Pivotal Momentum Inc.

04/05/2025

Small Business Owners:
Power up with Agility and Anticipation!

Over the last several weeks, as I’ve worked with business owners and managers in public sector organizations to help them simulate their success, I realized we’ve been missing an important distinction between agility and anticipation.

Daniel Burrus nailed it in his latest blog post (Why Should Anticipation Be Your Primary Strategy --- Not Agility?): Agility helps you respond to change after it happens. Anticipation helps you act before it happens --- because you saw it coming.

What I’m observing right now is that most of us are much more focused on agility than anticipation, meaning that the best we can hope for is “limiting the damage”.

Being anticipatory means asking ourselves which trends we’re seeing are likely to “harden” and continue versus fading away relatively quickly in our business cycle. An example might be “buying Canadian” or eschewing travel to the U.S. If you think that trend (or maybe tsunami is a better word here) will continue for the foreseeable future, how --- if at all --- would you change your business strategy? Your municipality’s economic development strategy? Your not-for-profit’s strategy?

Anticipatory thinking also helps you spot opportunities, often earlier than competitors more focused on agility. Examples: airlines are being agile on responding to the drop in flights from Canada to the U.S. by cancelling flights. It is possible they are also being anticipatory, given how quickly they have put together alternative vacation destination options.

For most small businesses, agility alone may not be enough to survive the tsunami so many of us are facing. Anticipatory thinking is much more likely to be where growth lives. However, most of us haven't had much practice at it!

There is a need for anticipatory thinking in government too. The degree to which a country’s economic strategy has been anticipatory can be discerned by watching the responses to changing tariff structures and upheaval in international trade norms. At this point, I’m seeing more emphasis on trying to be agile. And not a lot of evidence of anticipatory thinking. Being caught flat-footed is the metaphor that keeps coming to mind….

I welcome your comments sharing where you’ve seen either agility or anticipation, and where you’d like to see it.

And If you’re interested in joining me for a on a private, no-charge Zoom call with others interested in how we can be more anticipatory, here’s the info to register:

Topic: Agile or Anticipatory? You Choose.
Date: April 10, 2025
Time: 8 am Eastern
Zoom link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89760356548?pwd=EIrtmZcdxxbqb212Wkur30GFFbpKUx.1

Note: this event is open to anyone, not just small business owners, with an interest in this topic.

Welcome! You are invited to join a meeting: Agile or Anticipatory? You Choose. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.

01/26/2025

Scrambling to get ready for the impact of 25% tariffs?

It doesn't matter if you're on the Canadian side, steeling yourself for the impact of 25% tariffs on goods exported to the U.S. or on the U.S. side, steeling yourself for the impact of tariffs on goods exported to Canada (since the Canadian government has made it clear they have a countervailing "package" of tariffs ready). There will be a significant impact on bilateral trade and the businesses that are the means by which trade happens. The question for each of us is: are we ready to respond effectively?

Increasingly I am being asked by clients to help them respond effectively. In case these are helpful to you, here are my initial recommendations:

1. Make sure you're clear on your long-term goal/what success looks like for you over the longer-term (let's say by the end of the decade). This has to be your 'north star', the filter through which you must make decisions.

2. Gather whatever data you need --- financial, sales by geographic area, customers by dollar value and units of product, a line-by-line understanding of your expenses, contractual commitments, staffing especially by skill set, and an inventory of capital assets, especially production equipment.

3. Look at where you are in the supply chain for each product or service you sell. Consider how many different suppliers you buy from and how many different customers you sell to. Do you need to diversify either of those?

4. Ask yourself where the opportunities are in this situation? If you're concerned about your inputs (price, availability etc.), can you find a domestic supplier or a supplier from a country outside of North America? Can you make inputs yourself? Can you form a joint venture with someone else to do so? The same thinking applies to sales. Can you find other customers on the same side of the border? Or in a country outside of North America? Could you buy a firm that is downstream from you --- a company that needs your product --- and build a more vertically-integrated supply chain over which you would have more control? Can you shift the balance of sales from high vulnerability products and services to lower vulnerability ones? An example would be shifting from products subject to tariffs to ones that are not.

5. It's time to get creative... and now you know why question 1 is so important! You may identify great opportunities that fit perfectly with your vision for your business but you not have the capacity (cashflow, staff etc.) to pursue them. It is definitely time to lay out the financial plan with which you are going to navigate at least the next 12 months if not longer. This year (2025) could be highly volatile. Are you ready to ride it out? It may be time to talk to your bank about your plan. Or to seek equity investment.

6. Start figuring all of this out today. You may not get it all done in a single day but rather than hanging on every word in tomorrow's news feeds, get moving now!

01/26/2025

Small Business Owners:
Today’s a Great Day to Begin Building Your Business Resilience

Think of resilience as the ability to withstand a shock and adapt --- successfully --- to changing business conditions. In this, the first of three posts on resilience this week, I’m focusing on “Doing What I Need to Do Right Now” --- the moment the shock hits.

Resilience starts in our own mind, with a willingness to accept that our world has changed in some significant way and we’re going to have to manage and operate our business differently. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses were either forced to close or found they had to change the way they do business. Curbside pickup anyone?

As a business strategist, the question I get asked most often is “what do I do now?” It’s being asked more frequently now that the longstanding business relationship between Canada and the United States (and Mexico) is changing.

I am hoping you’ve read my January 18 post (How Are We Doing at Managing Risk?) or January 16 (Navigating a ‘No Normal” World). Both emphasized the importance of figuring out what you want for your business in the years ahead (your “north star”) If you’ve done that, here are three questions to ask yourself as you decide what to do “right now”:

1. What have I been doing (or what has my business been doing) that hasn’t delivered value in a long time? Be honest with yourself. There’s almost always something we’re spending money on that hasn’t generated value in the recent past and isn’t likely to in the future.

2. How has [insert shock] changed what my customers or clients want NOW and are willing to pay for in the next 30 days? And what else can you do to keep cash flow going in the next month?

3. What can you do right now to preserve as much operating capacity as possible while you ‘retool’ for a different future? Do you need to switch locations? Change shifts? Change the way you interact with customers, employees and suppliers?

Regardless of the shock you’re experiencing (or seeing ahead) there are three main types of actions you must take: Health and Safety, Behind the Scenes tasks and Modified Operations. These types of actions are designed to focus YOUR attention, and that of your employees, suppliers and customers.

I’ve put together a one-page checklist with more than 30 immediate actions. If you’d like a copy, email me at [email protected]. The checklist is part of my forthcoming Small Business Success Simulation Workbook but I’m releasing the section on Resilience today. Get a head start!

01/26/2025

Small Business Owners: Getting Distracted by Your News Feed?

Every mentor I've had (and I've had four exceptional ones --- all of whom have been/are successful business owners) --- has emphasized the importance of your "morning routine". Here's what they typically say we should be doing first thing upon waking:

1. Do NOT check your email or news feed until you...

2. Express your gratitude for 5 to 10 aspects of your life .You can think it, write it, sing it (just be respectful of the neighbours) or draw it. It's very difficult --- if not impossible --- to be angry or fearful when you're feeling gratitude.

3. Get outdoors for a few minutes, breathing and stretching, doing some exercise if you're able. Some people combine this with walking their dog and with being grateful.

4. Bring your "best life ever" onto the screen of your mind and let it simmer there for just a few minutes. Remind yourself WHY this image is so important to you.

5. Zero in on just a handful of actions you can --- and will --- take today to move you forward. Hopefully you made today's list last night. Action is a terrific antidote to fear and paralysis --- and if that's what you're feeling these days, it is understandable. Just don't stay there! If necessary, go back to the top of this list.

6. Get into inspired action.

Here's an example:

My mornings usually start with a 5:30 am check-in with my laying hens. Not that much fun at -20C but they inspire me to match their commitment to service for which I am grateful. They get me outdoors and put me on the launch pad for other expressions of gratitude. I carry on with the rest of the list from there.

At 6:30 am this morning, I had my weekly Zoom call check-in with a friend in the U.K., comparing notes, assessing last week and pivoting to the new one ahead.

Then I got outdoors some more, and plowed out my 400 foot driveway, As I finished, my next-door nephew and niece-in-law (my term) stopped by while pulling their 16-month daughter along in a wagon. Besides catching up, enjoying the sunshine, fresh air and relatively balmy temperatures, I convinced my nephew to get in the wagon with his daughter (see photo), and later raced the wagon down the driveway. Kids love speed not to mention watching adults try to run in full winter gear... Made my day.

You can be sure I was not thinking about the wackiness of the world through any of this...

How can you make your morning routine better?
Activate to view larger image,

08/16/2024

A recent article in The Economist made the case that highly-skilled foreigners can be “extra-useful” to the receiving country. {Source: America is sabotaging itself in the global battle for talent, August 15, 2024] The article cites that a Harvard study tried to measure the degree to which forei...

07/26/2022

Small business owners: if you want practical help on how to change your mindset to one that is growth-oriented, send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Tell me more about mindset”. We’ll send you a free tip sheet that you can start using today!” And you can ask to be put on the list for notification of the release of our forthcoming “Small Business Success Workbook”. It’s a 31 day, 15 minutes a day approach to help you move from the theoretical (here’s what the research shows”) to direct application in your business.

07/24/2022

Small business owners: if you want practical help on how to change your mindset to one that is growth-oriented, send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Tell me more about mindset”. We’ll send you a free tip sheet that you can start using today!” And you can ask to be put on the list for notification of the release of our forthcoming “Small Business Success Workbook”. It’s a 31-day, 15 minutes a day approach to help you move from the theoretical (here’s what the research shows”) to direct application in your business.

Link to McKinsey & Company: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/choosing-to-grow-the-leaders-blueprint?cid=other-eml-onp-mip-mck&hlkid=4e8fc24c1d5949e99c10e67437d23f05&hctky=12600789&hdpid=1b24c787-bbf8-416e-b2d2-ca4c9652a8e1

07/22/2022

Small business owners: if you want practical help on how to change your mindset to one that is growth-oriented, send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Tell me more about mindset”. We’ll send you a free tip sheet that you can start using today!” And you can ask to be put on the list for notification of the release of our forthcoming “Small Business Success Workbook”. It’s a 31-day, 15 minutes a day approach to help you move from the theoretical (here’s what the research shows”) to direct application in your business.

07/20/2022

Small business owners: if you want practical help on how to change your mindset to one that is growth-oriented, send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Tell me more about mindset”. We’ll send you a free tip sheet that you can start using today!” And you can ask to be put on the list for notification of the release of our forthcoming “Small Business Success Workbook”. It’s a 31-day, 15 minutes a day approach to help you move from the theoretical (here’s what the research shows”) to direct application in your business.

Link to Mckinsey & Company: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/choosing-to-grow-the-leaders-blueprint?cid=other-eml-onp-mip-mck&hlkid=4e8fc24c1d5949e99c10e67437d23f05&hctky=12600789&hdpid=1b24c787-bbf8-416e-b2d2-ca4c9652a8e1

07/13/2022

Interested in more on this or other small business management topics?
Go to https://pivotalmomentuminc.my.canva.site/
Sign up for regular bulletins from PMI, explore other free resources or book into one of our services designed expressly to help you.

07/08/2022

Interested in more on this or other small business management topics? Go to https://pivotalmomentuminc.my.canva.site/ Sign up for regular bulletins from PMI, explore other free resources or book into one of our services designed expressly to help YOU.