The Team Behind Your Success

A smooth-running, well-coordinated business team can set you up for long-term growth and success. Here’s what to consider when building your dream team.

Creating a solid business team offers the obvious advantage in that it builds success. But it also offers entrepreneurial advantages. Once your business team runs efficiently, you’re free to work on your business instead of in it.

The ability to step back from running the day-to-day operations lets you focus on strategic planning, increasing market share and continuously improving your products and services. These activities can ensure your long-term business growth and success.

Before you can reach that strategic stage, you need to install a well-run, tightly coordinated team— including in-house staff, outsourced vendors and suppliers and lawyers—to build that path to success. In her article on Small Business Computing, small business owner Shari Gould discusses what goes into building a successful, well-oiled small business team.

The first step, of course is to really understand your business process so that you can figure out which players you need on your team. Your immediate staff requirements are probably obvious, but don’t forget to consider your various suppliers and service providers, and maintenance people who keep any equipment up-and-running.

To build success, you need to deliver quality goods and services; that means you need vendors who consistently do the same. Do some of your vendors provide higher quality goods at a better price? Select vendors for your team based on their ability to deliver on time and on budget. Sweeten the proposition for them: let them know they can earn more business from you if they provide better pricing, faster delivery or some other essential item or service you need.

Everyone, from your vendors to your staff awaiting delivery, should understand the timeline for deliverables. The best way to ensure this is to define that process and put it into writing. Prioritize the steps—particularly those of a time-sensitive nature—and address them in sequential order.

A reputable contract lawyer is an essential player for a successful business team. You should create and review contracts between your company and all your vendors, and a good lawyer can save you money in the event of any contractual legal disputes.

Learn from your competitors. Stealth-shopping at your competition is the best way to find out what they’re doing, where they’re besting you and where they fall short. Take what you learn and improve your own process.

Lauren Simonds is the managing editor of Small Business Computing. Follow Lauren on Twitter.

Adapted from How to Build a Winning Small Business Team, by Shari
Gould at Small Business Computing. Follow Small Business Computing on Twitter.

Read more: http://business.time.com/2013/09/24/the-team-behind-your-success/#ixzz2g0Qw8VzL