Sweating the Small Stuff

I love to sweat the small stuff. What, you ask? Life’s too short to sweat the small stuff. Just go out there and get shit done. Well, you’re right. Doing is much more important as an entrepreneur than talking. To borrow a phrase from James Tuckerman of Australian Anthill: Ready, Fire, Aim. That is, get ready to do something — do it — and then evaluate the consequences after the fact. The research of economist and popular author Tim Harford has recently shown that, more often than not, trial and error is the basis upon which many of our societies complex systems have been built.

But sometimes, sweating the small stuff can be fun, even for your own selfish indulgence. So the question I often find myself asking is: Why?

• Why is my local cafe always busy but the one next door, seemingly the same, is typically empty?
• Why is Chemist Warehouse always full of people but the independent chemist on the corner barely occupied?
• Why is a particular bar nearby always full but the one up the street is dead?
• Why is IKEA expanding when every other bricks and mortar retailer is going bust?

The high level bit, and easy answer, is to say they all provide something unique — something that can’t be replicated by the competition. But what is that something? Drilling down and pin-pointing a business’s value-proposition is tough but essential to gaining true insight. Typically, what do you find? The business has a laser-sharp focus on its purpose — the reason why it went into business in the first place. Then you start to see everything in a whole new light. All the little aspects of the business, the nuts and bolts, all seem to be aligned with that purpose. Let’s take a look at our examples:

• My local cafe believes vegan food can be so tasty that mainstream, non-vegans will still love it — so by crafting beautiful, individual dishes and serving them up in a cool, hipster environment — they provide locals of all walks of life with a unique, vegan cafe experience.
• Chemist Warehouse believes that quality health care should be available to all Australians — so by utilising the most efficient supply chains, economies of scale and distribution — they can provide low-cost, high quality healthcare to all.
• The bar believes that beer lovers deserve great beer and great choice — so by stocking beers of near infinite variety, from all over the globe, in a tavern environment with the best live and local bands going around — they provide local beer lovers with more beers, of higher quality and a more buzzing atmosphere than anywhere else in town.
• IKEA believes that well designed, high quality products don’t have to be expensive — so by utilising centralised distribution, efficient production, flat-packed products that can fit in the car and finally — simple, clever design that can be self assembled — they bring style to even the lowest-income household.

It certainly doesn’t do justice to these remarkable businesses to say this analysis “sums them up” — but thinking hard to simplify why some businesses thrive and others wither is useful.

The key take-away is that each successful company starts with a very well-defined purpose — a belief statement about why they exist. So, all startups out there — start with why — why do you do what you do? Then begin to think about what it is you’re going to provide. This isn’t going to guarantee success — but others before you have proven it’s a good start…

Lastly, don’t be afraid to sweat the small stuff — it might just lead to the biggest change in your startup yet.