Building a winning team for small business

08 Jun, 2018 - 00:06 0 Views

eBusiness Weekly

Kudzai M. Mubaiwa
Many of what we call small businesses in Zimbabwe are one man bands or family business. There is no harm done in preferring such an arrangement as indeed every idea requires a champion and often the founder is that one man/woman that runs everything and may sometimes struggle to trust others to do the job just as well.

However, as per Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow Quadrant, a business is only so where one has built a system and has other people working for them, anything less is but self-employment.

In the technology world, it is more readily acknowledged that to succeed one of necessity requires a very strong team.

Seasoned investors will not put in money in start-ups that have a fantastic idea, great market but a poor team. You cannot scale any business all by yourself. “Others’ are always important — to be sent to do and enable a system. Individuals have limitations, teams mitigate them. In the tech start-up world, it is suggested that a basic team must have at least three abilities represented: the hacker, the hipster and the hustler.

The thinking is that in order to successfully create and sell a product three major roles are necessary. The hacker is the one who creates, in the context of tech, that person who actually does the programming, writes the codes, enables the functionality and features of a product.

Using the example of the widely known Facebook platform, the hacker would be that person or persons who make the app work at all, and build in the ability to log in, post status updates, react to other people’s posts and comment or share, amongst other things.

Those that have been using the platform longer than five years will realise that it progressed feature by feature. The early version allowed users to post, like and comment, the present day version allows one to post, react in five ways including a like, comment with a picture and share.

The technical people who create a product and make it work, as well as continually improve its functionality and quality of service is hackers. They must work with the hipsters, the part of the team who are concerned with the appearance and user experience of a product or service.

The world is certainly made brighter by these whose mandate is to ensure a product not only works smoothly and easily, but is appealing to the eye.

Design is a huge thing for any product or service, right down to picking the correct colours and an appropriate font. Even outside the world of tech, appearance and packaging is everything.

The finish is important, as often the external lures one to explore the internal. Finally, the hustler, a word that will resonate with many Zimbabweans — one who is responsible for pushing out the product to as many people and closing sales. Numbers matter here, the hustler is the one who pushes the envelope and seeks to get as many new and return users as possible on board.

The hustler must convince them of the value of the product, by detailing the problems it solves as well as the unique and/or superior features on it that help the user. All three must work in perfect harmony, much like the biblical trinity, to ensure that traction and revenue are achieved.

A less technical type explanation would be to rename each of these, respectively; as the makers, the manager and the marketer. Whatever the type of business one is in, product or service, there is an aspect of creation or production that makers take care of until there is a product ready for the market. The manager in the business is also important as the one that oversees all functions including administrative and general operations matters.

The marketer is the third important function, one who does business development, advertising and ultimately selling. No matter how small an enterprise is there is need to give due focus to each of these in building a profitable system.

The process of creation must now be infused with some of the old that works, but more of the new and innovative.

As such, smart growing companies ensure they stay winning by hiring across the spectrum, from the mature, stable, and experienced, and the new, fast moving millennials.

There can be room for both to ensure that products and qualities are balanced, or alternately second each group to specific relevant and appropriate projects.

Talent is quite difficult to find in this regard, so be prepared to bring in the best who can also groom others and hopefully retain them through decent packages.

Companies can also ensure they stay winning through their management style — the whole system and its operations must be seamless. You cannot put in a novice in on this, some level of work experience is required to keep many moving pieces well-oiled and in good condition.

Lastly the marketer must be one who knows to navigate the treacherous terrain the Zimbabwe market is. You want to ensure you bring in an extremely flexible person who is not shy to go after clients by cold calling, networking but most importantly creating sales strategies that work for a very wide variety of clients.

If the business already has workers it is worth exploring if these components are represented at all and moving people across to ensure each one goes where they best fit ad can be effective.

All of them will require department specific capacity building and the opportunity or room to demonstrate ability in practice, either of which comes at a cost.

Not enough companies are taking training of staff seriously, but this is important as many other past and potential employees may have left the country or moved on to a more rewarding job.

Continuous training ensures you have a well-functioning system that balances out the three highlighted aspects.

Most can be local but in order to catch up with world, regional and international training matter to keep the system you are building ahead of others.

Lastly, allow your people room to experiment and express themselves. Many business owners worry that new initiatives by staff may fail, rather think “what if they work”.

A healthy system is cognizant that there is diversity and several ways of approaching a subject. Allow it, and your system will reward you because you will have motivated staff that feels valued. Your team, and ultimately your business, will inevitably win!

Feedback: Twitter @kumub, Email [email protected]

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