, colleagues who receive email can work together and feel that they are part of the project.
14. To seek help
Do not feel sorry for asking for help. If you do something that makes sense, you'll be surprised how many people really want to help you.
Fair pricing
Many companies spend a lot of money advertising, marketing, but forgot the product is the core of a company. Instead of spending a lot of money on marketing, it's better to do something your customers like and give them a reasonable price, much more than spending big bucks on marketing.
16. as your company's "face"
Porowski, CEO and founder of Avelist, believes that personal brand building is paramount. In her words, social media has changed everything. People now prefer transparency and information sharing. As an entrepreneur, you should make sure your information on social media can represent your company. Maybe you can share personal stories that will make users feel closer to their lives. When people feel connected to you, they also get in touch with your company. You and your personal brand should be integrated with your company.