Flying Your Business
Starting and growing a business is a lot like building and flying an airplane. All aircraft are subject to the tensions between:
- Lift versus gravity and
- Thrust versus drag.
- Navigation is also key.
Lift is the force that allows the airplane to fly. In an airplane, it is created by negative pressure of air going faster over an airfoil. In business, lift is created by offering value. The more value your business creates, the more lift can be theoretically generated. Whether you capture some of this value for yourself is a function of pricing, competition and product-market fit.
Gravity is the force that pulls the aircraft to the ground. The more the plane weighs, the more lift and velocity will be required to get the plane off of the ground. In business, gravity is similar to overhead. That can include leases, employee salaries and operating expenses.
Thrust is the force that propels the vehicle forward. In most airplanes thrust is created by an engine. Jet engines compress, turbocharge, and ignite air with fuel. The result is more thrust than provided by propellers. In business, thrust is created by lead generators, conversion to sale techniques and sales skills. Today’s engines include paid digital advertising, social media, direct mailings, networking groups and sales teams. All of these tools have the potential to turbocharge your growth.
Drag is created by poor aerodynamics. This might include the shape of the plane’s body …including its wings. Note that air flaps are specifically designed to slow a plane down to prepare it for landing. In business, drag is created by not having a good business model, poor customer service, onboarding, fulfillment systems and quality control. We all know that negative, incompetent or untrained team members can slow things down as well.
In business, as in flight, all of these forces dynamically interact. Want to take off and fly higher? Create more value, generate more leads and sales, reduce overhead, and streamline operations. It sounds simple but it is not.