From Enterprise IT to a Pilates Studio: Why Execution Gets Hard at Every Scale

It could be a multimillion-dollar technology initiative for the State of Nebraska.

Or it could be opening a BODYBAR Pilates studio in our community.

On paper, those two things couldn't look much more different.

One involves large technology teams, complex systems, government requirements, multiple stakeholders, vendors, and initiatives that can span months or years.

The other involves construction timelines, hiring, instructor training, technology, marketing, vendors, presale goals, equipment, payroll, community engagement—and making sure everything comes together in time to open the doors.

The scale is different.

The execution challenges really aren't.

That has been one of the most interesting lessons for me as I've moved between enterprise delivery leadership and business ownership.

A project doesn't need a multimillion-dollar budget to be complicated.

It just needs a lot of moving parts.

Complexity Isn't About the Size of the Budget

When we talk about "complex initiatives," we tend to picture big projects. Large budgets. Large teams. Long timelines. Complicated technology. I've certainly seen that in my work supporting State of Nebraska IT initiatives.

There can be multiple business areas, technology teams, vendors, policy requirements, regulatory deadlines, integrations, legacy systems, and layers of governance involved in delivering a single outcome. It is easy to understand why execution gets difficult.

Then I started opening a Pilates studio.

The budget is obviously different. The team is smaller. The impact is more local.

But suddenly I found myself dealing with something very familiar:

Dependencies.

Construction affects equipment installation.

Construction and permitting affect when we can open.

Our opening timeline affects hiring and training.

Hiring affects our class schedule.

Our class schedule affects our presale conversations.

Technology has to be configured.

Payroll has to be ready.

Marketing needs to build momentum before the doors open—not after.

And vendors all have their own timelines, processes, and dependencies.

Individually, none of these things is especially complicated.

Together?

That's where execution gets hard.

Every Project Has a Critical Path

One of the things I spend a lot of time thinking about in enterprise delivery is what I often call the long poles.

What are the things that actually determine whether we can deliver the outcome? Because not every task carries the same weight. You might have 100 things on a project plan, but only a handful truly determine whether the initiative succeeds on time.

The same is true when opening a business. I can spend an entire day being productive and check ten things off my list. But if the one thing holding up the next three activities hasn't moved, have I really moved the project forward?

That's an important distinction.

Activity isn't the same thing as progress.

Strategic delivery leadership means knowing which work actually moves the outcome forward.

Competing Priorities Exist at Every Scale

In enterprise IT, teams rarely work on just one thing. Developers have competing initiatives.

Business leaders have operational responsibilities. Subject-matter experts are supporting multiple projects. Vendors have other clients. Executives have dozens of things competing for their attention.

That creates one of the biggest challenges in delivery: your project may be your highest priority, but it isn't necessarily everyone else's.

Owning a business has given me an entirely new appreciation for this. When you're opening a studio, almost everything feels important. Hiring is important. Presale is important. Construction is important. Community relationships are important. Training is important. Marketing is important.

Financial management is important. Technology is important.

And occasionally something that wasn't on today's priority list at all suddenly becomes the most important thing in the room.

The leadership challenge is the same one I've seen in enterprise environments:

When everything is important, what matters most right now?

That's the question that keeps execution moving.

Dependencies Need to Be Visible

Some of the biggest delivery risks aren't individual tasks.

They're the connections between them.

• Team A may be doing exactly what they're supposed to be doing.

• Team B may also be on track.

• But if Team B needs something from Team A before it can finish—and nobody is actively managing that dependency—the project can still fall behind.

  
  

This happens constantly in technology delivery.

It happens in business ownership too.

• A contractor can be on schedule.

• A vendor can be on schedule.

• Your team can be on schedule.

  
  

And you can still have a problem if those schedules don't line up.

That's why good delivery leadership isn't simply asking:

"Is your work on track?"

It's also asking:

"Who needs something from you?"

"What are you waiting on?"

"What can't happen until this is complete?"

Those questions reveal much more about whether an outcome is actually on track.

Stakeholder Management Doesn't Disappear When the Organization Gets Smaller

Large enterprise initiatives may have formal stakeholder maps, steering committees, governance structures, and executive sponsors.

Opening a local business doesn't.

But that doesn't mean there are fewer stakeholders.

They're simply different.

• There are employees.

• Future members.

• The franchisor.

• Contractors.

• Vendors.

• Landlords.

• Community partners.

• Other local businesses.

And each sees the project from a different perspective.

One lesson I've carried with me throughout my career is that alignment rarely happens automatically.

Someone has to create it.

That means communicating the outcome, making expectations clear, surfacing decisions, resolving competing priorities, and helping people understand how their piece connects to everything else.

Whether the team is 100 people or 10, that work still matters.

Risks Don't Scale With the Budget Either

Large projects usually have formal risk management.

Risk registers.

Status reports.

Escalation processes.

Governance meetings.

Small businesses rarely call it "risk management."

But you're doing it every day.

What happens if construction slips?

What happens if hiring takes longer than expected?

What happens if a vendor misses a delivery?

What happens if presale isn't where we expected?

What decision do we need to make now to avoid a bigger problem three weeks from now?

That's risk management.

And one of the most valuable habits I've carried from enterprise delivery into entrepreneurship is looking ahead and asking:

What could prevent us from achieving the outcome?

Not because every risk will happen.

But because the earlier you see it, the more options you usually have.

The Tools May Change. The Leadership Doesn't.

The tools I use to manage a BODYBAR opening aren't necessarily the same ones used to manage a State of Nebraska technology initiative.

But the questions I find myself asking are remarkably similar:

What outcome are we trying to achieve?

What absolutely has to happen to get there?

What matters most right now?

What are our biggest dependencies?

What decisions are we waiting on?

What could prevent us from succeeding?

Who needs to be aligned?

And what needs our attention before it becomes a problem?

Those aren't really IT questions.

They aren't government questions.

And they aren't franchise questions.

They're delivery leadership questions.

Execution Gets Hard at Every Scale

One of the unexpected benefits of becoming a business owner has been seeing strategic delivery from an entirely different seat. In enterprise environments, I've helped organizations navigate complexity involving large teams, systems, vendors, priorities, and stakeholders. Now I'm experiencing the same principles much closer to the ground.

There is no large governance structure.

There isn't a team dedicated to every function.

Sometimes the executive sponsor, project manager, finance department, marketing department, procurement team, and person figuring out why something isn't working are all the same person - and usually it's ME!

And that has reinforced something I believe even more strongly now:

Strong execution isn't about the size of the project.

It's about creating clarity around the outcome, understanding what has to happen to achieve it, making dependencies visible, aligning the people involved, and having the discipline to keep moving the right work forward.

Whether you're delivering a multimillion-dollar technology initiative or opening the doors to a Pilates studio, execution gets complicated.

The scale changes.

The discipline doesn't.