The startup paradox: Why doing everything yourself is slowing you down and how to overcome it

Founders are all busy. Juggling 10 things at the time. You are in charge of your team, overseeing the marketing efforts, product development, selling the product, Karen was supposed to send some emails to your clients, but she is out sick, so now you have to do that…

The days are long, the weeks are short. There is always something that goes wrong, always a fire to put out.

This leads to founders being present the project, doing hands-on work all the time. And having little to no time for thinking about the overall strategy for the business. When was the last time you had a whole day, feeling rested, and had time to just think about whether what you are doing is leading you in the right direction? Whether the work you are putting in is actually producing the steps you need to succeed?

Not thinking about your strategy is costing you money

And not taking the time to do proper strategy results in poor performance. You can’t attract enough leads or can’t convert them to paying customers. The development plan gets messy, so you end up with a product that you can’t explain anymore. The VC’s are not interested in your vision or mission.

There is a solution to that. Have you ever heard of the expression: If you want to go fast, go alone If you want to go far, go together?

I believe more emphasis should be placed on this, especially in the European startup communities.

How people you already know can help

I am currently working in the US, where everything revolves around connections. You need something, you know a guy, you want something, you ask a colleague, you have a specific problem, you let a specialist solve it. You don’t know enough people? There is a networking event right around the corner where you can go and meet new people.

Too often, we as founders try to do everything ourselves where working with somebody would actually takes us further and in the longer cost less money. What would a person you can share some of the biggest challenges with mean to you?

One important lesson my boss in the US, Faris Alami of ISM, thought me is the power of leveraging things that you have around you. You have knowledge you can leverage to start a business idea, you have skills you can leverage to get money, you have people in your network who can do stuff who you can leverage to take your startup to the next level. So do it. Leverage the people around you. How can they be of help? How can I be of help?

So tell me, how can I help? How can you leverage my knowledge to benefit your company?

If you are experiencing stagnant growth and would like to understand what you can do to stop the negative trend, I have a new offer available. Check it out here.