Is Your Expansion-Stage Company “Flaring” Your Resources?

In the process of extracting their prized commodity from the earth, big oil companies occasionally encounter a mixture of hydrocarbon gas that rises along with the crude oil to the surface. They separate the gas from the oil and put it through a process where it is liquefied, shipped to major markets, and sold for a profit. However, geopolitical circumstances sometimes prevent these oil companies from putting in the infrastructure to do this and instead force them into a practice known as “flaring”. Rather than liquefy the gas to be transported and auctioned for cash, they simply burn the gas on the spot so they can get straight to the easier to refine, more lucrative crude oil.

This practice clearly wastes a tremendous quantity of resources. To be fair, there are many issues complicating these areas that make flaring extremely challenging to avoid. But looking at the situation from a purely business point of view, the practice of flaring squanders a vast amount of highly valuable hydrocarbon gas.

Expansion-stage companies can occasionally be caught wasting valuable resources too.

A poorly done blog provides a prime example of this: It is characterized by sporadic posts, lackluster content, and a lack of engagement. Conversely, a well-done blog has the potential to bring significant value to a company much like the hydrocarbon gas. It can supply the platform for your company to become an industry thought leader, educate unaware visitors about your product or service, or, ideally, generate targeted leads for your company to go after. But when a company only half commits to squeezing the most value they can out of their blog, they might as well be flaring their time. Something that had the potential to be a valuable resource simply evaporates into the cloud.

Just possessing a blog no longer gives an expansion-stage company a competitive advantage.

The blog needs to be overflowing with compelling content, full of actionable recommendations, and impressive enough to share with colleagues. Expansion-stage companies cannot afford to burn up time by half-heartedly executing a project, especially when that activity contains so much potential to produce abundant returns when utilized to its fullest potential.

Throughout its work process, an expansion-stage company needs to be cognizant of what it is doing with its resources and mindful of whether they can be put to more efficient and advantageous use. To that end, here are three recommendations to serve as a starting point for an expansion-stage company to avoid “flaring” their valuable resources, presented in order of difficulty:

Easy:

Write a better blog! This involves taking the time to explore and develop ideas, incorporate helpful resources, and facilitate a strong discussion.

Medium:

Spend thirty minutes to one hour assessing each project after finishing it. Consider whether too much time has been focused on a single idea or if the project could have simply been done quicker.

Hard:

Read through Scott Maxwell’s Economic Model Series for a thorough explanation of how to pinpoint exactly how resources are benefiting your company, and where key improvements can be made (as well as other advantageous insights).

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