Welcome to 2024! I call bullshit.

As the calendar rolls over into 2024, the days keep ticking by. Just as they did last year and just as they will the next. So, what does 2024 bring?

I hear so many people say, “with so much uncertainty around, now is not a good time to be making any bold decisions”. Well, I call bullshit.

In business and in life itself, you have to have the courage to get on the front foot and stay there. Momentum is a funny thing. It’s difficult to gain and easy to lose.

I am not talking about the reckless sort of courage that leads teenage boys to consider themselves indestructible (I know this because I was one, albeit a long time ago!). I am talking about informed courage. More on that in a minute.

You see, life is short. I am not prepared – and I suggest you should not be prepared – to let a whole year slip by, for want of being prepared to make decisions. There are always circumstances, context, local and global, that ought to be taken into account. But it’s not a reason to be stuck in the mud.

Change is constant. Risk is ever present. Deal with it.

Informed courage

Making decisions without information is reckless. But if you defer decisions until you have perfect information, expect to be a long time waiting. So, what can you do about it and why do we talk about courage?

Back in the 1950’s a fellow by the name of Dr William Edwards Deming proposed the ‘Plan, Do, Check, Act’ model. It works to this day. It allows you to move forward and learn from doing. It builds-in continuous improvement.

Be informed. Plan to the best of your ability. Identify the known, accept there will always be unknowns. Know that you’re not alone. We’re here to help.

For example, BridgePoint Group can help you with strategy, research, identification of market drivers, risks and mitigants, modelling the financial aspects of your business decision, preparing and reviewing legal documentation, negotiating deals.

Categorising risk as either acceptable, or unacceptable and setting lead and lagging performance indicators means you have set parameters, your early warning system, for when a different decision must be taken.

Knowing you have the freedom to change direction, to make a different decision and to do it quickly may well give you the courage to make the first move. There are always going to be ‘winners’ and therefore, by definition, there are also going to be losers. Don’t stand still while the winner runs past you.

Walking the walk

We look forward to making some significant announcements of our own in 2024.

The first such announcement is the axing of our ‘Business Advisory’ service. We planned, we did, we checked and now, we have acted. Despite our conviction that “we are yet to meet any business owner that is absolutely satisfied with every aspect of their business right now” the take-up rate was too low to sustain the offer. The spend for our small business clients was deemed too risky.

But don’t worry, we can still help you, it just won’t be in the format of ‘Business Advisory’. It will be defined projects done for you, with a clear objective, a beginning and an end.

Stand by also for some significant hiring news and one or more acquisitions of adjacent businesses that opens the door on two services that we are consistently asked to provide.

So, yeah, I reckon we’re walking the walk. How about you?