Entrepreneurs - Are These Six Dragons Stopping You and Your Start Up Company?
What dragons are stopping you from taking the next step with your start up or emerging company? Are you stuck at a fork in the road on your way to success with your vision?
While individually working with over 2,000 entrepreneurs and start up company CEOs, I’ve noticed that, in many cases, one or more of a particular half-dozen deadly dragons can often stop a company in its tracks.
Which ones are blocking your personal path for your start up company right now?
- The Indecision Dragon – Closely related to the Overchoice Dragon, this brute keeps whispering “What if this and what if that…” which keeps you from making key decisions and making progress. Yogi Berra, the New York Yankee philosopher, said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” What are the top dozen genuine pivot points for your company right this minute? What do you need to know today to make a decision on each - and cross each one off the list as completed? What do you finally need to know to get past that fork in the road? Remember: No decision IS a decision – one that can affect all future decisions, choices, direction and timetables. Don’t lose by default.
- The Perfection Dragon – This varmint keeps telling you to stop until absolutely everything is perfect. The trouble is few things in life are ever perfect. I have found that sloppy success is almost always far better for most companies than procrastinated perfection. What else do you need to know to be perfect enough for now – so you can take the next step? Is this another paralyzing fork for you?
- The Dollar Dragon – This is one very lethal dragon that needs to be dealt with wisely. How much money does it REALLY take for success? How much money for proof of concept? How much capital do you need to keep you from running out of cash before positive cash flow? Where will the capital come from? How are you going to knowledgeably answer all of these questions about YOUR start up company? How much longer will it take for you to know the right answers so you can make progress? Do you have a dollar waiting on a dime?
- The Expertise Dragon – We all have our own unique set of skills we’ve learned over the years. We all also have missing skill sets – stuff we’ve just never learned yet. What are the top dozen missing skill sets for you and your company, right here, right now? What are the gaps in management? What is on your Action List that requires more expertise than you or your team members have? What kind of expertise could you use to get you past this dragon and on down the road to success? Who can provide you this expertise? What are you going to do to strengthen your strengths and minimize or eliminate the weaknesses? Are you making critical decisions without the right expertise? If so, what are the short-term AND long-term risks and real costs of those potentially lethal bad strategic and tactical decisions?
- The Time Dragon – It’s really too bad that there are only 30 hours in a day and 8 days in a week. Even if there really was that much time, most of us would still constantly run out of this continuously depleting commodity. Ever notice how this dragon, and life, keeps getting in the way of making progress with your new company? Does your business model and concept get more stale as more time passes without progress and competitors move forward with your ideas? What major and minor tasks on your Action List can you delegate so that you can buy more time for you to lead the charge and get farther done the path toward the success of your vision?
- The Implementation Dragon – Do you really know all the puzzle pieces required for the complete big picture of your start up company? Do you know all the steps required for successful implementation of your vision? Do you have a comprehensive Action List of all the steps required to get you from where you are now to where you want to be in one year? Five years?
Or, are any or all of these dragons going to keep blocking your path – so that a year from now, five years from now, your vision, and you, will be in the same place where you are today?
Sometimes, it seems like ALL of these dragons are blocking your path to success for your vision – all at the same time. And, these are just six of the multitude of dragons that try to interfere with entrepreneurs just like you from starting their company and successfully implementing their vision.
Which ones are causing you the most grief today?
What other dragons, specific to you and your company, are also blocking your success?
It IS Lonely At The Top
Who do you turn to, as a start up or emerging company CEO or founder - for sound business advice, for a different perspective, for efficient brainstorming, for help with your dragon slaying? Who do you use as a mentor and trusted adviser, who can give you objective, one-on-one, confidential and experiential help with your own company?
For many CEOs and owners, it really IS lonely at the top.
I’ve successfully helped many hundreds of clients answer exactly these kinds of questions and slay these kinds of dragons.
I have found during my past 15 years of consulting with start up and emerging companies that many of the above half dozen dragons can be slayed with just a few hours of mentoring. Often, it just takes one or two insights and epiphanies to get my clients past those dragons and much farther down their path toward achieving their goals.
Get Help Now
The power of these quick insights is why I offer my clients my Start Up Company Mentoring Service at http://www.StartUpCompanyMentoring.com.
Are there other issues, problems or opportunities you would like to brainstorm about your company?
I invite you to check out the site for my services. There, you can usually sign up for as little as one hour of mentoring. Once you sign up, we can immediately schedule a teleconference to discuss your dragons and your goals.
Of course, we can’t solve every problem, and slay every dragon, in only an hour or two – but, together, we might be able to efficiently brainstorm some quick answers for you – and a genuinely implementable action plan – that will get you past these pesky dragons and get you closer to your vision of success.
Reserve your brainstorming and mentoring time now by visiting http://www.StartUpCompanyMentoring.com.
PS: Limited AvailabilityOne-on-one mentoring and dragon slaying is probably the most enjoyable part of Start Up Company University for me. I love the rapid fire brainstorming and efficient problem solving with my clients – and being able to provide so much pivotal help in such a short period of time.
However, my availability for one-on-one mentoring can be very limited due to my other client, corporate and personal commitments and time requirements. Hence, some of my mentoring options may be unavailable at any given time.
Please check http://www.StartUpCompanyMentoring.com for the current status and availability.
