“There were times when, some weeks…I haven’t counted exactly, but I would just sort of sleep for a few hours, work, sleep for a few hours, work, sevevn days a week. Some of those days must have been 120 hours or something nutty”

If 120 hours of work week sounds insane, you are absolutely right. Why would anyone go through such a travesty? That is a tough question but there is a specific group of people known to work for an insane amount of hours every week. Who are these people? They are Startup founders. Although not all startup founders would put in 120 hours of work per week, they still go beyond the average weekly hours of most CEOs. Most startup founders put in between 60 - 100 hours per week. 

These numbers would vary depending on who you ask but the point is, startups place a massive burden on its founder. According to Elon Musk (who I also quoted at the beginning of the article) “As a startup, a car company, its is far more difficult to be successful than if you’re an established, entrenched brand.” 

Coming from a serial Startup entrepreneur, you bet he knows what he is talking about. But why do founders have to put in so much work? One word, productivity. That is the rate of output per unit of labor or capital or equipment. Note, for a startup, all three (labor, capital, and equipment) are often in short supply. A founder has to make the most use of these resources by being as productive as possible because it weighs in on the success or failure of a Startup. 

But as a founder, how can you achieve the level of productivity required to set up your Startup for success? Keep reading to find out. 

5 ways to make your startup more productive

Set clear goals

Goal setting may sound like a common idea. But while a lot of people know about goal setting, few people actually do it right. The number one reason for goal setting is clarity and in the process of being ambitious, many people miss out on this point. Instead of focusing on clear, practical, and actionable goals, they tend to set goals that are mostly ambiguous, difficult to measure, and difficult to communicate to others. Such goals are impractical, and because founders are responsible for infusing their employees with their goals, dreams, and ambitions, it becomes difficult to explain something that is not well articulated. This is why we have SMART Goals. SMART is an acronym for Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant and Time-Based. Each of these features must be carefully considered when setting goals that will foster and not impede productivity. 

Encourage communication among employees

Startups often have just a handful of employees but this can work to their advantage. The reason is that it is easier for everyone to know themselves enough to communicate easily and freely. By doing so, knowledge can be exchanged between employees resulting in an increase in productivity. This is the basis for knowledge management, an organizational concept that is said to boost productivity by up to 20%.  How quickly employees can have access to the information they need is a function of the international communication channels that have been put in place. Having a reliable knowledge base software like document360 and Notion is a start. With these platforms, you can create, store and organize the relevant information in a way that employees can easily access them and even update them when necessary. This information could be faqs, video tutorials, how-tos, and anything else that could make onboarding and knowledge sharing easier.

Automate certain processes

Most of a startup’s budget is tied to product marketing and development. Founders often have to be frugal with other aspects of the business that is not directly related to product development. As such, they do not hire as many staff as an established company. Despite being low on staff, startups must keep up with the demands of doing business to remain competitive. One way to do this is to automate certain processes. For instance,  with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, you can track and manage customer relationships efficiently. CRM software isn’t the only automation software that is available to startups. When it comes to automation, startups are spoilt for choice. They are software that can be used to automate data entry (e.g Document AI, Infinity), report writing (e.g Hive and Google Studio), meeting scheduling (e.g Calendly), and marketing (e.g HubSpot and Mailchimp). 

Delegate some tasks to a Virtual Assistant

Along with automation, another way Startups can operate productively with a low budget is by hiring virtual assistants. Virtual assistants can fill up many roles that would cost the Startup more in terms of finances. Also, you don’t need to consider moving to a bigger workspace to accommodate new employees. This could be a huge financial burden for Startups that are yet to break even. Virtual assistants work from a remote location and for a fraction of the cost, they can carry out services such as customer support, accounting and tax management, research, social media management, database management, email support, etc. 

Build an environment that promotes a positive work culture

In the heat of trying to build the perfect product, the importance of taking some time to first create a positive culture might be lost. The reason is that the impact of workplace culture isn’t often clear in the beginning. But with time, it becomes clearer and more difficult to do so as the Startup grows. This is why it is important to set the tone of your Startup right from the start. By tone, I’m referring to the workplace culture. So what does setting a positive workplace culture entail? Good communication, growth opportunities, collaborative culture, core values, and a strong purpose. While these are all necessary for creating a positive workplace culture, establishing core values sets the pace. These values will come in handy when determining who should become a part of the company. 

Conclusion

Be relevant as fast as possible or die, that is the unspoken reality of startups. To catch up with the demanding nature of their niche, founders have to do a ridiculous amount of work with the goal of staying competitive and relevant in their industry. But starting a company shouldn’t mean sacrificing your personal time. You can be very productive while still having your personal time using the 5 ways discussed in this article. If you paid close attention while reading this article, then I believe you have figured out by now that to achieve this level of productivity, you need the right people on your team. Do you have any questions? Drop them in the comment section below and we’d do our best to help.

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