This is VERY important in my world – especially because I learned about this from nowhere… So had to do it the hard way. I hope to bring some of my experiences to your attention and in that way making it easier for you business to evolve.

1. Find your main course 
The first year and a half of Brokerprint we had one man working on this. He was to take care of administration, product management, product development, product marketing, sales and operational. Does this guy even exist? Well – I do believe there’re out there, but as I have always told my SEO clients: “You can’t be good at everything”.

So I had to decide whether to focus on product, operational or marketing/sales. I didn’t have that much money, so I couldn’t just hire people for all roles.

My dear business partner throughout many years, Kenneth Kromann, was hired in the beginning as CEO. He’s very administrative and focused on product details. This wasn’t the right guy to lead Brokerprint at that specific moment. Brokerprint needed to focus on marketing and sales. Because if there wasn’t any sales there wouldn’t be any printers – and if there wasn’t any marketing, there wouldn’t be any orders for the printers…

So we had to get a kick ass Sales and Marketing guy. The best CMO guy I knew, was me haha… So I stepped up to the game as the new CEO and all the sudden, Brokerprint ran very fast – like VERY fast!

I’m no expert at this, but judging from most businesses I help, sales and marketing is ALWAYS the main course of a business. The details of product and administration will come along the way, if the business evolves.

2. Learn every aspect of your organization
So now your business is profitable, right? Fantastic! Now we need to know how you’re spending you’re valuable time in your business.

I knew I couldn’t do the administration by my self, so I hired Kromann as CFO part time in Brokerprint (he was working full time in my SEO agency). I’m a real kickass salesman, but I’m an even better coach – so I hired some salesmen on pour comission to get me some printers. This left me with 3 posts left in the organizational structure of Brokerprint.

1. Marketing

2. Operational

3. Product Development

I could still manage this! For on hand development, I hired a developer for part time.

Now every aspect of my business was fulfilled, right? Wrong!! A kick ass entrepreneur should always be on the move. Innovate. Re-invent their business. Re-invent the organization.

3. Build – Break – Build
Just when you think you’re set, you’ll have to do the exact same thing one more time. But hey! That’s the beauty of entrepreneurship: keep on moving! Challenging you, your partners and your business structure.

Brokerprint was doing pretty well! And that was just in Denmark – pretty, little, save Denmark. Now it was time for me to make my mark on the world. So I had to start Brokerprint in a new country… This time: Germany!

I thought I could just do it the same way, but no… We had to move faster. I already felt that the first 2 years in Denmark went to slow. We could have been a lot bigger!

I had to break down and re-invent the entire organization for Brokerprint… DAMN!

I had to find a Group CEO. A guy who was ready to leave his family and friends behind to build up Brokerprint in a new country. A guy who knew the ways of building Brokerprint. Once again: I was the man I was ready for this!

I had to find a guy to take over operational in Denmark, so I didn’t have to “waste time” on this as well. I found a kick ass guy in my network, who was just looking for his chance to really set off his new career. That guy was/is Mikkel!

I was also interested in moving even faster with the new market part – opening new countries. I talked with a lot of people in my network and finally found the perfect guy with a lot of business connections in Europe. Henrik was the perfect new market director.

4. What’s next?
I’ve learned the hard way, that doing business and expanding business is all about asking yourself: “what’s next”. And how can we know?

I have to be honest; I don’t know! How could I? I’m in an industry I don’t know. I haven’t done this before… In fact: None has! And I haven’t got a crystal ball.

But I have some ideas of what could happen.

1. A marketing department for all markets at HQ
2. Maybe some VC will be required if we should move even faster
3. A new and much better Group CEO will be hired instead of me
4. New Market Director outside Europe will be hired

Again: I really don’t know – but I find myself thinking a lot more than earlier, because of the history of the organization.

You really need to think these things through so you’re always ahead with the challenges, your business will meet. Perhaps there are blogs out there that can help you think this way – but I sure didn’t find them.

In the nearby future I will right a little about different titles in a company. Normally I hate titles – they’re just words. But now I’ve found a way to use them. To know which roles is needed in your business.

Stay tunes