"Stay committed to your decisions but flexible in your approach." - Tony Robbins
While developing my business plan, I viewed flexibility as an asset. My willingness to accept a sub-optimal location or a myriad of food concepts seemed advantageous. Whenever a friend or adviser wrinkled their nose at some component of the plan I quickly offered an alternative. The benefits of flexibility in action, I thought.
Until one adviser stopped me mid-sentence and said, "Come back to me when you get your concept figured out."
I was confused. Maybe he misunderstood. I just finished telling him about my concept. But what I viewed as flexibility he (correctly) identified as indecision.
Instead of a single destination I presented a dozen waypoints.
To address this, I began pruning details from my plan. Anywhere I was unable (or unwilling) to get specific, that section was replaced with a rubric; a list of rules to evaluate possible candidates. I'd describe the key characteristics of the type and leave out the specifics.
For example, the food must be fast, fresh, fun, local, and creative. The specifics don't matter. I'd gladly invite anyone to deploy their food concept within the confines of our system if they meet those criteria.
This allowed me to cement my concept and present a singular vision while still maintaining flexibility in the deployment. I exchanged my map with many destinations for a map with one destination but many paths.
Filed under: [bizplan]