What Does A Startup CEO Actually Do? I saw this headline on a recent Forbes article.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/douglasmerrill/2012/06/29/what-does-a-startup-ceo-actually-do/

So how does my life of a startup CEO compare? The core of the article is that a good CEO should spend 1/3 of his time hiring, 1/3 of his time communicating with employees and 1/3 of his time doing administrative work. And somehow find time to also do things like talking to partners, the Board of Directors, customers, and the press. I guess I am not currently living the life envisioned in the article. LOL!

In a typical week I spend a lot of time meeting with people to share what I do. Some of them maybe future hires, but a lot of them are people who I want to share our mission with. Right now I am our biggest marketing piece, so whenever I can talk about the BPO Elite story to someone who can influence business it’s a good use of my time. Potential trainees, potential interns, potential business partners, potential clients, key industry leaders, industry peers… it’s a pretty long list. As we grow, I expect several of these will turn into hires and given the nature of our business I am always looking for future analysts.

Communicating with employees is very important to me. I try very hard to keep my team up to date on our business plan, on industry trends and looking for ways to expand their knowledge and skills sets. I also make a point of communicating with the wider BPO Elite universe via this blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I am a HUGE believer in the power of social media to spread a brand and have found several key business partners and most of my team via social networking. I also send updates to my partners (the board) 2-3 times a month to keep them up to speed on what issues we are facing internally and externally. So I think this one is covered.

Administrative work is a huge challenge though. I reply to most important e-mails/calls right away and am blessed with an amazing partners who can handle many of the finance and legal issues so I can spend more time training, recruiting and marketing. Still, I have a list of projects a mile long that only gets bigger by the day. Soon I will have to hire an admin to help keep me on track. I’m also hoping an intern or two can relieve some of the administrative/small analytics projects I spend too much time on.

As for the rest… I find the time, but often its because of my 24/7 commitment to BPO Elite. I do block off time for church and make every effort to spend QT with the family several times a week, so keeping some work life balance is achievable. I guess what it boils down to is that I always find a way, this path has just been one blessing after another and as I continue down it, I am loving every minute of it!

So what does a CEO of a startup do to be successful? Like the article concludes… create a culture of competence, confidence and passion that spreads outward to everyone it touches. That is what I do and what I love!