The Done-Business Method
Define the finished business, identify its behavior, and operate that way now.
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 99%
The Done-Business Method reverses the common habit of letting current resources dictate every decision. First, define what the business looks like when its intended design is complete, including its customers, economics, team, systems, and the founder’s role. Second, specify how people in that completed business act and operate at every level. Third, begin behaving according to those standards now. The mechanism works because present circumstances are consequences of earlier decisions; repeatedly deciding from those circumstances perpetuates them. The finished-state model supplies a different reference point. It does not require reckless spending or pretending constraints do not exist, but it asks which available decision most closely builds the organization already envisioned.
Origin
Extracted from The Jasmine Star Show. James Wedmore attributes the three-step structure to an account of IBM leader Tom Watson and describes using it to guide his company toward eight-figure scale.
Core principles
- 01Current circumstances are outputs of past decisions.
- 02Decisions based only on present constraints tend to reproduce those constraints.
- 03A clear picture of the finished business provides a decision standard.
- 04The behaviors required at scale must begin before scale arrives.
How to run it
- 1
Define the Done Business
Create a concrete description of the company when it has reached its intended form. Include its scale, offers, customers, team, systems, finances, and your role.
Pro tip Write it like an architect’s blueprint rather than an open-ended aspiration to keep building.
Watch out Revenue alone is not a complete description of a finished business.
- 2
Specify How It Operates
Describe how the completed company makes decisions, serves customers, communicates, spends, hires, and manages quality. Make the operating standard observable.
Pro tip Include what the finished business deliberately refuses to do.
Watch out Avoid abstract words such as professional or excellent without defining their behavior.
- 3
Act That Way Now
For each meaningful decision, ask how the leader or company in the finished state would respond. Choose the closest responsible action available under current constraints.
Pro tip Apply the question to routine decisions, not only major strategic moments.
Watch out This is not permission to take unaffordable risks merely to look successful.
- 4
Resolve the Constraint Gap
When the future-state action is currently impossible, identify the missing capability, resource, or knowledge. Build a bridge rather than defaulting permanently to the old behavior.
Pro tip Turn “I can’t” into a capability-building question with a deadline.
Watch out Do not use current circumstances as proof that the envisioned behavior can never begin.
- 5
Review for Alignment
Regularly assess whether recent decisions are building the defined business or preserving the current one. Update tactics while keeping the intended design clear.
Pro tip Review the largest decisions monthly against the done-business blueprint.
Watch out A future-state identity without operational review can drift into fantasy.
In the wild
A prospective membership owner wanted $20,000 in monthly recurring revenue but favored free, limited software because the recommended platform cost about $200 per month. James asked which system the owner of the intended $20,000-per-month membership would use. The question exposed that the decision was optimizing for the current business rather than constructing the desired one.
→ The platform choice became a strategic design decision instead of a reaction to present scarcity.
James repeatedly asked how a $10 million CEO would think and decide whenever a question crossed his desk. He reported that acting from this future standard helped his company grow from approximately $2 million to $9.25 million in 18 months while declining an offer that could have pushed revenue higher but conflicted with his desired workload.
→ The business approached eight-figure revenue while preserving the founder’s chosen operating model.
Common mistakes
Using Today as the Only Reference Point
Optimizing every decision for current money, time, audience, and capabilities tends to recreate those same circumstances.
Performing Success Instead of Building It
Future-state action should create the required capabilities and systems, not imitate status through reckless spending or appearances.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for entrepreneurs who know they want to scale but lack a consistent standard for present-day decisions.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal when the desired destination is still fundamentally undefined or unsupported by a viable business model.
From the transcript
“What does the done business look like?”
“We would need to act that way now from the beginning, act that way now.”
“How would the$10 million CEO decide?”
From the episode
From Broke Bartender to 10 Million Dollar CEO: A Conversation with James Wedmore
James Wedmore