7 Tips When Building a Team for Your Startup

Aaron Vick - 7 Tips When Building a Team for Your Startup

Aaron Vick - 7 Tips When Building a Team for Your Startup

6 Important Startup Team Building Tips

Do you need a team for your startup? Pay attention to these 6 startup team building tips before hiring.

If you like the idea of beginning you’re own startup business, then you’ll need a solid team behind you. They need to be the best of the best.

Why is hiring so important I hear you cry?! Well, 90% of startups fail. That’s a fact. So, give yourself a chance for success and hire the right people to make your dream a reality!

Fortunately or you, this article focuses on how to find excellent workers and attract them to work for you!

So without further ado let’s dive into the core principles of startup team building.

1. Everybody Needs to Be on the Same Page

First things first, you need to be confident that the potential employee shares the same vision as you and the rest of your company.

If they don’t, it’ll inevitably end in disaster!

There are a few things you can do to ensure this happens. Primarily, you need to articulate very clearly what’s expected of the worker.

By this we mean, they need to know what their job will entail, and why the role’s an essential cog in the machine that’s your company.

Then, on a broader scale, they need to be educated on the ultimate goal and mission statement of your business. Only then, will the worker be able to demonstrate why they’re a good fit for the team!

The bottom line is, you can’t have employees doing their own thing. You all have to be singing from the same hymn sheet. Otherwise, one confused employee could throw off the whole team.

So invest time and effort into clear communication with your interviewees, capiche?

2. They Need to Be Passionate About Your End Goal

If you’ve ever worked as part of a startup team, you’ll understand the importance of sharing the vision of the company (as previously alluded to).

Not only do you want employees who are experts in their field, but you also need workers who are happy to be flexible and pitch in where it counts.

By this we mean, people who’ll do whatever it takes to ensure the day to day running of the company runs smoothly.

For example, if someones sick you want the kind of employee who’ll do what they can to cover both workloads. They need to have a keen sense of initiative, know how to prioritize, and not be afraid of a little hard graft.

This brings us to our next point…

3. They Need to Have an Excellent Work Ethic

You could have the most talented staff in the world, but if they’re not prepared to put in the time or effort your business won’t take off.

So, look for previous evidence of hard graft. During their interview ask them about any previous experience where they had to go the extra mile to pull something off.

Things to look out for could include:

  • Do they have any impressive academic achievements where they had to dedicate a lot of time and work too?
  • Have they ever built a successful business before?
  • Have they achieved something impressive in their previous job using their initiative, time, and effort?

You get the idea!

5. Go Scouting for Talent

Before you hire anyone, you need to decide what sort of culture you want your business to have.

This involves defining the kind of working atmosphere you want, the ultimate goal of the company, and the roles and responsibilities needed to pull all of this off.

Once you have that figured out, you can then go on the hunt for talent. Make a list of all the skills and abilities you think your workers will need to get the job done.

Top Tip: don’t let your pride get in the way. There’s great strength in hiring people who’re smarter than you- especially if you’re looking to grow your company.

You can’t possibly be an expert at everything. That’s why building a strong team is so important!

So Where Do You Find People When You’re Startup Team Building?

Start with tradeshows, university job fairs, LinkedIn searches, and then go from there. You need to network with the best and the brightest and get your vision out there.

You’ll find that employees will be attracted by your passion and enthusiasm. This should fire them up and get them excited to get going, and if it doesn’t- they’re clearly not a right fit!

AngelList

AngelList isn’t just a fundraising platform for startups (which can be super helpful if you’re looking for investors), it’s also a place to hire some of the best talents around!

AngelList allows you to look at all of their available candidates and then they’ll put you in touch with the people you want to connect with.

Conversely, you’ll also receive direct interest from potential applicants. These usually show promise because the candidates not only show a specific interest in working for you but also for a seed-funded start-up.

They’re literally looking for a working environment you’re offering!

Hence, this is one of the most efficient methods of finding reliable, high-quality talent.

6. Keep in Mind Diversity Matters

When you’re in the process of startup team building, you should always aim to make diversity a reality.

An excellent way of doing this is to identify ways you can attract the type of candidate that meets your idea of diversity.

Diversity isn’t just a moral issue; it’s also good for business, it’s as simple as that- so make it happen!

Learn More About Your Startup Today

If you liked this blog post on startup team building, then we’re confident you’ll love the other features on my blog. Over there we discuss everything from business legislation to startup leadership tips, enjoy!

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