So, you have a great idea for a new startup business. But before you can jump in, you should know what you are getting into. And that includes understanding your role as founder of the new venture. Let’s take a look at some of these roles up close and how you can perform them better to ensure business success.
Startup Business Founder Role no. 1: The Founder As A Manager
The first duty you need to accomplish as a startup business founder is that of the manager. Since you are the head, your main job is to ensure that every part of the operations goes as smoothly as possible.
In this role, you go through five stages when making company decisions.
- Defining a strategy: You set a direction you want the company to go.
- Forming your team: While you might have someone do the hiring work for you, you will still be the one to determine who would best fit your company’s needs.
- Goal setting: You define the goals that will steer your new team towards success.
- Assistance: As the manager, you are the team\’s go-to person should they encounter challenges in their work.
- Monitoring progress: You would, of course, want to see your company succeed. Thus, you will need to observe whether it is meeting its goals.
These stages are cyclical. As your company enters a new phase in its growth, you will need to oversee a new cycle to prepare it. You will also go through this as part of your work to improve the business. Expect to perform these duties at least every month.
Startup Business Founder Role no. 2: The Founder As A Leader
The other crucial role that the CEO/founder like you will play in the startup business is as its leader. Here, it takes more than just your managerial skills. You will also need to rely on different soft skills to connect with everyone in the company and guide them. Your leadership tasks fall into the following major categories.
People
Your goal as a startup business leader is to bring in the people that can help you succeed. This starts during the hiring process. Here, you should have a good eye to spot talents who suit your current needs and have the potential to contribute to the company in the long run.
But it doesn’t end there. You need to know how to care for these people so they will be willing to contribute more. For this, you should be ready to listen to their concerns. From there, know how to make the right decisions that would benefit your people.
Vision
As mentioned at the start, your startup business often springs up from one great idea that you came up with. But to make that idea prosper into an actual company, you need to have a clear and strong vision of how to do it.
That vision needs to be compelling for every stakeholder. Investors would want to see that your idea is worth funding. Meanwhile, your team also needs to buy into the idea that the business can help their careers. Both will require you to be good at articulating all the whys to convince them.
Culture
Being the founder of the startup business, it is your responsibility as a leader to get everyone working together effectively. You are the one who will be defining the company culture that guides everyone. For this, ask yourself what values you want to impart to the team.
The following are some of the values you would want to emphasize the most.
- Collaboration: Creating an organization that encourages people to work together and solve problems faster.
- Transparency: The team needs to provide as much information as they can to help in decision-making.
- Self-awareness: The company must have a strong desire to improve itself over time.
- Optimism: You as the leader should know how to see the bright side and encourage everyone to move forward.
Aside from these general values, you would also want to nurture specific ones relating to the products/services you offer. This will ensure that the company can best serve customers.
The Daily Roles Of A Startup Business Founder
Aside from the above general roles, you will also find yourself fulfilling different daily duties in the startup business. This is more pronounced during the company\’s early days when you still don’t have a full team yet.
Some of the daily roles that you can expect to assume for your startup include:
- Financial analyst: Since it is your money that the company is using, you would want to oversee that your investment is put into good use.
- Marketer: As the originator of the company’s product, you will also need to know how to market it to the right customers.
- Customer service representative: During the early stages of the business, you can expect to attend to customer questions and concerns personally.
- Investor management: Investors can bring in a much-needed boost to your startup. But you need to engage them and keep them informed about your operations.
- Back office staff: You will also find yourself doing different internal tasks to support day-to-day operations.
The actual daily roles that you will undertake can vary depending on the specific needs of the company. As such, it would help for you to familiarize yourself with as many of these small tasks as possible.
Getting Help Fulfilling Your Roles As A Startup Founder
With all the roles you will have to play in the fledgling startup business, the work can seem daunting. However, you can more effectively fulfill these through the help of virtual assistants. And you don’t need to go through a complicated hiring process, as they are available through outsourcing.
One of the ways that VA’s can help you do all those roles is through organizing and handling some of the tasks for you. Through the former, you can be sure that you can perform all your duties right on schedule. And through task delegation, they can relieve some load off so you can focus on the more important ones.
But to get all that, you need to have the right kind of virtual assistants for the job. Virtua Outsourcing Solutions’ agents are highly skilled in handling different administrative duties. Contact us today and we will be ready to lend your startup business a hand.