6 Tasks You Should Include in Your Job Description as a Founder and CEO
Your business’ growth will depend on how well you know your role as founder and chief executive officer.
Many people today see the ultimate goal of starting a successful business as their final goal.
Founding a company can be a status symbol, as well as a business venture. However, launching an innovative business has never been more glamorous with the advent of industry disruptors such as Uber, Airbnb, Warby Parker.
“Innovator” became synonymous with “entrepreneur,” not “unemployed.” Everyone wants to be called “Founder” on their business cards.
It is not easy to start a successful business. It takes a lot of hard and soft skills to make it work.
To create a successful company, you must be a founder.
These are not negotiable.
Remember that even when it gets complicated and tedious, the struggle is what makes the dedicated quitters.
Add these six things to your job description and put in the effort. With a bit of luck, you might be the envy of all startup entrepreneurs.
These six tasks should be part of your job description, regardless of whether you’re in the United States, Australia, or elsewhere in the world as founder or CEO of your startup. These are the things you should know:
1. Daily Budget Checks
Each founder must have a firm grasp of the exact amount their business spends.
How can a founder know the exact amount of each line item in their budget? First, a founder of a startup has to check the daily budget.
It is essential in the initial stages of a startup company. Amazon and other companies have recently made it acceptable to live in the red for many years. However, many companies had failed before they got off the ground.
Debt models don’t work. Instead of hoping for revenue from popularity or scale, you should be obsessing over your budget.
Do daily budget checks. Budgeting skills are not something that many people learned in school, but they are essential for your business. Don’t let any expense slip by. You need to understand where your money is going.
The most important task for a founder is to check the company’s daily budget constantly. But, unfortunately, this is often the one that gets neglected.
2. Managing and Defining the Company Vision
This task is two tasks combined into one.
The first is that business founders must always be in control of the company vision. As a founder or CEO, you should make a vision. It is your job that you can do alone.
How can you move forward with success if your vision isn’t straightforward and concrete? Solid and memorable images are what make the most famous and successful companies.
Tesla, for example, has the vision to help accelerate the transition to sustainable energy. Nike’s goal is to inspire and innovate every athlete around the globe.
These visions can be a rallying call for organizations. First, you should put effort and energy into the company vision and then be ready to change it. The second task is to manage the company vision. It is an ongoing process. Startup companies must be prepared to pivot at any moment.
Companies that are steadfast in their pursuit of the right path, even when it leads them to a brick wall or other obstacles, will succeed. You, as a founder, must be able to adapt to changes in the market, legal changes, disruptions in supply chains, and many other factors. The company you want to start is rarely the one you end up with. Sometimes, significant changes may require a difference in the company vision.
As a founder, you should own that. As a founder, it’s your job description. Be confident and communicate the importance of the changes. Nike was founded in running shoes. While they still make running shoes, Nike is so much more than that. They might not have dominated the sports industry if they hadn’t stuck with their original vision. Don’t let your vision from day one stop you from achieving your goals.
3. Interviewing and Recruiting
The most valuable asset of a company is its employees. A company can rise to the top with the right hire.
Some people are not well-suited for work in a growth or startup company. It is important to consider personality and skills and past success; a bad hire can cause you to lose time, money, or morale.
This task is essential for any CEO job description template. It includes the ability to identify and hire exceptional talent in the United States and elsewhere around the globe that will allow the company to reach new heights.
You are responsible for putting the right people in the right places at your company as a founder. It means hiring talented employees to do tasks that you’re not skilled in.
Too many founders attach their egos to their businesses, thinking they can’t make the walls stand without them. Intelligent founders can recognize their weaknesses and find team members and organizational leaders who can help them in those areas.
Actively participating in recruiting and hiring people is the best way to find those who will fit your blind spots. While you might feel less responsible as the company grows, it is not a bad idea to continue being involved in recruiting and hiring people.
4. Competitive Research
Finding a gap in the market is key to building a successful business. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of research to determine if a call lacks a particular area.
You, as a CEO or founder, need to understand the competitive landscape better than anyone. Therefore, competitive research is essential for the management and development of a company’s vision.
Without doing enough research about your competitors, creating a solid brand in a competitive environment is impossible.
Before your business launches, you need to research to establish if it is viable. Then, as your company grows, you will continue to investigate to see if there are any competitors.
CEOs and founders must have a 5,000-foot view of the organization. It is essential to be able and able to address them before they become serious problems.
After hiring the right people to manage your business’s day-to-day operations, zoom out and observe the landscape like an eagle. A competitor could take you out if you remain in the weeds.
5. Patience
Patience is more of an art than a task. Unfortunately, however, it is something many founders neglect to practice.
It takes hard work and grit to start a business. But it also requires patience. It takes time to build a successful business. You’ve probably read many biographies and business books. I’m sure that you have also read about failed companies that we’re able to turn the tide. It took patience from the founders and the management to not give up too soon.
Scaling is a process that involves trial and error, false starts, and course changes. It takes time. It takes a lot of time. You must understand that success does not come overnight. You will have to be consistent and work hard every day.
It is your responsibility as the founder to ensure that everyone works towards your vision. Patience is a critical component of keeping your team on track and focused.
Don’t get discouraged if deals are slow or the market takes a while to find your product or services. Instead, keep your team and company on the right track by remaining calm and confident.
Although it is not an easy task, patience is essential for any business to succeed, whether it is an e-commerce company or a private jet hire company.
6. Managing Company Culture
Many of these things contribute to company culture. However, a more extensive culture will be built by the people you hire, your company vision, and a belief that anything is possible. You are responsible for creating and maintaining the culture of your venture as a founder.
Culture is nothing but shared group behavior. You risk losing control over your company culture if you don’t actively manage it from the beginning. Would you please not allow your team to become obsessive, stressed, or triangulating their problems?
Instead, please encourage them to work hard, be proud of their achievements, and have a balanced work-life balance. Corporate solid cultures will lead to better results. But, don’t let the culture become established without your involvement.
Although starting a business can be difficult, it is possible to do it. These six items offer a glimpse into the reality of a founder.
Although there are many other aspects to running a business, it is essential to remember the ones listed here. All the advice you get about starting and running a business boils down to these two elements: financial and human capital.
You will succeed if your company can maintain financial stability and keep your employees happy. Everything you do should serve your finances and your team. This lens will help you see everything clearly and keep your eyes on the ball. Keep your eyes on the ball, be disciplined and focused. You can achieve success, but you will have to work hard for it.
Disclaimer. The opinions and views expressed in this article are the authors Judge Napolitano.
