As a long-time entrepreneur, I’ve had the opportunity to found and co-found a variety of businesses and non-profit organizations. More recently, I’ve sat on advisory boards for other companies and have been mildly surprised at the nature of the common struggles they each face. While there are many moving parts required to build a successful business, I’ve encapsulated the most common obstacles into the “Three F’s” every startup must master.
Future
If you’ve read the E-Myth, you know not many businesses come as a ‘vision from above.’ Most are born out of a hard reality: getting fired (like me), laid off, bored or are somehow inspired to make a change. Most entrepreneurs are technicians within a specific discipline expertise (sales, plumber or engineer) who decide it was time to go out on their own. Many of those new business owners start with a new company name and an email to their network informing them of the news. Very few take the time to flesh out the “why” or purposes of their business, let alone create a concrete vision for the company. Some business owners require years of reflection and even failures to clearly identify why they are in business. The backside of initial strategic planning relates to the exit strategy. Most exits involve acquisition, few have a secession plan (for handing over the reins to family or employees) and even fewer ever achieve IPO. While it’s not critical to finalize your exit strategy on day 1, having definition or agreement on which one (or more) of the options is most desirable greatly aids in making business decisions moving forward (even affecting corporate structure during incorporation).
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