Blue Elevator Blog

Build a Deliverable for Business Success

If you want to get off of the Island of Stand Still and sail the Sea of Success, you have to build a Deliverable.

Numerous start-up and established businesses are standing still.  Some may be treading water.  Some may even be stranded on an island.  Business owners are tired of being castaways.  A diet of coconuts, an occasional fish, and collecting rain water just doesn’t cut it anymore.  They realize if they want to have any chance at survival, they have to get off the island.  In their haste, they link together pieces of driftwood and make a raft.

After an intense period of building, they push away from shore – into shark infested waters – hoping to be rescued by a passing ship.  Does this sound familiar?  Countless movies (e.g., Swiss Family Robinson, Robinson Crusoe, Cast Away, etc.), TV shows (e.g., Gilligan’s Island), and even a screen saver (e.g., Johnny Castaway) have this tale as their theme.

There is a Striking Business Parallel

You can have the desire to get off the island.  You may know where you want to go and you may even have a map that shows you how to get there; but, you still need to build a deliverable.  You need a link between you and your desired destination.  You need a sailing vessel.

At Blue Elevator™, we are here to help you get off the island and arrive at your dream destination.  Like the anxious castaway, you can create something that will float — but this is not success.  A vessel capable of making it past the wave break could ultimately fail as it will eventually take on water, dumping its passenger into the ocean’s abyss.  This leaves you stuck somewhere between the relative safety of the island, with no floating device, and nowhere near your desired destination.

What a Deliverable Isn’t

We aren’t talking about a business plan.  A business plan is a map showing the various currents, shipping lanes, and outlying continents — it might even show ports of call and your eventual dream destination.  A business plan (or road map) is important, but it will not grant you safe passage.  It is NOT a product offering, marketing piece, or a salesman.

What a Deliverable Is

Your deliverable will represent the very core of your business — it is not a singular piece of anything or a function of your business; it is something that is both tangible and intangible.

One of the MOST important keys to your success is to build a deliverable capable of getting you to where you want to go.  Your deliverable is your vessel off the island, but first, it must be designed, built, and launched.  Whether it is functional, comfortable, or extravagant is up to you.  What it looks like has no bearing upon its ability to float.  It HAS to be sea worthy!

You may be scratching your head.  Well, what is it?  Every business and every business owner have a unique deliverable because there are no identical owners or businesses; because of this, the desired destination for every business will also be varied and far from identical.  Whether it’s Hawaii, the Caribbean, or Fiji, the choice is yours.  Since a deliverable is both tangible, intangible, and unique to every business, there is not a boiler plate answer — we can only define its qualities.

Using our castaway model, your deliverable must be watertight, capable of enduring 25 foot swells, capable of protecting you from exposure to the elements, and it must meet three important criteria: your deliverable must be marketable, profitable, and scalable.

Marketable

What you intend to sell must have immediate and long-term acceptance in the marketplace.  Your deliverable will likely involve a product or a service, but it needs to be more than that.  Whereas Apple may have started with just a personal computer, the essence of the company is much bigger.  Apple has created a family of products, but they aren’t bound to these products.  Their deliverable is bigger than a product or service.  Apple is equipping the masses with simple, useful products that make consumer’s lives easier and more enjoyable; however, this does not limit Apple to a particular product.  In your business, your deliverable must do more than simply permeate your product offering.

Profitable

Your deliverable must have widespread appeal, be perceived as a good value, and should be affordable to your target demographic.  More importantly, it must be capable of generating an adequate profit margin to support your income needs and sustain your business.  For instance, you might have a business that sells cupcakes at high school football games.  If each cupcake is sold for $1, but it is costing you 95 cents just to bake them (e.g., a 5% margin), you are going to have to sell a whole bunch of cupcakes to make a living.  On the other hand, if you sell lollipops for 50 cents each, but they are only costing you 5 cents each (e.g., a 1,000% margin), you are going to make a much greater profit.  You get the point.

Scalable

Your deliverable must be scalable and capable of being mass marketed and mass sold.  Numerous businesses have created a deliverable that will put them outside the wave break, but it is still incapable of taking them where they really want to go.  They will eventually reach some “plateau” that will limit growth.  This happens all the time.

Let’s use Roy as an example: Roy will start a business that provides him a modest level of income.  However, he has created a job – not a company.  He may be self-employed doing something that, for 40 hours a week, provides him with an income of $40,000 per year.  When his income needs to increase, say to $80,000, he is now faced with having to work 80 hours per week.  This business is NOT scalable.  This deliverable gets Roy outside of the wave break, but it is not capable of transporting him to his dream destination.

A great Deliverable will satisfy all of these components (e.g., your Deliverable must be properly) …

Profiled

• It must encompass the brand (e.g., the Why, What, and How) of your business
• It must be something you are great at
• It must be needed in the marketplace

Priced

• It must have value (e.g., skill and trust at a fair price)
• It must be profitable
• It must be scalable

Packaged

• It should promote FREE engagement (e.g., be willing to offer something “credible” of value to generate goodwill)
• It should promote Low level engagement
• It should promote High level engagement

Finding Your Deliverable

At Blue Elevator™, we specialize in helping business owners arrive at their dream destinations.  We can help you evaluate your deliverable, or we can help you build one from scratch.  Whatever the case, we don’t let our clients off the island until we are convinced that their deliverable is sufficient enough to take them not only past the wave break, but that it has enough maneuverability and capability to travel the seas and take them wherever they want to go.

Whether you want to island-hop or sail halfway around the world, we can help you design, build, and launch your own unique deliverable.

Wherever you’re at — whether you are still on the island or paddling like crazy in the middle of the ocean while fending off sharks, we invite you to call us.  We aren’t afraid of sharks, and we would love to help.  Contact us today!