The Challenge of Staying Focused in a Startup
Startups have a hard time staying focused. It’s the nature of the beast. The enthusiasm founders have for their startups can very quickly lead to chasing too many opportunities.
The big risk? Running in every direction, chasing every lead, idea and opportunity only to realize at the end that you’ve made very little progress. And this might not sound too serious until you also realize you’ve run out of money, can’t raise more capital, certainly haven’t generated enough revenues and…ugh.
Startups are great at finding opportunities. The enthusiasm, creativity and freshness of startup founders often gives them the ability to find new solutions - they’re not locked in a box. And don’t forget their risk profile. Startup founders, by their very nature, have to be risk takers. That’s a good thing when looking for new opportunities.
So you can’t take away the things that make startups and startup founders successful - risk-taking, enthusiasm, creativity, etc. - but at the same time, those traits often lead startups to chase too much at once.
Focus.
That’s really the key. Startups need to be laser-focused on what they’re trying to do. It’s damn near impossible - especially when having to simultaneously build a product, sell a product, market a product, hire A-talent, raise more money, manage operations and more - but without focus your startup is in big trouble.
I’ve suffered from “opportunity-itis” on numerous occasions. I still do. It’s so easy to get a bit of product feedback and chase those feature ideas. Or have a good conversation with a potential partner, and then decide to find 10,000 more partners like that. Or see a minor shift in the marketplace, only to revamp your entire business model and 12-month product roadmap (OK, I haven’t done that yet!)
Focus.
You know you need to…but at the same time you have to be looking for the right opportunities to make your startup a success. So how do you achieve startup focus?
- Be Systematic. Running a startup is a crazy experience. Most of the time you’ll feel like you’re running a 600-mile sprint (because startups are the ultimate combination of sprinting and marathon racing), and doing anything in an orderly fashion is farthest from your mind. But taking a systematic approach is critical.
For example, let’s say you decide that partnering with a certain type of service provider would make sense - they can act as resellers of your product. Attack that idea systematically:
- Research the space
- Put together 2 or 3 offers
- Find a list of 50+ similar service providers
- Pitch them each one of the offers
- Measure the response
- Collect feedback
- Decide if partnering with those service providers make sense
- If yes, find a list of as many as you can, hone the pitch that worked best and go get ‘em!
- If no, drop it and move on.
- Be Merciless. Opportunities that take too long to materialize are bad opportunities. Startups don’t have the time - especially right out of the gate - to spend long periods of time in negotiations or chasing leads. That’s not to say that every long-term deal is a bad one (raising money for example takes many, many months), but don’t waffle around on things that aren’t making serious progress.
- Be Organized. It’s almost impossible to succeed unless you’re well organized. That goes beyond stating the obvious. But something that might not be as obvious is making sure you have the infrastructure in place to support what you’re doing. For example, once you get into generating leads and sales, implement a CRM tool. It’ll help. It’ll keep you focused. A project management tool of some kind isn’t a bad idea either; at minimum be merciless and vigilant about priorities so you know what needs to be done first, second and third.
- Be Analytical. Question everything. Track data on everything. Test everything.
Staying focused in a startup is a true balance between enthusiasm, creativity, new thinking, aggressiveness and being systematic, merciless, organized and analytical. On the one side you have all the “fun stuff” and on the other side you have all the “boring” stuff. Lean too far to one side or the other and you’ll start losing focus very quickly. Finding a balance is key: Being receptive to opportunity without jumping on every single one that comes knocking. And generally I don’t think startups will lean naturally to the “boring side” so implementing some of the stuff I’ve mentioned above will almost immediately create more balance than was there before. And that’s a good thing.
Thanks for sharing this. I think you need to stay focused because you don’t want to allocate your time to areas that won’t get you your next round of VC money. Budgeting wisely will help you in the long run.
Ben-
All good stuff.
Too many start-ups focus on the immediate and not the important - this is where they fail. To combat the constant feeling of immediacy and harness the sense of urgency that pervades all start-ups, I would add “make a plan”.
Taking time to make a plan that includes goals, vision and mission as well as tactics ensures that you stay systematic, organized and, most importantly, aligned.
This formula is as applicable to running organizations as well. Enough and more has been written about staying with one’s core competence. Unfortunately, the focus gets diluted when things are not working out well enough in the early stages of a start up and one starts looking for ways to stay afloat. Such reminders then are very necessary.
I can only agree. The more focused you are, the better.
Cheers,
Ahhh…. chasing every lead. Sounds way too familiar to me.
Some good advice.
Great post with a lot of fascinating ideas.. I agree with everything here… the more focused you are.. especially when starting out in business, the more chances you have of being successful.
This article is right on target. I’d go one step further regarding “Be Systematic” and say plan with extreme detail. When the world is going 100 miles an hour each day, a todo list that says “research the space” may seem overwhelming because it could take quite a bit of time and and require multiple steps. Therefore, take each systematic step and break it down even further into manageable, bite-sized steps. Now you won’t have that overwhelming thought of “okay, where do I start on this.”
Yes. I Think if we focus (for anything), we will get better. This article is very helpfull. Thanks, its will be my inspiration for my actifity. Go Focus. Yes!!!
This is great, but it’s not just for startups. I’ve seen people in 75 year old companies falling victim to the same distractions listed here. As companies cut more and more the environment in many companies approach the pressure cooker of a startup.
Thanks for useful blog, Ben. I fully agree that the more focused you are, the better…
If I may add to all that has been said in here ..
To stay focused, there is one thing needed : a general vision, from afar, of what is going on. Also known as “seeing the big picture”. That’s the problem with most startups. They have a good idea, a brilliant idea, they know it’s time to make it through, to start running; only then they do realize that their niche is already populated to some extent, that besides the starting point they need to enlarge their vision, to let knowledge of what is already going on sink in, then redirect their plans accordingly, remaster, rebuild, subtly change directions … that’s the moment, when you’re halfway through, and you damn feel like giving up everything and lighting up a cigar.
It’s easy to say “keep focused”, but it’s much harder to do that in practice.
Wonderful post! I have been involved in a few start-ups myself, and I can honestly say it’s chaos. Being focused, organized, and persistant really got me through the rough spots.
Procrastination is the mother of all failures. Not only is it important to stay focussed, but make sure you don’t put brickbats in the way of your enterprise. It’s to easy to say you can’t do one thing because you’re waiting on another, util eventually nothing gets done. Think out what the real reasons are for not completing tasks. It’s more likely to be fear of something. Rejection, making a bad mistake, not understanding the software you are using or commissioning etc.
Insightful as ever Ben.
A business guru in the US, Keith Cunningham, calls it “cheating on your company”
In my case, I used to call one group the “chasers”. Those who rely on some tech application first and then try to find the best opportunity, niche market to apply it. Could see that in the emphasis put on the “How we will deploy” and the “what we can do with that technology” part of their “business plan”. If you focus on the “what I can do” there is always a new opportunity around the corner.
Usually, those who come up with a start-up focused on a clear and precise opportunity (the opportu-need:)in the market have less focus problems, except for the boring/fun stuff to do. (Nobody is immune to that).
This phenomenon is particularly rampant in internet-based business because there are so many “programs” out there. I don’t think anyone starting out is completely immune from the temptation to “try everything”. I’ve found that focusing on one niche at a time while building relevant content and THEN promoting a select few products or services related to the niche greatly reduces distractions.
Some good points there, cheers.
This is an excellent article. Having assisted many startup businesses get off the ground, one of the MAIN problems I’ve seen over and over and over again is a lack of proper recordkeeping.
If you plan on having a business that lasts, you need to put systems in place, IN THE VERY BEGINNING, that keeps all your information organized, be it legal or accounting in nature.
By putting the proper systems in place, in the beginning, you are forming a foundation upon which your business can build. Today being April 15, should only serve to point out just how important this can be.
The reality is that while many people may be good at what they are doing, they are not lawyers and they are not accountants. The trick is to find someone LOCAL, who does know what they are doing who can help you pull it all together. This doesn’t necessarily need to cost a lot of money, if you can find the right person.
This is so important I’m not sure I can emphasize it enough.
Ben:
Again with a great post! I especially like the idea of focus in a world of small business dominated by “the next big thing” where it is all too easy to get distracted from what you’re doing by what you “could” be doing to make even more money. When is enough enough? Could be enough to just do the best job at what you’re doing right now and now always be looking outside for value. Look inside yourself for the power and the value!
Great stuff. I am always worried about the day I walk out of my day job and into the world of being a full time business owner.
Startups are really risky at the moment nobody knows where the world economy is going
Thanks for all the comments. I appreciate that you guys keep the conversation going strong even when I’m not around often enough to spur it on…
I agree. It’s easy to get off track but persistence is the key.
For startups that are bootrapping instead of raising capital your method of funding your business is, by definition, a distraction. It’s not easy.
[…] opportunities. Simply understanding what parts of your product people use can help you find ways of staying focused and making more money from […]
Hey I couldn’t agree more!!
I always try and keep to one niche at a time and stay completely focused.
Look inside yourself for the power and the value!
With all the risks and rewards that a small business owner faces, it’s a wonder how we all stay focused. From the non productive leads, to the much anticipated, “it’s a go”, lead - Yeah, it is not easy - but it can be done. And we live for it!!
Nice article! Not easy getting started and you will get confused for sure when there is so much information available, some information is useful and a lot is pure B*S.I think the biggest challenge is staying sane while starting your business.