How do you get rich? Start a company. But how do you start a company? You come up with an idea, you write a business plan, and then you try to execute it. So what do you need to succeed? Ideas? Plans? Nah, those are easy. What you really need is the ability to execute. We can divide the things that startup founders do into three layers: strategy, project management, and tactics. Since strategy also gets taught in business schools and talked about in the press, it’s what everyone knows about startups. So people tend to overestimate it, and assume that if a startup fails it must have been because its founders lacked strategy.
In fact the opposite is usually true. Strategy is easy. Where most companies fail is execution: they don’t keep their quality up, or they introduce bloat through bureaucracy or premature optimization or by wasting money on things like expensive offices or pointless PR campaigns. So if your startup fails there’s probably little point in analyzing your strategy, because chances are you had a reasonable one and all sorts of other companies have succeeded with similar strategies. Better to look at what went wrong with execution– where did you go astray tactically?
Team comes first
If you want to do great things, you need to surround yourself with the right people. Hire the very best people you can and make sure they understand what great work looks like. Create a vision for your company, clearly communicate that vision, and then focus on serving your customers as best as you can. Most important, be willing to admit mistakes and learn from them. Be open to new ideas and be willing to change course when necessary. And remember that while it’s important to have a long-term plan, it’s even more critical that you’re constantly learning along the way.
Quick wins
Your company has one goal, above all else: growth. If you are not growing fast enough, it doesn’t matter what else you are doing well. Without rapid growth, your business is probably dying. How do you grow? Start by figuring out what you want to be when you grow up. What would you do if your business was ten times its current size? What do successful companies like yours look like at that scale? Then find the fastest way to get there.
What’s the biggest problem facing a company of your size? Let’s say you’re a ten-person company today, and aiming to be an eleven-person company next year. You will hit a wall as soon as your first employee quits or gets sick or starts slacking off. So the biggest problem facing a ten-person company is finding an eleventh person. The answer seems obvious: hire someone new before the old one leaves. But that solution ignores the most important question in business: how much does it cost? Because hiring is so expensive (see below), it makes more sense to keep the old employee as long as possible, even if it means giving him a raise or putting up with his bad attitude for a while longer. Until you’re sure you can find another employee.
You need project management tools
Project management tools help you deliver projects on time and budget. It provides tools to manage workflows, team collaboration, and communication, enabling managers to streamline their daily operations and ensure they can deliver on their promises. Project management software is the tool your growing business needs to help you manage schedules, track progress, collaborate with your team, and report results to stakeholders – all in one place. A project manager’s job is never done. With increasing expectations, new challenges keep coming up as projects go through different stages. Project management software can help you keep up. Using project management software, you can set priorities for your team so they know what to work on at any given time. You can also track deadlines and milestones so you know when a project is due to be completed and if it’s on schedule. You can even store important documents in one place so everyone is always working off the same version. Moreover, you can use Project Planner management tools to visualize your workflows so that everyone can understand how each task fits into the bigger picture. Project management software is essential for any organization that wants smooth projects and happy customers.
Employee performance is key
Wherever else there is a lack of innovation and growth, it can be found in employee performance. The failure to effectively manage staff leads to the failure of organizations to achieve their goals. As such, it is important that companies learn to address this problem that is detrimental not only to the growth of their business but also to the welfare of their employees. There are many factors that lead to poor performance on the part of employees. These include lack of motivation and job satisfaction, employee turnover, ineffective goal setting, and lack of communication between employers and employees. One way of ensuring staff performance is through effective goal setting. Employees need clear-cut goals that are achievable and measurable. This way, they know exactly what they need to do in order for the company to grow. They should also be properly informed about how their work will contribute to the overall growth and prosperity of the organization. This will increase their job satisfaction and make them want to perform better.
Another factor that contributes to poor staff performance is lack of communication between employer and employees. There should be regular feedback between both parties so that each side knows what needs to be done in order for the company or organization to achieve its goals.
Automate
As a business owner, your need to have a constant and reliable flow of information about your business activities. This is important for you to make the right decision for your business. This can be achieved when you automate work reporting for your employees. Automating work reporting gives your employees an easy way of accessing information about their tasks and activities on the go. The automation tool allows them to share real-time data about the progress of their work with ease. The benefits of automating work reporting for your employees are enormous. Some of these employee benefits are:
Eliminates Data Entry Errors: When your employees are required to keep manual records or fill up spreadsheets, chances are that the data collected may be wrong due to human error. Automating this process will ensure that all the data being generated is accurate and correct because they don’t have to do it manually.
Allows For Real-Time Reporting: online project planner tools your employees to send time reports and create schedules straight from their mobile device. This way you can know in real time how much time they are spending on their work and when they start or finish a job. With this kind of transparency, you can manage them efficiently and also track their productivity levels easily.
