I believe most entrepreneurs started with a brilliant idea, a new product, a smart solution, new services… and the underlying desire to write a story on their own, not for a boss.
The startupers then start up as the brilliant new offer needs funding and some structure to bring it to the world.
But how many entrepreneurs started with a higher Vision, a Purpose beyond their product, smart solution or new service?
Once the initial project gets some uplift and before the scarce resources are wasted on inadequate investments, a short pause to think about Purpose and Goal is recommended.
Entrepreneurs, what is the Purpose of your undertaking? What is your Goal?
“Make money now and in the future” are probably chanting those who got their basics about Theory of Constraints, first edition.
I don’t think that making money is the main driver for startupers, because if it was, a majority would go for more secure ways to achieve their goal and startuping wouldn’t be that popular.
There must be others drivers, each personal to the entrepreneur. Whatever the Purpose is, it is a Goal that requires some Necessary Conditions to be fulfilled in order to achieve it.
And precisely here Theory of Constraints can help, providing guidance and a structuring process with the Goal Tree!
I described extensively Goal Trees already on this blog, but in short the Goal Tree is a logical network of nested Necessary Conditions, describing what is absolutely necessary to achieve prior to achieve the Goal.
Taking some time to verbalize the Purpose or Goal of the undertaking and listing the first Necessary Conditions will give guidance about what is required and what to focus on. With this high level description of requirements, the entrepreneur can wisely allocated limited resources to what is contributing to achieving the Goal and avoid wasting them on nice-to-haves or totally off-topic things.
The Goal Tree stands out among other tools and methods with its merciless necessary-logic base: whatever does not answer the “in order to achieve… we must…” in a robust and logically sound manner is to be discarded.
Besides its robustness, building the first, most strategic layers of a Goal Tree requires only about a couple of hours, provided the Purpose / Goal is clear…
Once the Tree is built and scrutinized, amended and declared satisfactory, it serves as a guiding map and a benchmark.
Over time, the entrepreneur should check how many of the Necessary Conditions have been fulfilled (turned Green) and what is still to be achieved to get closer to their Goal.
>Related: Goal-Setting Theory and Goal Trees
About The Author, Chris HOHMANN
Chris HOHMANN 
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