Great Escape Podcast episode 16 - a Little Escape on planning - too much or too little?

The sound quality for today's going to be really quite strange 'cause I'm using my handheld recorder, standing on Pambula Beach which is on the East coast of Australia, looking out over the rising sun over the ocean. There's nothing between me and New Zealand, I think, going that way. This morning, I've had breakfast sittin next to a pair of kangaroo just nibbling by the campsite. And we've had parakeets land on our van. And it's a stunning blue sky, hardly a cloud in the sky. Really lovely day. Something that's cropped up a couple of times in messages that you've sent me, and also in Angela's interview on Saturday on the last episode was about people who were trying to make changes, over-planning, especially when trying to start a business. And something that I found when I was working at the Henley Business School teaching entrepreneurship was that there is a clear gender difference in the way people approach making change and starting businesses. And that is that men tend to get a bit half-planned and just go and do it when they think they can do it. Whether they actually can or can't is largely irrelevant to the way they're thinking. They think they can. And women tend to plan and plan and plan and plan and plan. And are much less likely to actually make the change or start the business because they feel like they need to have all of the I's dotted and T's crossed. Now, I know it's very dangerous making sweeping gender approximations like that, but this was a clear finding. Obviously there are individuals that will be different in one way or another. And so, what we found was, if we could get the men to plan a bit more, they were more likely to be successful. And if we could get the women to plan a little less, they were more likely to be successful. Which, sort of makes some logical sense but was really quite interesting. So my thought for your today, as you can hear the Pacific Ocean crashing beside me, is actually at some point, you've got to take action, you've got to start making the changes necessary to get to the destination, or to get on the journey that you want to get on. And, a lot of the time, the amount of planning needed is a lot less than we think. But also, there's this thing called
"the lean start-up concept." And that's basically where you get cracking with the minimum of preparation, and the minimum of expense, and just try it. Try building something, try selling something and see what happens. So if you've got an idea for a product or a service that you're trying to sell to somebody, build a cheap, quick prototype. If it's a course or some physical product, then see if people will buy it. Then if they will buy it, great! You can then get on and do all of the major planning that needs to be done. And if they don't buy it, they'll probably tell you what it is that needs to be changed to make it better, to make it something that they would buy. And so what you're doing is minimising the risk of a huge start-up investment by trying something, doing it cheaply, getting off the ground, and responding to potential customer feedback as quickly as possible. That way, for those of you who get stuck in the planning phase, you can tell yourself this is part of the research and planning phase and get moving. And for those of you who don't plan enough, this is a way of planning better, because again, it becomes part of an extended planning phase. As ever, if you've enjoyed this podcast, please do share it with friends. Like and share it on the usual podcast platforms, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and do get in touch @StuartLMorris, [email protected] Send me a message, let me know what you like, what you don't like, what you'd like me to cover more of. And, I'd love to hear from you and keep the conversation going. You can find other episodes of the podcast at https://GreatEscapePodcast.com.