Growing with a management team

Editor’s note: Michelle Stockman works with Little Rock-based Arkansas Capital Corp. to promote entrepreneurship development around the state. Stockman earned a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University-Chicago in communications and fine arts, and earned a master’s in entrepreneurship from Western Carolina University. Her thoughts on business success appear each week on The City Wire.



Businesses are as different as people are at times. Many businesses take a humble, quiet and slow progression to reach various stages of growth. Others jump right out of the gate and grow until they are no longer considered a small business.

Many businesses start small with the intention to stay small, but the business owner eventually finds the company needing more than he can give. When the owner has brought the company as far as it can go, or the company is ready to graduate to a stage where it must have equity level financing, it is time for the business build a management team to lead it to the next phase.

The purpose of the management team is not to take the ownership rights away from any investing individual. Rather the team is meant to balance the strengths and weaknesses of the owner and any of its employees so the company can grow as it needs while mitigating as much risk of that growth as possible.

The business owner seeking the next business growth phase should realize what he or she brings to the table, as well as seek the positions needed to grow sales, market penetration, seek capital and more. From there, the business owner needs to create an organization chart and timeline on how to achieve the potential growth.

After strategically thinking about what a management team looks like for the company, the business owner should also evaluate the business Board of Directors. Are there members of the board who could further help lead the business through its needs? If so, how else can the business use this person? If not, then who should be on the Board who could help move the company in the right direction?

If you desire more from your company than a simple job to pay your bills, then you are going to have to consider what additional talent the company will need to grow into a prosperous organization. You may be the perfect CEO, but you will still need others (as well as access to other contact lists), to help you build a strong and sustainable company.

Stockman can be reached at [email protected]