Priorities

Priorities. People who can set them correctly usually end up going much further in their careers and lives than others. Setting the right priorities is much like what happens after cleaning your sink pipes with drano – everything just runs smoothly. Priorities are like the different steps you need to take to get from point A to point B in your GPS route. Unfortunately not everybody sets priorities, which would explain why so many people are unhappy in many aspects of their lives, from their work to their relationships. Setting the right priorities is especially critical not only in running your personal life, but also in running a startup from the ground up. 

Now this isn’t some self-help article designed to tell you how to manage priorities and lay out a framework for you to swear by. If there’s one thing that can be agreed upon, it’s that your personal life and your work life can be greatly improved by accomplishing a set of tasks on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis in the correct order. That order is something you need to figure out yourself because it varies from person to person.

For starters, it certainly helps to identify what’s important to you. Figuring out what makes you get out of bed is a good starting point. If the first answer that pops into your head is money, there’s something wrong. What do you stand for? If you still don’t know, I’d recommend reading up on Shalom Schwartz’s Value Theory. Once you figure this part out, it becomes a continuous cycle of assessing your priorities, ensuring they are being met, and reassessing your priorities over time. It is vital to figure out what you want personally before exploring how to prioritize the needs of something bigger, such as how to run a startup.

Prioritizing needs for a startup is a monster in itself. There’s always something on fire, someone asking questions, and somewhere you need to be. Now depending on where in the journey your startup is, your priorities may change, but overall there are 3 things every founder should be keeping at the top of the list: staying on top of the money, steering the ship, and selling. 

A founder’s capital is the company’s bloodline; the rate at which that capital is being used to keep the company afloat is known as the burn rate. Smart founders should have a plan allocated to how the money is being used and how that money will be returned and at what time frame. This could be done by increasing sales, finding new ways to generate revenue, and even meeting with investors for a potential funding round if needed. If a founder can’t maintain positive cash flow, that is a major red flag. The exception to that would be those who bring in ridiculous amounts of revenue but are still in the red (think Uber, Lyft, and the other massive companies that you are probably not in the same league as).

Let’s say you are able to maintain enough cash flow to keep the boat afloat for a while. The next priority that should be inspected in parallel is what direction do you steer the ship? What is the plan for the company in the next quarter, year, and beyond? What are you doing about the culture within your organization? How are you attracting the best talent and keeping them? There are usually three departments of a company that make it thrive: sales, support, and recruiting. Sales brings in the revenue along with potential long-term clients. Support keeps the client happy and using your product. Recruiting brings in the best talent to help make the first two happen. You need a great culture to make all three possible in the first place. 

Once you solve the culture and hiring process mentioned above, you have to plan out what your next move is. It helps to be paranoid and understand what your competitors are up to. As the market shifts, so should your priorities. The items you plan at the top of the board should reflect that. Even if some of the priorities are more of a calculated risk than a sure bet, they need to be moves that will define the company’s trajectory for the next few quarters if not years. Doing so will help you not only stand out among your competitors, but it will also solidify your company as an entity that is the best in its industry.

Selling is something that all founders and leaders have to do. If you come from a more technical background, selling is going to seem like a new challenge. It might be difficult at first, but this is an absolute requirement if you want your startup to continue surviving. Nobody is going to advocate for your product or service more than you are, so you need to do whatever it takes to close sales every single day. As the company grows and you hire more salespeople, they can take some of the responsibility, but you shouldn’t take it easy on the selling. As a leader and founder, you know what you’re selling more than anybody else, because you have a vision for it and know what your product or service is capable of. I’m not saying you need to be one who sells snake oil, but it is imperative you understand what you have to offer as well as what your competitors don’t and what the market needs. All of that together will help you win sales, which in turn will make the company thrive and grow.

Having priorities is vital to accomplishing whatever it is you want to do. When it comes to setting them up, personal ones matter just as much as work ones. Identify what it is you want and what is important to you, and the rest will follow. With building a startup, there a good set of priorities every founder or leader should maintain. These priorities may change based on competition and market trends, but as long as you understand what you need to prioritize, your chances of survival will only increase.