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Simon Baker in Back to the Start-up Part 2

19 June 2009

This is the second in a series of articles about the trials and challenges of setting up a new business in today's economic climate. These articles are based on a series of articles that first appeared on the blog of Simon Baker called www.myceolife.com

Lessons Learned from Starting a New Business – Part 2


In the first part of this series I discussed some of the more hard core challenges we are facing in building a new business. In this article, I want to explore some other softer lessons we are learning as we launch our new business. These lessons cover the selection of people, the culture we want to create, our approach to working and most importantly having fun.

When you set up new business, you have clear choices in how you want that business to work and how you plan to run that business. As these businesses always start relatively small, the Founder sets the tone and tenor for that business. As we create Classified Ad Ventures, we are facing these issues every day. Here are some of the lessons we are learning.

Selection of Team Members
The beauty of starting a business from scratch is that you can select the people that you want to work with rather than inheriting a team that may not align to your style. Therefore, in selecting people to work for Classified Ad Ventures and its subsidiaries, we have decided to pick people that are not only smart but who we also get on with personally. I want to be able to turn up to work each day and have fun. Sure, we need to get the job done, but we want to do it in a way that sees us smile and laugh. Therefore, being smart and having a good track record gets you the interview, but it's the interaction with the team that will get you the job!

Approach to Working
One thing that is important in building this new business is changing the way we work. Yes we have an office (a funky warehouse in the city) however, I am keen to set it up so that people can work from home or from anywhere in the world. It is important that we are not dependent on a location. To make this work, we need to have the right tools in place as well as the right work ethic and processes. In Classified Ad Ventures, we have team members spread around the world.
Another change in the approach to working is the strong use of part time and contract people. I am particularly keen to leverage people who don't necessarily want to work full time - for example stay at home mum’s - and it is important that the infrastructure supports remote working.

Creation of a New Culture
We are probably having the most fun creating a new business culture - well new for us. I am keen to create an environment built on trust, openness, fun, hard work, respect for the individual, learning from our mistakes, community service and celebrating success.
In the culture of the new business, it is important to ensure that there are no politics, that the best ideas float to the surface and that people want to be in the business.

To do this I have to lead from the front. I also have to select the right people to join the business; if we get this right then we will work well as a team and anything will be possible. If you don’t select the right people (and yes, there will be mistakes), then you have to move those that don’t fit into the business on fast and hire someone who does. In today's market, this is getting easier as there are great people looking for work.

Having Fun
Finally, it is important that we have fun while we create this new business. We have an open office space and a very creative team, so I am encouraging them all to express themselves by displaying their own artwork on the walls. We are also making sure that we celebrate every little milestone that we reach as we build the business. It is up to the leaders to set the tone and if you want to have a fun business, you need to lead from the front.

The bottom line is that if you are going to spend time building a new business, you might as well enjoy doing it and do it with people that you like and respect. Life is too short to do anything else!

Simon Baker is the ex-Managing Director and CEO of the REA Group (also known as realestate.com.au). During his 7 ½ years with the REA Group, he lead the growth of the business from revenues of $4m, losses of $6m, and market cap of $8m in 2001 to revenues of $155m, profits of $22m, and a market cap of over $500m in 2008. Since leaving the REA Group in mid 2008, Simon has been setting up a new venture called Classified Ad Ventures – focusing on informing, investing and innovating around online classifieds

Written by: Simon Baker

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