When I look at this blog, I swear that most of it is pretty straight forward for the most part. So much so that I am confident that most read it and say things like, “I know that” or “Makes sense”. But while most of what we talk about with building a business is common sense, I am still amazed by how many people ignore simple principles.
So I am going to share another straight forward tidbit about being resourceful. This time I will give you a peek at a model that we use with clients to help them identify where the stand and what they have on hand in terms of resources.
We call this model the Production Continuum. In some respects it looks like a balance sheet but in this case we are identifying more than just quantifiable assets and liabilities. This exercise is for the most part straightforward. You go through and list all of your assets, liabilities and resources. You then identify income, expenses and production. Not only is the exercise not that difficult, it doesn’t take that much time either. Yet so many do not utilize this tool or something like it to assess their business.
The reason why I think that people don’t use an assessment tool is that when we work on our businesses every day, we feel like we have a pretty good handle on what is going on. We don’t think we need to sit down and assess, it’s all in our heads. An assessment tool like the Production Continuum is useful for a couple of different reasons.
The first being that it gives us the opportunity to reflect on where we are at and what we have. When we do this we are able to evaluate what resources and assets we are using productively and which ones we are not. It also allows us the opportunity to identify resources that we either didn’t realize we had or just forgot about.
The second is that we can also construct a game plan to use assets and resources better if we feel we are not using them as productively as we can be. We can also assess if there are any missing pieces that we need to create or find. At this point we can implement a strategy for both.
Right now is the time for resourcefulness and problem solving. It’s not time to point fingers and continually dwell on what’s wrong. Regardless if you are a business owner or not, if you haven’t taken the time to assess where you are at you are missing out on opportunities. My questions are these. Where have you been successful with this? Where have you failed? Any additional advice to give for those looking to be resourceful in today’s marketplace? I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
PS: Podcast time. Talking more about resources. Enjoy the podcast below.