One of the things that drives me nuts is ‘gurus’ offering silver bullet solutions for business success. You know what I mean –“just handle your systems, then your business will succeed”, or “hire the right staff and you’ll never have to worry again” or my favourite, “our 25-point system will make even the most challenged businesses thrive”. There is no silver bullet for business success. There is no ‘one-size-fits-all‘ system for creating a successful business. Success in business requires trial and error to discover what works for you and then consistent, persistent effort.
Running your own business is one of the most challenging things you will ever do … and continue to do.
Most rational business owners know this … the problem is, even the most reasonable of business owners can become quite irrational after months and months (or even years and years) of challenges, struggles and just plain hard work. So they look around them for ideas, strategies or techniques that could work.
The problem is, the techniques that are working for other businesses are working as a result of their unique combination of resources, people, customers, expertise and operational context.
What further bugs me then about the ‘silver bullets’ theory of business success is this …
Good, honest, hard-working business owners start thinking it’s their fault that their business isn’t ‘working’. “Well it must be me, I must be doing this all wrong” they falsely tell themselves. “If running a business is this simple, but I can’t make it work, then I must be the failure.“
Nothing could be further from the truth. Running your own business is one of the most challenging things you will ever do … and continue to do. All the stresses and challenges just don’t magically disappear once you hit a certain point … they just change. In fact, I’ve long said that small business ownership is one of the great personal development ‘workshops’ going around. If you want to learn about yourself … start your own business. So rather than seeking ‘silver bullets’, I encourage business owners to look for generalised principles (principles that are true in all cases) … then apply those principles to their particular context. Having a Strategy is generalised principle – your chosen strategy though will be different to your competitors. Strategy is NOT about a complicated plan, it’s a foundational choice about how you will approach your market and the environment. When Virgin Blue decided to be Australia’s low cost airline, they had to structure their entire business in a way that enabled them to deliver low-cost flights. A Marketing System is also a generalised principle of business – marketing that supports your chosen strategy and consistently generates desired leads. Also a sales system, HR system, financial management systems and administration systems – all these systems are required in your business … how you make them work for you depends entirely on your business model, strategy and context. We crave silver bullets because we crave certainty, security and control. Trial and error scares us because it’s uncertain. So instead, try thinking of trial and error as ‘market research’ (not failure); after-all, Edison successfully found 1,000 ways that didn’t work, before successfully inventing the light-bulb.
