4 Tips To Avoid Entrepreneurial Project-Centric Risks

We owe it to the entrepreneurs among us for the ideas that make today’s products and services a reality. Every one of them possesses the intrinsic traits of drive and vision. They start with beautiful pitchdecks and bring their vision to reality. But, as novel and unique as some concepts are, risk quickly changes the circumstances entrepreneurs have had to face.

It’s safe to say that the mistake they’ve made in the past is a lesson for us all. Dismissing the likelihood and severity of risks altogether, for example, can cause you to lose your momentum.  At its worst, risks can set you back several paces and even cost you your very livelihood. This is why it’s critical to have the right people around, more so during the initial phases as you set up shop. After all, no matter how organized you are, it’s impossible for you to be on top of everything without losing your mind. Resources who understand your vision demonstrate a knack for aligning their experience and skills, helping turn your idea into a profitable venture.

As long as you have a reliable workforce to work on the project windfall headed your way, its timely delivery ensues. Here’s 4 people-centric tips that mitigate the impact of entrepreneurial failures, regardless of the stage of setup you’re currently at.

Appointment by Delegation:

Delegation is best perfected over time. Not only does it ease the burden on your shoulders but also gives your inherent leadership skills free reign. Moreover, when you identify the right people ahead of time, you spend less time overseeing schedules and more on the commercial aspects of the business.

Before breaking down a task you need to ensure the right resources are available to truly commit to it. Sudden absences can cause a lapse in productivity besides delaying the chain of things that need doing. Once you know that your staff can and will deliver, you can sort out tasks based on the time, skills and bodies of knowledge needed.  You can even draw up a master schedule that categorizes tasks by an order of priority so your staff can accordingly program their individual To-Do’s.  An overreaching plus here is each team member can support one another as the occasion calls for it.

Delegations lead to rightful allocations where the only rule is a fair division of labor amongst your resource pool. As experiential prowess grows, the onus would befall qualified staff to train, support and guide future recruits, assuring you that the right hands are on deck as you eventually step away from the plate.

The takeaway here? Do yourself a favor, not do everything yourself!

The Resourcing Drill:

It’s always a good idea to trial out your employment contracts even if you already have full-timers. When certain commitments don’t demand the standard working hours, you can push time-sensitive tasks off the log to different resourcing types.

So long as your expectations are met, they can work alongside your regular staff and are free to price themselves and schedule their project delivery time so that tasks follow the sequential flow as closely as possible.  Moreover, freelancers and contractors who’ve acquired hyper-specialized skills on previous ad hoc projects can reorient themselves quicker on the minor details of the work. Your full-timers can then focus their attention on getting the overall project off the ground even as other employees work in sync. This will help your employer branding image when your employees can focus on their work. Besides, you can base your decision to extend full-timers offers based on their overall performance.

The takeaway? Ensure your projects are en route to delivery by having all your resourcing types rowing in the same direction.

Knowing Your Audience:

First and foremost, you need to know if your product or service risks obsolescence in order to determine its longevity. One of the factors that pinpoint this accurately is your demographic and location. Building the product first and then finding people for it is a recipe for disaster because popularity is governed by need. “Selling ice to an Eskimo” can’t work if the convictions you have about your pitch doesn’t leave your audience spellbound.

Let it be said that you’d have to go through multiple communication rounds and still not have everyone on board by the end of it.  Therefore, it’s about taking your chances where you can with a touch of creativity. For example, your product could be a better alternative to an existing line. If you use a manufacturing technique that is cost-effective yet delivers business value, you attract prospective end users with a reasonable pricing model.

The takeaway? Understand why some products/ line(s) of services fare better than others. While it’s not advisable to just copy and paste someone else’s idea,  be inspired from the forebears of the industry and focus on making your idea one that dynamically adapts to a rapidly evolving project landscape.

Dissociate Failure from Risk Aversion:

As easy as it is to be risk-averse, understand that no one is entirely immune to it.

You still get full marks for thinking out-of-the-box in a competitive environment. It won’t do to blame yourself if your enterprise didn’t get off to the flying start you’d hoped for. As long as you make every attempt to sidestep the risks associated with the industry you’re part of, you’ll still get a second chance.

When you automate process-requests with an all-encompassing resource management software suite, you’ll get hands-on experience with intuitive analytics that can predict and categorize your risks. You can accordingly strategize and create action points to avoid extremes of failures from thwarting your project particulars.

The takeaway? It often takes several tries before an idea finally comes into fruition as a thriving business. By taking these tips to account, you’ll base your next idea on overall feasibility and understand the correlation between it and the people whose lives you’re trying to change!

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