Entrepreneurs are a breed of business professional that help drive vision, innovation, growth, and ideas.   Not always thinking of themselves as a leader but often finding themselves being or expected to be a leader.     Once an idea takes off it usually is fueled by our most important resource – people.

Three Things Every Entrepreneur Whats

#1 Move Faster

The entire startup culture is built on this foundation…be the first.   The fastest (or at least a fast follower) gets the prize.  By definition entrepreneurs are innovators.   Maybe not the first one with an idea but, the one who, in the relentless pursuit of it, is the first to make it better (ie. Steve Jobs and the iPhone).

#2 Be Smarter

Here is where Vision, Innovation, Execution, and all the buzz words come to play.  Pick one or two and focus.   The smarter entrepreneur wins.   My experience has been entrepreneurs are smart as hell and always in pursuit of learning more.

#3 Build Better Teams

OK, you have the first two going for you…now it’s time to make it happen.   That in most cases require more people.  A team.  And not just any team – the best team.   Also full of smart, fast moving, innovative, and did I say – really smart people.   The process to build such a team can be some good luck, good friends…but eventually, both run out.   Then what?

For many Entrepreneurs, this is where things get hard.  More people mean more problems.  More complaining, disagreements to resolve, communication problems.  Ugh.   Eventually, you may even feel like vision and innovation get taken over by the need to be the “parent” in your office.

Then there is culture – seemingly develops on its own…not always the way you envisioned it.

So, are there ways to more reliably build a great team?    A thriving culture, embracing problems as their next challenge, aligned with the company goals, and as a team also working to move faster and be smarter.    I think there are.  From Recruiting to Retention to Employee Engagement and focused on what we all want…shareholder value.

Don’t feel alone.  I believe that the number one challenge facing all employers today is building and maintaining great teams.   “Our People Make the Difference” is not just a catchy slogan or tag line…it may very well be the difference in being a success or even surviving.

The challenge is blending branding and HR – recruiting and marketing.   Developing a clear voice of what it’s like to work “with” your company and why you are different – not a customer perspective but candidate perspective.   How they can connect with your mission, your vision, your passions.   Employers need to commit to creating a relationship with passive candidates – those that are gainfully employed today, usually the top 20% are, but open to watching what your company is doing and they may want to as well.

Want some ideas…visit the NotionPath Blog and read a few of our posts.   If you work in Wisconsin and may be open to a career change, one of the “passive” candidates but too busy working to search, check out NotionPath Reverse Recruiting process – we’ll work for you.

Inspiration credited to  World Academy for Entrepreneurship & Enterprise (WAE2)

About NotionPath and David McKnight. 25 years of experience serving employers building teams. Levering that experience as a c-Level leader to help employers improve their internal attraction, recruiting, selection and retention processes. #1 Issue facing most Employers today. For Wisconsin employers when you need to reach passive candidates in Accounting, IT, Software/Web Development, Executive Level leaders — David can bring one of Wisconsin larges network of professionals and 25 years of finding great talent to your organization. www.notionpath.com. Seeking work? http://notionpath.com/home/apply/ Seeking Candidates? http://notionpath.com/home/great-companies/