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Phase2 of Entrepreneurship and Company Growth

Guest post by: Ken Sundheim

Article Overview: After your 3rd, 4th or 5th employee, you now know that you are once again a start-up. Only this time the stakes are bigger and butterflies of failure are higher.

Phase2 of Entrepreneurship and Company Growth

Phase 1 of entrepreneurship can be defined as complete infancy to your first and second employee.

Phase 2 of entrepreneurship means a multitude of employees, a relatively expensive office, real growth and the transition to a business owner rather than an employee of sorts.

For entrepreneurs who passed Phase1, Phase2 seems worrisome. There is that pressure to perform. Things seem different. The environment is different. You have less time. It's overwhelming.

Then you put your finger on the exact reason as to why you have this stomachache. It's not any of the above. It's that you are going into the unknown again.

Again, you prepare to walk through the mud to kill these feelings. You conjure up that drive. It takes a lot of digging, but it is instinctive in you.

Work and creativity is really the only medicine that you have. No real entrepreneur begins to grow, then goes to Hawaii for a month.

It's almost as if you are starting a company within your first company. As fun as one thinks it may be, you know you have butterflies.

This time your battle is to seek a new process as there are a few people now and the workflow has to be organized. Organization is key.

The more you have a set process in place, the more happy clients you can handle and the easier it is on everybody in the office. You must demand perfection, but allow for mistakes.

Getting Another "You" With A Different Personality
Today, I was lucky enough to bring on an old boss who has had several 8figure real estate ventures. He, like me, is an entrepreneur. To prepare for Phase2, every entrepreneur should seek a leader and entrepreneur.

I knew him as a board member for several high-end New York apartments from my freshman year in college when I was a doorman at one of these buildings. The misery of waiting somebody to get to an elevator just to be treated poorly planted a seed and helped fuel the desire to open a company.

To pass them on gratis via the web, here are some valuable lessons I've learned and am currently learning about entrepreneurship:

1. Let Some Of Your Power Go - Trust Others
You must pick the right people to take over the tasks that you wish to leave aside because you must focus on your true strengths. Otherwise, you will be back at Phase0 because you can't go back to Phase1 from 2. Banks seemingly don't like Phase0.

You've spent time molding them into players, now you must sit on the sideline and throw them into the game.

2. Lay Down Firm Expectations and Processes For The "New Leaders"
Everything must be organized for these individuals. However, upon changing their daily routine and normal processes that you feel are efficient, but not to the desired extent, you may have to play the bad guy, and kick and scream.

However, by now the employees know that they can tell you that you are wrong and this transparency and trust lets you mold the process that will take you to whatever point you call Phase3 as I don't envision it right now.

Is the aforementioned lack of long-term vision a problem? Yes, it probably is. Though, you have to focus on right now as, again it is like starting your business once again.

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Article Tags: business advice, entrepreneurship, starting your own business



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