Obviously it depends on the people involved and how techie the business is, but when planning to scale it is always better to have the groundwork in place to be able to find the new customers. Everything beyond the prototype requires customer acquisition before the next product iteratioin, so it would only make sense to have a core strength in that from the start.

I could be wrong though, and this might just be a justification of my lace in the world… Would love to hear a counter argument.

There are ways that involve proper and legal contracts, avoiding permanent employment contracts altogether and various other check and balances.

Only have 1 question, we South Africa’s ridiculous laws, how do you fire anyone quickly without all the written warnings etc?

My two take-aways for 2011 are: focus like crazy; and take advantage of enthusiasm.

In a start-up you can’t afford not to focus on what you’re best at. You have neither the resources nor the hours, no matter how much you think you can pull off a miracle by not sleeping. You need to pick the narrowest focus you can identify in market, product, operations, everything and execute that superbly. If you’re good at lots of stuff, then pick one thing and kill your other babies. We haven’t yet been successful at this, but we’re getting there. And the more we focus, the better we get.

Take advantage of enthusiasm? By that, I mean that a lot of your momentum in a small business comes from riding a wave of enthusiasm. So when a client shows interest, don’t stop pushing them until the deal is sealed. If an investor gets excited, make sure you don’t let him out of your sight until his money is in the bank. If you find the perfect employee, no matter how senior and unattainable they may seem, keep inspiring them until they leave their gloomy 9 to 5 and join your game changing company. Because if you let any of them go cold, you’ll lose them. And you’ll have to work like a dog to get them anywhere near as energised as they were before.