Navigating Critical Change
This series cuts to the heart of what it really takes to lead a startup through the turbulent moments that define its future — from branding decisions and marketing strategy to the mindset shifts that separate surviving founders from thriving ones. Rather than offering generic advice, each instalment tackles the raw, often uncomfortable realities of entrepreneurship: cashflow trade-offs, the challenger gap, and what to do when everything goes sideways. Whether you’re rethinking your growth model or trying to make sense of bold thinking in practical terms, this series gives startup leaders the frameworks and honesty they need to navigate change with confidence.
Strategy gets a bad rap, and in many cases, it’s self-inflicted and has earned that reputation. You may have had your fingers burnt, wasted money on it, or just have perceptions of it being a misdirection of your precious resources, completely impractical or unrealistic due to the realities of a fledgling business.
I was reading something recently about semantic satiation, a term for when a word or phrase is repeated so often it loses all sense of meaning.
When you had that incredible idea for a new venture, a business where you could be your own boss, leave that unrewarding career, change the world and/or set yourself and your family up for the future, you didn’t think your nemesis, your night time insomnia gremlin, your palpable stress and relationship breaker would be….cashflow.
Everywhere you turn, there’s content from ‘brand experts’ arguing the absolute necessity of having a disruptive and unique brand strategy from day zero. But let’s take a moment to cut through to what this actually looks like.
No reader of this publication needs me to tell them that finding and maintaining growth for a business of any size is not a straight and linear process. Far from it. Ambitions and expectations clash with the realities of operating a business day-to-day. What you want to do is restricted by the constraints of what you can do.
Ah, the “entrepreneurial mindset”, do you have it, do you wish you had it, do you know what it is, do you even care, and what does it mean for how you find and maintain success in your emerging startup?
According to a 2024 Marketing Week survey, two-thirds of SMEs don’t have a marketing plan in place. Shocking, but should we really be surprised?
In a world where disruption and innovation are worn as badges of honour, the term ‘thinking outside the box’ is meant to be something we all strive for as a personal attribute, and feel less adequate if we’re not one of those out of the box thinkers.
The New Year offers a unique opportunity for startups to recalibrate, innovate, and plan for sustainable growth. Drawing insights from my column in 2024, here’s a list of New Year’s resolutions for founders and marketers to navigate the challenging yet rewarding startup to scaleup journey.
Startup founders have a huge list of things to think about, and somewhere pretty high is the company name. It’s like naming your child, so much emotion and pressure to get it right can lead to a disproportionate amount of time and concern being expended at the expense of other vitally important jobs-to-be-done.
