A company’s original business model is not always sustainable. What worked as you were starting up might not work years down the line, and it’s important for your long-term growth to adjust accordingly.
If you think your current business model is in need of an overhaul, you’ll want to take the proper steps to making improvements. To help you, we asked a panel of Forbes Coaches Council members for their best advice on analyzing and modifying a business model. Here’s the steps they recommend.
1. Understand The Problem You’re Solving
If we don’t know what problem we are solving, we introduce the risk that we aren’t addressing the reason we are changing our model. Change for the sake of change isn’t always a bad choice. But when you find yourself at a place where a change is required, the place to start is why. Choices can then be vetted against whether it will be a remedy and whether other risks or opportunities are present. – Kathi Laughman, The Mackenzie Circle LLC
2. Review The Business Infrastructure
Reviewing the business infrastructure should be the first step in analyzing a business model to determine if it’s effective. The infrastructure deals with foundational systems for managing people, processes, procedures, technology, human resources, sales, profits and more. Without a proper infrastructure including solid systems, there can be no sustainable, long-term growth. – Lori A. Manns, Quality Media Consultant Group LLC
3. Confront Your Biases
Leaders of businesses immerse themselves in their business for good reason. It’s imperative to take a step back and look at the biases we have in leading this business. Biases don’t follow logic. Our passion for our industry could blind us to the economic changes and market shifts in that business. Bring in someone from outside the business to ask hard questions about the business model. – Evan Roth, Roth Consultancy International, LLC
4. Determine Your Desired Outcome
When overhauling a business model, it’s critical to answer the question, “What’s the outcome we are after?” Not how does it look, but the impact it has. If you do not have a clear line of sight on your end objective, the problems you are trying to solve, and then work backward from there, you can easily end up building a suboptimal solution. – Faith Fuqua-Purvis, Synergetic Solutions
5. Look At What Your Competitors Are Doing
The first step to see if you need to improve your business model is to see what others in your field are doing. If all your competitors are pivoting and you are not, that is a sign you may be left behind. Had Blockbuster pivoted like Netflix, they might still be around. – John Livesay, The Pitch Whisperer
6. Figure Out What’s Out Of Balance
If you have to overhaul your business model, something is not working. The first step is to understand what is out of balance. Look before you leap to your own solution, as usually there is no simple answer. Time spent on reflection, research, analysis, engaging and listening to your customers’, employees’ and business advisors’ views will be worth their weight in gold in deciding what to do next. – Lindy Brewster, ORConsulting
7. Prepare Yourself To Adapt Quickly
Recognize that current success has little to do with future success. Be ready to change with the pace of change in the world. Think of your business as a temporary solution to a problem. Make plans to adapt quickly. Leverage your core competencies to help your customers more. Then look beyond your market into larger markets. Change is inevitable. Your company’s demise does not have to be. – Steve Wakeen, Playbook Coaching, LLC
8. Adopt Outside Industry Best Practices
Sometimes it helps to look beyond the confinements of your own industry. Reevaluate your business model and calibrate your game plan based on other successful tactics. A fresh perspective will help you stay relevant and fluid in a globally changing economy. Talk to your customers, but also your personal network, and gauge which businesses they are loyal to and why. Great insights can be gathered. – Rosa Vargas, Authentic Resume Branding & Career Coaching
9. Leverage Modeling Tools
Use a wide variety of modeling tools to help you make the right decision. Models and tools help to keep you dispassionate about the size and scope of the challenges, as well as guide you to the right solution(s). There are a plethora of tools that can be used. First, select the right tools, then pay very close attention to the result, no matter how distasteful some of the answers might be. – Antonio Garrido, Absolute Sales Development
10. Engage Your Workforce
Let your employees know your goal and that you trust they have better answers than you do because they’re closer to the work. Start with appropriate vulnerability. Set up some brainstorming sessions where they offer their best ideas for how to improve your business model. Set up processes that make it easy to contribute. Find a way to acknowledge everyone who participated. – Dr. Joel M. Rothaizer, MCC, Clear Impact Consulting Group
11. Create Space And Flexibility For Your Brain
Once you have been working in your business for a while, you tend to have certain neural pathways that may influence you on how it should work in the future. Therefore, the first step in overhauling your business model is to stay out of it! Have a break to create the mental space to do all of the thinking. Also, expose yourself to the new trends and talk to people with creative ideas to flex your brain muscles. – Amy Nguyen, Happiness Infinity LLC
12. Build On Your Mission And Vision
Is this modification of the business model aligned with your mission, vision, values and your reason for existence? It’s often enticing to get on the bandwagon of change because we live in an agile world and feel the pressure to continuously innovate, but the first move is to ensure the authenticity and relevance of the change and how it will enhance and build on the bigger picture. – Debbie Ince, Executive Talent Finders, Inc
13. Look At Your Historical Data
Deciding if a particular model is working or is effective is not a matter of perspective, it is a matter of data. A company that has been in existence should have access to historic data that lends itself to in-depth analysis. The only real question is who should examine the data and provide conclusions: I happen to be a proponent of using external entities for such evaluations to avoid bias. – Kamyar Shah, World Consulting Group
14. Identify Your Customers
Identifying where your previously paying customers come from can be a key first step in modifying a business model that may need improvements. It is important to begin analyzing there because without paying customers, you will have no business to modify! Perhaps it is as simple as you quit “fishing in the right pond” or are neglecting an audience that can make a difference in your business. – Susan Scotts, SScotts.EsourceCoach.com
15. Ask Yourself How You’d Do It If You Could Start Over Today
There is power in asking the right questions. The most important question that a leader can ask when considering a new business model is, if I could start all over again today, how would I build this organization? When the answer to this critical question is both clear and compelling it is time to rebuild and start over. This question can lead to the right first steps in the rebuilding process. – Ken Gosnell, CEO Experience
As Seen On Forbes Coaches Council –
Debbie Kassebaum-Ince
Founder & President of Executive Talent Finders
