17. How do I build
my business
of the future?
How can we
and should
we grow?
How can we
achieve
predictable
results?
How do we
reinforce our
core?
groei map
21. Software developer
Sell web
business - asset
is the team
Strategy &
execution
routine
Behaviour
charter to
drive culture
groei map
New BDM &
sales process
More sales in
Niche market
Attract &
recruit
amazing staff
Product driven
software – spin
off business
Boutique web
& software
development
consultants :
hourly rate fee
More sales in
Niche market
Most of us start a business with a lofty goal. So I’d like to take you on a bit of a hike today…running a business is like a hike because often we’re walking a path less travelled.
What’s your goal in your business? Why did you start it?
Sometimes we want to make money, build a future, make our lives easier, serve a customer, solve a problem.
Be bigger? More sustainable, make an impact, leave a legacy.
I’ve worked with small businesses for over twenty years. I’ve started two and been a shareholder in seven. Every business has things they aspire to create – a vision for the future. Their definition of success. Strategy has to start with a winning goal. Working out what success looks like is easy. The hard bit is how to get there.
It’s easy to feel isolated and overwhelmed by all the choices. We have so many decisions to make especially if we’re in business on our own. We’re supposed to have all the answers and know the right path.
I’ve felt like this many times in business. It feels like the world is against you and everything is going wrong.
My late husband built a peer mentoring business – Executive Roundtable it was growing and everything looked great, we had just had our daughter who was two and then the world fell in. He was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Over the next year we struggled to manage the business, our family and his illness. I didn’t have plan in the crisis it was one day at a time. I ended up selling the business on the advice of our accountant. Too many decisions to make… no strategy….no path and no options. We weren’t prepared for trauma and with no plan I made an exit, managed the stress and walked away from a thriving business leaving a lot of value on the table. He died that year leaving me with my consulting business and two children under 2. It was time to make new plans.
I built my consulting business focusing on helping small businesses grow sustainably. I wanted to make sure every business always had an exit and a plan.
Business owners get easily distracted and being entrepreneurial and optimistic they have lots of ideas, long action lists and find it really hard to be strategic. In the first few years I would waslk away from a strategy session leaving the owner with a laundry list of actions….and then returning the following year wondering why nothing was done.
Having run strategy sessions for many years with small business I’ve often asked myself why isn’t this easier…surely there’s only a few options that could make it simpler for business owners to choose their path and make it easy to focus.
It would be nice to have one of these…so at groei we built a map…to help make your choices for growth simple. We have also built a compass – but today we’re focusing on the map. I’d like to talk you through the 4 key decisions and then show you a couple of examples of real companies and how using the map helped them focus on what was important.
I’m going to throw lots of questions at you today…but there are four critical questions you need to answer to map your strategy.
1.0 Is all about the right people, the right product and the right processes. The goal of 1.0 is serve a customer and make money. It’s the engine of our business and the anchor for growth. It’s the cash cow. What’s your cash cow in your business? Are you charging enough and managing cash effectively?
The core of 1.0 is four sometimes unconscious decisions – our self : who we show up as and our mindset, who our customer is, why we’re in business and how we want to behave – our values.
The key question for 1.0 is – how do we reinforce your core? Which of the key elements of the core will help get you to you goal fastest? Your self, managing your cash, clarifying your customer or living your values?
I worked with another small business and became a shareholder – they had an amazing brand and the quality of their product was outstanding. But they were losing money and couldn’t keep staff. They had a major problem with their 1.0. One of the founders had serious personal issues with depression, gambling and alcohol. He was stealing from the business and his attitude and performance was defining the feeling in the business. This took some time to unpack, but once we understood the root cause of the issue I had to make a tough call and fire him from his day job. It was a wake up call for him to get himself back on track and deal with his stress, and a turning point for the business. With a new GM the business took off. Aligning the leader with the business, clarifying what was acceptable behavior and driving strong core values with the right people in the right roles made all the difference. Reinforce the core.
This part of business is often overlooked in the race for growth : but a focus on continuous improvement will ensure you build strong foundations. The goal of 2.0 is to achieve predictable results ; do 1.0 better, cheaper and faster.
So the key question here – how can we achieve predictable results? This is the boring bit of business. If you’ve started your company you are likely to be a entrepreneur at heart. Management may not be our strong suit. As business owners its easy to think that we’re not disciplined enough. Its easy to be distracted. There are so many opportunities to chase and new ideas. This is about Jim Collin’s 20 mile march. Its about driving a routine, setting processes and standards, actively managing performance. You won’t manage future risk by just playing in 2.0 but it will build a strong foundation for growth.
Growth options are everything that will enable the business to scale : new markets, new products, new customers, acquisitions, new channels to market. There are 7 strategic choices as to how to grow.
The key question here is about planned growth not growth for growth sake. Growth costs money – which is why we need the engine of 1.0 working for us.
Finally blue sky – we also need to build our business of the future and understand our options so we stay relevant in a rapidly changing world. There are 9 key choices here – for some startup’s this is the beginning of their business driving data security or social enterprise – for others it might be a future exit.
This final question ensures you are prepared to manage change. You know the technologies that might impact your business and you have chosen to disrupt yourself before someone else does.
Helps you work out what you don’t know you don’t know.
So I promised four questions.
Strategic planning is making choices (that deliver value to our customers) so that we win and can achieve our goal.
Making at least one choice in answer to these questions will form your map.
The one thing I’ve learnt if the power of focus. What is the most important thing I can to do in this moment…sometimes its just sit and ponder the future.
What’s the most important thing I can do this week, this quarter, this year? Once I have a plan it becomes easier to be in the moment. To be a good leader, a good mother, a good wife and friend.
My vision for business owners is they can build a sustainable business and be their best selves. Start with self…make a plan and have an end goal for success in your sights.
I hope you can use the map to make the complexity of business just a bit simpler.