Over the next 8 blogs I’m going to share my 8 keys (from my own experience and from observations gleaned by interviewing a myriad of successful entrepreneurs) to a bigger, better business and I’m going to invite you to think about each key, with an exercise to complete before the next key appears.
Key number one: Be in business for the right reasons
If you are going to sink your heart, soul, time and money into a business that will most certainly take over your world for a fairly significant period of time, you better be sure you know why you are doing it.
In my view, there are only 2 reasons to be in business:
To make money and to make a difference
Business is a financial game, it needs to make money in order to thrive. And it is not shameful in any way to want to generate profits in order to build a valuable business. If you are going to grow a bigger, better business you must have a good understanding of how this business will make money and how it will grow profits over time. A business that does not care about growing profitability is more of a hobby or a cause than an actual business. This was a discipline I really had to learn from scratch – I had no business or financial skills when I set out. But I hired in the help I needed early on – including getting two external directors – to make sure my business had a strong financial backbone.
However a business that cares only about the money is a business without soul. The desire to make a difference is critical because if you can find a way to solve problems for people, to give them something that answers their needs in a positive way, you will always have customers. And you will have a positive impact on the world, which in turn will make you feel good about yourself. There’s a wonderful karmic attraction that happens when you put your focus onto making a difference – the more people you attract and the more money you make.
So when I work with business owners, we explore their reasons for being in business and we ensure it is a business that makes both money and a difference.
Exercise
Think about how your business is making a difference. Who is it making a difference to? What is the problem you are solving and for who? Why is this different and better to other solutions out there? See if you can articulate the difference you are making in one or two sentences. Remember the more people you make a difference to, the more people will come… so think scale, think big…
Let me know how you get on. Feel free to email me any time at laura@liber8u.com … I’ll be happy to help your work out what your ‘make a difference’ mantra could be!
Newsflash! The 2016 Elev8or Progamme – for business owners ready for the next level – will be kicking off soon. Click here for more information.