Founders, I am one of you. So, I’ve seen firsthand what we do well and — shock horror — what we don’t do well.
We’re a peculiar bunch, driven by what is often completely unvalidated and relentless pursuit of originality and autonomy. And often, we’re a pain in the neck to work for until we cultivate a level of self-awareness about our own ways of working, leadership style, and communication methods.
The short lesson is this: founders, sometimes we are the problem.
If you’re open-minded and ready to see how you may be hindering your own growth, let’s dive in.
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Mistake 1: We get in our own way
Once upon a time, we did it all — literally. We made the product, we managed socials, we built the website, we managed inventory, we replied to customer service emails, we secured press coverage, we sent products to influencers, we vetted warehouses, we managed the P&L.
Now there’s 20 people working for you and you can’t let go. You bottleneck decisions instead of letting people try. And sometimes fail. Your team gets frustrated. They can’t execute ideas because they can’t get you to sign off.
In turn, you feel frustrated and resentful at the people you’ve hired. After all, if you did it all, why does it now take 20 people? We fail to see that when we did it all, not all things were done well. Not all things were done at the scale and speed they are now. And now, we want to be involved in everything when we simply can’t, meaning our staff are stuck spinning their wheels waiting for a reply.
Action steps: Audit current responsibilities and identify delegation opportunities. Be ruthless and self-aware. Implement clear reporting structures and delegate according to team strengths.
Get comfortable with people doing things differently to you. They may just surprise you.
Mistake 2: We don’t invest in customer experience
Customer experience is often regarded as the lowest rung on the food chain, which is a critical mistake. It’s simple: without customers there is no business.
Treating customers and the team who respond to their needs with care and attention is crucial to success.
From giving your marketing department the breadth to develop a proper, multi-channel customer journey that isn’t always based on promotions to motivating the team replying to customer service emails to treat every occasion as a mini-marketing experiment, you’ll start to see the rewards stack up.
Action steps: Elevate customer experience as a strategic priority. Conduct a comprehensive audit of your current customer journey, identifying all touchpoints from awareness to post-purchase.
Restructure your org chart to position customer experience teams with direct reporting lines to leadership, signalling their strategic importance.
Implement a “Voice of Customer” program that regularly shares customer feedback across all departments, making customer needs visible throughout the business.
Mistake 3: We confuse revenue and cashflow
Being obsessed with growing the top line is how businesses find themselves out of business in 18 months.
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Investors and the market constantly push founders and their teams to chase top-line revenue with little support on how to manage cashflow while they do it. You need to have an equally healthy obsession for cashflow and EBITDA.
And it’s okay to admit you may not have the financial acumen to do that yourself, it certainly took me many years to learn, as it does for most first-time founders who don’t come from finance backgrounds.
Action steps: Build a culture obsessed with financial health, not just financial growth. Develop KPI dashboards that track and reward both metrics and regularly review company-wide financial practices.
Mistake 4: We don’t evolve quickly enough
Somewhere along the way, scientists have yet to pinpoint precisely how and why many founders can morph from being agile and decisive to slow and stuck in their ways. Risk adversity sets in, and we try to push things uphill when the writing has been on the wall for some time — it’s time for change.
Because we’re so intimately connected to the origins of the business, we develop emotional ties and reason with arguments such as “Well, this always used to work, so why doesn’t it when you do it?” instead of acknowledging that time and circumstances are a-changing.
Rigid business models work. Until they don’t.
The effect is a loss of market share to new competitors, falling behind and being seen as old-hat by customers, and losing top talent to businesses who are more progressive and open to new ideas.
Action steps: Schedule monthly “Disruption Sessions” where team members role-play as competitors trying to put you out of business, forcing you to see vulnerabilities
Mistake 5: We forget about culture
Founders are busy, let’s call a spade a spade. In the early years, we’re usually working 100+ hour weeks. While everyone else we know goes out for dinner, drinks and weekend adventures, we grind at our computers. It’s a choice we make and we often love.
But because we’re so busy, we forget to spend time on things such as culture. It’s easy to let team wellbeing slip because we have well and truly forgotten about our own. The result is high turnover, low productivity, and innovation stagnation. A triple threat to any business.
Action steps: Define what a culture for success looks like. Culture doesn’t mean going to the pub together on a Friday afternoon. It means living and breathing an ethos as to why we show up each day.
A good culture is welcoming, enveloping and propels a business forward. Invest in team building and professional development programs. Implement regular check-ins and personalised growth plans that link back to the company values and mission.
There are no quick fixes in business, but steps towards systemic improvements will always take you in the right direction. Addressing these common mistakes can unlock significant growth potential. Be self-aware, be accountable and build momentum.
