Replaceability Is a Thing of the Past

Find Your Path to Success with the Right Strategy!

In this e-book, you will learn:

What exactly is a strategy?

Enjoy reading and experimenting! Author: Annika Matern and Publisher: Stephan Landsiedel

Is Your Work Fulfilling? Do You Earn the Income You Desire?

If you can’t answer this question with a clear “Yes,” this chapter may be the guide that points you in a new direction.

Textbooks always say: “You must act with a clear goal in mind.” But how do you actually do that? The answer is unmistakable: your strategy must be right!

In this chapter, I’ll introduce my approach to strategy, which is based on the concept of “engpasskonzentrierte Verhaltens- und Führungsstrategie” developed by Prof. Wolfgang Mewes. Unlike conventional practices that see strategy as a numbers-focused, long-term plan for success, this approach defines strategy as how to optimally leverage your strengths for your target audience’s benefit and thus create a pull of demand.

One note up front: for simplicity, I’ll mostly use masculine terms here, though of course I’m referring equally to women entrepreneurs.

Are You Working ON the Company, or IN the Company?

The entrepreneur works on the company—engaging in strategic tasks. That includes forming visions, setting goals, devising strategies, and ensuring implementation—in other words, taking care of the company’s future.

If you’re a solo entrepreneur, you must master both roles. For an estimated 80% of the self-employed, there is no “entrepreneur” role at all. According to one study, 80% of the self-employed fail within the first five years of starting out. The reasons typically include insufficient knowledge of strategy, business management, and marketing, not enough time due to losing themselves in nonessential tasks, and constant anxiety over their livelihood that keeps them from thinking clearly. Often there’s also a lack of insight or interest in approaching their business in a constructive way.

A good strategy is the basis for long-term success and satisfaction.

What Exactly Is a Strategy?

I like to compare it to taking a vacation.

When you go on a trip, what do you need first? Typically, a destination. If you’re a small business or solo entrepreneur and you have a clear, written-down goal, you’re already in the minority (about 20% do this).

Once you’ve picked the destination, what do you need next? Do you simply hop in the car and start driving, hoping eventually you’ll wind up in Italy? That approach is how about 80% of the self-employed operate.

Often, people launch haphazard efforts—flyers, ads, trade show visits—none of which are fundamentally wrong. However, if these measures are not oriented to a broader objective, they usually fail to achieve their goal. They end up wasting time and money.

To use these efforts effectively and purposefully, you need a strategy. Strategy is like the route guiding you to the destination. Without a route, your actions are random—so your results will be random too.

Strategy is what sets the path to your goal.

The Right Strategy Means the End of Competition and the Start of Success!

There are many strategies. I want to show you one that highlights your strengths and the value of your work, rather than focusing on quick profit.

The strategy I favor has a single goal: aligning your business precisely with the problems, wishes, and needs of a tightly defined target audience.

Have you ever wondered how companies like Würth, Kärcher, Rational—and many other medium and even small businesses—rose to become global market leaders? The answer is always specialization and a deep passion for product and customer.

Use your strengths and interests to become the expert in a specific area. This will create a demand that pulls customers your way and makes you indispensable.

Nature sets this example. It’s a master at using resources effectively and is highly specialized. Have you ever seen an apple tree suddenly start growing pears, just because it’s bored of apples or pears happen to be trending?

You may laugh, but that’s exactly how many self-employed folks and business owners behave. Often I see an entrepreneur’s offerings and branding chasing (perceived) trends. As a result, the business quickly loses its distinct identity (if it had one in the first place), and customers wind up confused about what it really stands for.

Certainly you do need to innovate, staying attuned to market developments. Yet this must always be guided by the needs of your target group and your own style and brand.

In short, it’s about focusing your resources on the most powerful point: the key need of your most promising target audience. And it’s not about doing more and more but doing the right things!

Guiding Principles for Strategic, Holistic Action

Do the things you love.

Don’t offer something just because it’s trending or looks profitable. Your customers will sense whether you genuinely believe in your product—whether you’re fully convinced of what you do and love doing it. If so, you’ll be authentic, radiate enthusiasm, and inspire others. Your work will be easier and more fulfilling; you’ll handle obstacles more readily.

Trying to please everyone doesn’t lead to success—specializing in a specific topic or need does.

Think of how every tool designed to break through resistance is sharp or pointed. If you specialize in a topic, particular solution, or specific target group, it becomes easier to break into the market. The more you concentrate, the less competition you face and the more likely you’ll generate demand and become the go-to person for your niche.

Provide what your target group needs most urgently.

Justus von Liebig discovered that plants need the element in shortest supply—the greatest deficiency—to grow further. Once that deficit is addressed, e.g., by supplying potassium, the plant continues to grow until it encounters another limiting factor.

Another analogy is a garden hose. If it’s kinked in the middle, adding more water pressure can cause the hose to burst before any extra water actually comes out.

As it relates to your business, it means always focusing on the most pressing problem your clients face. Look carefully at what’s stopping them from growing— personally or in business. If you can’t solve the issue alone, outsource services or partner up. Help your client tackle their burning problem, and they’ll happily recommend you and remain loyal.

Let immaterial values flow first, then the material will follow.

Thoughts, feelings, vision, spirit, energy, know-how, learning gains, customer satisfaction, relationships, and the trust of your target group matter more in the long run than quick revenue. If your sole aim is to make money fast, the customer will notice—they’re just a means to an end. How do you respond if you sense someone only wants your money?

As you probably know, our mind, thoughts, and emotions shape our reality—including material factors. We attract the people, events, and things we focus on mentally.

So if you care for immaterial assets, the material ones will follow. Immaterial values appreciate with use—while material ones devalue. For instance, knowledge or customer relationships grow more valuable the more you work with them, whereas physical resources wear out over time.

Steps to Developing Your New Strategy

Below is a guide you can use to review or create your own strategy. I’ve been using it in my consulting for years, with great success. It’s inspired by Wolfgang Mewes’s approach to behavior and leadership strategy.

1. Vision and Goals

Look within—this phase is the most crucial. Only a plan driven by a positive and powerful vision will fulfill you long-term, carry you through difficult phases, and spread your enthusiasm like wildfire.

2. Assessment of Current Situation (IST-Analyse)

Next comes a status check. You examine values, motives, resources, strengths, experience, and knowledge. You create a strengths profile to identify standout qualities.

3. Your Specialty

From the previous two phases, your topic or specialty will emerge—ideally, one that aligns with your vision and strengths while fulfilling an ongoing basic need of your chosen target group. If you don’t quite have the knowledge or strengths to realize your vision yet, that’s no reason to give it up. You can acquire missing skills or abilities—don’t abandon your dream too quickly.

4. Your Target Group

A “target group” is people with the same problems, needs, or desires. This phase focuses on the most promising group for your potential success, one that fits your profile perfectly. A strength is meaningless unless there’s a need for it, so here we look for the group that can benefit most from what you offer.

5. Implementation in Reality

Finally, address your weaknesses. Seek partners and suppliers who can offset your gaps. Develop a plan of action and a marketing strategy, possibly do test runs, and evaluate early results.

6. Sustainability

To mitigate the risks of specialization, you’ll need a long-term plan. This involves focusing on innovation and ensuring sustained demand. Lasting improvements mean refining your service in line with the market’s needs—no random extra training or certifications that don’t address what your clients actually want.

Often, just working through the first four phases clarifies your new strategy. Below, I’ll describe these four phases a bit more and give you some strategy-consulting questions to help you gain insights and make progress.

Phase 1

Vision and Goals

To uncover your vision and goals, it can help to step away from daily life for a while. Your own feelings guide you toward what you truly desire.

Imagine you’ve already achieved your vision… Do you feel happiness, an inner glow, and a readiness to begin right away?

Guiding Principles:

Let your mind roam freely, and don’t censor your thoughts.
Allow all ideas and feelings. Some of humanity’s greatest breakthroughs started as “unrealistic” dreams.
Write or draw everything out!

Sample Questions to Help Identify Your Vision and Goals:

What did you dream of as a child?
Which activities have always brought you the most joy?
Picture yourself in your later years, happy and content, looking back on your life. What experiences have you had, what have you seen or created?
What do you want to experience, have, or become…
- ... in one year?
- ... in five years?
- ... in ten years?

Phase 2

Assessment of Your Current Situation (IST-Analyse)

Now it’s time to examine your current circumstances. If you have an existing business, evaluate its size, sales, customers, product range, etc. You’ll also note where your focus lies, what experience you have, which customers generate the most profit, and so on.

For startups, you’ll explore your résumé, values, motives, resources, strengths, and knowledge, etc.

In the strengths assessment, you gather and assess your personal or company strengths, aiming to shape a distinctive identity.

Guiding Principles:

Analyze your current situation (IST) to identify your starting point.
Actively search for your strengths—even those you may not suspect.
Focus on identifying your strengths; ignore your weaknesses at first.
Ask others to evaluate your top strengths.
Establish a distinctive strengths and capabilities profile.

Some Questions to Pinpoint Your Special Strengths:

Which customer problems do you or your company solve?
Which of those do you solve better than your competitors?
What unique advantages do you or your company offer clients (e.g., in service, price, quality, delivery times, consulting, etc.)?

Next, appraise your strengths. List your 20 most significant strengths and score each from 0–100. Judge yourself against your competitors—this is just to get a ballpark sense. Have your clients rate your strengths as well.

Phase 3

Your Specialty

In this phase, you identify your specialty, which emerges from your vision, strengths, and a constant underlying need of a target group.

Guiding Principles:

It’s better to be #1 in a village than #2 in a city.
The more precisely you focus on a specific need, the greater your success.
Activities that come naturally and align with your strengths have the best potential to become your standout specialty.

A few questions to help you find your most promising specialty:

Which specialties arise directly from your strengths?
Which additional uses or marketing possibilities do you see for those strengths?
Which problems can be solved with your distinctive strengths?
In which specialty areas could your business quickly become a market leader?

Phase 4

Your Target Group

A target group is always defined by shared problems or needs. Any group (e.g., solo entrepreneurs) can be split further into sub-groups (e.g., self-employed counselors and therapists). Your target group should be as small and specific as possible, yet large enough to be profitable. Once you’ve secured a strong position in that group, you can gradually expand.

Why specialize in a particular audience?

You have more transparent niche markets.
You maintain close contact with your clients, so you can quickly pick up on shifts in their needs.
Focusing on one group’s problems leads to big learning gains. You become the expert.
Ultimately, your goal is to “own” the target group—that is, to be recognized as the top expert in solving a particular problem for them. You get referrals, cooperation offers, and media attention.

Guiding Principles:

Focus on target groups, not products.
Target groups are made up of people with the same problems and needs.
Strive to become the best and strongest problem-solver for your target group.
Keep an ongoing dialogue and capitalize on learning from feedback.

Questions to help you find your target audience:

In which target groups/sub-groups have you already achieved the best results?
Which clients have been the most rewarding and pleasant to work with?
What features do these clients share?
Which target groups might be aligned with your specialty?
Can this group be broken into smaller sub-groups?
In which group can you address the problem they feel most reliably and quickly?
Define your ideal client.

And how to move forward in practice:

Once you’ve developed a new strategic approach—either on your own or with the help of a consultant—it must be implemented and lived. A strategy in a drawer, or cycling around in your head, will probably change nothing.

It’s fine to take small steps, gradually integrating the new strategy with your existing work. You should constantly test and refine your strategy, as external factors—like competitors or legal changes—can shift. It’s important, though, that you remain true to your vision and your identity.

If you specialize in a target audience, the long-term aim is to refuse customers who don’t fit your specialization. Of course, you shouldn’t turn away clients until you can afford to.

The toughest part of pursuing a new strategy is often letting go… ;-)

Wishing you much fulfillment and success!
Annika Matern