Let's put two things together here, because what we're doing now, you and me
together, we're the strategy team. We're trying to assess Susan's current
reality because we cannot advise her on her future reality until we understand
her current reality. And so, I'm drilling down deep
intentionally on her current reality, okay?
And I'm talking about all the products she's got.
But now, let's move to a discussion about Susan.
Susan, the entrepreneur. What are her strengths and weaknesses?
What is she good at? What are her personal and business goals?
What are her priorities? Why do we need to know all this?
Why, when you're making your growth decision for your business, do you need
to sit back and do the same? What am I good at?
What am I not good at? What do I enjoy doing?
What do I not enjoy doing? What's my end-game?
End-game, gain, what do I mean by that? This is conversation time now.
This is we're talking, we're talking here.
What do I mean by end-game? Is it your ultimate goal?
Do you want to be a large public company? Or do you want to earn so much money to
live on? Do you want to have 50 employees?
Do you want to be the number one provider of your product in your community in
which you live? What's the end-game, why are you doing
this? Now, most people want to grow a business
because they think they have to. Yeah.
I know, I know what you're saying.
You're thinking, well, we learned in Week 1, you don't have to grow your business.
You just have to continually improve your business so you stay ahead of the
competition. It's the Bayer story again.
All you got to do is outcompete the competition.
And you learned you don't have to grow, unless you want to grow.
And understanding why you want to grow is critical to this whole analysis as what
she should do. It's interesting.
I was doing consulting with a, with a client, it was a very successful company.
They had grown, had 25 employees, four partners in the business, and they
decided do we take it to the next level? And see these decisions and these tools
which we're using here, this way of analysis, this way of thinking, it will
apply throughout your entrepreneurial business.
It's not just the first growth phase because every growth phase will plateau,
will plateau. Let's draw a picture of a plateau.
You are going to go like that. That's the plateau.
P, L, A, T, E, A, U, that's the plateau.
Then, you got another decision. Do I try again or am I happy like that?
In all of things, you got to prevent growing like that,
okay? That's the no, no,
alright? So, this group of five, we sit down.
I asked them a question. Why do you want to grow?
Well, they were paying me lots of money to be a
strategy consultant and the first thing someone says, I can't believe you're even
asking that question. Why is that important?
That says, because if you don't understand why you want to grow, you
can't determine what you're willing to do to grow, how much you want to grow, and
the alternative way to grow. And so, they went around the table.
I asked them, person number one, I'm not going to use real names here, for
obvious. Person number one, why do you want to
grow? And I loved it, I loved it, why do you
think I loved it? because he said exactly what most people
say, well, you've got to grow or die, okay?
Well, you learned in Week 1, okay, that's a bunch of malarkey.
You've got to grow or die. Another person says, well if we don't
grow, we won't have opportunities for our employees.
Well, you know, that sounded real good, okay?
But generally speaking, when someone says that, there is another reason, okay? I
asked a third person, why do you want to grow?
And she said well, if we don't grow, we can't afford to
promote people. I said, why is that?
Well, if we promote people, we have to pay them more and if we don't grow and we
have to pay them more, then I take home less.
So, we have to grow in order to pay our people more and for me to stay even.
