Establishing a successful startup does not end when you acquire the funds to get your business up and running. In fact, securing the financial backing to make your dream product or service a reality is only the beginning of a prosperous startup endeavor. If funding represents the seed of a startup, how you manage your business can be likened to water, sunshine, and nutrients—all of which are required to grow the sprout of a venture into a mature enterprise. All of this is to say that your approach to managing your business can make or break it—and low to no return on investment can make for very unhappy stakeholders. A vital component of creating and maintaining a successful startup, whether your industry is a creative one or tech-driven, is providing your team with tools that enable them to communicate effectively, collaborate efficiently, and overcome the variety of challenges that are likely to arise.
Recent data underscores the importance of stellar management throughout the early years of a startup’s life. According to data published by the Global Entrepreneurship Research Association, 100 million businesses are started annually across the globe, and two-thirds of adults believe that entrepreneurship is a viable career choice. Yet while the world of startups is a rapidly growing one, nearly as many startups fail each year as are created. The four-year success rate for startups ranges from 37% to 58%, which means that for startups in every industry, productivity and fiscal responsibility should be top priorities from the get-go. Thus, to prevent your business from being reduced to a mere statistic, it is vital to identify and avert potential time and money sinks.
In the digital age, email has become the privileged mode of communication among organizations small and large across the globe. Yet despite its perceived convenience, email has its downsides. Most notably, email represents a substantial barrier to worker productivity. According to data released by the McKinsey Global Institute, in fact, more than 25% of the average worker’s week is dedicated to email. Given the numbers, this is hardly a surprise: in 2014, in excess of 108 billion business emails were sent and received per day; this amounts to 121 emails per person daily. And not all these emails are legitimately work-related: many are time-wasting spam messages and so-called “graymail” (which account for 14% of all received mail). The outcome for businesses is an estimated $650 billion lost each year solely to unnecessary emails. In light of these facts, one of the first and most important tactics a startup should deploy is adopting a more efficient means of communication. The optimal solution to this conundrum is web-based collaboration software designed to manage individual projects, teams of talent, and the business as a whole.
Web-based project management tools such as ConductorLIVE dramatically minimize noise so that you can maximize productivity. Rather than having to sift through an endless stream of emails to locate a certain correspondence or file, team members working on a common project can communicate, collaborate, share files, and organize through a single easily accessible, distraction-free web-based location. They say the defining factor in achieving success is not so much access to resources but, rather, resourcefulness. Web-based collaboration software demonstrates this adage, combining utmost convenience with a powerful, streamlined approach to project management. And for startups, this can translate to a more effective use of funds and employee knowledge and skills, as well as an increased speed to market—both of which are key ingredients to business success.
Moreover, the infrastructure of ConductorLIVE’s collaborative software enables members of any and all departments of a startup—product management, marketing, operations, engineering or programming, and business management—to connect with project leaders. By providing an efficient line of communication, web-based project management enables quick decision-making, problem-solving, and strategy formation among individuals located across multiple sectors of an organization, and even across different geographical locations. By fostering direct information exchange, collaborative software also empowers managers to respond quickly and in an informed manner to the needs of both the organization and its clientele. And most importantly, this matrix-friendly structure provides an efficient means for organization members to work in tandem to produce the product or service your startup offers.
Four of the biggest challenges facing startups are competition, managing quick growth, expanding the roster of talent, and staying at the vanguard of a rapidly changing market. By instituting a foolproof system that enables efficient, effective communication and collaboration, you can rest assured that your team has the tools it needs and turn your attention to the plethora of challenges that face leaders in today’s business world. Collaboration platforms such as ConductorLIVE make it easy to maintain lines of communication between parts of the organization and the whole, eliminating the need to agonize over whether your employees are all on the same page. Moreover, web-based project management solutions for startups can help you to navigate the aforementioned challenges of running a successful business. Effective collaboration between all units of an organization is vital to staying ahead of the competition. Quick decision-making is a necessity for managing your business during periods of rapid growth. The ability to share anything and everything about a project is a valuable asset when it comes to integrating new talent into existing teams. And sales team-to-management communication is crucial to staying on top of today’s swiftly evolving market trends.
Face-to-face meetings can be nigh impossible to schedule, and have the potential to disrupt workflow. Email is often an inefficient and costly alternative. Investing now in a resource designed to optimize communications among members of your startup can yield high returns in the future. In addition to providing a convenient avenue to create, share, collaborate, and manage with ease, collaboration software such as ConductorLIVE is highly customizable, which means that it can be tailored to your particular needs. Whether you’re looking for a digital communication solution suited to an individual, a specific team, or an entire enterprise, a powerful, web-based project management tool such as ConductorLIVE can help you to bring together collaboration and productivity and dramatically increase your startup’s chances of long-term stability and profitability.
