Choosing Your Business’s Future

If you’re a small business owner, you’ve heard people talk about the flywheel. Heck, I’ve even used it as a good analogy over the past few years. It’s an effective one. None of those anecdotes, none of that commentary about flywheels ever tells you what to do once the wheel’s whipping along and your input is almost irrelevant. Almost. The momentum you built is powerful. Directionless momentum on the other hand …

For those of you who were children, or had children, in the 80’s and 90’s, you’ll remember the exercise bikes that depended on a flywheel for resistance. Every time I encountered one, I was on it, pushing as hard as my little body would allow until it was spinning at what most would describe as a dangerous pace.

The pedals were directly attached to this wheel so if the wheel was whipping, so too were the pedals. And that inevitably translated into a swift, painful, and embarrassing ejection from the bicycle.

Flywheels are great once you get them going, but what do you do next?

Where will this thing take you?

Healthy businesses riding swiftly spinning flywheels, contrary to the stationary bicycles of my youth, offer three broad futures:

1. Scale: A future where you continue to build and expand. More revenue, more reach, more impact, more infrastructure.
2. Harvest: You let it ride! Keep it stable and optimize it. You maximize cash flow, reduce volatility, and you enjoy what you built.
3. Transition: Prepare for sale, succession, or partnership.

None of these are better than the others. But each one demands different decisions starting today.

At least three paths are diverging in this wood, and you get to choose which one you take. That decision will necessarily dictate what follows.

If you choose Scale, you reinvest. You build leadership depth. You accept greater risk in exchange for greater reach.

If you choose Harvest, you optimize margin. You reduce complexity. You protect stability and cash flow.

If you choose Transition, you systemize aggressively. You reduce owner dependence. You prepare the asset for transfer.

The core business you built hasn’t changed yet, but just because you’re successful and you’re basking in the rarified air that comes with Stage 7 doesn’t mean you don’t have to have a vision of the future and be actively working towards it.

Ultimately, you’ll need to ask yourself a question: What is this business meant to support?

What future will it serve?

You didn’t reach this point, fighting for agency every step of the way, only to suddenly accept a reactive life. You still need to be intentional and focused in your freedom. Freedom without direction is aimless drifting. No one sees driftwood and thinks “What a life!”

You fought tirelessly to give yourself the ability to choose. This is one such choice.

What future will you choose?