In one of our previous articles, we talked about the requirements of picking the right team in your SME. Today, we would like to talk about specific types of people who really matter and who you should work hard to bring on board your decision making chamber this year.
1.The Learned
Learned people are extremely valuable because they have a lot of information and ideas to share. In most cases, they are not good leaders and that is why they simply lurk. However, don’t underestimate them! You need their huge wealth of information and quick access to important trends to make sober and informed decisions.
2.The Specialist
Your small business surely needs experts or specialists in various fields – IT, Social Media, Project Management experts etc. No matter how simple or trivial the decision you are about to make is, never make the mistake of ignoring the specialist’s opinion. These guys always know some things that we (the entrepreneurs) may not know.
3.The Influencer
It is easy to confuse between the influencers and specialists. But with a bit more thinking, it is easy to see that one main characteristic of influencers is they don’t need to be experts in any particular field. The main work of the influencer is to identify and manage the level of influence on your company or products. Influencer need to be good at researching and bonding with the market. Always make influencer a part of your decision making process and you’ll never go wrong.
4.The Sponsor
This is the person who understands matters of finance and budgeting. It is obvious that you should include him (or her) in your decision making process. Their job may be just to nod in approval or shake their head in disapproval based on the level of risk involved in particular choices and your companies budget power. Never ignore the opinion of the sponsor while making decisions.
Finally;
For many years (here at Kuza Biashara) we have seen many companies fail even before their second birthdays. And in most cases, failure occurs due to poor decision making as most small business owners tend to think that they can make all the right decisions on their own.
However, as we have seen in this article, even the tiniest of all business set-ups needs to keep a team of well-informed decision makers if they are to survive to see their second birthday.
It is important to note that since as a small business you may not have all the money to hire a big team, you just need to have access to these kinds of people who can help you in decision-making.
