All Articles Related to Strategy

Kevin and Cliff keep posing us lawyers some interesting questions. The idea of Soshi using music industry agents in the US makes sense from a financial viewpoint but is also a great tool to help them tap right into a key network. However, experience of dealing with US agents confirms that they are right to be cautious.

Cliff and Kevin have identified a crucial aspect of both entrepreneurial and business development.

There are so many cliff edges of decision that you will find yourself standing on, as you seek to grow your business - furthermore, you KNOW that you have to jump and you worry like hell about whether you will fly or fall onto the rocks below.

This emotional dilemna can create so much tension and anxiety, especially if you have other partners or stakeholders involved in the process. It also doesn't help knowing that whatever you / all decide, it will change the way in which your business and relationships will develop in the future, good or bad..

I thought Matt's post on his most gruelling week ever gave an interesting snapshot of the life of the entreprenuer. "Too busy dashing from place to place" or "not enough hours in the day" are common 'complaints' from those trying to start their own business and yet I note not one word of complaint from Matt merely statements of satisfaction withwhat he managed to achieved. I take great encouragement from that and consider it to be a postive sign that he has what it takes to make a success of his business.

Aside from the mindset issue Matt's blog brings to mind the matter of prioritisation. It is absolutely true that anybody trying to make a success of their own business will have a huge number of things to do and never enough time so they must avoid the common pitfall of becoming a busy fool. At the start of every week I have a long list of things to do. The first thing I always do is sit down and categorise things into 'must do', 'important', 'can wait' etc. It is important to identify and prioritise those tasks which are are consistent with the company strategy and will add most value to the business. To be able to do this it is imperative to be thinking about where and what shape you want the business to be in 1,3 and 5 years time, and where will your market place be at that time - i.e. to a large extent what is the end game? Without thinking this through it is impossible to identify those things which are strategically most valuable and therefore should be prioritised. 

The same principle applies to the significant numbers of leads and contacts that the Soshi Games guys picked up from their trp to SxSW. Trying to follow up on all of these over time may over time (a long time!) be possible but they should sit down and analyse which of them are best positioned for their strategic direction and could bring most value to the business and focus their initial efforts on those. The scattergun approach very rarely brings success even when you are tryiing to achieve your first big breakthrough.

In summary work smart as well as hard!

In Simon from Co-Go Coffee’s blog he mentions that he spends a lot of time thinking through the consequences of his business decisions and he’s concerned this is slowing his business down.

I'm often asked my secret to building a business...it’s quite simple - take a risk, follow your instinct and just go for it!

Like Matt, we are all told to consider the subject of niche markets and whether you can have too many. Well I’m no marketing expert, but in simple terms a niche market is an identifiable market that can be targeted and the key word here is ‘market’.  We are not talking here about products e.g. the Toyota Prius or denture cream, but a new group of people that we can sell our products to.