Bootstrapping and the team

Filed in archive Bootstrapper Tips on November 14, 2007

erin Hattaway at Everest Web SEO, whose post on white boards I was talking about yesterday here at BootStrapMe.com, has also contributed these great thoughts on managing a team.

Erin's observations are in turn based on a post by Evan Carmichael at YoungEntrepreneur reflecting the thoughts of Dr. Fathi El-Nadi, an international business consultant teaching in Egypt.

The team concept can be mighty important to the bootstrapper because with not much money to spread around loyalty and a common goal can be the major cohesive qualities of your startup company.

Not to mention, as Austin-based bootstrapper Bijoy Goswami explains in the below video, a team concept can be crucial to the very founding and perpetuating of the bootstrap startup process.

Here's what Erin suggests:
• Make sure your employees have meaningful work to do
• Show each team member how their contribution fits into the whole team effort
• Be sure to give praise when it is due
• Don't be too lavish with compliments (focus on praising work that is above the ordinary
• Don't praise mediocrity or standards will never improve.

I would add to this from my own experience in managing, though not in bootstrap ventures, it is better to get where you want to go by praising the exemplary work that brings the team closer to your standard than constantly complaining and degrading when standards are not met.

The second action can convince employees that an employers demands are simply impossible to meet perhaps leading them to stop trying.