A Business Plan Isn’t About the Document

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Most organisations I’ve worked in and worked with, begrudge business planning.  Not because they don’t know how, but because it didn’t add a lot of value last time they did it.

But why doesn’t it add value?  The problem lies in the lack of direction it contains and how it’s used once it’s created.

“The value of a map comes from the direction you take from it

— Matthew Dunstan

Instead of a document, we need a roadmap.  Something that guides the evolution of the business, gives us concrete milestones and acts as a filter for every day decisions and actions.

TO CROSS AN OCEAN, YOU NEED WAYPOINTS

When we crossed the Atlantic, we didn’t just point the boat east and start sailing.  We planned a route with a number of major waypoints along the way. Even when circumstances would force us off course, the overall plan still held true.  Our goal was clear.  Our route, chosen for all the right reasons, was still valid. Our waypoints still gave us a short term focus, helping us break the endeavour down into manageable pieces.

THE BEST BUSINESS PLAN IS ONE YOU CAN DRAW

I believe business plans need this same approach.  A destination, a broad plan describing how you’re going to get there and a series of waypoints to guide you day to day.  You can document this in a number of ways, but my favourite is to show it in a Gantt chart or flow chart format.  It allows you to capture the direction, strategy and sequence on a single page that is easy to communicate and review.

[we’re running a Business Planning Masterclass in July to help leaders and entrepreneurs craft better business plans]

BEST USE OF A BUSINESS PLAN

Of course crafting the plan is just the start.  Nothing happens without execution and this is the second challenge for business plans and those responsible for them.

Instead of regarding it as a job done, the business plan should drive the agenda of your management meetings.  To illustrate, here’s a sample of a standing management meeting agenda I use with clients.  We start every management meeting with these 3 items:

  1. Touch base with the overall plan
    • Where we’re headed & why we care (vision, mission, goals)
    • Our plan to get there (strategy, roadmap, & immediate milestones)
  2. Progress against the immediate milestone
    • Report on action items from each stakeholder
  3. New opportunities or threats to the business.
    • Validate against the plan

THE SHINY-BALL FILTER

Starting the meeting ‘with the end in mind’ (Covey), is a great way to keep everyone on the same page and most importantly, align the actions and initiatives of the team to your plan for the business.  It helps keep the focus at a strategic level and acts as a useful filter against which you can review actions, ideas and opportunities:

  • If they contribute to or accelerate the plan, they’re in.
  • If they relate to a milestone further down the track, they’re parked.
  • If they’re not aligned to the plan, they’re out.

[Further reading: Entrepreneur’s Shiny Ball Syndrome]

With a clear direction and roadmap a business plan can act as a valuable tool guiding the day to day operations of the business.  So dust it off, reduce it to a flow chart and get it onto the management meeting agenda.

Strategic oversight and consistent implementation will focus your resources and drive your business faster than anything else.

[Rising Tide Ventures will be holding a series of Business Planning Masterclasses during July.  You can find out more or register here]

 

Why Your Marketing Doesn’t Work

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If marketing has been around since the 1960’s, why is it still so hard to get it right?

For decades a lot of very smart people have been trying to work out how to market a business.  And yet despite all that work, we’re still no clearer.  Our efforts are no more effective. Results and return on investment are still out of reach for the majority of business owners.

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.

— John Wanamaker

IS YOUR MARKETING MORE LIKE INTERNET DATING?

In my experience the problem lies in the fact that we think of marketing like speed dating – we try something, it doesn’t work.  We try something else – that doesn’t work either…and so on.

Like speed dating, you might stumble across someone interesting (but if you do, it will be by accident).  Like speed dating, it might lead somewhere…but probably won’t!

Instead of trying to find a partner through a series of one night stands, we need to plan a courtship and to do that, we need to think broader than the stand alone marketing activities that most businesses engage in.

MOST MARKETING DOESN’T WORK (BY ITSELF)

We all have our favourite marketing tactics and that’s ok.  For some it’s events, for others it’s adwords.  Networking and social media are other popular tactics at the moment.

The common mistake however, is that these tactics stand alone like an island at sea.  There’s no bridge to, or from them.  And this is the problem with most marketing plans.  It’s not that the tactics are bad – it’s just that they lack something upstream to feed them and something downstream to follow them.  In most marketing plans this doesn’t exist.

A MARKETING WATERFALL APPROACH

The opportunity is to design a marketing pipeline that sits above your sales pipeline.  One that engages your target market and takes them on a journey before you start a sales conversation.

It might sound harder or less direct than a calendar of stand-alone marketing tactics but there are a number of advantages to doing it this way:

  1. Clarity: In defining your marketing waterfall, you’re defining the demand generation model for your business. Once you know what it is, you know how to grow the business.
  2. Efficiency: Now that you’re not switching from one tactic to another, you can focus your budget and efforts for best effect.  Your marketing becomes a streamlined set of connected activities rather than a children’s lucky dip.
  3. A healthier pipeline. By focusing your efforts in the right places and at the right times, the results start to flow in a more consistent manner. Done well, you end up with a pipeline of prospects who are prequalified and presold.
  4. Return on Investment:  With a designed marketing waterfall in place, you’re now able to track the key metrics of acquisition and conversion at each stage.  This allows you to make informed decisions about which tactics are working, which need to be rethought and a measure of your marketing ROI.

ONE SIZE FITS ALL

One of the great things I love about this approach is that it can be right sized to all businesses.  I used this model at Microsoft when I ran a team of marketing managers, but I’ve also implemented it for sole-operators. It works at a scale of one, but the sophistication can grow with the resources available in the organisation.

(Marketing Waterfall design is a core component of our “Strategies for Growth” Workshops – a popular series we run for leadership teams, entrepreneurs and marketing managers – you can read more about them here).

So take a fresh look at your marketing efforts.  Are you courting your prospects or are you trying to sleep with them on the first date?  Is your marketing producing results or like most, are you randomly engaging the market and hoping that if you make enough noise it will pay off?

For most, there’s a great opportunity to design a better growth strategy. One which is easier to implement, is a better experience for your prospects and which has a more positive and direct impact on your bottom line.

Entrepreneur’s Shiny Ball Syndrome

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The great thing about entrepreneurs is their abundance of innovation and ideas.  The bad thing about entrepreneurs is…their abundance of ideas.

Often what stands in the way of growth is not the lack of opportunity but being distracted by too much opportunity.

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.

— Michael Porter

We see it every day in those managers who fire off emails to their team over the weekend, sharing their free time inspiration.  The ones who burst in on Monday morning and say “I’ve had a great idea!” (for the 4th time that month).

Is this you? Are you running from one opportunity to the next, always following the new shiny ball?  Well, the good news is, you’re not alone.

BY LOOKING EVERYWHERE, WE FOCUS NOWHERE.

The problem is that by looking everywhere, we focus nowhere and this is one of the biggest inhibitors to growth: the lack of focus in a consistent, single direction.

Let me give you an example, I once worked with an energetic young business owner who ran a cloud computing business.  To grow his firm he was launching a new service offering, expanding interstate, starting a consultancy and launching an iPhone app.  Any one of these initiatives could have been successful but taken together, they fragmented his attention, his passion and his resources. It’s no surprise that within 12 months he had cancelled all of these initiatives.

Many business owners face this problem.  The key is to focus on just one and more importantly, focusing on the right one.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD OPPORTUNITY

When you have an abundance of ideas and opportunities, how do you choose? Well the right one lies at the intersection of what is right for the business and what is right for you.  More specifically you need to identify:

the next logical opportunity given the business’s stage in its lifecycle and

the opportunity aligned to your big picture and overall game plan (direction, purpose, goals and values).

If you have these defined it allows you to focus on not only one shiny ball, but the right shiny ball.

THE SHINY BALL TEST

As entrepreneurs, we need to create a filter.  We need to establish guidelines that help differentiate between the strategic initiative and the shiny ball.  Here are a couple of tests to get you started:

  1. Is it aligned to the big picture?   Does it contribute to the goals, purpose and direction of your business?  If it’s not going to help you reach the end game, then it’s an opportunistic distraction rather than a strategic initiative.
  2. Does it accelerate your business strategy?  You should have a game plan for your business – a series of milestones or a roadmap of how you’re going to move forward.  If the initiative helps you get there, great.  If it doesn’t contribute to the milestones you’re working on, then it’s a shiny ball.

Questions like these help you stay the course in your business.  This is not to say you shouldn’t explore and innovate but they allow you keep your weekend inspiration in perspective and focus your energy, passion and more importantly, the finances and efforts of your team.

Reach for New Horizons

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Did you know that on the ocean, the horizon is only 8 nautical miles away?  When my family and I crossed the Atlantic in 2011, rather than being awed by the expanse it felt like we were sailing in a bubble. 

The same is true for many of us in life.  We live in a bubble defined by our upbringing, our education, our social circle.  These things define what we believe to be true. But like Columbus, we need to break away from ‘common beliefs’ and instead, lift our sights and see a broader horizon.

Unfortunately, this is a barrier too great for most. According to current ABS figures, the average small business owner innovates less than half as much as their corporate big brothers.  Even of those, 1 in 3 of those fail to innovate.  It seems that rather than reaching for new heights, many business owners are content with what is known, what is common… and therefore what is average.

“If you do not change direction, you will end up where you are going.

— Lao Tzu

Our limitations come from the limits of our imagination and the limits of our thoughts, knowledge and beliefs.  We need to break this myopia which can only be done through inquiry, learning and the inspiration of others.

A LITTLE INSPIRATION

So what can you do?  Here are a few personal habits I have for keeping my sights high:

  1. I follow people that inspire me.  If you’re lacking imagination, borrow someone else’s.  As a teenager I was lucky to spend a lot of time with self-made men in my sailing circles.  These people showed me that there was a broader horizon available than the one my family and friends knew of.
  2. I spend time with people who are smarter than I.  Nothing lifts your game like watching, speaking to and spending time with those you’re in awe of. These people can be mentors, authors or industry experts.
  3. I suspend disbelief.  Instead of saying “I can’t”, I say “I can’t yet (but I’ll be able to work it out eventually)”.  Imagination, inspiration, dreams and most importantly, self-efficacy are the foundations of a life lived to its full potential.

AN EXERCISE TO GET YOU STARTED

When trying to define your new horizons, it’s common for people to get stuck and not know where to begin.  Here’s a simple exercise that I use to get going:

Take yourself to a quiet corner and write the following phrase: “I see a future where…” and then complete the sentence…and the next… and the next.  In fact, keep writing, uncensored, unedited for the next 30min.  This becomes your personal vision statement – your own strategic intent, capturing all of your hopes, aspirations and dreams.

I like to draw mine as a mind map and stick it on the fridge where I can see it.  Other people like to create vision boards.  Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter.  Just capture it, document it and then let it ignite your dreams, because focusing your imagination has powerful effects.

Of course there’s action required to bring these things to fruition (read my blog on accountability) but this is a great place to start.

LIFT YOUR SIGHTS

So lift your sights, dream of distant shores and a new reality from the one you know today.

And then start!  Like Columbus, act with courage.  Cast off and reach for a new and broader horizon than the one you’ve known and lived so far.

Drive progress in your business this week.

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Since March this year, I’ve been hosting and facilitating accountability groups for people looking for a little more purpose and drive in their business each week.

Seeing the amazing benefits it’s had, I wanted to encourage everyone to give it a go so have compiled a few tips and resources to get you started with your own group.

WHAT’S AN ACCOUNTABILITY GROUP?

Accountability groups are a small group of like-minded business owners who meet at the start of each week to help one another drive progress in their business.

These groups sometimes meet face to face, sometimes virtually via Skype.  In either case, the results have been dramatic.  Kathryn runs a desktop publishing business.  She reported doubling her client base within 3 months.  David is a PR consultant and reported fixing a lot of issues that were holding him back.  Karen is a personal coach.  She was able to launch a workshop series in just a couple of weeks with the help of her accountability group.

There’s power in a public declaration of goals – and having to report back against them!

GETTING STARTED

Like to start your own accountability group?  Here’s a quick guide on how to start:

  • Tap people on the shoulder and personally invite them.  Tell them what the group is for and why you’ve invited them to be a part of it.  In the first instance aim for a group of 4 people.Tips for choosing the right people:
    1. Those who have no competitive interest in your space
    2. People you’re compatible with & willing to trust
    3. Diversity is good.  You want a cross pollination of ideas.

Example invitation:

Hi David,  I’m pulling together a small group of people as a bit of a brains trust and to help drive a little more focus & productivity each week.  I’ve really enjoyed our conversations on PR and thought you’d make a great contribution to the group.  Would you like to come and meet the others I’ve invited and see if there’s any merit in taking it forward?

  • Hold an initial meeting for people to get to know one another.
  • At this first meeting, the objective is more social.  Is the chemistry right? Do people want to opt in and continue?
  • This is a good time to reiterate the purpose of the meeting and to share the proposed agenda and expectations (see the Accountability Group Meeting Guide).
  • Work out a schedule and format that suits everyone.  We started face to face for the first 2 months but then moved to Skype every 2nd week.

Once you have the buy in of the people involved, send out a recurring meeting request and share the weekly goal setting template for everyone to use.

TIPS FOR SUCCESS:

  1. Keep to the time limit so that it’s brief and functional.  There’s always time to stay and chat afterwards.
  2. Share the responsibility for chairing the meeting
  3. Be accountable.  Always turn up or give a lot of notice if you can’t be there.
  4. Give:  You get so much more from the group if you are looking out for their best interests.  Keep an eye out for opportunities for them, offer help and even a little time swapping which is great for everyone involved.
  5. Set a review period.  Agree to run the group for a period of 3 months and then review.  This gives people the opportunity to opt out if they no longer need it or want to change.

If you have questions or need more help in setting up your group (or have a few tips of your own), send an email.  Also, there are always a number of people looking to join a group so if you’d like to be put in touch with other potential group members, let us know.

Best of Luck!

Challenge of the 1st Year

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The vast majority of those who take the bold step out of employment will find their first year a challenge.  Part of it issue is financial pressure, but an even larger problem is the process of having to redefine everything:  your role, your day, your priorities, your professional persona – even your role at home.

Ali Mese has written a fantastic account of his first year as a solopreneur and the transition he went through before making it through to the other side.  I encourage you to read it, reflect and have a little empathy for those who are still in the midst of it.

https://medium.com/everything-about-startups-and-entrepreneurship/how-quitting-my-corporate-job-for-my-startup-dream-f-cked-my-life-up-3b6b3e29b318

If Google is hiring 12 year olds, it must be right.

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14 YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS TAKE THE STAGE.

What do you get when you give 14 kids 4 industry leading mentors and put them in a room for 54 hours?  The next generation of inspiring young entrepreneurs, developing their craft at the age of 8!

AUSTRALIA’S FIRST START UP WEEKEND FOR KIDS

This weekend Rising Tide Ventures has been privileged to support the first Kids Start Up Weekend in Australia, held at the Microsoft Innovation Centre in Brisbane from 12-14 September.

From Friday through to Sunday evening, teams of young children aged 8-14 have come together to pitch, develop and validate their million dollar ideas (as well spending a little time on the new Xbox One!).

FROM IDEA TO INVESTMENT PROPOSAL IN 2 DAYS

Supported by experienced mentors, the children will be developing their pitch, gathering valuable market feedback and designing logos, websites and promotional material to launch their big idea.

The weekend culminates in a Sunday night pitch fest where the teams will attempt to impress judges and prove that their idea has what it takes to make it big.

COMPETING FOR A PLACE IN THE “SLIPSTREAM” BUSINESS ACCELERATOR PROGRAM.

The grand prize the teams are competing for is free entry into Rising Tide Venture’s business incubation program which will be specially modified for the kids.

This program will take the winning team through the Slipstream accelerated start up program, providing them with mentoring, collaboration tools & support to get their idea off the ground quickly.

A JUNIOR VERSION OF A GLOBAL START UP MOVEMENT

Led by Katey Shaw (@kateyshaw) and with the support of Matthew Dunstan (@_risingtide) Danielle Neale (@bespokesteam) and Microsoft’s Luke Sweatman, Kids Start Up weekend is a take on the adults event of the same name which has become a worldwide movement in 300 countries around the world.

According to Katey, this is just the first of many Kids Start Up weekends to come. “I love supporting kids in their entrepreneur journey.  There are so many things we can do to develop this next generation of talent”.

 

Post Script:  The winning team, Scioogle are on their way to having their first product available for sale by Christmas 2014.  Check out the great photo of the kids on the front page of the business section: https://twitter.com/_risingtide/status/514750486927261698

Winning team Scioogle prepare to take on the world.

 

LIKE TO JOIN THE NEXT KIDS START UP WEEKEND?  SUBSCRIBE BELOW AND WE’LL KEEP YOU IN THE LOOP AS PLANS DEVELOP.

 

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Benchmark Study: Living the Dream or Chasing It?

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Recently we began a benchmarking study for small business, looking at whether or not owners were achieving the measure of fun, success & balance they were hoping for.  Here’s the upshot of the study so far:

Aparently everyone is having a great time working for themselves but as expected, success has been ‘average’ as a whole and people are having to sacrifice time with friends and family to achieve it.

Like to join the study?  Tell us whether you’re living the drewam or chasing it, by taking a short survey here:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GLRGM7V

 

Growing 7 Aspiring Small Businesses

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This week saw the kick-off of our new group mentoring and collaboration program, Slipstream.

On Monday we welcomed 7 new and aspiring small business owners who for the next 6 months will be working together to make their products & services more compelling and their business more successful.

The topic of our first day was Innovation where we work-shopped how to make each businesses offering more unique and more compelling.   There were plenty of ideas around the table and everyone has taken away a number of actions, tweaking the way they package, promote & deliver their products & services.

For the next 3 weeks, the group will continue to work on this theme, checking in each Monday to report back on their progress so far.  Already we can see there are a lot of developments.  After just 3 days one participant has launched a new site and received his first client through that channel.  Another is in the process of embedding a unique differentiator into the way she delivers her services.

It’s hugely inspiring to see this group come together and collaborate, helping one another grow and develop each other’s’ business.  So much potential and we’re only half way through week 1 !

Next month, we’re going to focus on the next stage in the Slipstream methodology, Validation:  making sure you’re solving the real problem for the right customer.  We’ll be taking the group through the lean start up framework and testing their offer in their target market.

_________________

About Slipstream:

Slipstream is a 6 month group mentoring & collaboration program.  It’s designed for people who:

  • have aspirations to grow their business,
  • like the collaboration that comes from working with a group and
  • want the expertise and accountability that comes from working with a mentor

As a core principal, the program is based on a philosophy of success through teamwork and is delivered in a small group format of 6-8 participants, making the experience personal but affordable for small business.

To find out more or to receive a copy of the program outline, contact us here.

Square Your Shoulders, Take a Breath

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We all go through periods when each day is a tough one.  At times like this, it’s easy to question our resolve, give up on our dreams and retreat to what is safe and known.

It’s at these times you need to take a breath, square your shoulders and just put one foot in front of the other.

“When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.

— Harriet Beecher Stowe

As entrepreneurs and leaders we all face times like this.  Times when it would be easier to opt for a simpler life – any many do every day.  The business exit rate in Australia stands at 48% – there are a lot of broken dreams wrecked on the reef of entrepreneurship.

I’ve known many times like this myself.  Times in my career when I’ve been up against the wall.  Times at sea, when it was tough, exhausting and heart breaking. Times as an entrepreneur when I didn’t know how I was going to pay the rent next month.

But to accomplish extraordinary things you have to, by definition, be capable of extra ordinary (beyond ordinary) efforts.  It takes resilience, fortitude and commitment.

TOUCHING THE VOID

A great example of this is the story of New Zealand mountaineer Joe Simpson who fell 150 feet into a crevasse and broke his leg.  Badly injured, lost without food or water and unable to climb out, it would have been easy to give up. Instead, he lowered himself deeper into the crevasse, found another way out and then spent 3 days dragging his broken body 5 miles until he reached base camp.

Thankfully, few of the challenges we face are so extreme but the lesson still holds.  When you find yourself in a tough place, the only way out is to pick yourself up and put one foot in front of the other until you come out the other side.

FINDING A WAY FORWARD

When in places like this, here are a couple of things I’ve found that help:

  • Expect (and accept) the setbacks.  Knowing this is a normal state – that success requires renewal and growth, helps me keep things in perspective.
  • Visualise.  I take a deep breath, see my shoulders lifting and squaring up.  My back and torso lift and strengthen.  Mentally, I lean forward into the problem and then resolve to just put one foot in front of the other.
  • Know your purpose.  Knowing why I’m doing what I’m doing each day, why I’m getting out of bed, helps me see the bigger the picture.  It gives me energy and strengthens my resolve.
  • Faith that it will all work out.  I’ve been through a lot of adversity…and yet I’m still here and life is good.  Experience tells me that these times are temporary (and often necessary).  I know with the benefit of hindsight, I’ll be a better person when I reach the other side.

YOU ONLY HAVE 3 OPTIONS

At the end of the day, you only ever have three choices:

  1. Give up
  2. Stay in the dark places
  3. Walk yourself out

I’m not willing to stay in the dark. I’m not prepared to give up.  That only leaves one option.  To keep putting one foot in front of the other.  The sooner I start, the more consistently I do it, the sooner I come out on the other side.

What Our Clients Say

We would like to take a moment to say thanks.

The knowledge and advice provided by Board Associates provided clarity for our business strategy and allowed us to navigate a successful exit via trade sale.

The time and information provided to us was invaluable to reaching the goals and outcomes that were set out.
We would strongly recommend your services to other companies as it provided information that we hadn’t even thought of.

Challenged us to think of the business in new ways and helped bring our growth strategy into focus

Our Advisory Board challenges our thinking, provides the confidence to grow and the brains around the table to do it responsibly.

Their work brought clarity and insight to our strategic planning workshops and advisory board meetings. They were particularly adept at navigating tricky issues with tact and sensitivity. I’d have no hesitation in recommending Board Associates in this capacity… they were well suited to unraveling issues back to their core.

The knowledge and connections we were were able to access through the Growing 100 program have contributed to new partnerships and clarity in our business’ direction. Board Associates insight to the business world and in particular, start-ups, has been incredibly helpful. Not only did they give us strategic guidance on how to grow the business, but they also gave us the reassurance and encouragement we needed to know that we are on the right track.

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