What people do you need to scale?

If you are trying to scale a business, especially a startup or small business, what type of person do you need?

Some general observations from seeing scaling struggles:

How about entrepreneurs?

That might seem the most obvious target. Easier for founders to hire since hiring people like the founders. And it is a startup or growing small business, right? The right environment for more entrepreneurs?

Actually no. True entrepreneurs ultimately want to run their own business. Will constantly think about and promote ideas for new business lines (or even businesses) before main business gets solid. May not stay in lane enough to get progress. Can dilute focus of other team members. Not usually natural collaborators. Attracted to risk.

How about employees?

Aren’t we hiring more “employees”? Yes and no. Yes from a classification perspective and lots available. No from a mentality perspective. Ultimately want to mind their own business. Be told what to do and when … stay in their lanes. Think about life other than the business. Interested in stability and low/no risk environment.

Those may be a bit stark and there are exceptions, but hiring has to deal with reality.

The alternative?

What you often need are intrapreneurs. Natural collaborators. Proactive change agents, especially in improving their own work. Interesting in seeing the business succeed as a win-win. Know lanes but willing to get out to help when/where needed.

Most people are not intrapreneurs. It’s not really taught in schools or degree programs. People who have “corporate” experience usually have the employee mindset.

What to do –

You can grow your own intrapreneurs … it takes some initial investment but there will be real ROI that can pay for that investment and then some (I can show you how).

In the meantime:

• Look at your hiring ads and job descriptions. Do they attract entrepreneurs? Employees? Intrapreneurs?
• Look at your existing team. Do they have the mindset you need to scale?
• Look at your vision for scaling. What do you really need people to do to make the business succeed and scale?
• Look at your culture. What is it telling people in the business about how to think and behave?
• Look at your leadership. What mindset are you encouraging?