Business plans are like a combat operations order- they never survive the first shot. Well, at least completely intact. Which is why the military has frag orders, so I guess business plans do too. Navigating through the business process is exactly that, a process.
I'm lucky- because of good planning things have continued to move forward and in a good way. Patience is key, getting inpatient is fatal, and here is why. Moving fast increases the chances of big mistakes. Mistakes are going to happen no matter what. There are just too many variables, too many unknowns and risk management is an inherent part of the start up process. Sometimes moving slowly, easily and patiently pays off. If you can limit the damage of a mistake and go in the right direction it becomes a "gain". You didn't lose so much in comparison to the experience gained and the elimination of a "bad direction". In staying with the whole military concept example- think of a business mistake that is a a "gain" as going around a corner and having a near miss bounce off the wall above your head. Didn't get hurt and figured out where a bad guy is hanging out. But the thought goes through your head "lucky again".
Our concept is almost there- building is almost done, Baristas are almost hired (interview process is a whole other blog) and I am doing one last scour for information before we open. Opening is just another phase line, not any bigger or smaller than any other, just as important as the first phase line, but... it feels bigger. Because now all of the theoreticals are going to be tested against the biggest variable of all. The public.
This morning I scoured the internet and read dozens of stories of coffee shop failures. Learning from other people's mistakes is valuable too. I read through story after story: bad location (a big culprit for failure) too high of overhead- rents that are astronomical. Too many competitors, and rarely, not enough business (bad location again?) I think my business has those covered, but we won't know until the public decides. I have a lot of people that look at my plan, and our operation and say- "Wow- this is going to work" but they don't know, and they aren't the ones taking taking the risk. The internet is littered with the bodies of dead coffee shops. Reading and learning about why they failed provides me with a lot of ammunition to plan for unexpected and unpredictable events. It helps to read about the failures, it really does. It does get a little a little dreary though, reading about all these people that saw their dreams die. But, here I am, drinking some amazing coffee- which I know people will love and looking at all of these death stories thinking "sucks to be you" because my mistakes won't be fatal.
