* The following blog post is a chapter in a forthcoming book on Goal Setting by Eric Lofholm.  Jim Alvino is among a number of award-winning authors who wirte on this subject.  Contact Jim today to reserve your copy of the book, which is due out in January 2012.  Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and write Goal Setting Book in the subject line.

In order to improve your game, you must study the endgame before everything else.  For whereas the openings can be studied and mastered by themselves, the middle game and end game must be studied in relation to the end game. – Jose Capablanca

Imagine you are sitting in front of a Chess Master, and this is your first chess match ever.  You are playing white, which means you make the first move.  Thinking that the center of the board might get a little congested, you decide to get creative, take an oblique approach, and attack from the flank.  Seven moves later, you’re in checkmate!

This is the Fools Mate that can befall a neophyte for violating the principles of the game: ignoring the center of the board (in chess you fight to control the center); moving the Queen, the most powerful piece on the board, or other heavy artillery out too soon or too frequently; leaving the King, the prize you are supposed to protect, vulnerable to attack or entrapment.  Many entrepreneurs are playing this kind of opening with their enterprise, and they have no end game.

If this is you, don’t despair.  You are not the only one.  But to achieve your goals in business, as in chess, a winning strategy is crucial.  Timing and sequencing are important.  Creating a successful strategy requires that you think differently.  Just as in playing a game of chess, you need to look and think ahead to see potential scenarios.  You have to think/assess/determine how different scenarios play out, how they might affect you, how you will respond, and where you can be proactive.  This is how you’ll win your game of business.

In a game of chess there is an opening, a mid-game, and an end-game.  When we launch a business, it is common to charge ahead with energy, enthusiasm, optimism, and a heavy dose of blind faith.  It is less common to know where we’re going and usually unheard of to think about an end game.

When I founded Monetize Your Niche®, Inc. in 2009, I sought trademark protection immediately as I wanted to establish formally “first commercial use” in the event that another company sought to claim the same down the road.  During the filing process, my attorney asked me a simple question: “What’s your exit strategy?”

I didn’t have one.  I barely had a notion of what my entry strategy was, but again, the key word here is strategy.  You may be in the same boat.

What Is Strategic Thinking?

Once you become more familiar with the game of chess, you become more adept at strategizing and planning your moves ahead.  It’s the same in the game of business.

Over the course of a 25-year career in the corporate world as well as association management, I was the top executive for four organizations, not including my own entrepreneurial ventures.  In each case our goal setting was guided by a strategic planning process which set clearly defined and objective targets we called Quantifiable Measures of Success [QMS].

You will derive an Action Plan from these targets, 5 W’s that detail WHO does WHAT by WHEN WITH WHAT [Resources].  The 5 W’s indicate specific allocations of resources toward specific end games set in advance.  In a game of chess each piece has a numerical value (e.g., pawn = 1, Queen = 10), and each has a capacity to make different kinds of moves.  You might sacrifice a pawn, which can make very limited moves (usually one square at a time) to gain an advantage on a Rook or Castle with a numerical value of 5.

In similar fashion, you might give away a lower value product or service (“lost leader”) with the goal being to inspire your customer or prospect to buy a higher priced item.

Measurable targets, your Quantifiable Measures of Success, are the end points for a designated time frame (day, week, month, quarter, year, 3-5 years, etc.), and they dictate your daily actions.  In short, you begin with the goal or end point in mind, and reverse engineer your steps. 

As in a chess game, the sequence of strategies and tactical moves (your action steps) that lead to checkmating your opponent (attainment of your goal) is likely to change along the way; flexibility and creativity in the face of changing market conditions, circumstances, and opportunities are critical.  But you still begin by visualizing the total picture from start to finish.

Upon completing your annual [or more frequent] planning process, post a large chart of the 5-7 QMS on the wall above your desk to serve a) as a visual reminder of your direction and goals; b) as a graphic benchmark of having hit a short-term or longer-term target; and c) most significantly, I believe, as a filter in the event that you or another team member wanted to include a new project you had not talked about previously.  This happens frequently in entrepreneurial ventures.

Goal Set with Creative Problem Solving (CPS)

Apply a short decision making protocol [oversimplified flowchart below] to determine the feasibility of an idea and whether it would take you closer or farther from your goals: 

1. Does the new project or idea fall under one or more of the 5-7 QMS?  If NO, end of discussion; if YES, under which one(s)?
2. Is the new project or idea an obvious Top Priority?  If NO, it goes to back burner; if YES, is it equal to or greater than other Top Priorities under the specific QMS?
3. If NO, it goes to middle burner; if YES, a discussion ensues on Resources needed to incorporate new project; impact on plan, budget, team, and the like.
4. Overall, how does this new move feel?  It is positive?  Are there any red flags lurking in the unconscious urging you to address them?  What is your “little voice” telling you?  [As Donald Trump asks himself: “What am I pretending not to see?”]

To assess the relevance and feasibility of a course of action taking you closer or farther from your goals, you can employ an objective, 6-step Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process I learned from creativity pioneer E. Paul Torrance, in which you began with a description of murky issues, identify an underlying problem, brainstorm multiple solutions, set evaluation criteria, evaluate the potential solutions, and arrive at one you determine to be the best. 

Among the key evaluation criteria is congruence with your company’s values.  Put the “best solution” to the same “feel right” test as you used in entertaining the new idea or project in the first place.

I used this same CPS process in deciding to found my company (among numerous other possible options for myself); and I am using this same CPS process in crafting an exit strategy, my end game, described at the end of the chapter.

Become the “Chess Master” of Your Entrepreneurial Niche

Many entrepreneurs I have coached are not only uninformed or uneducated as to how to “make the first move” [they don’t know what they don’t know], but once in the game, they become opportunity seekers, jumping from idea to idea hoping something will stick and make an impact on their cash flow.  It would be like our neophyte chess player first moving out his pawn on the far left flank, then the pawn on the far right, with the result being an even quicker demise. 

To become the “chess master” of your entrepreneurial niche, you require an understanding of how the board is set up, how the game is played, and what constitutes an appropriate opening, mid-game and end game.  What will your foray into the marketplace look like?  What business model will you adopt or adapt?  Who is already successful in your niche that you might model, and how will you differentiate yourself from them?  In a variety of scenarios, what might your expansion look like?  How will you leverage what you do?

[To get the digital vervion of my CD on Advanced Business Development, for $17 OFF the download price, click here, and use the Coupon Code CHECKMATE when checking out.]

An exceptional entrepreneur, like a Chess Master, must be able to visualize several moves ahead, learn to anticipate...