Climbing aboard the entrepreneurial bus

Entrepreneurs often start their businesses alone. Even when there are partners, it’s one or two additional people — and in any case there is always one person more committed than the rest. In fact, the partners often have a share in the business but are employed elsewhere because the business can’t afford them.

However, as the business grows and you gain more clients, you alone are suddenly not enough. You have to start building a team that can deliver consistently. This new stage of growth comes with many challenges.

There are so many factors to consider when building teams. Where will I find the right people? What defines the right person? Must they be similar to me? Can I even afford them? How do I keep them interested? What if they hate working with me? What if I lose a customer and can’t pay them anymore? What if I train them and just when they start doing the work right, they leave? These are all valid concerns. Which is why it’s good to think of your entrepreneurial journey as driving a bus.

You, the entrepreneur, are the driver. The people you employ and bring along on the journey are your passengers. You start the journey alone, and as you drive on your route, you pick up new passengers and, at times, some old ones have to disembark.

For passengers to hop onto the bus, they must want to get to the destination it promises to reach. That is your vision for the company — illuminated at the front of the bus for every potential passenger to see.

As with any road trip, each passenger has a role: one brings the playlist, others pitch in on snacks, and there’s the front-seat passenger and co-pilot assigned to make sure the driver keeps awake at all times.

In building your company teams, you must ensure the passengers are aligned with its culture and purpose. To make the journey fruitful and enjoyable to all, the music and snacks must cater to as many people’s needs as possible. You can’t have peanuts as a snack and invite passengers who are allergic to nuts: you will kill them. You must also make sure the right people are in the right roles. If you’ve been on a road trip with a driver who insists on controlling the playlist but has bad taste in music, you’ll know what I mean.

You can’t do everything in the bus in addition to focusing on the road and driving safely. You must delegate some key tasks and leave people alone to execute those tasks without micro-managing them.

Your culture and strategy must be solidified, so new passengers know exactly what they are getting themselves into. This also avoids a high staff turnover rate. The last thing you want is for your passengers to voluntarily get off at every stop and you find yourself constantly looking for new ones.

Resignations can also be a sign of an incorrect culture being built. But you cannot force the alignment, and you may have to ask certain people to quietly leave.

When you’ve found the right passengers, you must learn to empower them, too. Employees work harder when they feel a sense of belonging, acceptance and comfort. They also need dignity and respect from their employer. Being the bus driver doesn’t give you right to be a bully on the trip.

Consistently measure performance and learn the difference between empowering employees and overwhelming them with responsibilities. Make your journey one of self-development for everyone and your bus a pleasure to ride in.