Читать книгу Torque - Michael Ashley - Страница 5

Team

Here’s your plastic trophy kid, good job.

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Who is on your team and why? -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Many great books have been written about building your startup team. I’m not going to try to write a better one, but I do want to share my formula for team-building and show you how to leverage a good team and apply torque to make it a GREAT team.

It all starts with the right team. But before we get to the secret of finding that team, let me share a few stories about not having a team.

I started three businesses before FastPencil and each one was unique, but they all had one thing in common: me, and only me. I was smart, talented, eager and had more than my share of late-night energy, so I did everything. Ideation, design, engineering, marketing, accounting, sales, customer service—everything. I was running on all cylinders and I was making money hand-over-fist. The problem wasn’t success… the problem was unsustainable growth. There’s no way I could sustain the business and grow myself out of it. I had absolutely no leverage, just pure persistence.

You see this kind of business often. It’s a small business where the owner plays an integral part. If the owner were to die, so would the business. Michael Gerber, in his book E-Myth, The Myth of the Entrepreneur, calls this “owning a job.” Basically, the business owner has built a company around her own skills. She does the work and reaps the reward. She doesn’t own a business—she owns a job.

This is often the case with a consultant or professional services provider. It’s a highly lucrative business, often generating plenty of cash flow, but it’s not a true entrepreneurial venture because it has no leverage. The owner of the business can only make as much money as she is humanly able to work.

In order to have leverage you need to hire people to work with you. You absolutely must have a team. Even though you truly believe you’re smarter than the rest of the entrepreneurs out there, if you want to build a strong business that can sustain growth, you must have a team. You can’t do it alone.

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TorqueTip: Surround yourself with great people

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When you are ready to build your team you must focus on three key factors: Building a team that you can afford, finding good people and filling in the holes. Let’s take a look at each of these individually.

Storytime: Green Shake

My business partner, Steve, is a health nut. He gets the team together and they head over to the YMCA at lunch to work out. Sometimes wrestling matches erupt in the middle of the office just for fun. He’s been known to throw a blow-up football at you while you’re working—surprise! But the thing he is famous for is his green shake.

Every morning he gets out his spinach, peanut butter, almond milk, ice and some other secret ingredients, and the blender goes on. The sound of grinding ice blasts through the office. Everyone puts their conversations on hold for a few minutes until the noise dies down. Then Steve starts handing out green shakes.

Personally, I’m not a huge fan of the green shake. It tastes like a peanut-butter-spinach sandwich on ice. But it’s not horrible. Everyone in the office eventually takes their shake. The green shake has become a morning tradition in the office. Every new employee is forced to drink a green shake. We even make visitors drink a green shake if they happen to show up as they are being handed out.

We have never had a green shake turned down yet. Some people even pretend it tastes great! Moral of the story? Have fun with your team, in everything you do… and if offered a green shake, take a chance, you might like it.