Entrepreneurship and Business Strategy

Entrepreneurial Destination. Describing someone who has just started in business as an Entrepreneur, is like calling someone who just started running an Olympian. That’s not to take anything away from those who start a businesses, it’s just to begin this journey with some perspective. You may not have just started yesterday, but you may not…

Understanding where every penny goes in your business is fundamental. I really mean every penny.If you can’t track your cost you can’t track your profit. Here’s an example of how an entire Country percieves their costs versus the reality of thier costs.Most countres are like this and most businesses are like this. The Tax you…

A post from Patrick Walsh (CEO & Founder Dogpatch Labs) popped into my linkedIn feed. In the post Patrick is looking for ‘Founders’ and is partnering them up (Dogpatch Labs is an incubator/accelerator). The post was very nicely written and had a great call to action: “If you’re ambitious and want to build something big—but…

At some point in your founder journey you will need to become a manager. I can remember exactly the moment when I accepted that in order to go to the next level in business I’d have to go all-in and become a manager. I really did not want to be a manager but as a…

A story of my background in Water2buy. This case study was recorded by the local enterprise office in North Dublin Ireland in 2016 right at the beginning of our major growth phase. We didn’t spend much time talking to the media about how great we were, so this is a rare record. It might be…

When is the last time you had an exceptionally good experience? I hope you can think of at least one! Now think of a terrible experience you had. Include any experience you had in which you had to exchange your time. This could be shopping, paying a bill, renewing your insurance, going to the post…

BPRF Brainstorm > Research > Prototype > Final Build I’ve wrote about this before in detail so here’s the practical short version. I use BRPF as a method of building things, within the ever evolving XYZ System. It’s a fundamental part alongside the project management aspect of the XYZ System. The project management part of XYZ is…

1. Cost is king. Cost will cripple you. Know all your costs. Don’t count taxes, taxes are not your money you’ll have to hand it over. 2. Simple system. A 3 column spreadsheet p&l is as good as any. (item | in | out). Have a system of recording receipts for your spending and sales.…

To go from good to great get a mission. About 10 Years ago as Water2buy started to grow and gain some momentum, I started trying to implement some of the things I had read in business books and learned from business coaches. One of those lessons was defining our mission or purpose.Almost every cookie cutter…

Version: 1.1 An introduction to the concept of SET. Why have a way to organise what’s in your head? Any kind of organisational system that works for you will reduce the energy you need to dedicate to it. It being the set of all the things you do and don’t do – but are in…

You’d be forgiven for peering out from under the sheets when someone mentions culture in your organisation. Culture is another one of those terms like ‘teamwork’ that has become a parody of itself, it has devolved into a HR controlled, rule oriented, cesspit of demotivational bullshit – and that’s putting it lightly. I won’t tell…

Business starts local, so I’m happy to spend time helping out local businesses where I can. Fingal chamber of commerce graciously invited me to speak at their ‘Behind the Business Event’ as part of Local Enterprise week 2024. I received the potential questions in advance so I’ve spent time thinking about the answers in advance…

A long time ago in a business far far away I was working on a project that required a knowledge of how the business operated. As you’d expect, I interviewed the business owner asking her to describe her business to me, “Walk me through how everything works.” I said. A business story After about 20…

Team, team-work, team-building words so common in business that they have become office buzz words that set the eyes rolling. Oh no, the boss has got a bunch of energy somewhere and now we’re all off to a Forrest park to climb ropes and get plastered after. That, or some variant has become the norm…

In business and life these days it seems like everything is telling you to strive for optimal. That seems like a logical idea, but for me at least it causes problems. The problem I’m referring to is the overwhelming feeling, the mountain that seems to be in front of you when you decide to optimise…

Brainstorming ? Research ? Prototype ? Final build The stage of the XYZ system is the prototype. This is where you get to test all the assumptions you have made during brainstorming and research. Your research will have eliminated some options for you, and now you have something you can try. You might have more…

Now that you’ve seeded your story and fleshed out the ideas in Brainstorming, It’s time to enter the Research phase. The Research phase is meant to add some scope to the story and find its edges. The story can be any size, but it is during the research phase that you can determine the appropriate…

Your story has begun, you’ve seeded your brainstorming with various points of view (‘As a’) Now it’s time to develop the story by brainstorming. Where to start?“A good point to begin with is the end”let’s dive into that piece of philosophy. What needs to happen for your story to become a reality?What does the outcome…

XYZ System: Agile Stories to Brainstorming. Section Summary: 1. If you at least get everyone to ask the same way then you’ll add clarity and consistency. 2. If you go to the next step and expand the context you’ll understand your project better. A Story in Agile is the name you give your idea.The idea…

NASA Engineering wrapped in Agile Organisation.Big Promise, but it’s not a promise it’s a system.The last major thing I did in my previous company before I sold it was to implement a system. A system where by engineers could build the things we needed and organise themselves without me, as a manager being involved. I…