Category: ENT 600 Entrepreneurial Planning

New sets of challenges and opportunities arise once a business startup transitions to a growth-stage company. These changes will inevitably transform the organization, impacting its business operations as well as its leadership. While succession and exit plans might have seemed distant and in the future, suddenly they become front and center in discussions about the future of the business. During this time of adjustments, the founder-CEO faces two options: embrace the inevitable changes and remained engaged or be ousted by the board of directors. Both choices might present difficult adjustments for the founder-CEO, but some planning and flexibility can assist in making this transition easier. Continue reading “Scaling Issues: Evolving From A Startup to Maturity”

Most startups kick off with limited financial capital and somewhere along are the way are faced with the need to seek investor’s capital to move the business forward. Each type of investors will present its own set of dilemmas. Founders need to reconcile these benefits and challenges with their startup’s needs and reach out to those investors better suited to fulfill the startup’s needs. Continue reading “Investor Dilemmas”

After investing significant amounts of resources recruiting and hiring top performers, employers need to understand the importance of having a workplace environment in which top performers can continue to grow and achieve their highest potential. Far too often, employers focus on recruiting ‘the best candidates,’ while completely neglecting the needs of those employees once they arrive to their organizations. Top performers are motivated and self-driven individuals looking to excel and undertake new challenges. If an organization does not have leadership, coaching, and growth mechanisms in place for them to enhance their development, they will have no problem looking for those opportunities elsewhere.    Continue reading “Keeping Your Organization’s Top Performers”

Bringing in new hires is one of the next big steps after founding a startup. Taking this step signals positive progress for the business, but it also comes with a number of dilemmas given the typical limitations of a startup. Those predicaments include who to hire, what roles they would take, and how to compensate new hires. Making the right decision about these issues is important since these individuals will significantly influence the direction of a new startup.  Continue reading “Hiring Dilemmas”

The importance of recruiting, hiring and retaining the best and most qualified employees cannot be overstated. Hiring and recruiting takes significant time an effort, so it would be in the employer’s best interest to focus their efforts in finding the right people. Some might argues that it’s easier said than done, but in reality the right people might be right in front of them. While some jobs might have a direct pipeline or source of employees, others can be more flexible and take advantage of transferable skills. High performing employees, or as Eric Herrenkohl call them ‘A-Players’, are highly motivated individuals that already have the right attitude and can easily learn the ropes of a new business and take it to the next level. Continue reading “Hiring from Untapped Pools of Talent”

The early stages of a startup can be messy, ambiguous and fluid. While clearly defined roles for each founder usually help to sort things out, these roles can (and will) intermix as founders work their way through getting a business up and running. Some of these role entanglements are avoidable, some are beneficial, and some others can lead to serious problems. Founders need to become familiar with these possibilities and consider alternatives to counterbalance and minimize or avoid turmoil within a startup. Continue reading “Role Dilemmas”

A founding entrepreneur eager to conquer the business world must have a highly capable team of co-founders, managers and employees. First, founders must start by recognizing the need of a team; and secondly, work diligently on recruiting the most qualified and prepared team members to move a startup forward. The role of the founding entrepreneur is to ensure the team is capable and prepared to overcome the challenges coming ahead. An entrepreneur who understands the need and importance of teams will be better equipped to grow a startup into a successful business.   Continue reading “Building Teams & Thinking Big”

The process of starting a business goes hand in hand with putting together a team. Every team, just like a business, takes a shape of its own depending on a variety of factors. Noam Wasserman points out how teams of likeminded individuals are a common occurrence when it comes to founding teams (Wasserman 2012). An entrepreneur holds the power in deciding who will be part of the founding team. These decisions carry consequences directly impacting a startup’s performance. The needs of a startup should dictate the level of homogeneity within the founding team. Therefore, it is important to be familiar with the benefits and risks of homogeneous teams. Continue reading “The Benefits & Risks of Homogeneous Teams”

Before a business idea can become an actionable plan, an entrepreneur must evaluate his or her social and financial capital. Having the right combination of both will not guarantee the success of a startup, but certainly will make the road to success less complicated. The obvious question then becomes, what exactly does “the right combination” look like? As with many other entrepreneurial dilemmas, it depends… Both types of capital are complementary, yet difficult to compare against each other. Thus, it is up to the founder to determine the appropriate mix that will propel the business to success. Continue reading “Social & Financial Capital: Keeping Your Friends Close and Your Investors Closer!”

A founder might be faced with the dilemma of maximizing wealth creation at the expense of relinquishing some control of a business. During the early stages of a startup, the founder holds significant control over the business; however, if the business requires an infusion of cash, or any other resources, it will come at the expense of handing over some control to the newly incorporated agent(s). It is important to consider the reasons driving a founder’s decision to select one over the other to find the best fit to a specific business needs. Continue reading “Maintaining Control vs. Maximizing Wealth; Not a Zero-Sum Game, But a Business Strategy”