Techneur.com

Setting up efficient systems is one of the first projects that a new startup must tackle. These systems include a communication framework, scheduling, job division, and public/client accessibility.

Communication

First and foremost, your team is going to need an efficient way to communicate. For this, nothing beats the freedom and features of Google’s free Apps for Business. Here, you can set up your own email hub with ease. Sign up for an account. Once created, go to Settings->Accounts. From here you can add additional email accounts so you can send mail as though you were sending it from those additional accounts. You can also receive mail into the Gmail inbox from different accounts. For real time discussion, Gmail incorporates a text/video chatting feature.

Scheduling

Next, your team should create a consistent meeting schedule where everyone can come together and map out the goals/tasks for the next week or two. It is important to keep these tasks as short as possible. Long tasks often invite procrastination from the overwhelming amount of work perceived. Give someone a short task, and they should have no reason to not have it completed by the next meeting. Create a log of actions per member and go over them each meeting to make sure everyone is caught up and accountable. Once your team is off and running, you may be able to meet virtually via Gmail and can log in tasks and keep track of workflow there.

Job Division

Delegating member tasks is usually predetermined by the different skills each member possesses. Certain members will be experienced in graphics, while others will be experienced in programming. These are the easy job divisions. The more obscure divisions are on the business side. Like who will keep track of financials/banking, set up public meetings, promoting, create business cards, organize the business, police the website forum, blog, etc. You can split these up amongst members or nominate a member or two to handle the entirety of the business side. Don’t under allocate, because once your business is up and rolling, public contact will be crucial for marketing and user feedback.

Side Note: A great free tool for tracking finances is http://www.buxfer.com. Here, every member of your team can see all of your banks account, checks, and credit card balances from any internet connection.

Public Accessibility

For client and public accessibility, you are going to want to create a webpage at the very least. Our company started off with a blog, Twitter account, and a webpage. WordPress offers free blogs and Slicehost offers cheap VPS servers. It’s also a great idea to incorporate one of the social networking sites. These avenues will improve your social infrastructure and allow the public to follow your week to week releases, while making your company more accessible. Establishing a blog where you can receive feedback is pivotal for customer interaction. When customers are able to give you input on your product, it gives them partial ownership of that product. They are more likely to recommend it to friends and use it for the long haul because they have already invested their time into improving it. Even if you don’t utilize their changes, customers will still appreciate the direct accessibility to support, even more so in a world where everything is outsourced or digitized.

Last but not least, a framework is needed to keep track of clients and contacts. Customer relationship management (CRM) software is the new rolodex. Keep track of all of your contacts, even the people you meet outside of the business setting. Keep track of where and when you met them; knowing someone in the business is a valuable asset. The old adage is true, it’s not just what you know but who you know. Myspace and Facebook are a great free utility for this. An excel spreadsheet would also be a cheap solution.

Getting your systems down as soon as possible is the most important aspect of a new startup. Without this foundation, the house will crumble. Quick, easy, and effective communication will keep your team on the same page so you can focus on product and customer development.

-Brian