Startup Distractions: Phone Calls and a Million Other Things
It takes a special kind of person to launch a startup and see it through to profitability. Few startups succeed on the efforts of just one person. More often than not, success is built around teams. But even the best teams can be distracted. Between phone calls and a million other things, startups demand a lot of attention.
Our company was once a startup. Our founders know firsthand of all the little things entrepreneurs have to pay attention to in those early days. Phone calls immediately come to mind for the simple fact that they can be terribly distracting. Pile on a million other things and it is enough to drive any entrepreneur crazy.
Handle the Phone with an Answering Service
A single entrepreneur with a brand-new startup has a lot on their plate. There is no better time to sign up with an answering service to handle the phone. If dozens of daily phone calls will distract an entrepreneur from doing other things, an answering service can save the day.
Answering services are ideal for property management companies, HVAC providers, medical offices, home contractors, and on and on. Even tech startups are better served when answering services handle their calls.
Moving on to the Team
Once an entrepreneur is no longer distracted by so many phone calls, they can move on to hiring the rest of the team. The entrepreneur is going to have to look at marketing people, HR experts, customer service reps, product or service development people, etc. The eventual team could be pretty large depending on how quickly the company grows. Nonetheless, great care needs to be put into vetting and hiring.
Bringing on the Staff
It is not unusual for startups to have to begin bringing in staff almost immediately after the management team is assembled. Without staff the company cannot grow. So now, in addition to everything else that goes into developing a business, team members need to post job openings, look at resumes, conduct interviews, and actually hire.
Having to answer an endless number of calls only makes the hiring process more difficult. Thank goodness the startup has an answering service in place. Otherwise, things could get hairy.
Managing the Finances
If you think that bringing on staff is the last thing that needs to be done for a brand-new startup, you have probably never launched one yourself. There is still plenty more to do, including the extremely critical task of managing the organization’s finances.
Startups tend to be debt heavy. They rely on investor cash and their own limited resources to keep things going. Whatever financial resources they have must be put into generating revenue. Otherwise, how are they going to pay staff and cover all their other day-to-day expenses?
Going Out and Getting Customers
Let’s not forget the customers in all of this. Without customers, a startup will not survive. Some of the management team will have to dedicate themselves to customer engagement and retention to the exclusion of everything else. They will not have room for any other distractions.
We have only scratched the surface of what it takes to launch a startup and see it through to profitability. Saying there are a million things to do may be an exaggeration, but not by much. Running a startup consumes an entrepreneur’s time, resources, and energy like nothing else.
If you are an entrepreneur with a new startup, you have a lot on your plate. We might be able to help with a live answering service. Let us handle your calls so that you can limit your distractions.