GoKawiilKey Takeaways Growth without discipline turns small compromises into expensive, long-term mistakes.
A clear plan only works if you actually follow it under pressure.
If your gut says no, forcing growth will usually make things worse.
When you are an entrepreneur, you want nothing more than to see ‘your baby’ grow up into a successful business, especially with all the headwinds that are sure to come your way. That often means that those same entrepreneurs are willing to make sacrifices, veering off on tangents away from their stated business plan.
I am not talking about business pivots in a new direction, which would ultimately require an update to the business plan. I am talking about keeping the same business plan, but making exceptions to the stated goals, just to make some progress with the business. That is when you can get into a lot of trouble.
This article will help you learn how to avoid getting trapped in those rabbit holes.
A case study
I recently met an entrepreneur building a restaurant chain. She had opened four locations in North Carolina. The first location was a home run, built exactly to plan and was generating a lot of revenues and cash flow. That encouraged her to start rolling out new locations. But she was having a hard time finding locations with the same rental costs or prime locations as the first location.
So, she started making sacrifices to keep the business growing. And that is when she started to get into a lot of trouble.
The second location did not have an optimal floor plan. In fact, it was a two-story location, with half the seating on the first floor and the other half of seating on the second floor. Instead of having a wide open fun environment, the space was too chopped up and had a completely different vibe.
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