ExpertCEO

My partner and i have grossed over 8 Million Dollars in 2010 by advertising affiliate products with our proprietary technology.

We've created a great brand.

We have a lot of experience in online advertising and product development.

Currently the company is a staff of 13

Bookkeeping
Network Manager
COO/CFO - He manages employees and also runs financial reporting.
My Partner & I - Revenue Drivers * Creating products. Running Advertising. Developing automation software.
Programmers 3
Designers 2
Project Manager - 1
Customer Support - 3
outsourced - 3


My question to you is should we hire a ceo? or find board of advisers? We have so many ideas but my partner and I get so focused with these ideas that we do things ourselves.

We are the creative minds but when it comes to taking our company to the next level we find it hard because that's not our strength... We love developing new tools or automating a process to where it brings us massive profits. Now streamlining is what we are after.

We know the key is focus but we find ourselves trying to do everything.. Should we continue to do everything or should we hire a ceo to run the show.. A.D.D kicks in and it's hard to keep us on track.. Would having a CEO be ideal for us?

Should we take our proven ideas and partner with other people so we can always continue to create new businesses?

Or should we hire a CEO to get this new business up and going? Making that new business a sub company of the Overall Brand?

these past 2 years so many doors have opened up and we have learned so much by reverse engineering the internet and advertising online. We then become the project managers per say

The internet food chain is either your a site owner and making money by selling ads or you have something to sell.

We know this but should we hire a CEO to execute? Now let's say there is another business we know will kickass.. Would we hire another CEO to operate that business?

We should probably focus on 1 but we have A.D.D and we know these companies will make it big.

or should we just get angel investors involved and partner up with our ideas and proven methods ?

Sorry for the long post and thank you so much for your help!

It seems to me that you two are ready for the next stage of formalizing your business. You have the revenue level that puts you out of the start-up phase and into what we call the "expansion stage." We define the expansion stage as companies that have figured out a solution that addresses a key need in a big market, and have built a capital efficient distribution model that is generating over $2-5M in annual revenue. I.e. the business can scale with capital efficiency... which means that what it needs next is the operational execution to build a big company. I have written several blog posts about the expansion stage and the expansion stage CEO here bit.ly/cFXr9R.

From what I can decipher from your post, it seems to me that you could use a CEO. Your company and employee base have grown big enough that they require more structured management. The key to scaling a company is the establishment of a clear company mission/vision (basically answering some of the questions about where you go from here, and what you're aspiring to build next... more on that here bit.ly/ceLZRU). Followed by the setting of clear annual and quarterly goals for the team to execute on (removes the impact of A.D.D and gets everyone rowing in the same direction... more on that here bit.ly/cCIHun). Followed by the overall financial and operational management to ensure that the company scales without losing its capital efficiency. This requires a leader to focus on overall management, leveraging a senior management team that is executing the plan.

My sense is that neither you nor your partner have the desire or experience to take on the CEO role. Desire in this case is more important than experience. If one of you has the desire, then he needs to commit to the role, give up being a developer/marketer, and seek the mentorship/coaching required to fill the experience gap. In which case, you can put together a board of directors to provides that kind of mentorship and air cover.

The next question is whether your COO/CFO is able to take it on. If he is lacking in experience, but has the desire, you could also leverage a board of directors to provide him the air cover.

If neither is an option, then I suggest you find yourself a CEO. With a CEO, you guys will be pretty close to having a near-complete senior management team. You will have covered development and marketing (you and your partner), Finance and ops (COO/CFO), Sales (should be covered by CEO).

I hope this helps...

Firas Raouf
OpenView Venture Partners
bit.ly/aIWlOQ

Thank's so much for the response. This helps me out a whole lot.

That's the thing though.. We do want to become the CEO. We want to manager our business and other businesses from a higher level. A Level of getting the right people to do what we know needs to happen.

We want to be able to develop relationships within our market..It's hard right now because we are the revenue drivers. We don't want to grow alone..We realize it's hard to do things alone.. You need support these days and you need to expand together like a tribe..

Right now information travels very fast and anyone can pull a facebooked!

Facebook learned from myspace and made it better.. Where is myspace today?

Facebook is growing by allowing developers to develop new tools to pull this data into custom apps and web pages.. They aren't growing alone..

This is ultimately what we want to achieve.. to build relationships and to bring other like-minded people with the same aspirations to grow and change the world for the better by educating them..

Educating them on that the world is a even playing field right now..

they just need to take action.....

How do we get there?

I think it's best we find a CEO and have him streamline our current process. Now how do i find that perfect CEO? I'll do some research tonight on this and mindmap it all out.

Firas i will definitely read up on the articles you suggested. Thank you so much for the response.

Stay blessed.

Jason

No. I'd suggest hiring one to three sales/BD guys.

You have a wonderful problem many would envy you. (Including me!) It looks to me from your post you need direction and focus, but more then anything else you need to decide where you want the business to go.

A "ceo", in the traditional sense, can be tremendously disruptive for your company and kill or limit your enthusiasm and creativity. But at some point you will need a leader. My recommendation is to find a personal coach, a graybeard who been around the block, to help you weed trough the issues and carefully guide you as you both grow the company, and yourself, to the next level. Such coach is not somebody you meet an hour a week, but maybe somebody who spend, say, half his/her time at your company.

Hope this help
Per Sjofors

One of ExpertCEO's Service Providers, Kathy Robison from YURU, wanted to weigh in on the discussion:

I feel your excitement, your drive and your passion for your business, which will all work in your favor, no matter what decision you make. There are no wrong answers, it just a matter of figuring out what feels the best to you, which sometimes takes a little work. I would say that the answer is probably not quite as simple as to hire or not hire a ceo. You might want to consider finding a business strategy coach before you dive into the commitment of hiring a CEO. A good coach will begin with, "what do you want to create?". Once you can clearly articulate what you want, and it feels right when it comes out of your mouth, then it is relatively easy to outline the steps to get there. It feels a bit to me (simply from reading your question) that you are working on the "what are the next steps to take?" question before you have solidified "what do you want to create?". When WHAT comes before HOW, then the HOW questions are much easier to answer and execute on.

Kathy Robison
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

YURU's Service Provider profile: www.expertceo.com/management-consulting/330-yuru-llc

Just saw this post so sorry for the late entry into the discussion...

You sound like energetic, enterprising individuals that need solid mentoring support. You seem to have a handle on the ability to generate revenue (not sure if your comments mean that you are not as profitable as you should be). If your COO is not providing some level of focus and operational efficiency measures to optimize profits (optimize, not maximize which is different given your growth mode), then perhaps you have the wrong COO.

The mentorship that you need would help drive you and your partner to understand if running a company is what you really want, or being creative, developing business, etc. is what you really like and are good at. An interim CEO might be a place to start. Along the lines of the part time mentioned by another commentor. Hard to find a qualified interim (or full time) CEO. I suggest looking at www.interimceo.com (in full disclosure, I am a member and know the founder) or asking around the angel network that might exist in your area. Do not hire an angel investor, however. Few are qualified to run a business.

I would absolutely suggest that you bring on a Board of Advisors (not necessarily a board of directors), regardless of a decision on a CEO. The right interim CEO along with BofA could help you grow the company, generate cash, avoid the mistakes many make; while helping both you an your partner determine where you want to take the company and yourselves.

Good luck.

Feel free to contact me if you want. www.linkedin.com/in/glenngottfried