The Go/No-Go Decision

Final Review: Plan, Decide and Launch

In my book on starting a business I tell the story of a chef I call Jorge. He knows what he wants to cook and who he wants to serve: high-end guests, an a la carte menu, unique dishes. In the first version of the story, he opens the way many people do. Friends and family pick the colors, someone’s friend draws the logo, the sign is yellow on purple, and the grand opening is 500 orange flyers.

What struck me about Jorge was where the restaurant ends up, more than the flyers. The standard drifts, the guests change, the menu changes, and it becomes a very different restaurant from the one he pictured. So did he succeed or fail? He has a restaurant, but he does not have his vision. Would you be satisfied with that? Chances are he will spend very little time there, or sell it.

I bring him up because a “go” decision asks two questions: can the business open, and is it the business you meant to build? The second one is what a go/no-go decision is really for.

Three answers, not two

Most owners treat this as yes or no. I use three outcomes. Go means the idea holds up and you know what to do next. Adjust means the idea has something real in it but a piece is broken, and you can name the piece. Stop means the honest evidence says this idea, in this form, should not get more of your money or your years.

The Go/No-Go Checklist on the Resources page walks you through this, and the questions come from the work you have already done in this track. Answer each one plainly with yes, no, or not yet.

• Do real people, not friends and family, say they would pay for this? (Validating an idea)
• Can you say in one sentence why they would choose you over the alternatives?
• Do your prices cover the cost of delivering, with enough left over for you to be paid? (Break-even)
• Can you survive the months before the money arrives, and do you know how much cash that takes?
• Do you know how a stranger becomes a customer, and who will do that work?
• Can you deliver what you promise, at the volume you are counting on?
• Are you willing to do this work for a long time, not just start it?

Count the “not yet” answers separately from the “no” answers. A not yet is an adjust. A no on the money or the customer, after you have honestly tried to fix it, is where stop begins.

Adjusting is a decision too

If most of your answers are yes and one or two are not yet, do not open and hope. Fix the piece. Maybe the price is too low, maybe the market you picked is too thin, maybe you need a smaller first version. Adjusting means one named change, with a date, and then you answer the checklist again.

On stopping

Sometimes the honest answer is stop, and I want to say something about that. Stopping an idea early and failing are different things. Failing is spending three years and your savings to learn what a few conversations and a spreadsheet could have told you in a month. The person who stops early has kept their money, their energy and their family’s patience for the next idea. Plenty of owners would have been better off if someone had given them permission to stop sooner.

It also hurts, and it should. A dream is real, and letting one go feels like losing someone. Give yourself a day for that. Then ask the better question: what did I learn that I can use, and what is the next thing worth building? Sometimes the answer is the same business with a different customer. Sometimes it is a different business entirely. Either way, you start from experience, not from scratch.

Open the Go/No-Go Checklist and answer every question in writing, today, without looking for the answer you want. Sort your answers into yes, not yet and no, pick one of the three outcomes, and write it at the top with the date. If it is adjust, name the one change and set a date to answer the checklist again.

An honest first pass takes an hour or two, and the follow-up work depends on what you find. The checklist is free. Ask someone who will tell you the truth to read your answers; that conversation is often worth more than the checklist.