WHAT YOU FEEL: Keeping everyone aligned is hard. Keeping everyone happy is daunting. How do I prioritize?
PERSPECTIVE:
Your employees, vendors, customers, and investors have different interests and it is common to have these interests in competition at all stages of business.
With more established businesses, however, existing policies and procedures, managed by a strong team, help to moderate these conflicts as part of the company process. You don’t have that luxury yet—or the time or the resources—to keep everyone’s interests in line all the time.
Your inclination, and certainly mine, is to conclude that it was unnecessary and time-consuming—and probably impossible—to establish an overarching procedure for making decisions. Decisions both big and small were being made left and right under the assumption that whatever got decided was in the company’s best interest. It seemed like a reasonable assumption. But you will be surprised, as I was, that if you don’t make what seems obvious to you (making decisions based on what’s best for the business) clear to all, you may find your team and the other resources you interact with, developing an unhealthy sense of entitlement as your organization grows and your market presence increases.
Don’t assume everyone is on the same page. Establish a succinct message from the start and continue to reinforce it with everyone you encounter. The only criteria for making decisions is what is in the best interest of the company.