When your enterprise reaches a certain point in its evolution you will have reached the synergy stage. However, it’s a process and creating the perfect corporate synergy in your business is easier said than done but by no means impossible!
So what is corporate synergy? It’s when you reach a point where your business is firing on all cylinders and therefore running efficiently and smoothly at a profitable level and needs little to no involvement from you on a day-to-day basis. In other words, it’s making money without you having to be there. With the right staff and systems having been established, everything is ticking along nicely.
This is no overnight evolution; to get here you have already gone through various steps and stages. You ought to be very pleased with yourself, though it is critical that you do not rest on your laurels.
Now is the time to step up and take “your baby” to the next level. This will be a different vision for different people. But, as we’ve suggested, it’s a process and there is a lot you can do to move it forward and make it happen. In fact, offering exponential growth, this is one of the most enjoyable phases of growth for any business!
It requires a new energy and direction from you so that you can focus on developing greater drive, ambition, vision and so forth.
However, the beauty of the synergy step is you have more time to step back, gain some perspective and can therefore focus on this step. Corporate synergy is very much about contemplating how to grow your business and in what way. This can take numerous paths; do you want to add new products, have offices in new regions, franchise the business, or even start a complementary business to the one in place? Perhaps you want to buy other businesses to merge with yours?
As your company evolves in the synergy stage, so, too, must you as its leader. Something to keep very much in mind; you need to adapt as you grow from being a manager and business owner to being an investor, and then on to being a pure entrepreneur. To do this, you’ll need to develop or enhance your skills and mindset. This is a key challenge for you in the synergy stage, and you need to master this before you can take your business to the level you want. It can require a shift to longer term thinking as well as being prepared to have less certain outcomes than in the day-to-day management of the business.
You will need new skills. They include: a wider understanding of different business models, developing investment strategies and being on top of financial management. As well, you will need to focus on areas such as return on capital, enterprise value and portfolio mix. As you continue to embrace corporate synergy, your two biggest constraints of time and capital will become less so. As we’ve said, it’s easier said than done but the rewards are worth it!
P.S. Whenever you are ready…
- Get the ‘finish your business’ checklist: The complete step-by-step recipe to have all the ingredients in place to actually finish your business. That means it works without you and gives you a great life. Click here.
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- Apply to become a member of BGB: If you would like to be considered for membership and go from working in your business to working on your business… send us a message and put ‘membership’ in the subject line… tell us a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and we’ll get you all the details.
