‘No’ paycheck at the end of the month, ‘no’ sure-shot path to success, ‘yes’ sleepless nights, ‘yes’ shrinking social circles—deciding to become an entrepreneur or a startup founder comes with a laundry list of ‘no’ and ‘yes’. And yet, day-in-and-day-out, we see that there’s no dearth of these dreamers, these visionaries, these innovators who want to disrupt the market or simply fill in a market gap with their product and service.
“Don’t go into it thinking it’s going to be easy, go into it thinking it’s going to be worth it.”
William Strange
Founder & CEO, SPT
William Strange is one of these visionaries. A highly competitive sports person, Will wondered ‘why’ he couldn’t track his performance. After all, he wanted to be informed about how hard he was working and how his performance was when compared with his teammates’. So, in 2015, drawing from his experiences in sports and from his passion to build a product based on his needs, he founded Sports Performance Tracking (SPT), a wearable sports technology company.
From its initial days to now—seems as if there was no looking back for Will and his company as it has over 90,000 users around the globe in over 130 countries. These numbers paint quite the picture, don’t they? But we all know what happened in 2019—Yes! A pandemic! When COVID hit, Will and his team were faced with challenges that no one saw coming. For Will, as his business was not just dependent on software but also on hardware and firmware—the impacts of COVID were felt differently in all three areas. What did he do? Do you think he sat back and did nothing? We all know, he didn’t, right?
“Covid as a beast has been hugely impactful. At the same time, we’ve taken it as an opportunity to restructure our business into the place that the more educated me (and that’s just time) and the more experienced me wanted it to be in.”
William Strange
Well, truth be told, he had to realign his business as he coped with the unprecedented difficulties. But a ‘risk-manager’ that he is, he saw this as an opportunity and in fact, he talks about how the two years during the COVID have been phenomenal in building some basic business concepts and restructuring the business.
For a start-up founder or an entrepreneur, uncertainty and risk-taking are not concepts unheard of. Says, PayPal’s Co-founder and Facebook Investor, Peter Thiel, “In a world that’s changing so quickly, the biggest risk you can take is not taking any risk.” There’s rarely a reward without taking a risk but that doesn’t mean an entrepreneur dive headfirst into a situation without figuring out whether or not they can manage the situation. Acing this game, after all, is not about avoiding risks but ‘managing’ them. And that’s what William did.
How did he do it? How can you do it when faced with a similar situation? Here’s how:
1. Be willing to take some risks
For anyone in business, playing safe isn’t the goal as the only way you can make a diamond is through pressure. Will’s advice to entrepreneurs and founders is to be willing to learn from experiences and to take chances.
Starting an entrepreneurial journey means facing multiple risks: financial, competitive, and economic risks, among others. And as it turned out with Covid, a pandemic can put not only people at risk but also bring all economic, social and political systems to a standstill. Many companies shut up shop during the time, while some others prospered. The difference was in the ability to manage the situation and take calculated risks.
2. Understand the variables in the business
Talking about specific challenges, Will understood that in his business that ran on various verticals of software, hardware and firmware, there were bound to be endless variables. Changing customer needs, dwindling customer base, unavailability of hardware components, the soaring price of materials, changes in the supply chain, and cost-cutting—to name just a few. Understanding these variables meant he was able to access the damage critically and focus growth and development efforts on the verticals that had more opportunities for growth and development than others. A rather simple example is, to focus on the software more than the hardware components.
3. Be flexible
There are no hard and fast rules to success and same is the case with the management of a crisis. Flexibility in terms of how an organization functions to which company will be contracted for the delivery of hardware components is pivotal to managing risks that come with changing circumstances.
As Brian Tracy, the man many like to quote, says, “Be clear about the goal but be flexible about the process of achieving it”, Will was able to redefine his processes to deal with the constraints to his business as brought about by the pandemic.
4. Pivot quickly by making informed decisions
Talking about specific challenges, Will understood that in his business that ran on various verticals of software, hardware and firmware, there were William talks about how hard times call for some hard choices to be made. In fact, in his case, 75% of staff for SPT was terminated over a course of just four days. It was a difficult decision but he understood that making tough calls and having honest conversations were of utmost importance at that point in time. Sure enough, employee cutback wasn’t the only thing he had to pivot in.
“The hardest markets are the best to do it in because no one else does. It is a great reason for everyone else not to do it. So, if you are innovating during this time, you are going to be ahead of 90% of people who decided to sit on their couch and not do it or sit on their desk and solve the other problems.”
William Strange
Founder & CEO, SPT
There’s no predicting whether or not the risks taken would yield positive results every single time. But as is said, you’ll never know unless you try. So, go be a dreamer and disrupt the market so long as you remember to take calculated risks and be wise with your choices. Will did it and perhaps, so can you!
Additional note
If you want to hear William Strange talk about his entrepreneurial journey with SPT and how he navigated difficult times, listen to our podcast
