How many decisions did you make for your business last year? Decisions to solve a problem; to fix a mistake; to decide whether or not to take advantage of an opportunity, or add a new product or service to your offerings, or to try a new marketing strategy. I would bet you made a lot of decisions last year and put out a lot of fires.
Now, let me ask you this: Did any of those decisions move your business forward in a big way? Did your company see record growth? Were you able to step back from the grind of doing all the things and let your team run things? Did you make a significant impact in your client’s lives? In your community? In your industry? If you answered yes, I’m stoked for you. If you answered no, welcome to the common experience, my friend.
The challenge many business owners face is they are bombarded with seemingly urgent issues that require quick decisions. We fix the problems that are right in front of us. Whether we’re saving the day, or just trying to get our companies to the next level, we rush to the apparent problems—the obvious stuff and the squeaky wheels. We perform a sort of business triage and operate on instinct alone, which results in a continuous run of problem-solving while our companies remain stuck.
Sometimes—rarely, but sometimes—we solve a problem and your business does take a leap forward. Even a small improvement affirms your decisions, except the problem is, it won’t be long before your back in the muck. That’s why this outcome is worse—tasting success only to get stuck again is not just frustrating, it’s costly and demoralizing. I call this the Survival Trap. Sadly, I have found it to be the most common situation in which entrepreneurs find themselves. They take the necessary (and often panicked) actions to keep the business alive today, and then repeat the pattern tomorrow, and the tomorrow after that, and so on. The goal for each day is simply to survive the day.
The Survival Trap is deceptive because it fools us into thinking we are at least inching toward our vision, as if our reactionary behavior is actually “smart” or evidence of our good instincts, and will eventually lead us to the promised land: financial freedom. When it comes to our business’s (lack of) cash flow, we often throw our few remaining dollars at the immediate problems and opportunities, hoping that profit will magically materialize as a result. When it comes to our time, we burn out ourselves and our people by working even longer hours, constantly putting out fires and chasing arbitrary quarterly targets instead of building sustainable systems. And when it comes to fixing the business, we find ourselves patching up the obvious problems, only to wonder why they keep reoccurring over and over again.
To find a better way to make decisions and solve problems, I created the Business Priority Pyramid. The tool is based on Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which states that there are five categories of human need. From the most basic and essential needs for survival to the highest needs for happiness and fulfillment. In order for us to attend to something higher on the list, we first need to make sure that our needs are met in the categories below it. The same is true for businesses.
The Business Priority Pyramid looks like this, starting with the most essential:
Sales: The creation and collection of cash.
Profit: The creation of profit and cash reserves, and the eradication of debt.
Order: The creation of organizational efficiency.
Impact: The creation of client transformation and company alignment with staff, vendors and your community.
Legacy: The creation of permanence and the ability to adapt to change.
You can fix whatever it is that’s holding your business back . . . if only you can figure out what you need to fix, and in what order. Pinpoint the core needs that need to be met at the base level and, as soon as you’ve addressed them, move on to the next. The tool takes the guesswork and “gut” work out of problem-solving for your business. The only way out of The Survival Trap is to hold the line—do what you need to do to make sure that you build your business in a healthy manner, not based on your desperation.
You can move your business forward in big strides, and in short order. Your vision for your business can become a reality. And it will, once you figure out what your biggest problem is right now, and then devote yourself to fixing that next.
Join me on the journey: Instagram
