Most small business owners want to be “good.” That’s the problem.

Good isn’t memorable. Good doesn’t command premium pricing. Good gets commoditized.

I don’t want my companies to be good. I want them to be the best at something specific. The go-to name when someone needs X.

Here’s how we do it.

1. Pick a Game You Can Actually Win

Stop trying to be the biggest or cheapest. That’s a race to the bottom.

Find a niche where:

• Competition is weak or nonexistent
• Customer needs are underserved
• The bar for service is embarrassingly low

Patagonia didn’t try to beat Nike or North Face on every metric. They owned “quality outdoor gear for environmentally conscious buyers.” That’s it. That’s the whole strategy.

At CaneKast, we’ll never have the biggest foundry or lowest prices. But we can be the best small US foundry for manufacturers who want long-term partnerships, not transactional relationships.

Pick your arena carefully. You can’t dominate everywhere.

2. Work Backwards from Your Endgame

This is the most underutilized strategy I know.

Imagine your company 20 years from now. You’re the absolute best at what you do. What does that look like? Be specific.

Now work backwards.

What needs to be true in 10 years to get there? 5 years? 1 year? This quarter?

Suddenly, your impossible goal becomes a series of achievable milestones.

This becomes your filter for every decision:

• Should we invest in this equipment?
• Is this customer aligned with where we’re headed?
• Does this hire get us closer to the 20-year vision?

Almost anything is achievable with enough time and consistent direction. Dream big, then plot the path.

3. Do Things Differently (On Purpose)

If you want different results, stop doing what everyone else does.

At CaneKast, people constantly question our methods. “That will never work.” You know what? They’re right sometimes. It doesn’t work the first time.

But we’re committed to finding different ways to track output, measure quality, and serve customers. We’re headed somewhere different, so we need to travel differently.

Dyson gets this. Sir James Dyson built products that looked and felt completely different - not just because it worked better, but because different is memorable. You can’t disrupt Hoover by building a slightly better vacuum. You disrupt them by building something that doesn’t even look like a vacuum.

Don’t improve the mousetrap. Build something that makes mousetraps irrelevant.

4. Measure What Matters, Constantly

You can’t manage what you don’t measure.

Once you have your 20-year vision and backward roadmap, track your progress relentlessly. Daily. Weekly. Monthly.

Starbucks is obsessive about this. They measure everything:

• What sells at each location
• Foot traffic patterns in stores
• Regional demographic shifts
• Product performance by time of day

Their location data is so good they can predict which neighborhoods will boom before anyone else. That’s not luck. That’s measurement discipline.

Pick 3-5 metrics that actually matter to your 20-year vision. Ignore vanity metrics. Track the real stuff.

Then check them consistently and adjust when you drift off course.

5. Build Accountability at Every Level

Metrics without accountability are just numbers in a spreadsheet.

We use fractal accountability at our companies:

• Daily: Quick standup on key blockers
• Weekly: Progress against this week’s targets
• Monthly: Review of leading indicators
• Quarterly: Strategic objectives and pivots
• Annual: Big rocks and multi-year trajectory

Amazon does this better than anyone. Their entire org is obsessed with “the customer.” That single focus cascades into daily checking, weekly accountability, quarterly goals, and annual planning.

Everything ladders up to the mission.

Sometimes just the act of reviewing metrics moves the needle. Your team starts self-correcting when they know they’ll report progress weekly.

6. Reward Merit, Not Tenure

This is where most small businesses fail.

They reward loyalty over performance. Time served over impact. Seniority over results.

Stop it.

The people who should succeed inside your company are the ones actively driving you toward your 20-year vision. Not the ones who’ve been around longest.

Recognize contribution. Reward alignment with the mission. Pay for performance.

If someone’s been with you 10 years but isn’t pushing you forward, they’re holding you back. If someone’s been with you 6 months and is accelerating progress, promote them.

Your compensation structure should reflect what you actually value.

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The Bottom Line

Being good is easy. Everyone’s good.

Being the best at something specific? That requires:

1. Picking the right arena
2. Working backwards from greatness
3. Doing things differently
4. Measuring obsessively
5. Holding everyone accountable
6. Rewarding what matters

This isn’t theory. This is how we’ve built CaneKast and every company I advise.

Pick your niche. Plot your path. Execute relentlessly.

It’s not about being good. It’s about being the best.