Are you running your business like a young puppy?
February 3, 2011 by Amanda Falconer
By Amanda Falconer, Sydney Small Business Centre
If the way you deal with new business opportunities is a bit like a young puppy, peeing on every tree and sniffing every other dog, then maybe it’s time you put yourself on the leash.
Meet Max. He’s not exactly a young puppy but for the purposes of this little tale, he’ll do the trick nicely. Ever noticed how young puppies have a tendency to run around a lot, with no particular direction? They see a great tree, they run over to that. They see another dog, they run there.
The point is that to a puppy, any new thing looks like a good thing. And sometimes we tend to do this in business too.
How do you respond to opportunity?
If you have an idea for a new service or product, or a bit of new business walks through the door do you think, ‘hey, opportunity, let’s go for it’?
While new ideas and business opportunities can be good, they can also lead us astray and actually stint our growth – not accelerate it. And going astray is something that can often happen without a tight plan.
The downside of jumping straight onto every opportunity that comes your way is that you can find yourself doing things that you’re not expert at or set up to do. You also fail to get the real benefit from the investment you make in working out how to do new things in the first place.
Painful lessons
I learnt this lesson myself years ago. Way back I had a business making a Spencer Tracey-Katherine Hepburn inspired range of PJs and robes for David Jones and assorted boutiques.
After some coverage in Cosmo magazine ACP marketing approached us about running our chambray PJ as a reader offer.
We said yes and it worked really well, leading to a string of other magazine offers. Then one day the marketing person came along and asked if we wanted to run a Valentine’s Day men’s boxer.
We said yes.
Why Valentine’s Day was Nightmare Day
At this stage in the business’ growth we’d only just got into DJs menswear with pyjamas, we certainly hadn’t done boxers and we definitely didn’t have a Valentine’s Day design.
But hey, it’s business right, and how hard can it be doing a boxer with a heart design on it for heaven’s sake?
The offer was NOT successful. To give you an idea how bad, I reckon St Vinnies had enough badly sized, semi-cute heart design boxers to last them the next decade.
Have a plan and stick to the knitting
However even though the boxers cost me some money, they taught me a whole lot more about the ingredients of sustainable business growth. Here are the three key things I learnt:
1. Know what business you’re in
2. Stick to it and really get it pumping before you add in the next new thing
3. Have a tight one page plan for the twelve months ahead – with less detail for the following four years – to guide the decisions you’ll be making today.
What does your one page growth plan look like for 2011 – and for the years ahead?
|
|
Amanda Falconer – Sydney Small Business CentreAmanda is passionate about SMEs and marketing. To her, marketing is a story. Your brand is an experience. Why not make it authentic, clear and consistent? Not to mention relevant and compelling to a targeted group of customers. The thing is, most people don’t really know what marketing is. And if they do, they’re not driving it. Having finally left corporate marketing Amanda is keen to share what she’s learned over the last 20 years – and that’s not just marketing theory but its application to real business situations. Amanda is also committed to helping business owners take the driver’s seat of their own marketing strategy.
|
This post really struck a chord with me!
As a jewellery artist, I often find myself on various jewellery design tangents. As a result I have a studio cupboard absolutely over flowing with jewellery making supplies that will never be used & a long list of things I still want to buy!
& as for all those marketing & advertising tangents…… now that I think about it, it’s just embarresing!
Thanks for the reminder to make a short term & long term plan & stick to them rather than racing around like a little puppy looking for the next best thing.
Thanks for the comment Melanie – and with all those bright and shiny things to tempt you I’m not surprised to hear your story. Good luck with the plan.
What a great analogy! This was me, this time last year. I had a great idea, although it was brand new (and still no-one is doing the same thing 18 months down the track), did lots of research and spent lots of time, energy and money setting it up. Then, had a crisis of confidence and started chasing every piece of business that seemed remotely suitable (or not). What changed? I found a business mentor – seems I was on the right track, I just needed someone to provide focus and encouragement.
Hi Jane, thanks for the feedback! Had a quick look at your site too and kitchen incubator – what a great idea. Yes it can be tough sticking to the knitting – but I think worth it in the end, as long as you’ve done enough research to be sure that you have a viable market that you can reach. (And you can tell that helpful inner voice to shut up.)
Glad you got a mentor too – I am a big believer in having the right team – and that’s not just staff – but outside advisers. Sometimes you also may need more than one too – I know I do – because you get different needs met from different people. Best of luck.
Great points. Sometimes you try something, which unfortunately doesn’t work – but at least you learnt from it. That’s all part of being in business. If you aren’t brave enough to try, you’ll never learn.
‘Stick to the knitting’ is a great phrase but so true. Too often, you see people who have good solid businesses try something way out from their skill set which takes their eye off the ball big style. They then put their established business at risk by spending a disproportionate amount of time trying to get things ‘back to normal’.