Wim GE De Vos

Small businesses with a BIG impact

The winds have shifted ⛵️ and you are in charge.

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Bob´s advice…

The winds have shifted ⛵️ and you are in charge.

When the winds change suddenly it comes as a surprise. The boat heels over. What worked before does not work anymore…

You need to steer the boat in a different direction before you run out of energy or get into trouble. You need to act quickly and firmly, but without panic. And act as a crew.

Pay extra attention while you get a feel for the new direction and the strength of the wind before you can be sure to have got it right and are on a new course.

Accept it is your responsibility to guide your company out of harm´s way and to place it in a position where you can prosper in the new future. Nobody else can do this but you.

The last months I have been working on something to help small businesses deal with the impact of change. Something to help you find your way through uncharted territories and come out winning.

Part of it will be to raise your awareness of what it is like to go through cataclysmic changes and to acquire a framework in which you can deal with them.

Strategic inflection points force us to have a different mindset than the business-as-usual running of the business on autopilot we are so used to.

Strategic inflection points and the change they bring about sometimes push us in a corner, make us think about survival so much we only understand the significance of the change upon us (too) long after the fact.

Survive, transform and bounce forward. Together.
Right into a new better future packed with opportunity.

Stay tuned…

person first

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One night a father was relaxing with his newspaper after a long day at the office. His son, who wanted to play, kept on pestering him.

Finally, fed up, the father ripped out a picture of the globe that was in the newspaper and tore it into a hundred tiny pieces. “Here son, go ahead and try to put this back together,” he said, hoping that this would keep his little boy busy long enough for him to finish his newspaper.

To his amazement, his son returned after only one minute with the globe perfectly back together.

When the startled father asked how he achieved this feat, the son smiled gently and replied

“Dad, on the other side of the globe there was a picture of a person, and once I got the person together, the world was okay.”*

Next time we are faced with a challenge or opportunity. Let´s think about this. Focus on putting the person together first. Because once we do – the rest will be OK.

Personal Kaizen works wonders.

*From “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”.

Optimists vs Pessimists

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The current climate looks challenging. Especially because we get bombarded with negative inputs and confronted with a dark context. But contexts are not reality.

Every day each of us gets to choose what we focus on. What to work on. And our focus and work will guide our direction and ultimately outcomes.

We are not born an optimist or pessimist. We train to be one.

Optimists train their mental muscles daily for a growth mindset. It does not come easy. Nor does working out every morning at 6 AM. But over time the effects are massive. And the option is there for every one of us.

Optimists believe in the power to change things. Not some naive “things will work out”, but a belief that if we focus on the right things almost anything is possible.

Optimists see failure as a learning moment on route to the goal. It fuels us to do and think better.

Optimists transmit confidence that we and the people around us can steer towards a better outcome. Together.

Optimists deeply understand the power of community. Togetherness. We will bundle positive energy whenever we can.

Optimists are the ones people follow and look to for inspiration. Nobody wants to follow a pessimist.

Optimists are the ones who change the world. Because we envision a future that can be. And are willing to work hard for it.

Let´s make optimism the standard. Together.

And think like a Proton. Always positive.

Note for eternal pessimists: if you refuse to put in the work (yes I just called out your mental laziness) and always see the glass half empty… do us a favour and get a smaller glass.

The importance of Demos

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wow-moment

Most of what we sell is too hard to understand without a demo.

If a picture is worth a thousand words,

a demonstration is probably worth a million.*

Steve Blank in The 4 steps to the epiphany.

So let´s ask ourselves the following 6 questions:

  • Do you have a demo script?
  • Do you have a demo space?
  • Do you have a demo strategy?
  • Does your demo create a WOW moment?
  • Who does the demo?
  • How often do you demo?

There is a direct correlation between:

the amount of WOW moments you create

&

the growth of your business… *

*YOU, once you got your demo-act together.

2nd Wave 🌊 – being a start-up again…🚀

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In the last couple of months many of us have been struggling for business survival. Now we are coming out of it we are at a crossroads.

Option 1: Back to the future.

Put all the bits and pieces into place just the way they were back in 2019. And hop back in the treadmill hoping that “this time my business will scale”. For the obvious reason that well,…that you picked things up where you left them middle of march.

“Along the journey we commonly forget its goal” F. Nietsche

But this is the low-probability-option to a scaleable business. Our businesses oftentimes had become an amalgam of different services and products trying to serve many different customers. And therein lies the reason for a very low Result/Work ratio…

Or Option 2: Hack value before you hack growth

This means going back to your customers and find out what they truly love 💙 about you, your company and what you have to offer. Find what it is they cherish and crave. And drop the rest. Listen, ask, interview. That is where the secret treasure is to be found 🏆.

Find your core, your focus, your true north through customer discovery.

This the focus 🎯 for your start-up. Cut the rest.

note: you have a number of asymmetrical advantages in your pocket already: existing customers that trust you, services and products you sold and got paid for, a team of knowledge people, sorted out the messy stuff of operating a company,… all things that allow you to spend all time and attention during the next few weeks on finding what it is people love about your company.

Hack Value before you hack growth…It is the starting point for success and scale as a start-up.

Now is the time to decide if you want to re-create the business you had or become the business you always wanted to be.

Choose wisely and embrace the consequences.