A short, direct yet easy-going guide to taking a business to the next level, everything about CADENCE: A TALE OF FAST BUSINESS GROWTH is tailored to life in the fast lane. Based around a story of ‘JJ’, a typical entrepreneur and distance athlete who is pulled aside and put right by a mentor called Charlie–a man who is to drive his struggling business forward–it’s onwards applications are immediately apparent.

JJ isn’t real, of course, but the concepts are. William’s plan is based on simple ideas around improving the level of everything your venture does (10% is the key target figure in each relevant area), leveraging progress in every corner of the business, and converting that progress into profit. JJ is loosely Williams, a vastly experienced and varied entrepreneur in his own right, and the lessons are not really drawn from a single person, but from the collective experiences of years of Williams fighting those entrepreneurial battles.

The formatting of the tale as a kind of personal business story is a great way to absorb Williams’ collated advice, and unquestionably the strength of the book. JJ is an eminently likeable character, prone to friendliness as opposed to the cut and thrust of hardened business, and struggling for sales and, consequently, having difficultly paying creditors in his bike shop, ‘Cadence’. His story of starting a business in the name of passion will be a familiar one to many who’ve taken similar steps. While not every page is useful, particularly when it comes to direct advice, the hazy, friendship-led conversational approach is one that makes this easier to absorb, and brings Williams’ thoughts to life.

Those ideas themselves are not revolutionary, it’s the accessible application that lifts the text. Team Sky’s ‘marginal gains’ approach to cycling is well known (and not without recent controversy). It’s ultimately about making a series of tiny improvements in every area, ones that add up to a lot: sleeping with the perfect pillow before a race, getting the best nutrition, the most suitable equipment, and so on, even where those differences are bordering on negligible. Effort, Charlie argues, doesn’t necessarily equate to outcome. As an Ironman trainee and businessman, JJ bridges the gaps between the sporting world and the business one in his story. His marginal gains in the shop come in the form of measuring the impacts of business actions. Is advertising working? If not, how can it be adapted? Why aren’t people buying more? How can those critical small margins, applied across a series of areas, make an impact?

Charlie’s seven levers introduced conversationally, revolve around simple areas, things like foot traffic, potential customers, their conversion, item prices, and other such practical areas. The key, essentially, is building a series of funneling frameworks that lead to business success. And does it work? The entire concept is more inspirational and aspirational, so its success comes down to application. It’s clear, however, that it could force a re-examination of business methods, and some in-depth analysis of effort and reward, approach to entrepreneurship, and overlooked aspects of a business.

CADENCE, in short, is a charming and enticing parable with a potent message. Don’t expect a magic fix-all, but a careful reading offers heaps and heaps of food for thought.

~James Hendicott for IndieReader