What do you do when you think you’ve outgrown long-term, legacy members of your team? Those employees who were once key members of your band of misfits, who helped you scrap and claw your way from startup to success. Do they fit in now that you’re professionalizing your team and adding key leaders who’ve done this before? How do you know if you’ve simply made a bad hire?
Most entrepreneurs hire reactively. It may work for some of you, but for the vast majority of us, that’s how we end up with people problems. I think there are at least three important things you can do at this stage of growth to build a great team. Before you even begin recruiting, you should: (1) know where your company’s headed; (2) know the key initiatives that will drive that growth; and (3) assess your existing team against those initiatives.
Where do you want your business to be in three to five years? Your vision for the company will impact your team’s hiring needs. Let’s say you’re planning to grow revenue from $10 to $25 million in the next two to three years; how do you plan to do that?