It’s all about focus.
Entrepreneurs live several steps ahead of everyone else. They exist in a parallel universe where anything is possible and this is the magic of entrepreneurism. I don’t know an entrepreneur that I would describe as ‘practical’ or ‘careful.’
Building a business, particularly from scratch, requires a leader who doesn’t listen too closely to the many ‘that will never work’ comments they get when starting out. If they did, there would be no startups or small businesses. I love this quality. It is the caffeine of business and really speeds things up.
Focus as fuel.
Harnessing the power of this fuel in a safe and productive way can be an ongoing challenge for the team supporting a driven, fast-thinking entrepreneur. (I write this sitting next to a large, man-made lake kept constantly warm by the nuclear power plant it is used to cool—this may be inciting my energy references.) Thinking about business-driving marketing, living in a world of anything is possible does tend to lead to a business having more marketing ideas than it can successfully execute to its advantage. In steps prioritization.
Tapping entrepreneurial magic (back to the lake, the ‘nuclear fuel rods’) to fuel the business requires one element more than anything else; focus. Out of the 100 amazing ideas, which are the three to five that have the greatest chance of growing the business now, next quarter, or next year?
Get it done.
In my experience, entrepreneurs love this conversation. This is because the only thing that energizes an entrepreneur as much as their vision is actually executing that vision. The things the business focuses on are the things that get executed. I find that this list tops out around five priorities. (Three is better if you can do it.) If you have a list of seven or eight priorities, when you do your look back on the previous quarter’s performance, it usually just means you have three or four things you didn’t execute properly.
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Bryan McCarter is a marketer with an affinity for startups & small business brands. His background includes New York advertising agencies and several global brands. He is now focused on helping growing brands establish their marketing capabilities via ad hoc consulting services. Contact Bryan at [email protected] or schedule an introductory call here.