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.

What Is Team HQ, Really?

Team HQ is your business’s central nervous system. It’s the single place where everything lives—every process, every document, every “way we do things around here.” It’s not complicated. In fact, the answer is almost boring in its simplicity: it’s a shared drive.

Google Drive. Dropbox. Microsoft OneDrive. Pick one. The tool matters less than the commitment to having one place where your business actually lives.

Think of it as your Business OS—just like your iPhone runs on iOS, your business needs its own operating system that exists outside of your brain.

The Asset You Never Knew You Had

Here’s a perspective shift that changed everything for me: how you do things in your business is an asset.

That PDF checklist? Asset. That training video? Asset. That Excel template your team uses every week? Asset. These aren’t just random files cluttering up your hard drive—they’re the intellectual property that makes your business valuable.

Consider this: if someone wanted to buy your business tomorrow, what would you hand them at closing? You’d give them your customer list, sure. But what about your systems? What about the way you onboard clients, fulfill orders, handle customer service complaints?

Those systems have tremendous value—not just to a potential buyer, but to you, right now, as the owner trying to run a great business.

Your Rembrandts in the Attic

If you’ve been in business for more than a year, you already have assets. You’ve created documents, trained team members, figured out workflows. The problem is they’re scattered—buried in email threads, saved on individual computers, trapped inside people’s heads.

These are your Rembrandts in the attic. Valuable pieces that need to be discovered, dusted off, and properly displayed.

Before you start creating new systems from scratch, organize what you already have. Set up your folder architecture first—we’ll talk about exactly what that looks like next week—then start gathering your existing assets and putting them where they belong.

Yes, you’ll find half-baked documents you don’t use anymore. Create an archive folder and move on. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s organization.

Why This Matters More Than You Think

Even if you never plan to sell your business, the same things that make a business valuable to an acquirer are the same things that make it great to own.

A business with documented systems is:

• Easier to scale
• Less dependent on any single person
• More valuable to potential hires
• Simpler to manage remotely
• Actually capable of running without you for a week

And in an increasingly digital world where remote work is becoming standard, having a central digital headquarters isn’t optional anymore—it’s essential.

The Analog Exception

Look, I get it. Some of us love the feel of paper. I love printing things off, using a red pen, marking things up. There’s nothing wrong with that.

Here’s the compromise: start digital. Build your Team HQ in the cloud where everyone can access it. Then, if you want, print off a master copy and keep it in a three-ring binder on your desk. Let your digital version be the source of truth, and your physical version be a working copy.

Start Here

This week, make one decision: Where will your Team HQ live?

Pick your platform. Set up a folder called “[Your Business Name] OS” or “Team HQ” or whatever resonates with you. Claim your space.

That’s it. Don’t overthink it. Don’t get paralyzed trying to build the perfect system. Just pick a place and plant your flag.

Next week, we’ll talk about the handful of core folders that make up your OS architecture—where different types of assets actually go. But for today, the most important thing is simply having one place you can point to and say: “This is where our business lives.”

Because once you have that, everything else becomes possible.