How to Go Hunting for Your CEO
Let someone else steer the ship.
photo credit: Corrine Kutz
This post originally appeared on Hey Mama.
Written by: Syama Meagher
Scaling your business requires a capable CEO who can steer the ship, make short and long-term decisions, and keep everyone on track. The CEO will also report in to a board of directors, and can marry the bottom line of investor/financial needs with the day-to-day operations of the business. A great CEO will ultimately give you the opportunity to be the Chief Innovator or Chief Visionary of your business. Not all founders should be, or need to be, CEO of their companies. Being the CEO can kill your dream if you are not into financials, managing teams and be willing to separate what’s right for the business vs. what you feel is right. If you think you are ready to hire a CEO then read on to make sure you land yourself a good one.
Evaluating Skill Set and Experience
Bringing a CEO onboard requires that they have a strong skill set and set of experiences that you don’t have. To avoid redundancies, make sure you have a solid list of your core competencies. In addition, you should evaluate your goals with your business. Are you interested in selling it eventually? How big do you want your business to be? Identifying your long-term goals will assist you in finding the right CEO who can make it happen.
“Bringing a CEO onboard requires that they have a set of experiences that you don’t have.”
Personality Profile
I wish there was a Match.com for finding a good CEO. It’s certainly challenging to meet someone who can share a vision for your business, yet also has the right personality to execute on it. A CEO’s primary responsibility is managing the all-star team, and therefore all the major department heads on your big or small team should meet with the CEO to test for fit. A CEO that has been brought on by investors or the founder in a small company without any briefing will be greeted with some resistance- primarily because people are afraid of change. To ensure a smooth transition and high levels of performance, really think about the personality fits of your current employees.
“A CEO that has been brought on by investors or the founder in a small company without any briefing will be greeted with some resistance- primarily because people are afraid of change.”
Hide and Seek
Finding your dream CEO will take time. Angel List is a great place to post your job opening. Angel List attracts innovative businesses and employees in a primarily tech dominated space. I also suggest to my clients that they talk to their current CPA’s and lawyer’s as they tend to travel in C-level circles working with investors, founders and CEO’s. LinkedIn is also a valuable resource to seek out CEOs and vet for experience.
A note on Interim CEO’s
I’ve served as an interim CEO for fashion companies in the past and it’s been useful for companies in two ways. First, it’s great for startups that know they need some guidance and direction as they build the structure and are hiring more key players. Secondly, it’s helpful for brands that are in transition and are having difficulty finding the right long-term fit. An interim CEO will be on board for 6 months to 1 year. A long-term CEO should be someone with your business 5 years +.
How much will this cost?
Expect to pay a full-time CEO between $75,000 – $400,000 a year depending on experience and the size of the business. You can hire a part-time CEO, but that is only really effective in smaller startups. Alternatively, you can hire a strategic consultant who can help groom you with CEO skills and the cost will range between $150-500 hourly. This is not a bad idea if you just need some direction and an experienced advisor.
What exactly should your CEO be doing?
I love Steve Robbins’ job description for a CEO:
A CEO should be doing “everything” Everything includes:
1. Setting strategy and direction.
2. Modeling and setting the company’s culture.
3. Building and leading the senior executive team.
4. Allocating capital to the company’s priorities.
In essence, the failure or success of the company will rest in the hands of your future CEO. This is why hiring a CEO can be such a difficult process and time consuming. Most startup founders will want to stay on as long as possible as the CEO of their ventures, and most investors will want you to stay on as well. Your impact on your business and getting it this far is impressive and all parties involved, employees and investors, will need your passion and vision to stay strong. Good luck making this big decision for your business!
Syama Meagher is a retail strategist and CEO of Scaling Retail. She works with fashion brands and retailers on product and brand launches internationally through ecommerce, wholesale and brick & mortar. Syama has previously worked for Barneys New York, Gucci, AHAlife and Macy’s. To build your brand and create a profitable business visit www.ScalingRetail.com and email hello@scalingretail.com
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5 CEOs Who Look Exactly Like Their Companies
Like mother, like child.
You know that old saying, dogs look like their owners. Well the same applies to companies and their founders.
And why wouldn't they? These women live, eat, breathe their companies. It's only natural their brands would be natural extensions. The great news is, there is NO one "look" that says business owner anymore. You can look like anything and be anything.
Jen Gotch, ban.do
Jen Gotch, the front woman of the poppy and playful ban.do ("serious about fun,") is exactly what you'd expect. With Starbucks collabs and a loyal following, she's tapped into fun in a whole new way. We can't even imagine what her suitcase looks like when she packs.
Ariel Kaye, Parachute Home
photo credit: Lianna Tarantin for Sakara Life
Parachute sheets give you a reason to make your bed in the morning and an even better one to crawl into bed at night. They're unfussy but chic, just like the company's founder Ariel Kaye. “I launched Parachute online with the intention of bringing the brand offline at some point, too.” With the recently opened Parachute Hotel in Venice, CA, the company is providing another opportunity for the community to engage. There's also the new Portland location and the recently added baby line. It's all almost too dreamy to be true.
Justina Blakeney, The Jungalow
Bold with color and mixing and matching patterns, the beautiful brain and founder behind the Jungalow brand is every bit live out loud as her co. Her environment is lush. Full of color, vibrant patterns and plants; it’s a design style that says no to minimalism. In a way, it’s a multi-hustle of its own. And with a New York Times bestseller, The New Bohemians (which, she wrote and shot in less than three months), a Sunset Magazine cover, a booming design business and blog, a tot at home, five employees at her office space, and plenty more in the works, Justina has reached a point where she gets her gig. “Having a lot going on at one time really suits my personality,” she's told us.
Joy Cho, Oh Joy!
photo credit: Joy Cho for Glamour Mag.
There's no way we could put this list together without the founder and creative director of the playful and inspiring Oh Joy! Launched in 2005 as a graphic design studio the color and design maven now has collabs with majors like Target, has authored three books, and consulted for hundreds of companies around the world.
Ellen Bennett, Hedley & Bennett
She revolutionized chef garb and she's often donned in bright, colors. But don't get her playful approach to her wardrobe confused with her aprons. These are badass aprons from a badass CEO. She didn't want mundane. She didn't want stale. So she did it her way and now Ellen and her #apronsquad are taking over kitchens everywhere.
Arianna Schioldager is Editor-in-Chief at Create & Cultivate. You can follow her @ariannawrotethis.
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Why This CEO Says You're Not Firing Fast Enough
The CEO breaks down why firing can be more important than hiring.
This past weekend, we gathered 150 female entrepreneurs and creatives in Maui at the Wailea Marriott Beach Resort to talk business, brand building and bold moves.
Our Keynote Speaker, Leura Fine, CEO of the fastest growing interior design disrupter start up, Laurel & Wolf, left our audience feeling enlightened, entertained and inspired with her candid conversation with our founder Jaclyn Johnson on life as a CEO, the ups and downs of building a business and how to be a better boss. Below, we put together our 5 key takeaways from the conversation of which you can view in full here.
1. The title 'CEO' means many different things along the way.
Leura explained that when she was CEO of 3 people vs. 10 people her role changed, from 10 to 25 another change and another change and so on and so forth. The point is, your role as CEO should change over time as you hire people. The role should expand from a more tactical day to day role to more strategic. You have to get to a point where you are trusting the people you hire and then the people they hire in order to scale effectively.
2. You are not firing fast enough.
Firing, something no one likes to talk about, but is so crucial to growing your business effectively. Leura explained it's not only important to hire quickly but fire quickly as soon as you know someone is not a fit either culturally or with the work. Keeping an employee for too long that isn't a fit can be just as detrimental as not having anyone in the position at all.
3. Keep your board small.
Leura explained that many tech companies and start ups start putting together really big boards and start handing out equity right at the beginning. Leura says, for her, building out a small but highly strategic board is much better than having multiple voices in your head and in the room. Think long and hard about strategic partners, investors and money and make sure they also bring something to table besides just cold hard cash and opinions.
4. Communicate differently to different people.
As a founder, Leura says, you have to say things differently to different people. She explains, communicating with her development team vs. her marketing team can require different types of conversations and ways of communicating. Once your company gets to a certain size the communication structure can easily breakdown, even people who sit right next to each other might not be communicating effectively. Leura says they put into place strategic meetings and events to ensure everyone is on the same page and work is getting down as effectively as possible.
5. Don't overpay yourself.
Leura says she is "the lowest paid person on her executive team" and that's okay. She talked about how she didn't pay herself at the beginning of the company and then eventually took a salary that basically just covered her costs of living. She stressed how important it is to hire super capable people especially in senior level positions and that often comes with a hefty price tag or the allure of equity within a company that is growing. For her, the big pay off will be her equity stake in the company not necessarily her salary and as a CEO this is a common strategy.
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