What does 0-60 mean? Lessons from a startup

Lessons from a startup: In business the phrase “0 to 60” means going from a point of no concept to concept realization and business implementation. There are many times since we started Total Technical Solutions, Inc that this concept has been put into motion only to be brought back down to a stand still. There are many dynamic and smart people and companies out there that know how to utilize resources, build relationships and develop business, but lets be honest there are just as many people and companies that are good at talking but not performing.

Lessons from a startup

The learning curve to actually utilize time effectively, not just talking to people about the dream, is a skill that has to be learned. Maintain a contact spreadsheet that is utilized to annotate the business contacts that are made. The contact list should contain basic information on who is doing what, where they are and key players and skill sets.

This is then further broken down in to contact usefulness by the usual red, yellow and green. Now red is not necessarily bad, it means either there was no contact or that the attitude of the contact (at that time) was not appearing to be the most beneficial to our needs. Yellow means that the contact replied, had a good attitude and may be of business use later. Green means the sort of contact we want to do business with and will stay in contact with for future opportunities. These color codes change regularly and are a part of our daily processes to ensure the most up to date information, for example if someone should call us in six months after initial contact, we have a general idea of how they practice their trade craft.

What this has to do with the 0 to 60 concept is that if we are contacted with an opportunity, we review the opportunity and then begin discussions on forward progress. As we begin to move forward we further review the opportunity and ensure that there are no timelines missed or that the opportunity is something we want to put our stamp on (yes we have no problem saying “no”).

Now normally I have noted that the people communicating the opportunity may not be the decision makers, so now we are waiting on the right people to be available, this is an example of a slow down from 60. While we wait we determine resource needs and start communications on getting resources to task, either people or materials. Still waiting on the decision maker to get on board, oh and do not let it be a Friday through early Monday, which is pretty much most companies “down time”

Notice to proceed

Skipping ahead a bit, the determination to go after the opportunity is made now we have our NTP (notice to proceed) we begin processing legal documents to ensure a legitimate union of companies. This is especially important since TTS is an Corporation that has to follow established guidelines and regulations. But, we do not wait to put things into motion, we have vetted our partner, we are confident we can go forward and we do the paperwork in parallel with the resource management. The paperwork is sent off for review and action and we again go from 60 to 0 as we wait for review and completion.

And this goes on and on, basically over a week to go after an opportunity that was due for submission in two weeks. The lesson here for motivated start-ups is that you should have vetted and approved partners approved ahead of opportunity, legal paperwork and corporate documentation should be done early and opportunities that you go after should be tempered with your current company capability and current partnerships, do not over reach or you will be coming down from that 60 speed a lot and this can create frustration and the appearance of desperation. If you are operating under SBA, GSA or others then those partnering agreements need to be pre-approved, which is why they should be done way prior to opportunity.

If you set up your processes and agreements early then you can actually attain a “lean” and “agile” opportunity capture and implementation process. This is what 0 to 60 actually means, lessons from a startup.