How to build your team from the ground up | Part One
If you read my blog over the past few weeks, I’ve talked about THE BIGGEST mistake most creative entrepreneurs are making: not building an effective team.
If you haven’t read those posts yet, do us both a favor and check it out before you read on!
Part One, Part Two, Deep Dive
If you did read those posts, then you know I left off by encouraging you to identify your strengths as the leader of your team. You can’t possibly know how to build a team until you know what skills you do have, and which skills you’re lacking! Identifying our strengths gives us the power to own our own tasks and delegate effectively.
Now, for some of you, just admitting that you don’t have all the strengths might feel debilitating. As entrepreneurs, we’re used to doing it all on our own. While that mentality might be helpful for trailblazers, it’s not useful for sustaining a business. Let me say that another way. You’ll probably see a lot of entrepreneurs going at it alone. You will see ZERO successful CEOs with a team of one.
In order to own a successful business and live the life you want, you need a team. So, while I feel for ya, get over it! We have work to do.
In Part One of this series linked above, I told you how I had to really be strategic about the employees I kept on staff after I decided to do florals full-time. At the end of that process, I was left with myself, Kellie, and Danae. Let me tell you how I found the perfect roles for them, and how I’ve built my team to what it is today.
When my entire staff took the Strengthfinders test, I discovered that Kellie possessed the strengths of Relator and Learner. Danae had the strengths of Strategizer and Achiever.
This meant that Kellie was uniquely qualified to foster relationships and thrived in a work environment where she felt valued and trusted. She can also pick up on new skills very easily. The skill and subject doesn’t matter as much as the process of learning itself. This made Kellie the ideal person to take on all of our admin work, proposal writing, and flower ordering — all things that I don’t enjoy doing!
Danae’s strengths mean that she can take in a lot of information and decide on the best way forward. She’s not easily overwhelmed. She’s also a great self-starter because she’s motivated by needing to end the day feeling a sense of tangible accomplishment. Danae’s strengths made her perfect in the role as second designer. She took on lower-budget weddings and also took charge of client appreciation.
By discovering our strengths, I could delegate more effectively. I was no longer distracting myself doing work I didn’t like and didn’t do well, and my team felt empowered and encouraged taking on roles they were uniquely equipped for.
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THE BUSINESS BEHIND THE BLOOMS TESTIMONIAL
“BBB has helped me to feel confident in the value of my work. I often find I am second guessing myself and listening to Jessica has been really refreshing and empowering. It really helps with building confidence and with standing behind my business and being able to explain my charges and feeling justified. I am just getting started and excited to see the changes this brings about in my business.”
—Lesli Chambers
Poppies and Twine
Yarmouth, ME
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We were already so much happier and more effective at this point, however, there were still tasks I had written down as things I’d love to off-load, and I was out of team-members to take those tasks on!
Some examples:
processing flowers
cleaning the studio
book-keeping
cleaning the studio
stocking the studio
running errands, etc
These were all essential tasks, but not tasks best suited to myself, Kellie, or Danae. It would make our team less productive and less profitable to have one of the three of us complete these tasks.
That told me I needed to make more hires.
And this time, I needed to find specific people to fill specific roles, instead of trying to make existing employees fill roles that they weren’t made to fill.
I hired Brittani as a bookkeeper, Mary to clean the studio, and Emma as an office assistant and studio manager. I required each of them to take the Strengthsfinder test before they joined the team so I could ensure they fit the roles for which they were needed.
You’re probably thinking, “Sounds great, Jessica, but I’m still figuring out how to pay myself regularly, let alone salaries for six people.”
I did not and do not pay each of these people a salary. Find out exactly how each team member gets paid in next blog of the series here.
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