Wearing all of the hats

This has been a recurring theme that I have heard with founders in the early days of their business but it definitely feels like it is getting even worse with the combined effects of the great resignation and increasing costs across the board.

As startups try to manage their cash burn, the increase in costs usually results in a decrease in the number of planned hires.  Then that critical partner comes in and resigns because they simply can’t turn down the $10,000 increase in pay.  These are not the fun days of being the founder and entrepreneur. 

So what to do?

Savvy and scrappy founders start looking at all the costs in the company to see what can be saved if we convert multiple outsourced agencies into one full-time role.  Can you bring Amazon management in-house to help fund part of the digital marketing salary (at least fo a period of time)?  Or is the reverse also true, remove a full-time employee that is not being fully utilized to go to a variable pay structure with an agency.  There is absolutely no one-size fits all solution but it does require the ability to go back to zero-based budgeting.  

Do not assume your current cost structure is fixed - this can cause you to overlook opportunities that might be exactly what is right for the company right now.  Staffing vs agency can be reevaluated about every 6-9 months.   More frequently than that is ineffective, disruptive and a waste of your time as the founder.  Less frequently can work if the business is super stable or growing slowly - hence the annual budgeting process of most stable and large size companies.

Set milestones for yourself to review the progress and see if adjustments are warranted. This is just a normal part of the founder journey.