In my strategy sessions with entrepreneurial clients, I am usually bombarded with dozens of issues that seem to be preventing their concepts or businesses from taking off, growing and prospering.
The clients then expect me to whip out a whole encyclopedia of solutions to fix the problems.
When the situation is bleak, there’s usually one problem that’s the cause and thus requires one solution for things to go back to normal or to improve. The reason is that everything is related.
The recent case I came across will illustrate my point.
An entrepreneur I casually spoke to, after being introduced by mutual friends, asked me for a professional opinion.
Sales were down. Employees were quitting. Creditors were growing impatient. Her services were getting bad press. Clients were deserting her. The stress was affecting her social and family lives.
She wanted to know where to start in finding solutions to her many problems.
I shared that in fact she had one problem and that the issues she had just shared were the physical manifestations. The key was to out the root, fix it and everything would fall back into place.
In situations like these, I know right away that the root of the problems is a losing strategy. How did I know?
When an industry is doing well and the competition is comprised of several players that are also doing well, struggling companies usually have a flawed strategy. The entrepreneur is in the hair care industry and I know of several hair salons that are making a killing.
It did not take long to spot the flawed strategy: there was none! Actually, according to her, she was all about good service at the best prices for everyone. Most entrepreneurs have such a strategy and maybe that’s why 95% percent fail.
“There’s one solution to your problems”, I told her. “You need a differentiation strategy”. To better explain my thinking, I took three example of successful hair salons, broke down their strategies and explained to her that she needed to develop one for her own salon.
We’re supposed to meet this week for a strategy session where I will help her identify the concept that she can use to differentiate her salon and attract more clients, pay her creditors and staff from new found revenues, boost employee morale from new business and ultimately eliminate the stress in her life and put her social and family lives back on a good track.
One problem, one solution. Easy concept to understand. Hard to accept.
