Rodd Mann - Navigating the New Normal: How New & Small Companies Can Succeed Despite Economic Uncertainty

Navigating the New Normal

Navigating the New Normal

How New & Small Companies Can Succeed Despite Economic Uncertainty

Rodd Mann

Navigating the New Normal: How New & Small Companies Can Succeed Despite Economic Uncertainty

Copyright Momentum Press, LLC, 2021.

Cover and interior design by Exeter Premedia Services Private Ltd., Chennai, India

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations, not to exceed 400 words, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First published in 2021 by

Momentum Press, LLC

222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017

www.momentumpress.net

ISBN-13: 978-1-63742-020-1 (paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-1-63742-021-8 (e-book)

Momentum Press Health Education Collection

First edition: 2021

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Description

No one will forget the year 2020.

The year that a pandemic shut down social, work, and public contact. There are two particular changes that have had a pronounced effect on business and finance, which this book will provide the guidance currently lacking in traditional business school texts.

The first is the change from commuting to work to sheltering-in-place, with students and professionals on videoconferencing apps such as Zoom. Likely a lasting change, we can expect many office spaces will remain empty and many businesses will stick with the new work-from-home change.

The second change is that the younger generation is the first to suffer a setback in terms of the standard of living compared to their parents. Not only do more than half of Americans have less than $1,000 in savings, but they eschew traditional corporate cubicles, preferring instead to juggle multiple and new hustles and side gigs.

This book is primarily focused on the post-pandemic Gen Z and Millennial business opportunities, most of which didnt even exist a generation ago.

Keywords

small business; economic uncertainty; pandemic; virus; COVID-19; vaccine; business owners; MBA students business planning; Gen Z; Millennials; financial management; corporate investing; investing; forecasting; finance; competitive advantage; competition; gig economy; side hustle; corporate social responsibility; Internet; government assistance; cash flow; raising capital; central banks; new paradigm; business risks; revenue growth; cost; profitability; vision; strategy; forecasting; cryptocurrencies; SWOT; outsourcing; regulatory environment; suppliers; employees; business metrics; cash flow; investment; flexible budgeting; business growth

Contents

VisionStrategyTacticsBusiness PlanExecution

Figure 1.1 Vision

We first identify the business we are planning to pursue or already find ourselves in today. Each type of business has common attributes, goals, and objectives, and their own unique characteristics that require good understanding and a strategy to optimize those characteristics and pursue the goals and objectives that have been set for the business. The broadest of these are manufacturing versus service businesses, with the primary difference that a manufacturing business sells a physical product whereas a service business sells a service. For instance, a hand sanitizer company is a manufacturing business. In contrast, a service business could be an accounting or a legal firm, or a mobile service that provides hand sanitizers at checkout registers of stores.

What constitutes a comprehensive vision? It includes the kind or type of business, comprehending the size and scope initially, intermediate-term, and long term. The vision lends itself to goal setting and objective seeking. It cannot be too pie-in-sky or when the time comes to operationalize your vision, you just may find the entire dream was just thatonly a dream. The vision sets the company direction and has enough heft to make the development of a cohesive strategy an obvious and logical next action item.

Dont confuse your vision with a mission statement. They are different. A mission statement is a position you take for the stakeholders, for example, employees, stockholders, and customers to read in order to learn more about the nature of the business. A vision statement declares intentions of direction, where the company is headed, while a mission statement declares where the company is today.

We want to start a business and we already have the first step from which to take the sequence of steps needed to be successful. The first step is our vision. You foresee already what your business will be doing. You have thought about it, dreamed of it, and you now have in your minds eye the mental picture of your very own business, up and running the way you would like to run it, and you are the boss. But have you asked yourself, what makes you and your vision uniquely qualified to take your product to market? Have you considered whether your business product line is too narrow or perhaps too broad? A Goldilocks approach to optimize the business offering could be stated in simple terms that what customers are expecting is what they will be getting. Too narrow and potential customers are going to find your competitor offering with more choices, variations and related accessories, and services. Too broad and you will find yourself competing with Amazon, a financial death wish.

Passion begets creativity and in turn innovation. Is your product truly innovative? If not, perhaps it is just a better, or cheaper, or faster, or functionally superior competing product. Not every business idea has to qualify for disruptive innovation that you might find at Apple or Tesla. Once you have settled the vision-related questions, it is time to move on to your strategy. Now, we turn to the next step in the development of our business plan.

VisionStrategyTacticsBusiness PlanExecution

Business strategy is the company plan aimed at achieving its vision. It goes further than the vision, prioritizing objectives, identifying the firms competitive edge, and identifying how to optimize the financial results of the business.

The choice of the objectives is the centerpiece of the strategy, but a thoughtful and thorough approach also describes in concrete terms just how the company plans to meet each of these objectives. Practically speaking, the strategy illuminates how the business will differentiate itself from its competitors, how it will generate revenue, and what can be expected in gross margins and profitability from the revenue.

Strategies must honestly describe the companys strengths and weaknesses, along with its opportunities and threats.

Strategy begins with a list of primary milestones to pursue. The milestones must be mapped, noting those that must be sequential, versus those that can be accomplished in parallel, all dependent upon time and resources available. A development of a short-term strategy will help you bootstrap your new venture, but a longer-term strategy must also accompany it in order to make sure business continuity, growth, and a smooth transition can be expected. How detailed you make your own strategy depends upon the sufficiency with which you identified expected costs, complexity, and other potential obstacles, or anything that might bring the entire business plan to a screeching halt.