缺资金缺资源时，业务拓展的3法则

把一个创意变成一家初创公司，再将这家公司变成一家欣欣向荣的企业，并不是一个线性的过程，其中既有坎坷与波折，也有挑战和风险。但不管一家公司的创业之路是否平坦，它总是从一个创意开始的。以我创立的这家名叫Insightly的公司为例。在创办这家公司之前，我正在经营另一家公司，当时我正在寻找一套客户关系管理解决方案，以解决这家小公司的需求。但市面上当时并没有能够满足这种需求的CRM产品。没过多久，我把公司股份卖给了我的合伙人，基于这个创意开发了一套专门针对小企业的CRM产品。

我开始在我家的地下室一个人鼓捣这款产品。在长达9个月的开发期内，我自己和家人的一切开销都要靠我的个人存款来支撑。计算机专业背景给了我开发产品所需的技术能力。在此期间，我也充分利用了我以前作为一家小企业老板的经验。我经常问自己：“如果我是用户的话，我会希望这个产品能做些什么？”在项目的每一个环节，这些问题的答案都为我提供了指引。

事实证明，与Google Apps整合，并且在谷歌应用市场发布Insightly应用，是一种在我们的目标市场——也就是小企业客户群——打出知名度的好方式。幸运的是，我们发布这款应用时，谷歌应用市场总共才有几百个应用。我们还借助这一途径从客户那里获得了很多建设性的反馈意见。用户报告了一些Bug，并且给出了一些关于附加功能的有益建议。

在谷歌应用市场上架之后，下一个挑战就是如何将业务做大。Insightly刚上架的时候，我设置了电子邮件提醒功能，每次有新用户注册Insightly的时候，我都能收到电子邮件提醒。不到48个小时，我妻子就要求我关掉提醒，因为我的手机每五分钟就会响一次。不到三个月，Insightly已经吸引了超过2万名用户。在Insightly上架五年后的今天，我们已经拥有超过100万用户。在用户群增长的同时，公司自身也需要增长。而创业公司在增长过程中面临的最大难题之一，就是缺乏资金和资源。

创业公司要想把业务做大，就要做到以下三件事：

1、做自己最擅长的事，把剩下的事交给其他人去做。

要想把企业做大，需要的不仅仅是吸引新顾客。要满足用户的需要，就意味着你要不断添加新功能和新选项。作为一家创业公司，虽然我们已经打响了第一炮，但我们仍然缺乏一个大型的研发团队，也缺乏经验丰富的IT人员来构建、测试和发布新功能。为了让Insightly的增长势头更加强劲，我们积极推动与现有应用进行整合，使用户能有更多的工具来运营他们的公司。

我从这个过程中得到的一条经验是，创业者一定要擅于扬长避短，在添加新功能时，要避免做一些你还没有准备好的事。你的客户之所以选择与你合作，是因为你的产品和服务能解决一个问题。如果你自曝其短，那你就无法获得任何人的青睐。不管你是采用什么手段来添加新工具和新功能，是通过招募人才也好，还是通过合作或收购也罢，你都不要偏离当初为了使你的产品或服务更有吸引力而确立的价值定位。

2、学会授权。

创业公司的高管往往有一种大包大揽的倾向。但CEO的角色也是需要随着公司的发展而演化的。如果你在营销上面花费了太多时间，就需要将这个职责授权给别人。对于招聘或者其它管理工作也是一样。如果你的项目因为你正在忙着翻简历而延误了，那么你就应该把这项职能授权给其他人。

在早期阶段，公司员工往往要顶上很多个头衔。随着公司步入正轨，每个人的角色才变得固定起来。通过有效地将部分职能授权给他人，一些有能力的员工也可以承担起新的任务。这就是为什么创业公司从一开始就要做出明智的招聘决策。这也是我把公司从澳大利亚搬到硅谷的原因之一。我们需要招聘熟练的开发人员，以及像我一样对Insightly抱有热情的工程师，而我们在澳大利亚很难找到这种人才。我们不愿意招聘平庸之才，所以就将整个公司搬到美国，开始进行具有战略意义的招聘，比如招聘一些专门负责产品改进的工程师。这时我才稍微放松下来，能够放心地将重要的任务授权给其他人，并且相信我一手缔造起来的团队能够推动公司顺利发展，只需要我提供最低程度的指导，他们就能够创造卓越的成果。

如果你招聘的员工具有和你一样的热情和目标，那么你的客户在与他们打交道的时候，将获得与你直接打交道时一样多的关注和关心。小企业的优势之一就是能够为客户提供更多的个性化服务。一定不要忘了这一点，这也是人们一开始选择你的公司的原因之一。

3、寻找正确的人，承担一些风险

失败当然不是企业家爱听的一个词。无论是作为个人还是作为企业，我们肯定都希望每件事都能成功。但总有一些战略会失败，总有一些创业公司会折戟商海，这是难以避免的。如果你觉得你的公司需要一些东西，或者需要进军另一个市场，不妨制定必要的计划，并且大胆尝试。不要担心自己会孤军奋战，如果你找不到合适的人跟你一起打拼，不妨先自己去做。如果你认为你的创意能成功，就大胆去干。有时虽然创业失败了，但你也能从中学到宝贵的经验和教训。当我刚开始创办Insightly的时候，一切都靠我自己。而现在公司已经有一支才华横溢的精英团队，他们把客户的成功看得像自己的成功一样重要。在这个过程中，我学到了一个重要的经验，那就是当我看准了什么事情时，一定要相信自己的眼光。为了获得长期的利益，经历短期的挑战是值得的。

如何将一家公司做大并不是一门严谨的科学。每家公司的成功之路都各有不同。但是没有一家公司是不用承担风险就能增长和成功的。有时候，单单是成立一家自己的公司，似乎也是一个重大的风险。如果你已经成功到了一定程度，正在考虑如何做大，那么为什么不再承担一次风险呢？（财富中文网）

译者：朴成奎

审校：任文科

Turning an idea into a startup and a startup into a thriving business aren’t linear processes. There are twists and turns, challenges and risks. But no matter the journey a business takes, it starts with an idea. For Insightly, that bit of inspiration came when I was working at another business that I started and went looking for a customer relationship-management solution that addressed the needs of my small business. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything on the market specifically made to meet those needs. Not long after, I sold my portion of the business to my partner and set out with the idea to develop a CRM purpose-built for small companies.

I bootstrapped the business for nine months from my basement with only personal savings to support me and my family. My computer science background gave me the technical ability I needed to create the product, and I used my own experience as a small business owner in the development of Insightly. At every turn, I asked myself, “What would I want this product to do?” The answers guided every part of the project.

Integrating with Google Apps and launching the app on the Google Apps Marketplace proved to be a great way for us to gain visibility with small business customers – our target market. We were also lucky to launch during a time when there were only a few hundred apps on the marketplace. It also allowed us to get a lot of constructive feedback from customers, reporting bugs and making suggestions for additional features and functionality.

After its launch on the Google Apps Marketplace, the next challenge was to scale. When Insightly first went live, I set up an email notification, so I’d receive an alert every time a new customer signed up. Forty-eight hours later, my wife made me disable the feature because my phone pinged every five minutes. Within three months, Insightly had attracted more than 20,000 users and today, almost five years since its initial launch, we have more than 1 million users. As our user base grew, we needed to do the same. The great struggle for startups trying to scale is doing so without a lot of money and resources.

Scaling up meant doing the following three things:

Do what you do best, let others do the rest

Scaling isn’t only about onboarding new customers. Satisfying customers means constantly adding new features and options. As a startup, even on the heels of early success, we didn’t have a massive development team or roster of experienced IT professionals capable of building, testing, and launching new features. We kept the focus on improving our core CRM and project management capabilities. To make Insightly more robust, we pursued meaningful integrations with existing applications that gave our customers more tools to run their companies.

The lesson is to play to your strengths and make additions to your business that support new features and capabilities without trying to do something you’re not prepared to. Your customers started working with you because your product or service solved a problem. Veering from that won’t endear you to anyone. Whether it’s through bringing in some talented new employees or through partnerships or acquisitions, adding new tools and features without deviating from your initial value propositions makes your offering more attractive.

Delegate

Startup executives frequently try to do everything on their own. However, a CEO’s role needs to evolve with his or her company. If you’re spending too much time with marketing, you need to delegate that responsibility. The same goes for hiring or any aspect of managing the business. When projects start getting delayed because you’re too busy digging through resumes, that task needs to go to someone else.

In the earliest stages of a startup, employees need to wear a number of different hats. As you grow, roles need to become more defined. By delegating responsibilities, skilled employees can take on new tasks. This is why it’s important to make smart hiring decisions from the beginning. This was one of the reasons I decided to relocate the business from Australia to Silicon Valley. We needed to hire skilled developers and engineers that were just as passionate about working on the Insightly product as I was. We just weren’t finding that in Australia. Rather than settling for mediocrity, we moved the business and began making strategic hires, such as engineers to work on product enhancements. It was at this point that I felt comfortable enough to begin delegating important tasks and trusting that the team I was building would run with the ball and achieve great outcomes with minimal guidance.

Finding and hiring candidates who share your passion and vision will ensure that your customers receive the same amount of attention and care from your employees as they would if they were dealing directly with you. One of the great advantages small businesses have is their ability to provide customers with more personal service. You cannot forget this as you start to grow. It’s one of the reasons people chose your business in the first place.

Find the right people and take some risks

Failure isn’t a word entrepreneurs like to hear. We want to succeed – personally and as a company – in everything we do. Inevitably, there will be initiatives or strategies that don’t work. However, if you think your business needs something or can move into an additional market, make the necessary plans and take a chance. And, don’t be afraid to go it alone. If you can’t find the right people to get started with, do it yourself. If you think your idea can work, go for it. Sometimes it won’t work out, but you’ll learn from it. It was just me when I started Insightly, and the company has grown into a full team of talented professionals committed to our customers’ successes as much as our own. From all of this, I’ve learned to trust myself when I believe in something. The short-term challenge is worth the long-term benefit.

Scaling a company isn’t an exact science. Every company will take a different path to success. However, no organization grows and succeeds without taking some chances. Just starting your company probably seemed like a significant risk at one time. If you’ve had enough success to consider scaling up, why not take another?