⚽️ Get on the Field and Play
💸 Grow With Cash
🧭 Adapt Before It’s Too Late
⚽️ Get on the Field and Play
A mom gave her son a brand new soccer uniform. As he ran out the door in his shiny new uniform with cleats over his shoulder, his mom said, “If you bring this home clean, I will be very upset with you.”
You don’t buy sporting equipment to keep it clean. Get on the field and play.
The same is true in business. A pretty strategy that sits in a PowerPoint deck is useless.
The thing you create at a boardroom table is shiny and special, like a new uniform. It’s not until you get on the field and get dirty that it becomes something.
Execution breathes life into a strategy. You have to try, make mistakes, get feedback, learn, adapt, and do it again. Each cycle brings new insights, expertise, and capabilities. The more you do it, the better it gets.
Get your strategy dirty. Get on the field. Interact with customers. Compete. Win some, lose some. It’s all part of the game.
💸 Grow With Cash
Don’t bet with debt if you don’t have certainty in your strategy.
In a high-interest, high-inflation market, cash is king. Your ability to drive organic growth through cash flow is a competitive advantage.
Three tools that inform and support organic growth are annual strategic planning, budgeting, and forecasting.
When an organization is managed to its numbers with a plan, it tends to be more profitable and successful than its peers.
The plan sets priorities and actions for the organization to hold itself accountable. The budget defines how the organization will invest its resources to achieve the desired results. The forecast informs whether it’s on track or not.
Each tool requires effort to master and institutionalize. They’re not like a switch that you turn on and say, “Now we do planning, budgeting, and forecasting.” They take 6 to 18 months to master and implement as part of your business’s management system.
📊 One Stat to Watch
1%
It’s a no-hire, no-fire market. Layoffs are at 1%, a multi-decade low. Job growth is at an anemic 1.1%. The market is as close to status quo as it can get.
🧭 Adapt Before It’s Too Late
People change. Products change. Strategies change. If a business is not maintained, it falls apart.
The scary part is how rapidly mid-market businesses are being eroded from the top and bottom.
With rising costs and a low- to no-growth economy, large companies are shifting downmarket, while small businesses are nipping at your heels. Everyone is scrambling for the same pie and trying to steal market share from each other.
To stay nimble, ask three questions:
- Who needs our company and its expertise the most right now?
- What products or services can we deliver to solve real problems that are valued?
- How do we proactively sell and deliver our services to the people who need them most?
Growth isn’t about being nostalgic about what you’ve built or done. It’s about looking forward and proactively moving to where the market is going.
🤔 Thoughts on Today’s Issue?
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