Start to Finish

"No one remembers what you talked about doing"

A new business, product, feature, market, business partner, staff member, marketing plan…. bell … whistle.

At any given moment there are literally a 100 different projects or initiatives that you can start working on. The question is… which ones should you start and finish?

If you’re a start-up or a business experiencing exponential growth your answer better be “whatever helps generate revenue today”.

I’ve seen several brilliant “starts” die because the entrepreneurs were constantly focused on implementing “exciting” new ideas or bringing on new team members all while still figuring out the business AND expending lots of time, money and energy along the way.

The real challenge for most growing companies is executing the “finish”.
Too many businesses recently have forgot this simple truth.

Easy money has allowed many companies to raise capital at higher and higher valuations without much regard for pesky things like profitability.

This has allowed several bad habits to multiply:

• Too many managers and not enough people with their sleeves rolled up
• Too much theory and discussion and not enough testing and application
• Too much focus on branding and not enough focus on actual sales
• Too many internal meetings and not enough client facing interactions

You see…starting something new is sexy. It can be glamorous and exciting and there is almost always a “honeymoon” period where people temporarily cut some slack and suspend judgement.

Eventually though reality sets in, the music stops and funds dry up for the businesses that are great at “starting” as everyone involved (employees, investors etc.) eventually expects a return on their time or money.

This is why the only companies that make it over the long term need to constantly create real value and deliver products and services that people actually want.

Whether you’re running a small business of one or are managing a team of 30 and still growing the key to your continued success and growth is being very selective in what new “starts” you embark on within your business.

If the new “initiative” or “partnership” doesn’t exponentially increase your existing business; it’s likely not worth doing. No amount of time or capital investment will change this.

Investing money and time will only delay the inevitable and suck precious resources from what does work.

Anyone can start something. Few people finish.

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