How to build a team as a young entrepreneur?
As an entrepreneur for 10 years, my experience has taught me that no one succeeds alone and that hiring the right people is not so easy. Don’t try to make small savings thinking that you can handle it on your own. An entrepreneur must be a leader, you will have many responsibilities and your schedule won’t allow you to manage everything. You’ll need support, so you’ll need a team.
Your ego doesn’t have to influence your plans, you never attract success by managing everything without support. Besides, if you’re looking for funds, a team will give you a professional stature in front of your future investors. The 8 following tips can help you build a dream team.
1) Be a leader !
You need team cohesion, by recruiting people interested in your plans and agree with your vision, you must build a dream team to work with.
Evolving in a positive atmosphere is the will of every manager. If you want to hire the good people for your business, you have to know how to choose the right skills but also the right characters.
As a leader you are going to be the main conductor. You must inspire trust but also empathy and goodwill. This is the best way to motivate your employees and partners.
A team is a collaborative group. Everyone must feel useful and appreciated. It’s your role to lead the cohesion of talents by stimulating enthusiasm and creativity.
2) Look for co-founders
An entrepreneurial project is not an entertainment, to make your project evolves you would take important strategic decisions. Your team must be composed of complementary presets and shares the your business vision. Investors will be sensitive to the operational quality of your team.
To find a confounder, you can start by looking in your nearby surroundings. A people you have known for a long time, with whom you communicate well and who has complementary skills to yours.
If you don’t want to associate with a loved one, you can also look for a co-founder by going to events that allow you to do networking. Otherwise, you can use professional network platforms like LinkedIn, and make profiling to find the right people.
3) Hire in your network
Recruiting is a commitment between the candidate and the hiring. This means that ideally, both need to feel a lot of confidence.
You must know people around you who need to work. Why not ask them to work for you?
Working with people you can always count on is important for your personal and professional balance. If you sense potential talent among the job seekers you already know, consider training them. If they’re good, you can fit them into your team soon after.
4) Work with freelancers
As a young entrepreneur, you may not afford to pay an employee, however you will need qualified people for the most important spots.
Collaborating with freelancers, you have the opportunity to work with professionals without worrying about a long-term commitment. Thanks to internet, you can find freelancers to work with.
Make a selection of profiles and ask for a pricing. After consultation, freelance will make you a quote for the requested benefit. This solution is ideal because you can manage your cash serenely.
If you have any doubt about the references of your potential provider, ask to see his professional portfolio or try to contact a person willing to recommend him. Trust is also a matter of transparency.
5) Hire an intern
Many students are fascinated by startups. You can use their talents by recruiting some of them as trainees. Set the skills you need, contact specialized schools and share your projects.
Don’t forget that an intern is a trainee, he needs to work but also to learn. Be pedagogical and take the time to explain him the specificities of the assignments.
If everything goes well, you will even be able to keep in touch and make them work as freelancers or recruit them when you later.
6) Publish a job offer
Target your ideal employee and publish a job offer. The personality of the candidate is as important as his skills. Think in advance about what kind of people you want to work with, your have to share something more than work : temper, values, passion …
Thanks to the search engine and the social media platforms, you can check the candidate’s references before meeting them and prepare some useful questions.
Don’t hesitate to do 2 or 3 interviews with the same candidate in the presence of other team members. Welcoming a new person in a company is an event that deserves to be approved by everyone.
Involving members on your team in recruiting new talent is proof of consideration.
7) Do bartering of skills
A solution that doesn’t cost money but costs time is the barter of skills. As a young entrepreneur you can find a compromise with other young entrepreneurs by exchanging hours of work.
For example, if you are graphic designer and meet an accountant, you can ask him to correct the financial forecasts of your business plan while you redesign his logo.
It’s a way to create professional links with people who start at the same time as you. Helping each other is an honorable quality in the business world.
8) Ask your friends
If you need support to brainstorm on new ideas about your business, think about external collaboration.
Working with people out of the office must be productive in a sens that, there’s no hierarchical pressure.
Being an entrepreneur is a role that leaves little free time for entertainment. Working with your loved ones relaxed is also a way to spend time with them. Be sure that they will be happy to help you and follow the evolution of your career.
Conclusion : If you neglect the recruitment of your team members, you will end up with management issues that could delay the realization of your projects. Being surrended by talented people is important to succeed.
