The Power of a Business Game Plan: Stop Chasing Squirrels and Start Solving Constraints

October 15, 2025 | Bradley Hamner

You know where your business is today. You’ve painted a clear picture of where you want it to go. Now comes the most critical piece of your business roadmap: the business game plan to get there.

This is the third and final part of creating a complete business roadmap, and it might just be the most important one. Because without a solid business plan, you’re just hoping your way from Point A to Point B.

The Paradox of Small Business Growth

Here’s something that catches most entrepreneurs off guard: the smaller your business, the fewer things you need to do.

But here’s the paradox—smaller businesses typically try to do too many things.

If you’re doing under a million dollars in revenue, especially under half a million, this is critical: you should be focusing on one, maybe two, at most three initiatives. Realistically, you could do one thing well and grow that business to a million dollars. I fully believe that.

Why? Because there are literal operational efficiencies that kick in once you cross the million-dollar threshold. Club Capital recently shared data showing that insurance agencies above a million dollars are not only more profitable in raw dollars but also more profitable percentage-wise. This is why the first million is so hard—and why businesses can often jump from one million to two million in just a couple of years after spending a decade getting to that first million.

The Shiny Object Syndrome Trap

Here’s what I see constantly with smaller businesses: they hear ideas from multiple sources and think, “That’s a good idea, maybe I should try that.” So they never give any one or two initiatives enough time to actually take hold.

Sound familiar? Let me paint you a picture:

You start buying leads from a vendor. A month later, they don’t work, so you pivot to working on centers of influence. You visit some COIs for a month, don’t see immediate results, and drop it. You decide to hire three salespeople even though you don’t have the budget. All three flake out after 90 days. You change your team structure—two salespeople and a service person becomes one salesperson, one hybrid, and customer care. You switch compensation plans. You learn new sales techniques from a coach, implement new word tracks, but the team pushes back, so you switch back to the old approach.

You’re working your tail off. You’re trying so hard. But you’re constantly starting back at zero.

Everything works. Everything can work. It’s just whether you’re going to lean into it enough and be committed to it long enough.

Give Your Game Plan Time to Breathe

Here’s my rule: any initiative in your business plan needs a minimum of 90 days, but oftentimes it takes six months to a year before something can really improve.

Think about it—if you run two webinars in 2024 and the registrations aren’t what you want, do you bail on the idea and declare that webinars don’t work? Or do you commit to the strategy long enough to refine it, improve it, and give it a real chance?

This is where having a documented business game plan becomes non-negotiable. When you actually say, “This is what we’re going to do,” and you give it a predetermined period of time, you’re making a commitment that protects you from your own impulse to chase the next shiny object.

What Makes a Powerful Business Game Plan

Your business plan needs to do several things:

Name the constraint. On this date, I believe the current constraint of this business is X. There’s a primary constraint, and there might be secondary constraints, but what’s the one thing that, if solved, makes everything else topple over? It’s the domino that knocks down all the other dominoes.

Be actionable. This isn’t a vision board exercise. This is a tactical document that outlines specifically what you’re going to do to solve the constraint.

Be physical. Print it off. Spend time making it look great. I know some people push back on this, but professionalizing your game plan professionalizes your commitment to it. Carry it with you. Reference it regularly.

Bringing It All Together: Your Complete Business Game Plan

Over these three episodes, we’ve built out the complete picture of a business roadmap:

• Point A: Where are we today? All your numbers, your team size, your sales data, your financial results—a comprehensive understanding of your current reality.
• Point B: Where are we trying to go? Your three-year vision, one-year objectives, and 90-day targets that give structure and timeline to your goals.
• The Business Game Plan: What’s blocking forward progress? What’s our specific plan to solve that constraint?

When I work with private clients, we spend two months—six to eight hours of work—just on Point A. Because when most business owners say they can tell me where their business is in five minutes, what they really mean is they have a surface-level understanding. With just a little pushing, we discover they don’t have nearly as good a grasp as they thought.

Then when I ask where they’re trying to go in three years, one year, and 90 days, I get generalized, glossy, fuzzy statements. And when I ask if it’s documented anywhere, 90% of the time the answer is no. Or if it is documented, it’s done poorly and hasn’t been communicated to the team.

Why Your Business Plan Needs to Be More Than a Document

Traditional business plans sit in drawers collecting dust. Your business game plan is different. It’s a living, breathing document that you reference constantly. It’s your filter for every opportunity that comes across your desk. It’s your protection against distraction.

When someone pitches you a new marketing strategy or a business coach suggests a different approach, you don’t have to wonder whether it’s right for you. You can simply ask: Does this solve our primary constraint? Does this align with our game plan? If not, it’s a pass—no matter how good it sounds.

This is the power of having a real business plan that actually works. Not a 50-page document written to get a bank loan, but a focused game plan that solves the one thing holding you back.

Your Roadmap Is Your Power

This is where we are. This is where we’re trying to go. This is what we need to solve. This is our business game plan to solve it.

When you have this level of clarity printed out and in your hands, you have an incredibly powerful roadmap for your business. You have protection against shiny object syndrome. You have a filter for every opportunity that comes your way. You have a commitment device that keeps you focused when things get hard.

The smaller you are, the more critical this focus becomes. One thing, done well, for long enough, can transform your business. But only if you give it the time and commitment it deserves.

Stop chasing squirrels. Start solving constraints. Build your roadmap, commit to your business game plan, and give it time to work.