Challenges and Their Solutions in Startup Businesses
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Challenges and Their Solutions in Startup Businesses
Introduction
Initiating up a startup business has been one of the most challenging jobs we had as Hypebeset.com online retailers. Collaborative systems among the members is an issue that businesses need to reevaluate to improve profits. Businesses are systems that require a culture of positivity towards partners in a manner that allows for a healthy relationship. When developing our startup business, we had the objectives that must remain core to our success. We had developed an idea of turning the online business into a booming investment due to online businesses’ prospective nature. Above all, servicing our community through online purchase and delivery of clothing was based on fostering individual customers’ well-being. Our investment in the online retail of clothing began with a round-table hangout where every colleague contributed business ideas. The business has attracted most clients; however, gender, conflicting roles, and accountability distribution have been the main challenges. The business has encompassed five stakeholders, including two female partners whose jobs have been underscored as less productive to business growth. Moreover, overlapping responsibility has been a challenge due to the low number of skilled management personnel. This paper discusses the challenges experienced with the startup business and offers a candid solution to these problems.
Challenges in Startup Business
Gender Bias
The gender gap in a society profoundly impacts various aspects of activities within the social, economic, and political spheres (Walker, 2020). In businesses, women have experienced a different situation related to power. Since launching this startup business, we had challenges demarcating between divisions of power. Out of five partners, two ladies have shown a lack of faith in the male leadership systems. Moreover, female lack the proper channels for expressing grievances that seems to be another challenge. I am the business leader and has to ensure conflicts existing between members are solved through inclusive and cooperative mediation. Therefore, I have developed a monthly stakeholders’ meeting to find a solution and identify areas that need to change. A business in its nascent and growing stages must realize the balance of male and female leadership by expanding positions to accommodate both genders (Stasch, 2015). The issue of gender imbalance in organizational structures has created challenges in a hierarchy of power.
Male members in top positions have a remarkable level of disrespect to female colleagues who strive to attain such top ranks. Women have been cited for taking more role in collaborative work and should be regarded as vital business elements. Behavioural differences between men and women prove sound in arguing that the latter has a remarkable position in the development of business entities (Stasch, 2015). It is important to note that women often seek highly-qualified positions contrary to men who look out for roles they are not qualified to take. Despite the existing structural biases in businesses, managers have remained vigilant in selecting women to top position. The development of organizations could depend on proper structures where both genders are represented in leadership. Managers should apply systemic methods to allocate programs that cover all employees and are less likely to induce conflicts.
The value of gender-balanced structural systems is beyond estimation, with more entities now focusing on strategies to achieve it. Egalitarian conceptualization of value help understands this perspective of women and men balance in businesses. Hickel, Jason, and Haynes (2018) argue that differences between hierarchical and egalitarian systems replicate what is observed in terms of businesses’ success. In entities that hierarchy is valued to an extent, those in power who fail to observe equality do not achieve the maximum profits. However, egalitarian systems have massively achieved in businesses due to equal chances offered to both males and females. A study indicates that women are crucial in policy-making because they represent diverse perspectives (Hickel, Jason and Naomi, 2018). Teams that allow women to contribute to essential decision-making processes have shown significant improvement in profits. Gender diversity continues to be a cornerstone to modern businesses whose focus is sustainable profits.
A mixture of skills and knowledge offered by women team members have created an egalitarian system that is positive and deemed crucial for collaboration. Stasch (2015) posit that women are better at forming relationships; therefore, they are essential in developing teams whose purposes are to build a successful business. Our business requires a hybrid of talents that is reached through the egalitarian conception of the workforce. Ensuring there is a balance of gender will provide a platform for both men and women to air their perspectives. Many societies, however, recognize men and credit their positions that seemingly has squeezed through into the business systems as a discriminative culture amongst partners (Walker, 2020). The discrimination observed in other businesses has risen from the implicit bias of gender, age, and power hierarchy (Hickel, Jason and Naomi, 2018). Lack of diversified leadership can amount to bad business outcomes such as discrimination that exist unconsciously among team members. Our business will rely on the capacity of women leaders who have attained the skills and knowledge necessary for business management.
Overlapping Responsibility
Due to poor staffing, most errands befall the few personnel making the management. The business has five individuals in management. Overlapping roles are referred to as management bug that impacts the decision of businesses. More often, team leaders are stuck in between regular responsibilities that seem daunting and exhaustive. For effective businesses, human resources should be reliable to facilitate the distribution of roles and responsibilities. In situations where leaders are unclear about who should undertake a particular task, there emerges conflicts and poor staff relationships. Overlapping duties present in several ways, including members of a team not understanding how their roles fit within the business. Team members, therefore, fail to recognize an essential aspect of ‘task significance’, which defines the core objectives of the business (Hickel, Jason and Naomi, 2018).
Moreover, the risk of overlapping responsibility entails a waste of time, and members engage in duties not required of them to succeed. In small startups, team members lacking clarity of responsibility tend to gain skills slowly compared to employees with set roles. Therefore, every performing organization has to separate functions depending on each member’s skills and expertise in management.
Poor Distribution of Accountability
The lack of understanding among crucial partners of what the business requires becomes a challenge to prosperity. Due to the unclear distinction of roles among the team members, our business has endured weak structural management. According to Jakir (2005), lacking accountability has a dire consequence to resource utilization, and companies may plunge owing to misuse of funds. Accountability is essential in bolstering the culture of integrity and honesty among team members (Jakir, 2005). In businesses where integrity is embedded into the traditions, members are fast forward in completing tasks reflecting on such entities’ purpose. The tendency of following up specific standards distinguishes mediocre and true-spirited team members. Again, we must consider a collaborative workspace where everyone acts for the better of the business. Not only shall such entities prosper, but also boost trust from clients who recognize the work ethics and integrity. Businesses must develop realistic goals and support every team member to understand them and aim to the highest competencies.
Solutions to Challenges in Startup Business
Gender Bias
Businesses need to shift their perspectives when dealing with gender-biased authority and to focus on problem-solving methods. Leaders are entitled to design their thinking to create a better understanding of the business culture. However, businesses require to imbibe a collaborative culture to foster empathy, experimentation, and members’ ideas (Robbins, 1994). Design thinking is mostly related to business members human-centred rational view and supports them to achieve the intended outcomes. Design thinking is characteristic of collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving methods that drive changes.
Business counteracts gender bias by exploring the experience of every member to distinguish implicit bias existing. It then ideates solutions that are women-centred using the help of women-employees. Intrinsic gender biases are best evaluated by ensuring leaders understand their business management impacts (Robbins, 1994). Businesses’ solutions are solved by identifying the internal and external effects of gender biases on women’s experience and performances, with a robust and steadfast change of culture for gender-based discrimination. The last step in obtaining a work environment free of biases is testing a prototype solution, which starts with the piloting of the proposed program. Leaders should not fail to evaluate the tested prototypes through feedback received from members. Businesses find iterative solutions by assessing the tested solution to determine if and how such option are applicable.
Overlapping Responsibility
Many team members often engage in poor labelled ‘personal conflicts’ due to overlapping responsibilities. The first step towards solving this is to agree on the scope of jobs each member is expected to tackle (Hickel, Jason and Naomi, 2018). Businesses must draft the duties of every member to reduce squabbles that possibly arise in workplaces. In the draft, the job description is evident on individual team member and leadership input in case conflict arises. Delineating the boundaries between responsibilities is a viable approach that managers utilize to lower cases of overlapping positions (Hickel, Jason and Naomi, 2018). Members are supposed to observe the positive culture and cultivate it for better understanding amongst them. It is useful to adopt schemes that outline every team member’s duties to solve conflicts occurring at workplaces attributed to overlapping responsibilities.
Poor Distribution of Accountability
Businesses can embed accountability in members by making each person responsible for his/her actions. It is an overriding idea to develop realistic goals and to ensure all members have a buy-in. Businesses should have accountable structures through regular support and encouragement amongst members. In a collaborative environment, businesses are set to thrive, given leaders are playing their role to guide (Jakir, 2005). A motivated team has the capability of achieving maximum benefit from the investment. It is critical to note that a motivated team churns out the highest quality of work. The first step leaders take in ensuring business accountability is to define the facets of the practice and understand what chances hold for lacking accountability. A leader is expected to create space for creative and innovative ideas to help improve businesses. Guidelines and protocols are critical elements to the management of business where members free to take responsibility for every action (Jakir, 2005). Accountability is best attained when members are free to perform their duties without interferences, withstanding them observing the business guidelines.
Conclusion
Startup businesses are exposed to challenges that arise from a low number of skilled and knowledgeable employees. The condition is intensified by intrinsic issues related to a collaborative workspace, whereby conflicting responsibility, lack of accountability, and gender biases affect management. It has become shared knowledge amongst business partners to seek a collaborative system where egalitarian concepts are imbibed in management structures. Performing businesses regard workspace, where all employees feel free to express their ideas and promotes career development. Additionally, design thinking is crucial for leaders who aim to bolster businesses. Design thinking is open to receive statements from every member to have inclusive decision-making processes.
Contrary to hierarchical systems, egalitarian observes employee experiences and improves the business through positive culture at the workplace. Within the contours of business exists partners with diverse expectations; however, collaborative relationships enable them to develop profit-centred goals. The challenges that are apparent within startup businesses, including poor financial management and conflict of members’ interests, is solved through leadership based on egalitarian authority. Leaders are guided through this paper to adopt egalitarian philosophies in business management; accountability, shared responsibility, and the non-discriminative workspace is available.
References
Hickel, Jason, and Naomi Haynes, eds. (2018): Hierarchy and Value: Comparative Perspectives on Moral Order. Oxford: Berghahn Books.
Jakir, Aleksandar (2005): Workers’ Self-Management in Tito’s Yugoslavia Revisited. Moving the Social 33: 137–155.
Robbins, Joel. (, 1994). Equality as a value: Ideology in Dumont, Melanesia and the West. Social Analysis: The International Journal of Social and Cultural Practice, (36), 21-70.
Stasch, Rupert (2015). How an egalitarian polity structures tourism and restructures itself around it. Ethnos, 80(4), 524-547.
Walker, Harry (2020) Equality without Equivalence: An Anthropology of the Common. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 26(1): 146–166.