With things changing so fast in today’s global business economy, even a successful business cannot be guaranteed for survival if it’s not adequately prepared for the future.
But no matter the times, you can always future-proof your business, stay ahead of the competition and thrive in every season if you take fast action and do the right things.
Contrary to popular belief, future-proofing your business doesn’t have to be difficult, time-consuming or expensive. Nor is coming up with future-proofing ideas as hard or as technical as it may seem.
Here are five simple strategies that can help you fast-track growth and innovation, and give your organization all the capabilities it needs to stay ahead of the curve.
1. Diversify your portfolio of offerings
There are many companies that achieve success with just one great flagship product (a hair oil, a book, a leadership program and etc.). Many of my clients often find super success with just one product, but we always coach them to expand their offering. My client, Erin, for example hit big during the 2020 pandemic when she launched her 100% organic household cleaning product—Be Clean Be Well.
Household cleaning, of course, will always be a thing. Therefore this is a legacy product that she will likely sell for the rest of her life, but we also coached Erin to launch a course around cleaning, and another course around her life story (how moms can create their own passion product and retire rich).
Even if your businesses product is super popular and responsible for generating almost entire chunk of the total revenue, you must think about other ways to diversify your product portfolio.
In order to future-proof your business and increase your chances for survival, you must reduce your dependence on one part of your business. If there is ever an event where your flagship product or offering is no longer relevant, you’ll at least have other internal revenue streams that you can tap to stay afloat.
2. Listen to your buyers and prepare to pivot constantly
Business owners are normally so busy with product development and sales that they completely forget their main stake holder – The Buyer. In order to future proof your business, you should start focusing on what they are asking you for, and even changes in their behavior that might happen in near future.
Actually, your buyers are likely already telling you what they want. So build it. Create it and sell it back to them. It’s likely that others out there want it as well. This is how you get in a constant flow of staying ahead and always relevant.
Behind the scenes, we’re always listening to our conference attendees, our buyers, journal users and our clients. They are the best market research available to you.
Similarly, you’ll want to listen to their needs. Think of what the next steps are in their journey…try to predict what they will need next and create it.
3. Create your backup plan
A few weeks ago at my Ultimate Success Tour, I shared a recent story with my attendees about the importance of having multiple back up plans for your business. There was a moment when my business was about to take a dangerous hit, due to hundreds of thousands of dollars of our flagship product (The Success Journal) being held up overseas in shipping containers. At the time, there was nothing we could do to get them to us (and many orders were already placed) and we were under pressure to deliver.
Many businesses aren’t prepared with a backup plan to triage a potential million-dollar loss, add to that a repetitional hit.
Within weeks, our business decided to pivot yet again, and created a limited edition Success Journal. We were able to create and produce it locally and even add to it some new features that our clients had been asking for. As soon as we launched it, it sold out!
Your business needs these kinds of backup plans ready and in place too. Always have a way to serve your buyers should one supplier or one method fall through.
4. Think and move fast
The most successful entrepreneurs today can go from concept to delivery of new products, services and solutions in less than 90 days. In fact, less than 30 days from idea to execution is more common than not.
As a simple exercise, try inviting your staff or team to participate in a fun ideation session. My team and I do this a few times per year where we’ll discuss the interactions with our clients, testimonials from our product users, the needs of our clients’ growing businesses and we’ll come up with a whole slew of hot new ideas and offerings (all in a single day).
So many great product ideas and launches have come from these ideation sessions. Your business needs this kind of consistent creativity and thought put to stay fresh, alive and ahead in your industry.
5. Embrace imperfection and start
As you can probably tell by now, flexibility is the essence of future-proofing, and creating future-proof business ideas. I always say — “Launch before you’re ready”. Of course you want to plan, count the costs and have a vision and be smart, but if you want to lead with creativity and innovation as a business, you’ve also got to know that plans and products don’t have to be flawless before you decide to put them in play. Whether it’s a course, a product, a new service or even a web class, you can launch it before it’s perfect.
In fact, the truth is that a plan or product that’s “good enough” can often be the start of something great.
Ultimately, building a future-proofed business, and determining how to stay relevant, isn’t about having all the answers up front. Rather, it’s about being more open-minded and resilient, and doing lots of planning—as well as remaining self-aware enough to know when to rip up or rewrite the plan as you go.
As always I love to hear from you so let’s chat:
What breakthroughs are you looking to manifest this year in your business? What tools will you use to future-proof your business? What’s been keeping you up at night in your business? What is most the important aspect of your business you want to improve this year?
Write a comment below and let me know.
Dr. Stacia,
Diversifying your portfolio and pivoting is key in this changing economy. Now more than ever, pivoting is key to our prosperity.