DOING THE HARD SELL

Years of experience or not, we’ve still got to (as someone once told me) “just pick up the phone and call!”

So, here goes:

Whether you are facing a business problem or just simply want to find out how you can attain the next level of your business, we look forward to hear from you.

Reach us at lauricstrategy@hotmail.com and we’ll work it out together.

ONCE A STARTUP, ALWAYS A STARTUP?

It’s great to have an entrepreneurial spirit.

It’s even greater to be an entrepreneur with a startup because you’re devoting your energies and time to sow your idea. But beyond all the excitement and the busyness of the brain-storming sessions, the collaborations and the sharing of ideas; beyond the search for suitable partners or the paperwork or the rental of office space or work space or the preparation of presentations lies the crux of all your activities.

Seeds of Rubber

The seed- and every seed that is sown waits out a future to be what it is created to be.

 

But that future doesn’t come automatically. Neither does it come easy. Plenty of day-by-day grind goes into the nurturing of that seed before a sapling even appears. Along the way, perhaps someone will encourage you not to “be so negative and skeptical when something is not properly tried in the first place.”

 

Or someone else might say to you,

“How to reach strategy or product vision without making money? How to survive long enough to attract investors without money?”

 

We do agree. Because as your seed grows, real-world issues do crop up, and very often, these will be threatening ones multiplying at horrifying speeds and which can cripple your survival in a stroke or two. It can come in the form of an inadequate consumer market. It can mean that a fantastic product or service successfully implemented elsewhere faces a problem of localization or it can be that somehow, your consumers don’t seem to need your product as much as you think they do.

 

But the availability of finances alone will not solve the issues you will then face at hand, and right now you can dedicate your resources with the goal toward immediate cash flow, you can worry about all the urgent tasks a startup will definitely encounter, you can start with as positive a mindset as you can be about finances and business plans and implementation processes- but without careful sustainability planning at the onset- not at the bottom of the to-do list- likely your startup will end up in a situation that “didn’t make it,” because the “market (was) not big enough,” and so the business “lost the energy” and all because consumers “are too stingy to even pay a little.”

 

A situation that no genuine, dream-believing entrepreneur will want, because no matter how well-managed your finances are or how passionate you are about your startup, it really isn’t only about a plot of land, however small- and your flexibility to curtail and adjust your goals for it. It is really about keeping that plot of land and expanding that plot to become a plantation- and another- and another- and when that goal becomes essential, you will need more than a haphazardly-rushed, short-term business plan. You will need accurate budgeting during the planning, accurate cash flow projections and the ability to attract investors.


In short, you will need an integrated, detailed and pragmatic market strategy.

HOW TO CHOOSE A STRATEGY CONSULTANT: Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

There’s a saying that you get what you pay for. There’s also the often-too-late realization that sometimes you have ended up paying way more for what you really got. Making a decision to hire a strategy consultant sounds easy. But it’s important to make sure you choose a strategy consultant that is right for the job. Because whether they might be master builders, business coaches, advisors or futurists, the task of separating the wheat from the chaff rests on your shoulders. So, who’s the wheat, and who’s the chaff?

 

A strategy consultant is, basically, someone who works with business owners to devise and develop a strategy that is capable of achieving the stated goals of the business. And here lies the tricky part. How do you define what capability really is? How do you know whether he or she has the expertise for what your business needs at this very juncture?

Five penetrating questions are sufficient to provide a general guideline for you to assess the consultant.

1. What is the real specialization of the consultant?
2. Has the consultant walked in your shoes- or is at least willing to try?
3. Does the consultant have a solution-focused mentality?
4. Are the solutions the consultant suggests pragmatic ones?
5. Does the consultant prove his ability to adapt?

Not everyone who calls themselves a business coach is truly able to coach you on the intricacies of running a business, in the same way that not every consultant who replicates a generalized marketing strategy to you has a proven specialization in the very industry of your business. Yet that is a catalytic element. Success requires a business strategy that has been tailored to meet the nuances of your industry, your marketplace and your business itself. A consultant needs to be a specialist in your industry, whether retail, technology, food, logistics, manufacturing, property or media & entertainment, to capitalize on his experience and firsthand knowledge about the unique challenges you face to bring maximum value to your business.

 

Better yet, if he has been in your shoes- and has walked in it. The best consultants are those who, firstly, can define what their business is and who they are. Someone who describes herself to have multiple professional interests and is at once a business coach, a consultant, a researcher and a futurist is way too much of a generalist to engage in your business. If your consultant has had personal experience what it means to build a business, to drive change and implement strategy and if he has direct knowledge of the real-world competitors, obstacles, opportunities and challenges your industry faces, you will likely receive practical recommendations for business success.

 

The consultant might not be Leonardo Da Vinci or Nikola Tesla- scientists passionate about finding and creating solutions to the real-world problems of their day and also futurists- but he has to formulate effective strategies that address your barriers to growth. Qualitative and quantitative analysis provide a critical depth of understanding of your industry but the consultant would have to be assessed on his skills in creating solutions for your business challenges. Merely obsessing about being able to charge you sizeable consultancy rates for telephone conversations does not take into consideration the fact that the solution to business meetings lies beyond a telephone or a mobile but includes global conferencing, video conferencing, emails, mobile chat platforms and it too disregards the information that the prospective client owns a tablet, a high-speed data connection and Skype.

 

Of course, solutions are of no use either if it lacks pragmatism. A suggested solution that appears to wish you well in your business but then is discovered to be impractical in its implementation to solve your business’ challenges and obstacles will mean that you have unfortunately paid good money for chaff.

 

That is why good consultants are present throughout the implementation process. Because good consultants who have firsthand knowledge, who have walked in your shoes and who are passionate about finding and creating solutions are convinced that with every business lies a situation that contains distinctive opportunities and what was successful for a similar client might need to be adapted in order to be appropriate for you.

 

There’s just one more thing that differentiates a good strategy consultant from a mediocre one. A good one is not illogically defensive and he will adopt a scientific, non-theoretical approach towards every predicament, which means that there is a continuous stream of cold, calculative self-assessment towards the very solutions that he will be presenting to you.