77- Entrepreneurs may encounter a Bridge Too Far

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In this episode of TheStrugglingBiz.com, we focus on a problem that plagues entrepreneurs in the area of narrow-minded flawed planning and execution — and we can learn a great deal from these lessons on this day, the 76th anniversary of the setback in WWII, i.e., the start of Operation Market Garden (the invasion of Holland by the Allies that started on 17 September 1944) that just went “a bridge too far.” This was immortalized by the motion picture in the 1970s that depicted this tragedy from the book by Cornelius Ryan called A Bridge Too Far.

And I, myself, as an early entrepreneur, learned the harsh lessons of going “a bridge too far” at one time by launching my enterprise too early with just one business model and no exit strategy and no alternative for pivoting in case things did not go as planned. Yes, the planning was secondary to the excitement of launching a startup and being an entrepreneur. And these types of flawed plans can lead to disaster when things go wrong and the plans do not execute to perfection.

Just as in the original military plan by Montgomery in Operation Market Garden, there was only a single road, with no backup for pivoting in case of heavier than expected resistance or counter-attacks, you as an entrepreneur may assume that everything will go according to your vision — that is, until the reality of competition and inability to deliver on your promise to customers may be your biggest setback.

Now, as you will hear in this brief audio episode, from my experience and setbacks and lessons learned from my own failures as a startup, I realized that the three elements you need in a Business Plan are:

A BACKUP plan to recognize and recover from any unforseen competitive or other threats and disasters;
A comprehensive plan to PIVOT to another strategy that may be related to your original venture, but that takes into account the unplanned competitive or market-driven blows that may surprise you and blindside you;
and a full-scale EXIT STRATEGY that you may need in order to withdraw from the possible disaster you may have encountered and then create your lessons learned so you can plan for another future venture with your possible lessons learned.

So, we hope that these words of experience may give you an insight into tempering your fiery enthusiasm of launching your venture and going full speed, but possibly running right into the fire of the competitive or market threats you may encounter.

If so, you can be somewhat prepared to recognize, recover or decide to either pivot or withdraw with your exit strategy before all your resources are depleted and the real disaster of failure will destroy your own entrpreneurial enthusiasm. In this way, you can prevent yourself from going “a bridge too far.”

Thank you for your attention.