The past 10 months for me have been a very exciting time, really a great ride. I went from graduating UNCW with my BS in Business Development and Entrepreneurship straight into speaking on Internet Technology/Marketing twice a month and being the Vice President of Web Development, which eventually merged into Tech (as I was branched off to manage a division) at a performance startup here in Wilmington, NC. While exciting, those times are over.
For those who are subscribed to Jason Calcanis’ newsletter, his newsletter came at an ironic timing. Jason’s newsletter was to those startups that were having to take drastic measures to survive the rest of the year because, given the current economic turmoil, they may not otherwise have the capital to make it. In this newsletter, Jason also outlined 12 ways to survive given the hard times. The first thing on that list? Lay off half your staff. I don’t think the CEO or the board of directors read Jason’s letter, but that’s exactly what they decided to do. They laid me and my entire team off. An unfortunate business decision for us, but it’s those kinds of decisions a CEO needs to be capable of making to ultimately lead a company to success. That much I do admire him for. Were it me, as I am now, I don’t know if I could have done the same.
While I personally am excited (the freedom was becoming increasingly restricted, thus holding back my entrepreneurial spirit- something I hadn’t really realized until I was out), I am very sad for my team. I’m an entrepreneur at heart, so when I signed up with the company I knew there was a risk, and part of it was being subject to cut-throat decisions. It’s nothing personal, it’s just the nature of a startup. Nevertheless, we were all surprised and a bit saddened.
The sad part is that our division was the one that, according to the business plan, would really help to take the company IPO (granted, nothing is going IPO in this market). In addition, the first iteration of one of the products we put out (our eStore) experienced some great growth this month, as a non-holiday month (it was up and running for Christmas so we saw a boost in sales then).
Not to mention one of the business development models we put together, and were starting to initiate, was going to kick some serious ass (I mean serious). We’re talking making money off of our competitors, and then our competitors customers (we just started to get it working with one competitor). But I felt the CEO didn’t have enough faith in our division to think we could break-even before the end of the year- and that lack of faith is a communication issue between he and I (something to be concious of! Make sure you’ve always got good lines of communication).
There was a lot to be done at the startup (as is the case!) but we also had a blast. I had 5 guys on my team and we all worked a ton, launching a number of websites, ecommerce stores, rebranding of the company, product development, traditional marketing campaigns, customer service, back-end process creation, I.T. work, customer experience design, SEO, internet marketing campaigns, web usability, analytics/trending, social media marketing platform, business development, sales, and the list just goes on. Out of all those things, however, below are the top 10 things I learned that are important (some to me) no matter what company you (or I) am in.
Top 10 Things I learned (1 for each month!)
1. I love to manage people. I already knew this, really, but this was a good reminder. I love working to awaken in people a new passion, drive, and level of excitement that pushes them to greater heights. I also love that they help me to realize this for myself.
2. Product development timelines are an art. I thought I had a good grip on them, I don’t. It makes me really respect those who seem to have mastered them as an art (if those people even exist).
3. The importance of giving sufficient time for a project. Sometimes it can hurt more to push a product to release too early than to just take an extra two weeks and put it out when it’s a bit more ready. There comes a time where you need to evaluate the risk vs reward of a deadline. I think Apple does this well.
4. I love growing businesses and developing them. It’s not to say I am an expert at it by any stretch of the imagination, but the work I did at the startup really taught me a lot on the topic.
5. If you are going to work 65+ hours a week, give yourself a day or two a month to recharge.
6. Know your competitive advantage/differentiating factor. If you don’t have one, take the time to make one. Especially in a highly commoditized market. In some cases this was a struggle for us.
7. Communicate. Communicate. Communicate. Seriously. If you’re a manager, your team should always be aware of where they stand with you, what’s being expected of them, where the company is heading, and how great a job they’re doing. If these things aren’t going on, morale will seriously begin to hurt. This applies to every management position in the company.
8. Don’t lead with emotions. I tend not an emotional leader myself, but I’ve seen this very evidently at companies I have worked at in the past. Chances are you can’t escape it, but I think to still be aware of it is important. The effect of an emotional leader. It’s not good. With an emotional leader, people simply don’t know where they stand and it kills morale.
9. I learned there is [generally] no loyalty to a company with Gen Yers. So instead, I worked to have my team build a loyalty to our group. I did this by focusing on #7, and I think it worked fairly well. Though at one point I think we were a bit too isolated in regards to other parts of the company, and that was a leadership mistake on my end.
10. Focus. The one thing I believe hurt us the most was a lack of focus. It’s easy to get sidetracked with trying to generate revenue through creating different streams, but you have to get the current stream to a particular point before you can move on. By allowing focus to continually dwindle, ultimately resources are spread too thin, and it’s very hard to do anything well.
Believe me, I learned a lot more than 10 things, and really I am excited by the new opportunities this affords me. It gives me time to refocus, begin blogging again (I’ve really missed it, and don’t want to end up stopping for as long as I did again), and examine the opportunities that are beign placed in front of me. I am thankful for the support and network of people that have been spreading the word, leading to interviews, etc.
That said. Being a leader is really working for the guys who you presumably manage, and I loved being able to. They are a fantastic group of guys, and the things they accomplished in the timeframes that they did was nothing short of awesome. Those who are still at the company, I know they’ll also do great, and I do wish them the best of luck!
I’ve revised this post a number of times over the course of when I first wrote it. In some cases for editing mistakes, and in others for clarity sake. Apologies to those who I may have offended with earlier versions, as that was not my goal.
Good suggestions and learnings. I hope you continue to grow and learn. Entreprenuers rock!
Hey Nathan, we met at the BS’08 last year. Great post. And good luck with whatever you get up to next. Your blog name is really growing on me ;). Keep up the good posts!
Yes! I remember you from BS 08! I’m really sad that there won’t be one this year : (
Haha, thanks on the blog name. I tend to consider it more of a branding blunder, but I guess only time will tell ; )
Thanks for the encouragement! I’ve got some exciting things I am lining up :)
11. Leadership mean service. Humility in leadership can be achieved if one learns to view his role as a simple service to others.
“If you have religious faith, see God as the doer; view your work as a service to Him”
You are an outstanding entrepreneur, and you’ve got a long road ahead of you! Thanks for everything, I love this post.
Nathan,
I am always amazed by the depth of your insights, especially since you just started your career — many (most?) managers iwth 20-30+ years experience have still not realized #9. If you can create loyalty within your work group, not only will your team be more successful, you as a manager will be more successful. I think GenX and GenY have no corporate loyalty – the ones that stay through rough situations are usually those that lack the skills to move on.
Jennifer
Thanks, Jennifer!
It’s both unfortunate (for companies) and fortunate (for those managers who recognize this) that the loyalty factor is a factor. The truth of this was made evident to me just the other day!