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Making the Leap from Entrepreneurial Start‐up to Mainstream Business Summary/Description Many entrepreneurs find it difficult to move from the entrepreneurial start‐up phase of their business to creating a prosperous mainstream business. We examine some of the challenges facing business owners here. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ During the entrepreneurial phase of a young business, the owners often manage by doing and have not yet considered the longer term game plan. This is an exciting time in the life of a business and the owners live on an adrenalin rush of initial success and fast paced decision making. They live in the space which is closest to their background experience. Marketers focus on marketing, engineers focus on engineering and sales people do exactly what they do best. With success comes complexity and the need to bring additional skills into the business. Growing sales demands better accounting and administration functions. Excellent marketing drives the need for streamlined logistics and manufacturing processes. Many of these skills will not be in the portfolio of the owner/manager and a rush of new hires transforms the operational capability of the business. The challenge is to avoid losing the entrepreneurial spirit of the business during this metamorphosis. The business often moves from being a lean and instantly reactive machine to one that loses its first mover advantage. However, this does not have to be the case. A little bit of forethought from the management team can anticipate these changes and prepare contingencies to address them. The best way to address this revolution of fundamental and structural change is to write a business plan. It becomes the road map to guide you through the confusion and drives you towards the articulated destination. So when is the right time to start business planning? It is different for every company. Once the operation starts to develop complexity and the balance of risk versus reward changes, then you know that you can no longer make instant and instinctive decisions without forethought and some deliberation amongst the top team. Planning is not a solo exercise and it demands contributions and buy‐in from key managers. The plan must belong to all of you, not just the founder, if it is to succeed in driving the business forward. Planning should start with informal brainstorming amongst the key managers. At the idea generation phase, every idea should be listed for consideration. Be careful not to stymie innovative thinking by knocking ideas as they surface. Comparison of alternatives takes place later in the cycle. Try to establish the end game before you leave the home plate. If you know where you are taking the business, then you can take the quickest and most useful route to the destination. You can then establish clear milestones that are a barometer of your progress.
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BIO Resource Box Niall Strickland is an MBA with more than 20 years of business coaching and management consulting experience working with CEO’s in small and medium businesses. He can provide additional information about writing winning business plans at www.NiallStrickland.com This article has also been published on www.EzineArticles.com
Visit www.NiallStrickland.com to download other Business Articles, to view Business Advice Videos or to Discover the full range of products and services available