The startup world is full of companies that made just one or two mistakes that hindered them from growing to their full potential. These could be policies or simply mistakes that were made that ended with the startup hurting their brand image and causing consumers to question the quality of the brand’s work. A proactive approach to handling issues before they become problems can help reduce the likelihood of committing a mortal business sin. Below are some situations and mistakes that can even cripple startups with incredibly bright futures.
Hiring Friends and Family
There are always going to be those people that ask for a job once you have started your company. Family and friends unless they have applicable skills should not even be considered. For those that do qualify it is important to establish ground rules as they cannot treat you like they do personally as you are the boss. The easiest thing to do is to bring on these people on a contract basis to see if they work out. If they do not simply tell them the company is making cutbacks that need to be done and their position had to be cut.
Turning a Blind Eye To Harassment
Harassment has not place in the office regardless of how relaxed the working environment might be. Treat all harassment claims seriously as the last thing that you want is a staff member feeling uncomfortable to go to work. HR needs to deal with this as turning a blind eye due to the offending staff member being a star employee is begging for a lawsuit. Staff needs to be punished equally for the same offense or it is possible they could claim discrimination for one reason or another.
Lack of Ability To Adapt or Scale Processes
Startups with founders not willing to adapt their vision can cripple a startup. Industries are constantly evolving so things like products offered and processes need to evolve as well. Startups that fail to scale their processes can be in a lot of trouble as their systems break down when too large of an order comes through. Take the time in the infancy of the company to create processes that will not break regardless of the volume of orders that start pouring in. The last thing is to automate anything possible as it helps save time/money and also eliminates the chance of human error.
Lack Of Attention To Customer Service
In today’s business landscape the consumer has more power than ever before. Social media and online reviews have become places where customers can voice both their positive and negative experiences with a business. For this reason putting a customer service rep on social media, online reviews, and monitoring the phone/email is important. There is a chance to retain a client with the right customer service when otherwise the customer would have never returned. Customer service besides quality services/products is a main way that companies keep their client retention high.
As you can see there are plenty of things that can hurt the growth of a startup. If encountering anything above take swift and appropriate action in order to minimize the damage done!