Clearly, it is important for your future success to work with the right people, who have the right capabilities and skills. The focus here, however, moves out from the central role of the new business owner to the needs of the company as a whole. People, and the skills they develop, are essential to the success of any organisation (no matter how small).
As well as understanding the skills and capabilities required for producing, launching and sustaining your product profitably, you may need to develop your understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses further in relation to technical skills, organisational ability, management style and business acumen.
If and when you create a new company you will need to address your own development needs – by studying this course you have recognised that you need to do this. You will also need to review the skills of your staff/volunteers, or the network of people/businesses you rely on, against the goals you set for them to achieve in your plans. However, for now, we will just focus on your skills and associated needs that relate to your idea as it now stands.
To turn a business idea into a reality you will need to deploy a range of skills and resources. Some of the skills you need you will have already, in your knowledge of the world and of your field. Others can be acquired or further developed, either by your own learning or by hiring the right people, temporarily or permanently.
The combination of the knowledge, skills and often ‘personality’ of you and your staff/volunteers or network is unique and can form part of your competitive advantage.
The key considerations that have to be taken into account when analysing your human resource needs are:
Job role
Purpose of job
Essential functions
Job qualifications
Job context
Do not fall into the trap of failing to analyse all the work you expect to do yourself. Firstly, you could quickly be in a situation where if the job you actually do was advertised by another company you would reject it out of hand! There are inevitable trade-offs required in the short term but be clear what they are and how long you are prepared to let them continue.
Secondly, if you fail to account for all the work that you and your family do in the business, you risk missing out essential components of your business.
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