Chance favors the prepared mind

We spend a lot of time strategizing and planning to get to where we want to be — and that’s a good thing to do.

But the longer I’m in business (and honestly, in regular life too) the more I realize it’s less about having a “perfect plan” and more about being able to react.

When the pandemic first hit, my favorite local restaurant didn’t offer delivery or have a good system for carry out, so they decided to just shut the doors for a few weeks and let it pass.

One of my customers who runs a BBQ joint, on the other hand, took a different approach…

Within a week they had set up a mini grocery store selling staples like toilet paper and condiments through their drive-thru (which they were still able to get through their commercial supply chain which actually had a surplus with so many restaurants closing down).

The BBQ place not only survived the pandemic (unlike my favorite local place, who shut their doors permanently 2 months in) — but they had record months and were able to continue paying their staff.

Neither one of these places had planned for the pandemic — none of us had — but one was able to quickly adapt to the situation they found themselves in and made it work.

Whatever the situation is now, the only thing guaranteed is that it will eventually change. Often slowly over time, but sometimes with a sudden cosmic shift.

It’s impossible to foresee all the scenarios, but you can do yourself a favor by recognizing that nothing will last forever.

How will our industry change in the next 5 years? How will our clients change? What advancements in technology pose a threat to our business? And what kind of opportunities could those same advancements present?

We’ve spent a lot of time in our TABLE groups discussing things like this — and I’m not going to pretend we’ve found the answers… But I’m sure that the folks contemplating these things are going to be much better prepared than those who haven’t simply through exploring different possibilities and how they might be able to react.

As Louis Pasteur said “Chance favors the prepared mind”.

If you’re interested in joining small groups of fellow agency owners and freelancers discussing things like this (and a whole lot more!), we have a couple openings in TABLE in April. You can apply here.