Jamie Odegaard’s Post

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Founder/CEO of Aardvark, a small business finance studio. I help owners turn data into decisive action, driving profit and growth for businesses under $10MM.

Like a gas leak, complexity can be a silent killer of a business. Imagine this— You’re an owner considering two restaurant concepts. One has 12 items on the menu, the other has 6. You need to find a chef. It’s harder to find a chef that will be good at all 12 dishes. The kitchen will be much busier trying to get 12 different plates out. Your ingredient complexity doubled. Your ingredient cost probably went up. Needing to account for 12 different options means there will be more waste if both concepts have the same amount of customers. So why would you make that choice? For the same reason many small business owners do. You’re worried that 6 options won’t attract as many as 12. And from that fear flows all of this downstream complexity and the feeling of being stuck. Because you’re servicing an unsustainable amount of work relative to the amount of profit generated. You have to go to the 6-item menu concept. Focus on the best quality possible for all 6 dishes. Done in a way only you can deliver. When you get that right, you’ll have a line around the block—with an economic model that can sustain you and service that demand.

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