The Startup Team and Life Changing events
September 15th, 2010 | Online & Small Business Resources,Quality,Small Business,Small Business Tips | 2 Comments »
When your team is lean and everyone is wearing multiple hats, it causes quite the glitch in everyday functions when one (or multiple) team member experiences a life changing event. How do you prepare for it? There are some situations that are emergency impact that cannot be prepared for, but others can.
Since the inception of KikScore there have been a mixture of life changing events across the team…
— 3 new births across different team members (all first time parents),
— spousal job changes
— infants becoming toddlers
— loss of pets (and additions)
— demanding day job impacts
— and an upcoming one for me – moving cross-country to ‘the big city’ for an amazing new day job opportunity.
So how does a small night/weekend entrepreneurial company stay focused?
It is very easy for the impacted member to get caught up in the life event and KikScore takes a back seat. While not the intention, human nature makes us selfish.
We can’t let this happen as the business would in turn suffer. As a small team, we need to regroup and delegate items out to others during the transition time, arming the business with communication channels to stick together and react to customer needs.
Some other tips that can prove useful are to continue to conduct weekly meetings to re-establish expectations. The team member going through the transition (me soon) should be able to commit to a once/week discussions to ensure they stay informed and can lend a hand as their life calms down and they rediscover their head.
How has your small business coped with life changing events? Please share your story with KikScore.
I totally understand what you’re going through. I too am starting my own small business, and right now it’s a one-woman show. So you try to squeeze in your launch between kids illness, extra curricular activities, house needs, client demands, travel, holidays, and family emergencies.
I have a business coach who preaches “baby steps” and this advice has helped me stay sane! Good luck with your move and new opportunities.
Michelle Dlamico
Michelle – Thanks so much for your comment and advice on the business coach – will definitely look towards such resources during the transition. Good luck in you business venture as well. Thanks again for reading, Kristen