04 Oct The Foundational and Most Important Document You Must Have to Succeed in Any Business

1. If you’ve already founded a company or in the process of establishing your first or next organization, hear me out.
2. Unless you desire to have a lifestyle business that you plan to retire with, you should listen to what I have to say.
3. If you desire to scale and ultimately sell or take your company public, this blog is for you.

The stat doesn’t lie. 9 out of 10 startups fail.

Though there are many reasons why the overwhelming majority of businesses fail, one of the avoidable mistakes many business owners make is not taking enough time to prepare. They launch their company without laying the proper foundation.

It is true. People who venture out to form their own company are passionate. They’re doers.

But who said sitting down to reflect, strategize, and plan isn’t doing?!

Indeed, many overstay in the planning stage and become victims of analysis paralysis.

I’m not a fan of those who wait for the perfect time to launch their dream business. They’ll wait forever…

I don’t encourage timing the market. Don’t wait for everything to align before you pull the trigger. Metaphorically, it is like waiting until ALL traffic lights between where you’re now and where you want to arrive turn GREEN at the same time before you begin driving 🙂 You got the picture…

Founders who succeeded (the 10%) took a reasonable time to lay a proper and solid foundation. They balanced planning and action.

Of course, I’m not saying taking ample time to reflect, strategize, and plan alone leads to success in business. To succeed in today’s highly competitive marketplace, many factors should be in place. Some of these include but are not limited to:

1. Quality products and services the market needs. Quality products and services are one of the most important foundational and key requirements for success, especially in the long term. Regardless, I’ve seen businesses solely overdepend on their selling ability as a gateway to succeed. They shamelessly sell products and services of poor quality, even totally sham. This approach isn’t sustainable. The market will respond positively and show loyalty ONLY to quality products and services.
2. Choosing the right business model. Whatever passion you may have for your company, if it doesn’t generate profit, it closes, if not right away, at the end of the day. Having quality products and services isn’t enough. A sound business model should outline how the company will make money in the short and long term.
3. Effective branding, marketing, and sales. Even if you have the right business model and quality products and services, you will go out of business if you can’t brand and differentiate yourself and go out to market, promote, sell, and close. Wthout these competencies, the business will be starved, wilt, and ultimately die…
4. And more.

Many founders make the error of not sitting down and figuring out the answers to crucial questions, a few of which I enlisted above. They face the brutally competitive world of business unprepared or poorly prepared.

I met many business owners who didn’t even answer some basic and foundational questions about their business.

1. How can they then attract skeptic customers who already have companies that meet their needs?
2. What is more? How can they convince A-players who have multitudes of choices to join their team?
3. Worst? How can they persuade savvy investors to open their wallets and risk their hard-earned money on a business its founder (s) can’t explain articulately?

It is sad to witness many smart and well-meaning professionals resign from their well-paying jobs and quickly register their companies to do business, hoping to succeed from the get-go.

I was there and made the same mistake. I know how it feels…

If I knew what I know now, I’d have:

• Slowed down and have done my homework before jumping ship from my well-paying as a software engineer job to form my first company.
• Saved myself from so many unnecessary disappointments.
• Capitalized on numerous lost opportunities.
• Succeeded within a short period, scaled, and expanded quickly.

Don’t do anything until you work on your first foundational document, which will help you start your entrepreneur journey on the right foot.

1. Before you file the Article of Incorporation,
2. Prior to hiring consultants to craft your Business Plan,
3. Before going out for an off-site retreat to draft your strategic plan, come up with this foundational document, which I call a Vision Impartation Document (VID). Call it whatever you prefer, if you don’t like this name…

Even if you have already formed your company, crafting your VID NOW is not too late.

A few weeks ago, we helped an entrepreneur who has a well-established business to come up with their VID.

VID captures the most important aspects of your organization.

This document is critical, not just as input for the other crucial documents all companies, especially startups, should have in their possession. Founders know the genesis of the organization. They also know:

• Why the company came into existence in the first place.
• What it intends to do now and in the future.
• The business model they’ll be following to make it competitive and profitable.
• What it stands for, and what makes it unique.
• Whom it serves.
• How it’ll be scaled and how they plan to exit.
• And many other features of the company…

Founders also have so much firsthand information no one else might yet know.

Unfortunately, others who don’t live in the heads of the founders don’t have the full picture unless what is in the founders’ minds is depicted on paper.

Therefore, the main purpose of a Vision Impartation Document (VID) is to guide your organization whether the founder is present or not.

For your information, investors appreciate seeing this document and show more interest in buying or investing in startups than those who don’t have this artifact. It answers their conscious or unconscious concerns, one of which is, what if the founder accidentally dies or becomes incapacitated?

Of course, the VID has more value than just downloading what is in the head of the founder or founders.

I’ve a plan to create an educational video clip to further:

1. Explain the importance of the document,
2. How you could use it, and
3. The outline you should follow when you craft your VID.

Please subscribe to our channel so that you will be notified when we upload this and other educational video clips.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you’re planning to form and launch your first or next organization without wasting money, time, and energy. The VID is one of the deliverables when you hire us as your consultants.

To learn more about our other organizational development consulting services:

1. The A to Z Institute, LLC (FL) and
2. Success Pathways, LLC(DMV)

Reach out via [email protected] and/or [email protected], and let’s have a FREE 1-on-1 consultative discussion to understand your needs and the right consulting service that can meet your organizational goals.