Hope Is Not a Strategy: Why Your Business Is Struggling (And How to Fix It)
If you’re working hard but your business isn’t thriving, you’re not alone. Frazer Mackay shares the real reason businesses fail and the simple framework that can turn things around.
If you’ve started a business or taken over a small company and aren’t seeing the success you anticipated, you aren’t alone.
Over the last 30 years in Capital Project Delivery, I’ve spent my career being parachuted into underperforming businesses that should have been doing better. When I walk into a struggling business, I rarely find a lack of hard work. Usually, I find a good idea, an innovative product, or a dedicated team. But I also find poor guidance, a lack of focus, and a management team that has lost its way.
The Most Common Mistake I See?
Business owners trying to solve a problem by just doing more of what they’ve always done. As the old saying goes, the definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. If you want different results, you have to change what you do.
Before We Begin: Two Health Checks
In my new book, The Business Wheel, I strip a business back into its component parts so you can see exactly where it’s broken and how to fix it. But before we look at the mechanics, you need to be honest with yourself:
- Are you resistant to change?
If things aren’t working, you have to accept that Change = Improvement. Everyone knows the saying attributed to Einstein: “The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” Clearly, to get different results, you need to do different things. Simple, change what you do to change what you get.
2.Can you be honest with yourself?
There are plenty of people out there who will try to fool you, don’t become one of them! Accept the evidence; the facts don’t lie. Be careful not to manipulate the data to make it conform to your preconceived opinion. Admitting you are on the wrong track is not a weakness. Accepting that you have made a mistake is not stupidity. Ignoring the factual information available to you can only take you further away from where you want to be.
The Business Wheel Approach
My methods strip back the business, whatever it is, into its component parts. These parts can then be overhauled, repaired, replaced, or restructured to make the business functional and effective. These components are:
- Business Development: Every business needs new customers as well as looking after existing ones.
- Sales: Very few businesses have no competition. Being able to survive in a competitive landscape is essential.
- Delivery: Delivering exactly what you sold, no more, no less, and then using the learning to improve and enable more business development.
But before you can master those three concepts, you need to answer three fundamental questions:
- What is it you’re selling?
- Who are you selling it to?
- How are you going to deliver it?
This Is Not Theory – This Is Real Life
I’m not writing this from the perspective of a theoretical academic. Everything in The Business Wheel is 100% original and self-generated. There is no copied theory here, just real-life experience and the practical techniques I developed over decades of turning around struggling businesses.
I didn’t write this book to talk down to you or to use complicated business jargon. I wrote it as if I were sitting across the table from you, mentoring you through the challenges you’re facing right now.
A Final Thought
Hope is not a strategy. Wishful thinking is not a plan. If you are ready to look at your business honestly and make the necessary changes, The Business Wheel will give you the exact tools to do it.
I’m not in this to chase high-flying entrepreneurs. I’m in this to help the everyday business builders, the honest, hard-working people who just need that extra step to turn things around.
Honestly, the greatest reward I could get from writing this book is just receiving one message from a reader saying, “This helped me.”