By Al Mills
There’s an episode of The Simpsons in which Homer starts a business. He starts a company called Mr. Plow, and his intent is to provide snow removal services for his customers. He produces a rudimentary television commercial in which he sports his Mr. Plow jacket, and tells the world that Mr. Plow is here to serve everyone.
The commercial runs as the final moments of the day’s broadcast and as soon as the commercial ends the TV goes to bars and tone indicating the end of the broadcast day. Homer has gathered his family around the TV to show off his new creation, and as soon as the commercial ends, he announces, in a self-satisfied tone, “Well John Q. Driveway has our number…now we play the waiting game.” In a matter of seconds Homer declares that the waiting game sucks and invites the family to a game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos.
Are you playing the waiting game with your business? Have you begun an endeavour, or drifted from your initial drive of actively pursuing your business, to a point where you are hoping your phone will ring endlessly with orders and customers? Unless you’ve created a viral sensation like the Cabbage Patch Kids of the 80’s, or Tickle Me Elmo, it’s very likely that playing the waiting game will result in mediocre results at best.
Growing an organization is more than hope! It’s more than seeding the ground and waiting in uncertainty as to whether the seed will germinate and sprout. Like waiting at the roulette wheel for the ball to drop, optimistic hope can leave us in a place where growth becomes a sort of fluke, or lucky strike. It can also cause us to sit back, and waste time while we wait. Don’t get me wrong, hope is a great and powerful thing, but wouldn’t you rather have a magnet under the roulette wheel that nearly ensures that the ball will drop where you need it to?
This is where understanding the fundamentals of your business and your personal drive become absolutely crucial. Take the time you need to develop who you are, and why you do what you do. Just a warning, if your only why is making money, or you’re married to the cheque, then success becomes much less likely. So, figure out what you are great at, and supplement your strengths with team members that bring things to the table that you are lacking. And we all lack something, no one is great at everything.
When you’ve got your why figured out, spend time considering your ideal customer, the values within which your business will operate. Have absolute clarity on your value proposition, and what you dream your company will become.
This is not an exhaustive list of the foundational issues you should have clarity on, and a deeper dive into these issues and more, will, set a foundation for you that is concrete solid.
Once you have delineated and defined these things, you can begin planning for the really big stuff. Long ago, Jim Collins introduced the idea of BHAGS (Big Hairy Audacious Goals), how you dream things will be in ten years. These goals are the kind of blue-sky dreaming that will get your friends and family to laugh at you and think you are crazy for dreaming so big. But dream big anyway, shoot for the moon, go for the gold.
Once you have BHAGs in place, you’ve got something to work with. Now that you know your hope for ten years out, set goals for one and two years out and relentlessly pursue them, and relentlessly measure your progress. Don’t develop ten goals, keep it very small and focused, one or two goals are plenty.
The ultimate result is that the pursuit and measurement of these goals takes the uncertainty out of hoping your business grows, and gives you a plan and a path toward growth and success.
Al Mills is the lead consultant and founder of The Advantage Mill, a company dedicated to bringing out the best in the workplace. You can find the website at www.theadvantagemill.com.