The Ups and Downs of a Startup -- Surviving the Roller Coaster

Every startup company, venture, organization (whatever you want to call it) will go through good times and bad. In order to survive the tough turns and not falling of the trail, it’s important to keep everyone on the same page and to be supportive.

Here our a few suggestions that will help you stay afloat through the good times and the bad.

Formulate a plan

Prior to taking on any project or direction, the team or founders need to come up with a plan: a series of milestones that they want to achieve over the course of a specific timeframe. They need to determine what resources will be required and which member(s) of the team will complete/lead each initiative.

Think of it as your company timeline and how you will move yourself forward.

Communicate the plan

The plan that was created needs to be clearly communicated with the rest of team. They need understand the overall objective, process, and key players for achieving each one. Moreover, make sure to illustrate the importance of this direction and make sure that everyone understands why you are taking this path.

If anyone has any questions/comments, it is best to answer them as a group and determine if it is indeed the best way to proceed.

Changes to the plan

Ever plan WILL change, your goal might stay the same but in most cases the initial plan will change.  Understanding that this is a natural process will make you a successful Entrepreneur. Every team or venture will face unforeseen changes and it’s their ability to maneuver that will determine if they will fail or succeed.

Any change to the plan must be communicated to the rest of the team/venture since the initial timeline that was agreed upon is no longer valid. Making sure that the team is re-aligned is crucial to moving forward.

Help one another

In some circumstances, team members will begin to use the determine “ I told you so!”  which does not help anything. There is nothing that anyone can do to change the past but only making better decisions for the future. Rather than criticizing or illustrating that you were right, take the time to verbalize that mistakes do occur and that the plan simply needs to be re-aligned.

Help one another understand what went wrong so it does not happen in the future and coordinate a stronger step to take.

By remaining positive throughout the process, it will help you build stronger relationships, move through the hard times, and increase your chancing of succeeding.

If you have any other recommendations for surpassing the tough times of a venture, please share them below.

Any comments or questions, please feel free to reach out.

Ashkan [at] Greenhorn Connect [dot] com

photocredit: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_ZtawRPSvJvE/TGV0bpid9BI/AAAAAAAABh0/NUc9CX1exog/s1600/Roller-Coaster.jpg