Every business goes through cycles and in the periods of change between cycles (good and bad), it’s a good idea to review your business, understand what the transition means to the longevity of the company, and make the tough decisions necessary. My business is going through a transition of renewed focus and preparation for growth. During this time, I’ve decided to ask the tough decisions, take an honest assessment of our strengths and weaknesses, and build a plan for the next cycle we are going through.

1. What is that you really want to do? Some businesses are stuck in an old business model and need to find a way out. As a business, what do you desire to do? What does the future look like for your business? Start with the end in mind: at the end of next year, what does your business look like? Who are your customers? What is your revenue mix? That Network is focusing on becoming a larger content network with unique, high quality content.
2. What do you do well to get you there? What is your company’s specialty? What do you excel at? What are your best assets? Jack Welch famously demanded his business units be #1 or #2 in markets or get out. Jeffrey Imelt continued the trend and cut the appliances business because of poor performance. I know in the past I have invested too much time in “new” ventures when I need to solidify the ones I have. In this review, I looked at what That Network does well so we can emulate the successes.
3. What do you do poorly? I have a friend who owns a marketing company and he is great at qualitative research. For a period of time, he ventured into performing personality assessments for people and coaching them. This was outside of his core strength of qualitative research – he was good at personality assessments, but he was excellent at qualitative research. After some time, he realized this and refocused on qualitative research and his business shot up. What do you do poorly that you should either improve or dump?
4. What will you do differently in the short term? If we do, indeed, have strengths and weaknesses, what are we going to do to capitalize on the first and eliminate the second? We need to spend the right amount of time on the right things. In looking at the metrics, the 80/20 rule definitely applies: 80% of our revenue comes from 20% of our content (“products”). How do we reproduce the 20% to grow our business without spending time on the other 80%?
5. What help do you need to get where you’re going? We’ve created a road map for the early part of 2010 and a longer term look at the entire year. What help do we need to get there? Who is going to help advise, consult, and coach us to meet and exceed this plan? Think about your plan for the year and the people you will need to connect with to make it happen.

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