RL77: Optimizing Through Elimination
Plus, a new framework for freeing up your time to focus on what matters
Before we dive in - I’ll be hosting a Happy Hour in Austin, Tx this week and another in NYC on 11/10.
Over the last week or so, I’ve been reading “Buy Back Your Time” by Dan Martell.
The book is solid (full disclosure, I’m about halfway through) - it’s basically a repackaging of what everyone says about entrepreneurship - focus on the 20% of activities that drive 80% of results.
Truthfully, the entrepreneurial grind is brutal - you work and work and work and sometimes have some wins sprinkled in among many losses.
My view on entrepreneurship has changed over the years, from wanting to get rich quickly to recognizing that great things take time to build.
With any endurance activity - sustainability is critical.
The long view has influenced a lot of my business - we do work with people we like on behalf of the community we care about - military veterans.
The book’s advice is simple - focus on what moves the needle and ruthlessly cut non-essential activities. Do less, do it better, do more of what makes you money.
It’s time for me to take some of my own advice - this week’s post is about eliminating scope creep.
My Entrepreneurial Weaknesses
I try to be self-aware, and in entrepreneurial settings, it’s fairly easy as your flaws hold the entire business back.
You get feedback on your weaknesses ALL the time in business, but here are a few of mine that stand out -
Scope creep - taking on too many projects at once
Sales - I think I’m probably on the peak of Mount Stupid for those who are fans of Dunning-Kruger
Delegation - I’m slowly working to improve on this, but I still struggle with the ‘do it myself’ mentality
Scope creep is the most egregious at the moment.
Maximizing shots on goal is important in the early innings of building a startup.
Selling as much as possible until you find a profitable product/service and customer is required until you start generating traction.
In the book, “Ready, Fire, Aim”, Michael Masterson writes about the journey of taking a business through its first phase - from $0 of revenue to $1m / year.
The #1 requirement for a business in this phase is to sell in various ways to hone in on your Unique Selling Proposition.
Of course - spreading yourself thin across multiple lines of effort makes each effort less effective.
We’ve had a good year at TMV and it looks like we’ll close out Q4 by hitting our goals, so I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can become more effective and double-down on what’s working as we turn the corner into 2024.
Our Keys to Growth
Our business is a recruiting agency and executive search firm for companies looking to hire exceptional business leaders from the military veteran community.
The business grows by doing two things well -
Sales - meeting new companies that want to use us to hire veterans
Recruiting - doing the work that we’ve been contracted to do
Seems pretty simple, right?
It may be simple, but it’s not easy. Each of these actions requires tons of work and collaboration with a team.
With that in mind, I’m cutting down on extraneous tasks by using a novel framework that’s as simple as it is impactful.
Below, I’ll write about that framework for paid subscribers. Part of the framework focuses on the work that generates the highest ROI. I love writing this newsletter, and I’m genuinely grateful for every subscriber, but having a profit motive keeps me moving forward.
I must ask myself - is this a high ROI use of my time?
Because of that philosophy, I’m paywalling the rest of the post - having paid subscribers keeps me honest, and helps keep me motivated to keep writing.
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