Some time ago, I read a book about how to build and operate a lean startup.  The book, aptly titled The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, is a great read and more importantly, vital in my opinion to operating a company in today’s environment. Many of the ideas outlined in the book were things we have already been doing without knowing, simply because necessity breeds innovation.

Because of what we do at Dinsmore/Steele and the work we perform with various companies, we see first hand what works and what doesn’t - often times we learn invaluable lessons from the companies we are lucky enough to call clients. For that we are thankful, but on the transverse, we also see what doesn’t work and that’s what this post is about.

When I was growing up, a frequent answer to almost any question I asked my mom and dad resulted in the explanation that I had to do it because they said so. While that works for children - it doesn’t so much in business. We find a lot of the time that companies do very inefficient things because of three reasons:  they don't know any better, lack of money and lastly, because that’s how they have always done it.

Let’s take a further look at these reasons and determine how “legitimate” they really are.

We didn’t know any better

 We hear this very often and while we can relate to it, it’s not a sufficient excuse. The adage “ignorance is bliss” should never be used in business, because what you don’t know will kill your company. As business owners, we are all forced to know and if we don’t, it usually ends in the loss of revenue or worse.

 Lack of money

 This a reason anyone who has ever started a company knows, including us. Every company, regardless of their size now, at some point was a startup. It’s imperative that you set up things the right way regardless of how much money you have, because later on if you don’t, it will bite you.

 That’s the way it’s always been done

This one is my favorite - just because it’s always been done that way certainly doesn’t mean that’s how it should continue. When we started Dinsmore/Steele, so many people told us it won’t work because what we did had never been done before - and we smiled and now have changed that. As entrepreneurs, our mission is to find innovative, new ways to do things.

Whichever of these excuses may or may not resonate with you, it’s vital that they do not interfere with your business and your growth. In relation to the payroll, insurances, and hr administration, there is a better way - and we created it.