The Growth Wheel or the Startup Wheel as some like to call it is a powerful organizational tool that is important to use from time to time. It breaks down your business into 4 high level areas of Business Concept, Customer Relations, Operations, and Organization. These four areas each have 5 subcategories that outline 20 total areas of the business that need to be looked in on from time to time. We recommend doing a simple review of each area once a quarter and even assigning a ranking on a scale from 1-10 in terms of how you feel that area of the business is doing. Some areas are ok to be weak in currently because it may not be critical to the success of the business. However there are some areas you will be weak in that need attention; in these areas set a goal for where you want your ranking to be, what are you going to do to improve, and a time frame. As your business moves forward priority areas today may not be the priority areas tomorrow, so you will have to adjust.
If you have never done this before it is a good spot check tool for your business, that usually creates long to do lists for you to complete. If you have used this tool or something similar, you may want to revisit in light of the current COVID-19 environment. We at Start Co. have used this for our business, and we saw that a ton has changed. If we just look at the Business Concept quadrant, let’s consider the following.
Business Idea: Does your original concept for a business still carry weight?
Product Portfolio: What is the product portfolio that you have and is it still applicable?
Business Model: Has your business model changed and what adjustments must you make?
Customer Portfolio: Is your mix of customers still willing to support you; are there new ones we have to shift too?
Market Position: What was your market position before COVID-19, and what is it now? Was the market receiving your products and services in a way that was achieving the goals you set out on?
One of the toughest examples to the above breakdown is the restaurant industry. Consider a restaurant/bar’s business idea that having an establishment that can serve the needs of the casual eater and drinker, music listener, light partier, and all round catch all for starting the day or night. Because of forced closures this does not exist right now anymore so what is the new idea. Or if you think about that establishment’s product portfolio of simple food, middle shelf drinks, bar with TVS, and a band for entertainment; most all of this has been eliminated too. What is still standing and what can be repurposed in another way? This same restaurant/bar is faced with a business model disruption where volume crowds, multiple days/week regulars, and maybe even a cover charge has been disrupted; do we need new business models like subscriptions, on-demand platforms, loyalty rewards, etc.? What has happened to the customer portfolio; for example, tourists and those who drive in from outside the zip code. They are gone and need to be replaced by a new customer? And finally the market position, an established staple in the community may no longer have a true market position outside of the committed long time customers where the businesses offering still fits into their behavior. It is time to start addressing things we have been talking about head on, because we have no other choice. We hope that you took to heart the last week’s email on customer discovery, and by now you have learned better who your new customer is and how you can fit into their behavior with your adjusted offering and business model. The sooner we dig in on this strategy and thinking, the sooner we will uncover the opportunity that will get you through this.