Explain your business and its evidence

Six Degrees Academy · Preparation guide 2 of 3

Make the business easy to explain

A busy week can be hard to describe as a business. You post online, speak with customers and deliver orders. To make a useful decision, connect those activities. Write five lines: customer, problem, offer, revenue unit, and main delivery resources. If your business is still an idea, describe what you plan or believe.

Follow the buying and delivery cycle

Consider Maua Laundry, our fictional case. A cafe owner pays a weekly bag charge for workwear cleaning. Kitchen staff use the clean workwear. The owner may want predictable charges and reliable collection. Staff may want the correct clean items returned on time. Labour, cleaning supplies and transport make the offer possible. That describes the model. It doesn't yet prove demand or profit.

Look back before you set the baseline

Look back at a few recent events. Perhaps you made a first sale, changed a price, invested in equipment, or faced a setback. Record what happened, when it happened, and the evidence you have. The aim is to understand how the business reached today's position. Keep uncertainty visible instead of rewriting the past to fit the future you want.

Establish a dated starting point

Choose a few measures that matter to your question. They might be paid orders, repeat purchases, cash after commitments, delivery reliability or available capacity. For each measure, record its value, unit, period and source. Label it verified, reported but unverified, estimated, or unknown. If records disagree, note the gap. An unknown figure can make collecting a reliable record the first useful action. Pause and record your starting point.

Separate three kinds of statement

Now separate observation, assumption and target. In the fictional case, four cafe owners completed a paid trial this month. A dated purchase record can support that observation. More cafes will pay for another route is an assumption to test. A chosen number of repeat weekly orders by a review date is a target. Until it happens and is recorded, keep it labelled as a target.

Ask what the evidence actually shows

Different evidence answers different questions. An interview can explain a problem or preference. A paid trial records a purchase under particular terms. A repeat order gives another observation about continuing use. Four trials don't guarantee four weekly customers, or prove that a second route will attract the same demand. State what each record supports and what remains uncertain.

Turn an unknown into a useful test

Write one observation, with its source and date. Then write one assumption that matters to your next decision. Add the smallest useful test and a review date. If you have no sales, an observation might concern a customer conversation. Describe it accurately rather than calling it a sale. If a customer praised the service but didn't reorder, keep both records and investigate. Pause and add these notes to your plan.

Bring an honest starting point

Bring your five-line model, recent history and dated baseline to the session. Keep confidential customer and financial records in your own files. General descriptions and a small example are enough to begin. You don't need a perfect pitch. You need a starting point you can explain and a question worth investigating. Next, we'll choose the priority that most deserves attention now.