Anyone can start a business, but can you finish one? Can you get yours to the finish line without a strategy? - Strategystorming  - The Strategy Studio & Shop for Strategic Thinkers

Anyone can start a business, but can you finish one? Can you get yours to the finish line without a strategy?

The fallacy of the startup; building a mission critical business that can finish the race is more important.

I was having a conversation earlier today around the somewhat 'hostile' business environment (or chaotic at the least), and what it takes to "keep" a business running, and running well, amongst all of the chaos and uncertainty. Which, when you think about it, starting one is completely different from 'finishing' one, right?

The barriers to starting a business - the entry point - is now completely non-existent; there simply are no barriers to enter.

'Anyone' can do it:

  • Anyone can build a website with tools like Shopify
  • Anyone can create some visual designs on Canva
  • Anyone can sell on Amazon
  • Anyone can send some emails
  • Anyone can build a marketing funnel

As we can see, it is so easy to start a business these days! But what does that mean?

But, I'd have to say that you're just not 'anyone', right?

 

Can you actually design your business to be built to last?

And, can any one else design a business with a solid strategy that creates resiliency and is built to last? Perhaps, but I'll let you in on a little secret, not many do. In actual fact, this can become your very own competitive advantage. It's a simple approach that has long reaching ramifications over the life of your business.

What's the 'cost' of this, of the fact that anyone can start a business? Competition. Maybe competition that burns out quickly, but that is beside the point. These are competency competitors - taking away time of your potential buyers, for what you can offer & sell. The businesses that burn out quickly, like a match, are the ones that don't have anything to sustain them, they don't have an understanding of building resiliency like you do, they don't see what is needed to build resiliency.

Well, if starting a business is literally a piece of cake (or learning the necessary tools is), perhaps the most important question is the 'lever' of this business equation - how do we build a business to finish it; how do we get ours to the finish line?

How do you finish a business? What does success look like?

When I say 'finish' I mean that your business is built to last. I mean that it has resiliency. I mean that you have certainty in where you are going, and what mission you are on, and how you will 'complete' your mission (you do have a mission, right?). I mean that you know how to get clarity in your next steps and what is a priority and what is not.

The focus no longer is about getting a business started, but getting one finished and past the point where we know it will succeed. This is the "new" barrier to building a business - building it to last - through the storms, through the changing customer needs, through the environment, through the downturn or recessions, through the uncertainties... We need to focus on being able to finish it. We need to focus on building resilient business, not business that can get easily wiped out when something innocuous or malignant changes our market. The most important stage is the 'finish', or rather, past the starting phase, and into the "built to last" phase. Are you ready to finish the mission? Are you building your business to last?

It can be very destructive, but once you get past this point, it is easier to travel

As a former aerospace engineer and military pilot, there is a term called Max Q which stands for “Maximum dynamic pressure.” It's the moment in the launch when the rocket is undergoing “maximum mechanical stress.” moments after a launch. Which is just a way of saying the rocket is feeling a tremendous amount of physical pressure from going its way through all the air in the atmosphere at a really high speed. Sure, the 'look' of a startup in launch phase can look pretty cool - but the real pressure comes after it gets off the launch pad, and is on its way to its mission. Get past this point of Max Q, and while there is still a lot of work to be done, we know that we have passed the biggest hurdle of the journey, and the adventure, or expedition can continue. Most businesses don't make it to Max Q in this case - they sputter and die, or literally fly apart as they couldn't handle the pressure. They don't finish the mission that was clearly intended. Which one are you?

We need to focus more on the outcome of this equation, our very own business 'equation'; the outcome of our own business - how will you be able to finish the business, not finish as in 'the end' but how you want to get it to the point of unlimited success?

You don't want just a better business though, do you? If you want to go from 'better' to best, then we need to get you past Max Q to the smoother air beyond.

We can all start a business, but what do you need to finish a business, to get it to where you want it?

Anyone can start a business, but it takes a special skill to finish one - strategy builds a business built to last. Are you building your business to last?

It’s not a map, not a business model, not a SWOT, not a business plan, not a "1-page Marketing Plan", not a 'formula', not a sales funnel. The only thing that matters is your Strategy Operating System.

Strategystorming is your strategy operating system that I've been describing. It's how we change the equation of creating and building a business to last. It's how we go from Better, to Best. It's how we best manage the turbulence and destructive forces of our own Max Q.

How to build your own strategy operating system

As I see it, you have two distinct choices:

  1. Wait for your competitor to make that BIG mistake, do nothing, and eventually fail, or
  2. Create a Strategy Operating System that allows you the flexibility to create immediate certainty.

Don’t be just better, or waiting for the worst to happen to your competitor for you to grab their business; be the best, be the driver of your own economy, be the creator of your own certainty, be the designer of your destiny; craft your strategy operating system that builds your business to last.

Want to build your own Strategy Operating System, or get to know what you will need for your expedition of resiliency? We have an amazing short-term strategy sale going on now on the Strategystorming site - our courses, workshops and workbooks and other strategy brainstorming tools are all on the site, at a phenomenal 22% off for this week & next (enter code 'blackfriday' on checkout). And we also have some amazing prizes to win as well, to help you get started with your strategy operating system - one to help you build your business to last. Take a look here to see what you will discover you can actually do.

 

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