Three big ways to make your business last

Only 25% of new businesses last more than 15 years.

My co-founder Brendan and I are lucky to be in that 25%. This year, our company Wistia celebrates his 17th anniversary. After nearly 20 years in the gaming world, I’ve found that sticking to certain principles and focusing on certain areas can help you stay in the game longer.

Here are some things we learned.

1. Slow down to go faster

If your business is automotive, your job as a founder is to decide which direction to steer and how fast to proceed. This means you need to know when to hit the gas, hit the brake, hit the floor, and when to slow down.

Many founders subscribe to the idea of ​​growth at all costs. I understand the appeal. Accelerating growth could lead to greater impact and increased profits, at least in the short term.

In the early days of building Wistia, I also embraced the “busy” culture. I was in meetings all day long. I loved the dopamine rush of putting out a fire, but I was furious. I was operating in survival mode. If I was going to continue this entrepreneurial journey long-term, I had to stop moving too fast, so here’s what I did.

1. You won’t suffer from burnout syndrome,
2. You may be able to slow down and focus on the future.

It took me a long time to accept that just because I slowed down personally, it didn’t mean I needed to slow down in business.

I was able to get into a higher gear, but to do so I learned how to fully delegate by finding others who can take on some of the big day-to-day problems that I try to tackle alone. I needed to learn.

Once you do that, you can focus on the parts of your business where you can uniquely add value and have the biggest impact. Here are some rules of thumb that I’ve found helpful: If someone can do something 80% as well as you, delegate it. Spend your time only doing things that only you can do.

It may feel like you’re going fast when you’re rowing hard on your own, but look at how quickly you can scale when you have the right people by your side.

Related: Why startup founders need to go slow to go fast

2. Focus on quality and what resonates most

Companies that focus on what only they can do will win.

Entrepreneurs are conditioned to believe they need to chase opportunities to scale quickly. If there is something I want to try, I will try it to grow quickly. But the reality is that it’s impossible to be the best if you try to do too many things at once.

Prioritizing quantity compromises the quality of projects and processes already in place. Time spent jumping back and forth from one thing to the next can waste valuable time and resources. Too much time spent on multiple initiatives can lead to stagnation or what I call “zombie projects,” or initiatives that continue in the background without any conclusion. There is likely to be. These drain resources from team members.

By focusing on a small number of initiatives, especially those that are proven to work and impact customers, teams can focus on activities that create a flywheel effect and drive exponential growth.

Related: Don’t get too flashy with your marketing — authenticity always wins

3. Embrace failure and creativity

Teams that celebrate failure are teams that win in the long run. They view hitting a brick wall as feedback rather than a block, and quickly adjust and course-correct to move in the right direction.

Teams that fully embrace failure as a driver of progress have the freedom to be creative without hesitation. Achieving this requires guardrails and systems that tolerate failures so that they can be used to your advantage.

Here’s how:

1. Define your ideal customer and understand them deeply
2. Develop a clear and thoughtful strategy
3. stay focused
4. Break down the strategy into specific customer problems, solve those problems, and define their responsibilities.
5. Set achievable goals in the short term and ambitious goals in the long term
6. Prioritize shipping speed
7. I agree that small failures are proof that you are shipping fast enough.
8. Keep learning shared within your team and across the company
9. Update your understanding of customer needs and repeat the process

When teams are highly aligned and loosely coupled from the beginning, they work faster because they work under the same structure and expectations. This also means that if there is a failure or the timing of the roadmap shifts, all teams can readjust and keep moving forward.

Everyone’s growth story is different, and as you figure things out, you’re bound to encounter confusion along the way. Find a system that works for you, understand that some things that work may be counterintuitive, and stay curious about the secret to longevity. With persistence and luck, you can stay in that 25%.