Choosing the right team is essential to your business’ success. You could be a brilliant entrepreneur with an awesome business idea destined for success, but if you don’t have the right people on your team, you won’t go far. Based on CB Insights report on the top reasons startups fail, which was conducted on 311 flamed out startups, 23% of startups fail due to not having the right team — it’s also the third most common reason for startup failure.
During the Flat6Labs Cairo 4 month acceleration program, we help our startups find the right candidates for their business by co-hosting a talent match-making event with one of the biggest online recruiting companies, Wuzzuf; and by offering them sessions on how to acquire the best talents and how to build a strong team delivered by top industry experts. Our applications are open all year long — you can apply on our website.
We strongly believe that creating a company from the ground up and growing it to a full-scale enterprise takes a well-rounded team that can overcome the many obstacles that come their way. To make sure that your company moves in the right direction, never loses focus, and grows to its full potential, there are certain personality types that you always need to have on your team — from the get-go!
1- The Visionary
Because of the magnitude of their thinking, they’re often entrepreneurs themselves. They are the masterminds that can come up with the most world-changing products and services. They’re always ahead of the curve in terms of, identifying potential problems and coming up with solutions that can change the course of humanity.
Even if you already have a big vision for your company, you still need to have a visionary on your team. They will help you create the right strategies to achieve, finalise, and realise your vision.
One of the best examples of this type of personality is the co-founder of Apple; Steve Jobs. Before Jobs came back to Apple and during the final quarter of 1996, Apple’s sales plummeted by 30 percent. The brilliant entrepreneur was able to save Apple from being on the brink of bankruptcy by decreasing the number of products by 70% and focusing only on four main products. He saw that focusing on quality and innovation rather than quantity will radically change the company’s future. One year later, Jobs’ vision did pay off, and the company turned a $309 million profit.
Good Habits 1: Train yourself to innovate every day. Grab a notebook and write down three ideas on how to develop your product.
2- The Social Butterfly
They are socially dynamic, networking, charismatic, and personally gregarious. A social butterfly is an extreme extrovert brimming with energy and confidence, who truly believe in your vision for the company and want to play an active part in helping you achieve it. They are exceptional marketers who know your solution well enough and understand its business needs.
A great example of this type of personality is the youngest self-made billionaire; Kylie Jenner. The famous Kardashian was able to build a one billion dollar cosmetic brand without manufacturing anything! Kylie Cosmetics is only responsible for marketing through social media, and other companies manufacture, package and distribute the products. In its first 18 months, the company made 420 million dollars in sales. All that success came mainly from Jenner’s social media followers. She has 145M followers on Instagram and a massive audience on Snapchat. The estimated value of a single post is $1 M.
Good Habit 2: Find a hobby or an activity that’s social. It’ll be easier to expand your social circle with people who share your passion.
3- The Ultimate Optimist
Running a business comes with its pressures and challenges. When things are not going your way, it’s easy to lose hope and look for the easy way out. That is why you need an ultimate optimist on your team.
As the name suggests, these are extremely positive people who stay calm under pressure and see the brighter side of things even in the darkest of moments. They have belief and conviction in the abilities of your team, and know that every obstacle is only a stepping stone for greater success.
Gary Vaynerchuk (or Gary Vee) is the perfect example whenever we talk about optimistic entrepreneurs. Vaynerchuk and his family immigrated to the US from Belarus in 1978, and he lived with 8 family members in a studio apartment in Queens, New York. Today, the 43-year-old runs a multimillion-dollar digital marketing company that he founded. The company’s clients include Fortune 500 companies like General Electric, Budweiser, Toyota, Revlon, and Unilever.
The brilliant entrepreneur succeeded despite his humble beginnings and despite the fact that he was a D- and F-student in school. He attributes that success to his unshakable self-confidence and optimism. “I do believe that blind optimism, naïveté, and self-confidence are enormously delicious traits that allow you to win more often than you lose.” Says Vaynerchuk on one of the episodes of DailyVee, a full-blown vlog documenting his life as a CEO.
Good Habit 3: Notice Negative Thoughts. Becoming aware of your negative thoughts and how often they occur will help you realize when and why you are negative. Maybe you’re more negative during stressful situations or when you’re feeling emotional. Being mindful of your pessimistic thoughts will help you pinpoint what’s causing you to feel negative.
4- The Hacker
They are your go-to people whenever you want to find an innovative solution. They know shortcuts to do things more effectively, and they understand your business from A to Z. They’re not necessarily technical or functional experts. But they have a tendency to question everything and explore it their own way. As a result, they grasp concepts quickly, and find out ways to use them for business benefit.
When you have hackers on your team, you always have a great chance to outmaneuver your competitors, and reverse-engineer successful products to build something more useful. When you get into trouble, they are your risk management experts who can turn the seemingly inescapable horrors to greater opportunities for growth and success.
Serial entrepreneur Elon Musk is the definition of “the hacker”. In December 2016, The forward-thinking co-founder and CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX became frustrated while stuck in heavy Los Angeles traffic. He tweeted “Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging…” Why sit in traffic above ground when you could speed ahead below it? Most people complain about traffic, but Musk took action. Two years later, he made a brief public appearance to unveil the completed tunnel.
Good Habit 4: Fix it for yourself: Whenever you face a problem in your business, take some time and try to fix it first before you call for help.
5- The Expert
They are the heart and soul of the company — they know the ins and outs of your core product or service. They are functional experts who understand the importance of what you have built, how it helps your customers, and what improvements you can bring to make it more useful.
If you’re not an expert yourself, there’s no shame in hiring a know-it-all experts to help you understand every aspect of your business, stand out from your competitors, and create a product that exceeds the expectations of your customers. “If you don’t understand the details of your business you are going to fail.” Said Jeff Bezos, the CEO & Founder of the well-known e-commerce company, Amazon.
These experts, along with the other 4 types discussed above, will be the backbone of your business model, and will provide you with a strong foundation on which you can build a vibrant organization.
Good Habit 5: Track one major business metric daily: In order to truly understand the core of your business, you need to focus on at least one business metric per day, and try to learn something new about it.
