How to manage a Startup without Business Skills?

Building a successful online business requires one to wear many hats that the typical developer isn't used to wearing. Write about how a developer founder can succeed at non-development tasks such as design, marketing, blogging, etc. What unique challenges do developers face? What advantages do they have?

Have you ever watched Silicon Valley TV series? If you feel kinda similar to Richard Hendricks, this article is for you.

The most common situation about Startups is when people who don’t have development skills want to launch a tech startup and try to find a dedicated team for that. It might work because you don’t have to understand all the technical moments to build a successful business. Generally, high level of soft and business skills can be enough to build a strategy, that will work out.

But what if you have a brilliant idea, perfect coding skills, but you lack entrepreneurial streak and your communicational skill leaves a lot to be desired?

Launching a startup that will have legs requires the founder to understand how to manage all the processes, but as a rule, the typical developers are the rare jack-of-all-trades. For those developer founders, who decide to bootstrap their own startup, there will be tough times but the result is totally worth it.

What challenges the startup founder might face and how to overcome them?

Finding CTO, CMO, CFO and other chief officers.

The ideal startup always has the army of chief officers, like technical, financial, marketing and so on. But the truth is - it doesn’t. As a rule, starting a business, founder does not possess large budget so hiring too many officers who usually require the high salary or the % equity may be just too expensive. Instead, the founder can manage some task by himself at the very beginning.

Hiring the development team.

When web or mobile development is the main business idea of a startup, finding the programmers is a core need. But did you know that many successful companies outsourced in the very beginning, when they have only launched their startups? Slack, Skype, Basecamp have used this strategy and now are the leaders in their spheres. In fact, outsourcing the development can save you money (because as a rule, outsourcing companies cost less with the same level of expertise as the US based companies for example) and time that you’d better spend on finding the investors for your project. Another argument for an outsource team is saving time for learning any extra technologies, as the professional dev teams have all the skills needed.

Delegating.

Learning this skill is a must for the developer aiming to become the next Mark Zuckerberg. Most startup owners have the sense of knowing better how to do everything and want to do as much as possible on their own, because they know better how the things have to be done. However, even if you don’t want to delegate some work, you’ll have to, because it’s physically impossible to do everything on your own. Learning to delegate will not only teach you to trust your team, but also speed up the process of business development.

Networking and communication.

Communication skill is known to be the blind side of the developers, mostly due to the stereotype, that the programmers are geeks and nerds. But launching a successful business requires engaging with lot’s of people. To fit in the community of investors or potential clients, you have to speak their language and know exactly how they make decisions, what can convince them. Learn how to make small talk, don’t start from selling your product directly. Instead sell yourself and form professional relationships that might later boost your business.

Balancing multiple priorities.

It might be obvious that the startup founders juggle multiple tasks to get things done. Though multitasking can be tough, it’s possible to learn how to balance different priorities and stay productive at the same time. What you need is learning how to identify, analyze and rank the tasks and timings. And don’t forget to delegate some of these tasks to your team!

Marketing Challenge.

The success of a startup often lies in its marketing. But what if the startup founder is the developer who has no experience in marketing? Dealing with such non-development task might be quite challenging but still possible. The first thing you have to consider is the marketing strategy and planning. The main task is helping people discover you and your content. That’s why web presence is so important nowadays. Start with the website telling about your startup, its goals and explain the potential clients what exactly do you do. Here you need the rich, clearly designed blog, containing planned and well-written content. Then come the social media pages as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, depending on your target audience. And don’t forget about SEO that will underpin your blog, digital PR, and social media marketing activities altogether.

Inspire others.

If you have decided to launch a startup, that means you are absolutely passionate about your idea. So why wouldn’t you use this passion to inspire people around you? Tell your story to your team, storytelling. Many brands use it to hit the customer's emotions, sharing experience and bringing the consumer’s personality at center stage. The main goal of such activities is surrounding your consumers with brand experiences.

Say “NO”.

Another challenge that every entrepreneur meets is learning to say no. You will meet many people, opportunities and propositions on your way, but not all of them will help to advance your business goals. Furthermore not every client will fit your business objectives. That’s when you have to learn to reject the ideas, offers or even people, who don’t match your strategy.

Deal with failure.

We all have fails but we all handle them in a different manner. Being a startup founder, especially not having business skills, you’ll probably fail in some moments. But remember, that the developer can always find a solution. So all you have to do is draw lessons from your failures and keep moving forward your goal without thinking of past regrets.

Relieve stress.

Launching a startup is a stressful process and you have to find ways of relieving tension regularly. Being stressed all the time affects your health negatively and leads to loss of motivation and burnout. Find the activity that helps you to recharge and blow off steam. You can even propose your team to share this activity with you, as it may help to make you closer to each other.

Conclusion

Forewarned is forearmed. So even if you decided to launch a startup without having business skills, you can succeed because you have one important advantage - you understand the development process. Learning the core soft skills and knowing the possible challenges, you’ll be prepared for any unpredictable issues. Just remember, Mark Zuckerberg managed to start one of the biggest companies in the world being a geek, so why wouldn’t you do the same?

It all is based on the experience of GBKSOFT outsource app development company.