I'm Chris Kranz and back in July this year (2024), I made 2 pretty big changes in my life. Firstly, I bought a 40 year old boat with the view of living on it. Secondly, I joined The Grafter to help build the business, and help our clients build their businesses. Over the last few months I’ve come to appreciate how similar these 2 adventures are.

As a boat owner, I have a unique set of problems I need to solve on my boat. Other boats might have the same issues, but I’ll solve them in a way that not only fixes the problem, but also suits me as a boat owner. It needs to work for me and my family. Also, as I’m doing the repairs and maintenance, I’m getting to know the boat inside and out, so when future issues happen (and they will!) I'm much better prepared.

As a business leader, we have a unique set of challenges we need to solve, and opportunities we need to capture, in our own business. As a consultant, we also do this for our clients. While there are many businesses with the same challenges and the same opportunities, the way we approach these challenges, understand them, and ultimately solve them, is different for each.

Let’s dig into the comparison and understand a bit more about my life.

On getting my boat, the first thing I did was get a survey. Arguably, I should have done that before buying the boat, but it was a good deal and I’d have probably bought it anyway, thinking there weren’t any actual holes in the hull – the current owners had been living on it in the water! However, the survey revealed that actually there was quite a lot of work to be done to have confidence and trust to be safe in the water. So we hauled out the boat and I’m now 2 months into a bigger renovation project than I was expecting!

I’ve realised, and many seasoned sailors have told me the same, that actually all this work is hugely beneficial. It means I know my boat. I know how the rudder connects to the helm and where the hydraulics for that are routed. I know the electrics. I know how to access the bilges. If you aren’t aware of what bilges are: basically the inside bit at the bottom of the curve of the boat, under the deck. These are usually difficult to get to, but is where water will pool if there’s a problem anywhere! Some boats have one bilge, but my boat is a catamaran (dual hull), so I have at least two bilges, plus bulkheads that separate and strengthen things, so you end up with a few bilge areas, potentially all collecting water. I know how fresh water, salt water, and waste water are handled and routed around the boat. In short, if things go wrong I am now much better equipped to fix the issue. I may not be capable of doing all the fixes, but I have a much better understanding of where the issue may be, whether or not I need to get in a specialist, or if it’s something I can open up and fix myself.

I’ve been living and working on the boat for the last month as I continue the renovation work, and the other side of this is by really sitting in and experiencing the boat, where things are, how I move around the boat, how I do my day job, etc. I get a much better understanding of where improvements can be made. I also spend a lot of time talking to others, looking at other boats, and watching YouTube videos of other peoples experiences. This opens up the art of the possible and helps me with ideas to make living on the boat more pleasurable, often learning things I didn’t even know were possible.On the other hand, I’ve spent the last few months both talking to Grafter customers, and working with my colleagues on The Grafter itself. While there are some common challenges (everyone wants more customers and greater profitability!), every organisation is in a unique position, and has gone on their own path to get to where they are right now. Some business leaders have bought an existing business and are looking to maximise this investment, others are founders who have been doing what they love but now want a plan for the future. As unique as businesses are, founders and business owners are equally unique in their needs, plans, and desires.

Improving your business

One thing I’ve realised: it’s really hard to have confidence and trust in a business without doing a detailed survey. That is, looking at some of the core areas of the business and understanding if there are any big holes that mean it’s sinking (thankfully none of those!), understanding where improvements can be made to make being in the business a pleasure, and clearly identifying new opportunities for adventures (or business growth if you prefer).

Exactly what is it that you are struggling with when it comes to capturing new customers?

Have you saturated a specific market niche? Is your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) defined effectively and accurately?

Is your marketing and brand strategy effective and relevant to your audience?

There is no one-size fits all, and there is no single approach to fix strategy. Each challenge or opportunity requires a different approach.

But you can be really limited reviewing your business in isolation. Having a fresh set of eyes, an external view, and a voice of experience is really helpful in getting new ideas. This opens up the potential for new areas of growth, optimising the business, and driving improvements. Rachel and I spend a lot of time with clients on exactly that – helping them identify new opportunities, and different ways to optimise their own business.

The other benefit in doing a full business survey is getting a much better understanding of how everything operates, and interoperates. This helps understand the impact of a key external partner changing their business model, or the impact of a specific internal team under/over performing, and so on. Having a really detailed map of the business can help enable, you, the founder to make more educated decisions about optimising your business. It’s really invaluable in helping troubleshoot issues, or investigating new opportunities.

For example, I know installing a powerboat motor into my sailing catamaran might make it go faster, it would be disastrous for many other reasons! The same way that installing a high performance component that works in a completely different business into another business could be disastrous! Context is king, and spending time to understand what you are working with, what options are possible, and what options are sensible, is really important.

It’s one of the reasons The Grafter designed the Business Diagnostic. It’s designed to be a holistic survey of your business. Helping your leadership team understand the in’s and out’s, what is working well, what might need improvements, where your teams are perfectly aligned, and where your teams might need some alignment. I describe it as business therapy: we often ask difficult questions and sometimes we uncover some uncomfortable truths. But like therapy, having it in the open is the first step in plotting a course to address any issues, put together a plan for improvements, and have designs for making the business better.

Have we got you thinking? Get a full survey for your business with a bit of therapy included. Reach out about our Business Diagnostic service.

Written by Chris Kranz, CTO

Learn more about Chris through 'Chris Kanz joining The Grafter'.