EP11: Prevent Business Failure

“We assume that regular functioning at regular times is
enough to scale. But it’s not.”

Nic Peterson (5:40-5:46)


When it comes to failure, entrepreneurs need to understand the
complexities involved in growing and scaling their businesses.
Your business can achieve a 5X return on investment (ROI) and
still be running out of money. This keeps business owners running
on a hamster wheel that never gets them where they want to be.


Businesses are complex systems, and thinking the results you
achieve are linear is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.
If you double the stimulus, you won’t necessarily double the
response. Think of a busy highway. Increasing the number of cars
by 10 percent might increase the time it takes to get to your
destination by 60 percent or more.



“A non-linear response means if you double the stimulus...you’re
not necessarily going to get double the response.” - Nic Peterson
(1:38-1:47)

You can’t rely on a linear model when scaling your business.
Things happen in business that make linear growth nearly
impossible. Your marketing costs may go up or your market might
become saturated. So doubling your marketing spending won’t mean
that your profit doubles, too. Responses aren’t linear, and
averages don’t matter as much as you think they do.



Use Science of Hindsight to Prevent Business
Failure
Any errors in your business will only increase the time it takes
to achieve a result. It will never cause you to get there faster.
So entrepreneurs need to pay attention to what actually happens
instead of relying on their assumptions. This is where the
science of hindsight comes in. You need to measure, manage, and
adjust when scaling your business. Hindsight lets you understand
the responses more clearly.


One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is assuming that
normal function is enough to scale. But it only takes one error
to show you how wrong that assumption can be. You can build a
larger movie theater that fits more and more people. But if the
size of the exit door stays the same, all it takes is for one
person to yell, “Fire!” for you to see that it’s not equipped to
serve all those people. So, as your business grows, you need to
grow its “doors” before you encounter any of the endless issues
that can catch you by surprise.


“Errors can only increase a length in time. Errors will never
cause you to arrive early.” - Nic Peterson (3:21-3:38)



Don’t Just Optimize for the Good Times


It’s easy to optimize based on the good times when everything is
efficient and working smoothly. But when Facebook goes down or
YouTube bans your ad account, you have to look at what happened
so you can take the right steps to protect your revenue, scale
your business for the long term, and achieve a positive ROI.


Today’s entrepreneurs need to make business decisions that
account for the asymmetry of errors and non-linear responses.
When you understand this hard truth, you develop a profitable
growth model that helps you get the returns you need to achieve
lasting success.

How to get involvedIf you
would like more information about Timothy Dick, and the success
businesses have gained through work with him, please visit his
website.

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