Before you add another service, decide what you’re willing to stop.
A new offer is also a claim on the attention of the people already doing the work.
MEMORANDUM / 01FOR FOUNDERS & SMALL LEADERSHIP TEAMS
A NOTE FROM THE HOUSE6 MINUTE WORKING PAPER
The tempting question is whether a new service could succeed. The more useful first question is what the business must make room for if it does.
For a small service business, an adjacent idea can look almost free. The expertise is nearby. A client has asked. The team can imagine delivering it. But the work of defining, explaining and owning that offer is real work, even before the first engagement begins.
Our starting position is simple: do not turn an interesting request into a permanent promise too quickly. Describe a bounded pilot, name the person responsible, and agree what evidence would justify continuing.
This is the kind of decision Ledger House helps a leadership team examine. We make the assumptions visible, put competing choices into plain language, and leave a record the team can act on.
Choose what the decision most needs to protect. Name the question that remains open. The record turns the argument into a specific next action. “Discuss this decision” carries only your priority and its suggested action; copy any personal notes into the letter yourself.
Judgment
Keep the pilot bounded until a named person has capacity to own it.
Evidence to obtain
Review current commitments with the people doing the work. Identify what would move or stop.
Next action
Open question: Which existing commitment can we pause?
A clearly framed question. An argument you can challenge. A next action with an owner. Our working papers are designed to support decisions that remain yours.