Are You Determined?

Creating something new causes pain.  That’s just the way it is.  Especially anything worthwhile: a birth, a new nation, artwork, a marriage.

If you want a successful business, then you MUST be able to endure pain.

Almost anyone who decides to start a business has determination.  But they don’t always have success in their new venture.  About two thirds of startups survive two years, but only half survive more than five years.  What makes the difference between the winners and losers?

When the pain comes, you have to know what is on the other side, and you need a plan on how to get there.  The pain will always come in unexpected ways.  As George Romney said, “There is nothing as vulnerable as entrenched success.”  If things are going well for a while and you quit working on your business strategy, that is when you are guaranteed to face trouble.

Stubborn pig headed determination isn’t enough.  You can be determined, but if you are headed the wrong direction, it will never matter how fast you get there.  You need a rock-solid strategic business plan to lay out exactly what your business will do.

Government regulations change. Your competition changes their marketing plan.  What do you do?  Does your strategy look to the future or the past?  What drives value for your firm?  How do you make money?  How can you increase productivity?

If you have a great business plan you will know.  And your team will know you know.

Tags: Business Plan, Creativity, Determination, Leadership, Strategy

This entry was posted on March 9, 2010 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Business Plan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.