What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From The Boy Scout Motto

I have been involved with the Boy Scouts for many years.  While I’m not currently doing any scouting, I was a Cub Scout, Webelo and Boy Scout as a kid.  As an adult, I was an adult volunteer, Assistant Scoutmaster of a Troop in Ohio and started a Cub Scout pack in Georgia.  One of my biggest regrets in life was not working harder as a Boy Scout to get my Eagle Scout rank.  It didn’t mean anything to me as an early teen and baseball and band took over my life as more important activities and I eventually quit attending Scout meetings.  I wish I’d done more.

The Boy Scouts is a fine organization.  They teach boys how to be better students, better stewards of the land, better citizens and better men.  It’s hard to find many critics of the program’s outreach and positive influence on boys.  But I think there’s another great benefit to be gained from Scouting.  It makes better entrepreneurs.

In this series of blog posts, I’ll discuss what entrepreneurs could learn from the Boy Scouts by studying the Boy Scout Motto, the Boy Scout Slogan, the Boy Scout Oath, and the Boy Scout Law.  Those of you who grew up in Scouting are smiling already and can probably jump ahead to the punch line, so let’s begin with the Boy Scout Motto.

The Boy Scout Motto:  Be Prepared!

Need I go on?  Someone asked Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts in about 1908, “Be prepared for what?”  To which Baden-Powell responded “Why, for any old thing.”  

Baden-Powell wasn’t just thinking about emergencies either.  He thought Scouts should prepare themselves to become good and productive citizens and to be ready in mind and body for any of life’s struggles that might lie ahead.  He wanted Scouts to be prepared for life!  He wanted the boys to live happily and without regret, knowing that they had done their best.  That’s really what Scouting is about, at its core. 

Entrepreneurs could adopt the same approach for their ventures.  Be prepared for business! Anyone who’s worked in business knows that every day brings a new challenge, even for the best run organizations.  For small businesses, the challenge is even greater due to the small staff and many duties fow which each member of the team is responsible.  So how do you ‘Be Prepared’ in your business?

Take time to plan.  Iit’s difficult to run a business when you’re never ahead of the curve.  Only by setting aside a little time for you and your staff to plan for upcoming events and activities, to work on your business instead of in it, will ever be prepared.  What is the vision and goals of the company?  Do you employees know against what to evaluate potential problems or opportunities so that the company can grow and properly support its customers? 

Create an operation's manual.  Working by yourself or with your staff if appropriate, study one piece of your business at a time and define the best practices for that area.  Document the policies governing the activity and procedures by which you’ll get the work done.  Take time to train your existing and new employees in the company policies and procedures.  Think of your business as a franchise.  If you were going to sell franchises in your buisness, how would you set it up?  If you wanted your business to run perfectly without you being there, how would you arrange things? 

Measure your performance.  If you don’t know where you are now, how can you know when you get there?  And where is there?  Create a full-blown system of metrics for your business, or just a corporate dashboard.  Start somewhere.  Measure your performance on a regular basis and share the information with your employees.  Get them involved in the measurement and goal setting process.  It does almost no good for you to set goals and measure your progress in secret.  If you employees know what the goals are and especially if you get them involved in the measurement process and goal setting, they’ll get excited about growing the company into the organization of which you dream.  Employees want to work on something grand.  Create a system that allows them to be part of the process and take pride in their work and they’ll surprise you with their efforts.

NEXT:  What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From The Boy Scout Slogan