What First-Time CEOs and Founders Need to Know
First-time CEOs and founders really are doing it all.
They’re leading a company, but they’re also packing the boxes, cleaning the coffee pot, running accounting, coding the website…it’s no wonder most entrepreneurs wish there were more than 24 hours in a day. When you’re hustling that hard, it can be impossible to work both on the business and in the business at the same time, says CEO Coach Greg Coticchia. “One of the things we find when we coach this stage of business, is that founders know their business so well. They know their product inside and out. But being a CEO is a slightly different skill set.”
Here’s what first-time CEOs and founders need to prioritize right now to keep from drowning in the business:
1. Make the right hires at the right time
Entrepreneurs are naturally doers. But what gets your business off the ground isn’t necessarily what will get you to the next phase of growth.
“Founders often try to do too many things, even as they hire people they trust, or are qualified and loyal,” says Coticchia. “You have to learn to delegate, and you have to learn to hire the right people at the right time.”
Too quickly and you risk hiring the wrong person that kills your momentum. Too slowly—because of financial concerns or an obsession with culture fit—and you’ll never sleep.
“The problem is less that founders are avoiding these difficult conversations and more that they’re so busy they can’t think about what they need and when they need it, so they’re not assessing the people they have, the qualities that will help the business grow, and that’s when your business starts to suffer, to say nothing of your mental health,” adds Coticchia.
Don’t be so busy that you confuse where you’re going and what matters. Otherwise, you won’t find the right people for the right seats.
2. Cash is king
“Cash is the lifeblood of the business, and I often see businesses under $5 million in revenue that don’t understand how the cash is working,” explains Coticchia. “You need to know not only a forecast of your cash, but also your balance sheet inside and out.”
The difference between revenue—money coming in—and your overall cash flow is in how you operate. You want to bring cash back into the business as quickly as possible. There’s a big difference between chasing a 60-day invoice and a 15-day one.
Says Cottichia, “Getting visibility into your cash is really important. You can’t scale what you don’t measure.”
3. Build a strong GTM strategy
Small businesses tend to struggle with how to go to market. “You know your offering, and you’re proud of your product or service, but selling something and building something are two very different skill sets,” advises Coticchia.
Entrepreneurs tend to get tripped up in a few areas:
- It costs money to make money. The best sales reps or marketing tactics don’t necessarily come cheap, and if it’s outside your expertise, you may be wary of spending. You need to invest in a strong GTM play, whether it’s sales-driven, marketing-driven, or both.
- If you don’t have a clearly defined ideal customer profile, it can be exhausting trying to sell to everyone. If you sell to everyone, you’re selling to no one. Choose your segment and run with that to start, and know everything about your audience that you can, from their pain points you’re solving to the magazines they like to read.
- Most businesses get caught up in their product and forget to sell the benefits. You need to answer, “What’s in it for me?” Weak or generic positioning doesn’t resonate with a potential customer. Connect what you’re selling to how it solves their problem.
All of this adds up to burn-and-churn with sales teams and a frustrated founder trying to figure out why the revenue isn’t growing. You can’t scale a process that doesn’t work. You need complete product-market fit before trying to hire and scale your GTM process.
A coach can help you find clarity as a first-time CEO
If you’re tired of doing it all, bringing a coach in can help you find clarity and focus. At CEO Coaching International, our coaches have been in your shoes before, founding, growing, and leading businesses through every stage of growth. As a founder, you’re doing something different—but you don’t have to do it alone.
“You need clarity and focus on your business to get to repeatability and scale,” says Coticchia. “That’s true of your people, your cash flow, and your go-to-market motion. And that’s something a coach can really help you with.”
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About CEO Coaching International
CEO Coaching International works with CEOs and their leadership teams to achieve extraordinary results quarter after quarter, year after year. Known globally for its success in coaching growth-focused entrepreneurs to meaningful exits, the firm has coached more than 2,000 CEOs and entrepreneurs across 100+ industries and 90 countries. Its coaches—former CEOs, presidents, and executives—have led businesses ranging from startups to over $10 billion, driving double-digit sales and profit growth, many culminating in eight, nine, or ten-figure exits.
Companies that have worked with CEO Coaching International for two years or more have achieved an average revenue CAGR of 22.8%, nearly 2X the U.S. average, and an average EBITDA CAGR of 37.5%, nearly 3X the national benchmark.
Discover how coaching can transform your leadership journey at ceocoachinginternational.com.
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