Scott Fitzpatrick:
Hello everyone. When dealing with successful business owners, I have a piece of collateral called ‘Chaos to Greatness’ that I love to take them through. What I’m trying to do is provoke them, to let them have a look at their business and see where it’s up to in the Stages Journey. Through the podcast, you would have heard Paul Crane and Brian Fitzpatrick talk about business stages and business frameworks from an early stage business to late stage, whether they’re in their brick wall, or just where they’re up to on a journey of business.
Quite often, clients want to stay in a good business. They might not be interested in a great business or everlasting business. I use this piece of collateral to help them articulate where they’re up to and maybe have that, aha moment to go, “Ah, maybe I need to consider the advisory board or I need to consider some of the concepts of an advisory board.” It’s a great piece of value to add into the conversation with your business client. Let’s look at it.
If we look at the far left column of chaos, take a new client, no systems, no value proposition, maybe we all started off our businesses like this. And then we merged into mediocrity. We have some systems, the owner’s still on the tools, pretty unclear about our positioning, things get missed, low profit, maybe in that first brick wall that Paul Crane talks about in the podcast. Depending on the timeframe we might’ve even got to an emerging business. So we’ve got some systems, some functionality, we’ve got some black activity, if we remember red, blue, and black, we’ve got some branding and positioning, some referrals, starting to feel like a business. If we look underneath, the owner’s feelings are feeling safe, relieved, relaxed, maybe a little bit energized compared to stressed, pressured, scared. You can see there that the owner may have a coach or a mentor.
Let’s go into great business now. Systems are clear and followed, functionality, positioning known, clear CVP, strong distribution, employer of choice to name a few, advisory board, values are lived. The business owners are feeling relaxed, confident, and maybe in payback and lasting greatness. Good systems are followed, strong culture, mentoring, good cash flows, full board governance, contributing to society and the owners feeling proud, satisfied, and fulfilled.
So in summary, I use this tool with my business owners to let them see where they’re up to on this journey and to provoke them into a discussion. We go about when, how, who, why, would I bring on an advisory board? Quite often, my role is to help form that advisory board and help form the plan to the advisory board. It’s a great piece of value to add to your business client.
