The Discipline of Having a Plan B on Your Entrepreneurial Journey

You’ve finally reached the point of taking your entrepreneurial leap!

In the third phase of Entrepreneurial Leap called Path, I map the stages of the entrepreneurial journey, helping you to avoid mistakes that so many entrepreneurs make along the way. 

“Path” will help you to expedite finding your passion, niche, product, service, industry, and type of business, while giving you the clarity of vision and confidence to take your leap. There I teach 8 Key Disciplines that will make the difference between succeeding and failing when starting your business.

In this post, we are going to focus on discipline #5: Always Have a Plan B.

Be Willing to Make a Course Correction

Having a plan B is actually a mind-set,  the inclination to be ready, willing, and able to make course corrections. Know that your first plan won’t be your final plan.

I urge you to take your leap knowing changes will have to be made, so you’re ready and not surprised. I always have a plan B, C (and sometimes D) on the drawing board. You should too.

Your number one job is to create raving fans. You accomplish that by constantly utilizing customer feedback. Listen to your clients, get feedback, and make sure you’re providing value. By being obsessive about this goal, you’ll quickly learn when some facet of your product, service, or business model isn’t working, and therefore you can make the necessary changes immediately to serve your customer better.

There’s no way to predict what the change is going to be and when or why it will happen, but you do need to prepare yourself for the fact that it’s going to happen. As Clayton M. Christensen says in his book, How Will You Measure Your Life?, “You have to balance having a vision with reacting to luck, opportunities and challenges.”

In his book The Origin and Evolution of New Businesses, Professor Amar V. Bhide states, “Ninety-three percent of all companies that ultimately become successful have only done so after abandoning their strategy in favor of something that works.”

Next Steps

Take a minute right now and think about what might be a good plan B for your idea, if you fail the first time.

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