It’s easy to look at all CEOs and think that they are all faced with the same pressures and challenges.
But the truth is that when you’re running a business you founded, something you have built from the ground up, you will have had a very different kind of journey from someone leading an established company.
Setting values
Running a business as a founder over the past 20 years, I have realised that nothing shapes your business more than its values.
As a founder, the business values are often a version of your own; the business is shaped around you.
Many people go into entrepreneurship thinking that with the right contacts and dedication, they will succeed, but often this is not the case and many start-ups fail because of a value or moral mismatch.
That’s something I learned in a life prior to establishing TMC.
Only by bringing people on board who share your values can you grow and deliver on what you set out to achieve.
From team members to clients to suppliers, the people who take your business forward need to believe in your vision.
Founder life is lonely
It’s an uncomfortable truth, but being a business founder can be lonely if you’re not careful.
It’s crucial to surround yourself with colleagues whom you have empowered to question your thinking and tell you things you might not want to hear.
It’s how you get fresh perspectives and an understanding of what you need to address in specific areas of the business.
Be careful that you don’t put yourself in an echo chamber of your own making.
Your truth, and quite often your fixed ideas, are only your version of the truth.
You can very quickly turn away those who might challenge you; quite often they have valid and sometimes better ideas.
Your team must feel comfortable challenging you. I have found you can achieve this with an open office door policy and by always having time for your team.
A central part of a founder’s role is making decisions. Often, these decisions affect your team, and they won’t always understand or see the reasons why.
One of the hardest parts is that you are often in a position where you can’t tell them.
By building values-based trust and staying true to your values, they will embrace change and develop personally along with the growth of the company.
Lean into the stress
We’d all expect running a business to be stressful, but you never really know what it’s like until it hits you.
The stress never goes away; you just learn how to manage it and ensure that it doesn’t overwhelm you.
The pressure, tiredness, risk and impossible deadlines can take their toll.
One thing really matters: don’t take it out on your team.
It’s part of the responsibility of a founder. You started the business, so own it. Your stress is for you to manage, but please find an outlet. Once you do, your light will burn brighter and longer.
The pressure that comes with establishing and running a business shouldn’t stop you from pursuing your ambition.
You will need to have the determination to navigate challenges, learn from setbacks and keep moving forward no matter what. Remember, it might not work and could break you, but if you don’t try, your life will be filled with regret.
Embracing evolution
As the business evolves, so does your role. Get ready for change.
In my early days as a business owner, I was much more hands on, with multiple roles and spinning a thousand plates.
What needed doing got done, often by me. Now my role is more about guiding the business and supporting teams.
It can feel like you’re further removed from the reason you founded the business as you move from a start-up to an established business, but that’s a sign of success.
On a social level, your position changes too; I hear conversations among team members that I used to be right in the centre of, but now as a business leader, I know it’s not always my place to get involved.
Technology is ever evolving and what you do now, I promise, will not be the same in 20 years from now.
It seems like an obvious statement, but it is easy as a founder to get stuck in your ways, often finding yourself behind the curve. My advice, get used to the change, it’s the only constant.
Get ready to get out
One final note: get ready to get out. Know you have a time limit. The business might decide, your stakeholders might want it, but there will come a time when you are the one slowing the business down.
You founded it for a reason, you were responsible for making it happen, but the next chapter might not have you in it… and that’s okay. Just have a plan.
Whatever you do, be the best version of yourself you can be. I call it the mirror moment.