If you’ve been following my journey of self-discovery as a go about rebuilding an existing business and rebuilding a new one, you’ll know that I’ve created other businesses before and helped others with their entrepreneurial journey in a variety of different areas or ways.
It stands to reason that for me to start again it would be easy; after all, it’s not my first Rodeo. Yet while that’s true, this time it’s entirely different—I’ve never started a business during a global pandemic—one which has decimated key industries, forced the closure of countless small businesses and has put millions of people globally out of work.
So yes, this rodeo is different because it is a totally new horse, in fact this pandemic is a true bucking-bronco!
Albert Einstein said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
That means what I might have done in the past, at least not all of it, will not be applicable for starting a business by just diving in as I may have done before.
Any other time I would have whipped out my Lean Canvas, 1-page Business plan template and have had it. This time around, I need to do some strategic thinking in a way I’ve never done before. This time around there are a host of questions that I need to think about which I’ve never had to consider before I even get to putting pen to paper on the 1-page business plan.
Listed below are thirteen questions that I really want to think about in great depth before I go any further to develop the new business ideas and restructuring the existing business model.
1. If my current offerings (the
product or services) are no longer relevant, is it the offer itself that is no
longer relevant or is it the way I deliver that offering that needs to change?
2. Where is the pain in the marketplace even more advanced due to the pandemic
and global economic crisis?
3. Where are the growth industries today and three to five years from now?
4. What is dying off or morphing to a become the new normal?
5. Is it possible to future-proof this new business so that it is sustainable
when the next pandemic hits?
6. How do I create this new business AND keep my costs down?
7. How can I maximize my time and efforts as I begin to rebuild?
8. Where is ‘good enough’ good enough?
9. What do I need to let go of in order for the future to emerge?
10. What do I need to do to really 3X-10X my earning potential?
11. As uncertainty resigns, what is the 2-year plan for the business to thrive?
12. How do I need to show up to make this business happen?
13. How do I build this business, so my family is an equal priority?
So that’s my starting point. I suppose I need to put on my own futurist hat and figure out where the world is heading, where are the needs in the future marketplace and then reverse engineer my product or service offering.
It’s a good thing I’ve got a clear calendar for the next two days, because this is really going to take some serious reflection time.
And so the journey continues.
Pamela Wigglesworth CSP, is an International Speaker, Marketing consultant and CEO of Experiential Hands-on Learning. She is a 50-60 Something entrepreneur who consults and trains individuals and organizations, so they can effectively communicate the value of their products and services to generate greater awareness, increase their leads and ultimately increase their sales. She is the author of The 50-60 Something Start-up Entrepreneur: How to Quickly Start and Run a Successful Small Business.
