However, none of these projects prepared me for actually running individuals.
I do think this is a legitimate hazard for younger enterprisers who decide to go directly into business without working in a business environment. I think I have always been a good businessperson and some of my favorite strategies became more advanced 6 years ago when I was just 25. However, I would have been much more successful 6 years ago if I realized how one can organize men and women. n.
The good thing is that once an individual learn how to actually manage people, its really not that difficult and it will make your business life as well as your own private living a whole lot a lot easier. Here are some tips:
#1 – Talk to corporate people about management techniques in their company – Most entrepreneurs are rebels. We start our own business because we believe that we can do things better than “those corporations”. We think that what large corporations do, does not apply to our business model. Of course you can’t copy management styles of large corporations verbatim, because there is a lot that does not apply.
However, for the first 4 years of my entrepreneurial career I completely ignored anything that anyone told me about proper management. My friends who had MBAs and who had all worked for large corporations tried to teach me about best management practices, and I completely ignored them. It was annoying to listen to someone that had never ran a business tell me about all of their “management theories”.
It wasn’t until 2010 that I actually started to truly pay attention to the importance of proper management. I was able to recruit a guy in his early 40’s that was a VP of a Fortune 500 company as interim president of my company. He only lasted for 1.5 months, because the rickety finances of my company scared him, but he stayed long enough to start implementing some change in the company. He took a very corporate approach to all of his managerial tasks. Sometimes he did things that were completely out of place, like having weekly meetings where he used a bunch of corporate speak, while the Chinese staff had absolutely no idea what he was saying, because of their English level. However, he did implement some very effective tactics, such as giving all managers clear KPIs (key process indicators) in which to benchmark their performance.
As a young entrepreneur you should always be hungry to find out how larger companies manage their staff. Talk to your friends that have MBAs, talk to friends that work for large corporations, read books on management, and when interviewing candidates, even if the candidate sucks, find out at least one management technique that their current or past companies use.
#2 – Hire Managers First – At one time in 2008 I was 28 at the time, I had no management experience, and I had over 20 employees and not one manager. I can’t believe that I did this, but I managed 20 people on my own. If this sounds like a mess, it was even messier than you can imagine. I recommend hiring managers before you hire staff. Hire a manager that has worked for a larger company before, and let them hire, train and manage your staff.