Stop, Start, Continue is a method that's often used to prioritize. It helps reflect on what's working, and what to cut.
I offer a variation: Stop, Start, Finish.
It's costly for a startup to start things. Finishing is critical for resources to not go to waste.
Many teams I work with can use help focusing on finishing what they start. With the scarce resources of a startup and the fast pace of SaaS Technology companies, it's very common for teams to start many things and not finish them. The last 10% of completing a task is where you can really make the difference.
Here are some examples:
- When you write a blog, make sure to test if people really will read it and share it before you publish it. When you publish, make sure to have an amplification plan in place.
- When you spend $ on clicks for Search Engine Marketing, invest time to make the landing pages perfect and get a great Google Quality Score. Optimize the last mile of execution with great content, a great Call-To-Action, and find the right long-tail keywords. Don't run SEM campaigns if you don't have time to optimize them daily by adding negative keywords and run more experiments. It's this last 10% that will help you win vs. your competition.
- Don't create a website unless you can keep it up-to-date. Don't launch a social media page unless you have a plan to manage it.
- When you launch a campaign and it does not yield the expected results, confirm you did all the important work to set it up for success before you pull the plug and just jump onto something new.
A common reason why startups can get into a cadence of trying things and stopping them before they have a chance to be successful is that they do them in the wrong order. They start Marketing Campaigns before they have good content. They engage in analyst relationship engagement before they have a good pitch.
Be mindful of everything you start, and then finish it. Stopping what's not working is sometimes needed. It's often an easy way out of finishing the work. Don't let it be that.
