Where Scrappy Becomes Strategic

I get to do the coolest work. I partner with folks who have turned or are turning their skills and hobbies into successful businesses. They're passionate experts with a knack for "just figuring it out". I also partner with folks who lead organizations with a small, dedicated crew of staff, volunteers, and board members. They know where there's room for improvement and are doing their best to keep themselves and their teams moving the mission forward. Both groups of clients have their own unique situations, but what they have in common is that they've gotten where they are by being extremely scrappy. Maybe you relate.

"Scrappy" Isn't a Dig

When I say scrappy I mean determined, persistent, resourceful, and able to create a lot from a little. Scrappy isn't an insult or something that diminishes the hard work you've done, it's how you (and I, for that matter) have gotten to where you are now. However, scrappy is not the same as strategic, and with busy calendars and limited resources, we need to be running strategic businesses and organizations.

Where Scrappy Lets Us Down

Being scrappy lets us down when it makes us reactive, makes it hard to pass on roles or navigate transitions, and drains our energy.

Without a foundational strategy we can be overwhelmed by a long list of tasks from the many hats we wear in the work we do. We can also find ourselves duct taping issues that pop up instead of planning for what we need to do and have in place.

We are running on instinct and what seems best in the moment, which can make us hang on to things longer than we should with no real way to hand them off to others.

On top of all this, the energy expended trying to do so many things leaves us exhausted, with little energy for the forward thinking we need to do to thrive.

What Being Strategic Means

Being strategic doesn't mean we have to lose the benefits of being scrappy people. We just need to make sure we know our mission and/or goals and the steps we need to take to achieve them.

Don't treat everything you plan as if it's written in stone. One of the biggest assets you have is your ability to be flexible. You just need to make sure you have something you can refer back to when things start to feel chaotic, and to know when you've made progress or need to tweak something.

That said, don't start changing everything at once. When you change too many variables, you don't know what changes are effective or how the changes are impacting everything else.

Remember that you don't have to be an expert at everything that it takes to run your business or organization. If you find yourself saying "I'm not a computer person" or "I'm not a marketer" or "I just like doing the thing I do best, and I'm winging everything else", it's okay to delegate or outsource to those who do those pieces best. Having a strategy helps you know when and how you should do that.

How Scrappy Becomes Strategic

Becoming more strategic gives you and your business or organization the best shot at thriving.

Small Businesses

Scrappy

Posting on socials whenever you find time and crossing your fingers the "right" people see it.

Strategic

Knowing who needs and is looking for what you have to offer and where and how to best reach them. Posting at a frequency that fits your actual capacity, not generic advice that doesn't account for what makes you and your business unique.

Scrappy

Being unsure of which part of your business needs your attention most, putting out fires as they pop up, pushing through processes that are clunky, and keeping a list of improvements you may make "someday".

Strategic

Knowing what parts of your business take the most of your time and what changes will have the largest return on investment.

Nonprofits and Community Organizations

Scrappy 

Scrambling to put together fundraising events and campaigns every year.

Strategic 

Creating an evergreen process that you improve upon each year, enabling you to hit the ground running.

Scrappy 

Training new staff and volunteers when there's time, counting on them to learn on the job.

Strategic 

Creating a simple, accessible onboarding process you can reuse, built around the capacity of you and your team.

Both

Scrappy 

Running events and making decisions based on what's always been done.

Strategic 

Knowing what success looks like for you, having a way to measure it, and using what you learned to improve processes for the future.

Tag Me In!

You don't have to figure everything out at once, and you don't have to do it all on your own (even if you technically have the ability to do so). Consider the two biggest areas of need in your business or organization right now. What are they? How would spending time on those areas impact your work?

If you get stuck, feel overwhelmed, or find you don't have the time to pause and dig deep into it on your own, reach out and together we can get clear on what strategic can look like for you.