My fellow entrepreneurs and small business owners, today I plan to wax eloquent about the oh-so true quote “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” 🚫
We often want to do EVERYTHING when starting a business. Launch a new product line, expand into three new locations, start a podcast, build an app — all while working a full time day job and raising a litter of rambunctious teenage hyenas. 🐾
But friends, we know from experience that trying to be everywhere at once is a surefire way to collapse into an exhausted, frenzied ball of panic. 🥺
I vividly remember those early days of my sourdough bread empire. 👑 We had designs on becoming the number one artisanal bread delivery service in all of Antarctica!
We launched subscription boxes, developed a line of yeast-scented candles and released a kazoo-heavy bluegrass album called “Rise and Shine ya Bready Bums.” 🎶
The bakery was somehow open 24/7 and I started sleeping under the commercial mixers. It didn’t take long before I looked like I had been bread myself—pale, droopy and a bit moldy around the edges.
That’s when I realized it was time to focus my raging small business into a more concentrated strategy. I had to accept that I couldn’t do the big bread convention in Siberia, start a side hustle breeding show poodles, AND overhaul our website into an interactive bread-themed escape room all in the same month.
Choosing to stop chasing every fleeting idea allowed me to channel my energy into the core operations that were really moving the dough (pun very much intended).
I encourage you all to take a step back now and then to evaluate what NEW, SHINY THINGS you may need to let go of so you can strengthen what you’re already baking. 🧁
It’s hard to say no to opportunities. But having the discipline to be selective about where you focus your precious time and resources is key.
The bakery is still standing because I learned sometimes the best strategy is choosing what NOT to do!
And although the above storyline is absolutely fictitious (we’re having a little fun with AI today), the moral of the story is still true: If chasing shiny objects is your current business strategy, let’s chat!