December 24, 2017

Winging it

What do you think would happen if you tried to knit a sweater without using a pattern?

Unless you’re a world class knitter, you’ll end up with a hopeless mess.

What about cooking a holiday meal without a recipe?

Unless you’re an experienced cook, you’ll end up with a hopeless mess.

What about creating a business without a plan?

Unless you’re a natural born businessperson - say it with me - you’ll end up with a hopeless mess.

The moment you decide to start charging for your services, you have created a business.

And building a business is just as much a craft as knitting sweaters, cooking meals, or building software.

Expecting that you can just “wing it” and everything will magically work itself out it is a great way to end up with a hopeless mess of a business.

Just like other endeavors, there are traditions, guidelines, best practices, anti-patterns, and even a few hard-and-fast rules that go into building a durable business.

If your business is stuck, feels scattered, lacks direction, has unpredictable cash flow, and generally stresses you out, the problem might be that you’re trying to wing it.

The good news is, the situation isn’t actually hopeless. What you need is a plan.

Yours,

—J

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