Hi first, middle and last name 🙂
Identity crisis.
We are all going through it at some point.
I have been in this industry for a decade.
Built software, sold them, managed them, evangelized them, advocated for them. Same with eCommerce, I consulted, ran departments, did customer support, customer experience, wiped windows, and mopped floors.
Do you know what a common theme across companies is?
At some point, they all have an identity crisis.
And the worse part about a business with an identity crisis is that it’s a collective one, as there are teams of people under the same umbrella being lost AF not knowing how to position themselves better in the market, how to get seen, how to stand out.
I am not Louis Grenier, so I cannot help you STFO like does but I can share a simple business development lesson with you that I re-learned the hard way myself.
These are 5 things to consider, that can help you find your way back to your identity, or finding your identity in general.
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Find your business’ core values
For this, you have to be Aggressively Authentic.
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Define your profit formula until it really makes sense
This is basically how your business is structured to make money. It refers to how your company decides internally on the projects you are going to do that produce money.
Having a clear profit formula can help you determine the right criteria in prioritization when it comes to customers, features, products, budgets.
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Build your processes, even if it’s a tedious job.
As much as I hate them, they are extremely important.
Processes are not supposed to be changed over time. They are inflexible and should sustain your progress when it comes to transforming inputs into outputs: features, products, services.
The right processes will always help you stay true to your business’ core values and they are essential to your long term success. Not to mention that they can make you less vulnerable to the market’s threats and more open to its opportunities.
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Allocating resources. The right way.
Resources are things that can be fired or hired. Not only people, but anything that can be transferable and measurable, meant to help managers in accomplishing their goals.
By learning how to allocate resources properly within your organization you will be able to produce better outputs that follow your profit formula and help you produce better results over time.
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Define your product and services that you take to market – having the market in mind.
There will always be performance gaps in the products or services you are taking to market when your product/service is not “good enough” for the market you are targeting.
This is why at this stage of your business you should focus on reliability and functionality.
That’s how you are being competitive at this point.
The base of competition changes after your product is “good enough”, then is when the performance gap is reduced and you need to start competing on things such as flexibility, speed, personalization, etc.
I hope this serves as a good reminder to you.
Until next time, stay growing,
