When Do You Focus On The Plan And When Do You Adjust

Author : Sandy McMahon

The dynamics of an early-stage business require balance between focus and opportunity. The challenge is in the balancing act. When do you focus on the plan, and when do you adjust?

Notes from a Conversation with Phil Bookman, Ceo, Assistyx:

Never allow your friends to become statistics. We call our customers our friends. The word friend needs to be taken seriously – friends must be treated as real friends. Our most loyal and vocal friends are still those who adopted our technology early and got us where we are today. They remain important participants in the conversation and are always in our focus.

Along the same lines, when using social media to communicate to your audience, remember that this is a face-to-face conversation and must be treated this way. This is a key point of focus.

* Remove as much friction from online interactions as you can. Make it as easy as possible for people visiting your web site to buy. This requires both live interactions with users and attention to detail. If a question keeps coming up, answer it; put the answer right up front on your web site where it cannot be missed.

* We’ve made hundreds of tweaks, each tiny. Each has removed a point of friction. As the company grows it is easy to lose sight of these details. Never lose sight of details.

Much of what we face in business is transitory. It is important to stay nimble so that you don’t get stuck fighting the last skirmish. For example, in 2009, we found that a subscription service was difficult for institutional users like school purchasing departments to understand. It isn’t now.

* In another example, schools require W-9 forms from all vendors. We’ve now included a link to our W-9 form and put our EIN on our Contact page because purchasing agents need these to set us up as a vendor.

You must be careful not to chase bright shiny objects – opportunities that take you outside of your principal market competence. Would you try to modify a hammer to put in screws? What business are you in, hammers or screwdrivers? The markets may be related, but do you have the resources to diversify and create a sustainable differentiation in the screwdriver market?

* Our principal product TapToTalk is a communication device for kids with verbal challenges. Some have suggested that it could also be a teaching device. However, were we to pursue this we would lose our focus on communication. Possibly in the future there will be room in our plan for a teaching device, but we will address this as its own market and application when we are large enough to diversify.

Sandy McMahon is publisher of Ceo2Ceos (http://Ceo2Ceos.com), a non-commercial site for executives to share best practices. He is also President of Executive Forums of Silicon Valley. With over 20 years of executive experience, Sandy has a BA from Brown, an EdM from Harvard, and an MBA from Duke.