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TL;DR: Want your business to fly high? Work on these 6 crucial parts of your "airplane" and connect them together so that it flies far and fast.

SPEAKING IN (AIRPLANE) METAPHOR

Build your business like a plane...or it will crash

A good commercial airplane has many parts, but six are crucial for it to safely reach its destination. They are the:

1. Cockpit
2. Right Engine
3. Left Engine
4. Wings
5. Body
6. Fuel Tanks

Like a plane, your business has many parts, but six are crucial for it to fly.

Want your airplane to fly high? Work on these six parts of your business and connect them together to fly far and fast. 

1. Cockpit

The cockpit of the plane represents the leadership.

Leadership is in charge of getting the plane to its destination. The pilots have to know where the plan is going and reverse engineer its safe arrival.

Translation: Unite your teams around a clear economic mission to grow your business.

2. Right Engine

The right engine represents your marketing efforts, which contribute directly to your plane's thrust.

When your marketing engine runs efficiently, your business sells more product. This moves your business forward and contributes to lift.

Translation: Clarify your marketing message to produce a considerable amount of thrust and grow your business.

3. Left Engine

The left engine represents sales.

Sales increase the thrust of your plane.

When you learn to craft a million dollar sales pitch and invite customers into a story in which your products or services solve their problems, sales increase and the thrust that moves your plane forward increases.

Translation: Most people talk too much about themselves when they sell. "We're #1. We're the biggest....". Do this instead: make your customer the hero of the story and watch your business grow.

4. Wings

The wings of the plane represent the products or services you sell.

If the products or services you sell are in demand and profitable, they will give the business lift and support the weight of the plane.

Marketing and sales provide thrust. But wings make your plane fly.

Translation: Optimize your product offerings to give your plane maximum lift and grow your business. 

5. Body

The body of the plane represents overhead and operations.

If your overhead gets big and heavy, the plane will crash.

A business's largest expense is almost always payroll. Payroll can crash your business unless you and your team run a management and productivity playbook.

Translation: Run a management and productivity playbook that ensures every team member is contributing to the overall economic priorities of your business..

6. Fuel Tanks

The fuel tanks represent cash flow.

With fuel, energy is transferred to all the moving parts of the plane. Without fuel, the plane crashes no matter how well it's designed.

The same is true of fuel (i.e., cash) for a small business.

Cash must be managed so there is enough money to operate and plenty of cash on hand in case your plane has to circle the airport a few times to prepare for an emergency landing.

Translation: You need a strategic and simple method for managing money to grow your business.

Professionalize your operation

A business's potential is capped unless its operations are professionalized.

If your business revolves too much around you and your teams don't know exactly what they need to do to help your business grow, you may need to professionalize your operation.

How do you professionalize your operation?

By building reliable and predictable systems that allow your teams to execute your vision at a high level.

The simple metaphor of the airplane creates a powerful decision-making filter that allows you to grow your business intuitively.

If you want your business to grow, focus on growing the six parts of the plane in proportion to each other.

As always, stay aware, stay educated, but most importantly stay cool.

Talk soon,
Old Man Winter

Source: How to Grow Your Small Business: A 6-Step Plan to Help Your Business Take Off

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