Dyersburg, TN — May 27, 2025 — During the latest in-person session of Roadmap to Success a small group of six business owners gathered at The Mill Workspace with the common goal of turning ambition into action through the High-Performance Framework (HPF), led by Al Da Silva, CEO of DaSilva Consulting.
The workshop represents only part of a more comprehensive program engineered to help small business owners achieve success in their respective industry. Roadmap to Success is a 12-month business accelerator program designed to guide small business owners in our region through structured growth and operational excellence.
HPF was developed to assess and enhance six essential areas of a business: leadership, processes, people, customer experience, profitability, and execution. Using a tool called the Business X-Ray, participants began by diagnosing where their businesses stood today and where they wanted them to go.
Each participant was asked to define a current business challenge or opportunity they hoped to address in the next 90 days. They explored their existing processes, identified inefficiencies, and reflected on customer feedback. Rather than making assumptions, they grounded their thinking in real conversations and insights, aligning their strategies with customer needs.
From there, the group moved into analysis. Participants examined operational and financial data, looking for trends and root causes of recurring issues. Using tools like the Fishbone Diagram and the 5 Whys technique, they began to see beyond symptoms and identify the underlying factors holding their businesses back. These simple yet powerful exercises helped shift perspectives, allowing them to approach their problems more strategically.
With a clearer understanding of their challenges, the next step was to design solutions. The Solution Matrix guided them in evaluating ideas based on customer impact, implementation cost, ease of execution, potential revenue impact, and alignment with their business goals.
The highest-scoring solutions were then expanded into detailed implementation plans, complete with timelines and clearly defined roles using a RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) model. These were not abstract strategies; they were tangible roadmaps, customized to each participant’s unique situation.
Toward the end of the workshop, each business owner visualized their future state—a new process flow reflecting the changes they would implement. This exercise, done with sticky notes and team collaboration, became a moment of clarity. Participants could see their business operating at its full potential, not just in theory, but in practical, achievable steps.
To sustain momentum, the workshop introduced the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle, a simple but powerful method for continuous improvement. This final piece ensured that the work done during the session wouldn’t remain a one-time event, but rather the beginning of an ongoing process of learning and refinement.
As the session wrapped, each participant walked away not just with a completed workbook, but with clarity, confidence, and a concrete plan to drive their business forward.
About The Mill Workspace: The Mill Workspace, a DBA of Northwest Tennessee Entrepreneurship, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)3 entrepreneur center located in Dyersburg, TN and focused on serving entrepreneurs in the nine counties of Northwest Tennessee. They help businesses through one-on-one counseling, workshops, and multi-week programs all designed to help businesses in the region start up and grow.
Programs at The Mill are funded in part by a grant from LaunchTN.
