Plan

A critical step is ensuring your expert solution to your ideal client’s problem will actually move you forward.

While it’s great to find connections between what you do well and what people need done, it’s important to ensure it will be profitable for you and help you achieve your plan.

Also, when gaining insight into your clients and calculating your strategic position, it’s not unusual to discover opportunities that are promising enough to warrant reviewing your plan. The earlier you decide on your plan, the more focused and productive your work in these steps will be.

Basics to consider include business model alignment, competition and commoditization, profitability, set-up and resource requirements.

Many obviously great ideas have long been commoditized, relying on massive scale to overcome slim margins to be profitable, or expensed as a loss leader for profitable opportunities. These can be less effective to bootstrap, requiring significant capital to sustain.

Providing efficiencies through your expertise, group purchasing to supply all your clients, and effective automation including AI, can combine with the value of your expertise to put you ahead and increase your profitability.

Read all steps for Position