Team Building 101

As a young entrepreneur, I've had to learn a little about team-building. This skill is necessary to recruit highly skilled and experienced individuals whom you can't necessarily afford to pay a lofty salary.

The first step is to recognize what skills you're missing. This can take form of an introspective SWAT analysis. For me, unfortunately, I may have many more W's than I often lead myself to believe.

The next step is to place a value on those missing skills/qualities--based on their relative impact on the growth and value of the company.

Once you have placed a value on those factors, it's time to go shopping...

You can find quality people all around, though some skills may be harder to come by. It's important to realize that the rarer those skills are, the more valuable they are to you... don't be stingy in rewarding people for their significant contributions.

You may not be able to recruit the level of experience you are looking for, so here is a list of universal attributes I seek in hiring people who can step up and fill those roles:

1) Brilliance (SAT of 1200 or better)
2) Compulsiveness (passionate and able to hyper-focus on a single objective)
3) Interesting (someone who adds diversity, creativity, and makes you like to be around them)

This brings us to the last step--incentivizing those individuals to adopt your vision. It's a question of motivating forces. You are not limited to dangling carrots in front of their eyes.

Here are some things that might motivate your target partners:

1. Freedom from a cubicle based job in corporate slavery
2. The potential to build something great
3. Have fun working with great people
4. Altruism--the belief that their skills and talents will make a difference in the world
5. Learn a new side of business through experience in a startup
6. You...if they like you enough, they will want you to succeed
7. The potential for a valuable equity position later on
8. Pride...give them a reason to prove their abilities
9. Spite...your company is a way for them to fight a market competitor they may not like
10. Optimism...instill a vision so strong that they are not concerned about what is in it for them

As you start to build your team today, remember that each venture is just a stepping stone to the next bigger and better deal. Get the people around you sold on your vision for the long-run and keep them on board by rewarding them for their loyalty.