There are Seven Keys to Developing Your Business, these keys when embraced provide you with a plan for Success and steps that ensure you achieve what you are needing from your Business. This post will deal with the first two and next week we will be looking at the others.

The Seven Keys:

  1. Vision
    1. Why does Your Business Exist?

  2. Values
    1. What’s important to us?
  3. Mission
    1. What we commit to do
  4. Strategy
    1. How we want to get there
  5. Key Performance Indicators
    1. How we will measure
  6. Implementation Plans
    1. What we need to do
  7. Personal Plans
    1. What I need to do

People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it!

You are Not your business.

Do you always treat your business as an entity that is always in the same room as you? i.e. do you need to treat it as separate to you?  This will lead to you running your business in a professional, respectful, “business like” manner – there’s no room for “ego” to step in because you are NOT your business.

The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have; the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.

  • Why do you do what you do?
  • What is your purpose?
  • What is your core belief?

 Any organization can explain what it does; some can explain how they do it; but very few can clearly articulate why. WHY is not money or profit– those are always results. WHY does your organization exist? WHY does it do the things it does? WHY do customers really buy from one company or another? WHY are people loyal to some leaders, but not others?
Starting with WHY works in big business and small business, in the nonprofit world and in politics. Those who start with WHY never manipulate, they inspire. And the people who follow them don’t do so because they have to; they follow because they want to.

The one quality that all leaders have in common is that they have a clear and exciting vision for the future.  This is something that only the leader can do.

Only the leader can think about the future and plan for the future each day. Excellent leaders take the time to think through and develop a clear picture of where they want the organization to be in one, three and five years. Leaders have the ability to communicate this vision in such a way that others “buy in” and eventually see the vision as belonging to them.

 “Values” are the words or short phrases you use to answer the question, “What is most important to you in the context of your XXXX” where XXXX can be “your business”, “your role in the business”, “your relationship with your children”, etc. As such values are “contextual” – ie, you may find yourself giving different answers for the values you hold dear in different contexts.

Defining your values is like defining the boundaries of your Mission Statement, the boundaries of the path you will follow to achieve your Vision. Values are the limits beyond which you will not go in pursuit of your Vision. For example, if one of your values is “safe workplace”, everyone in your business will understand that safety will not be sacrificed for profit.

Thus, when you are clear on your values, and when you have shared those with your team, there is little need for a lot of rules since most “rules” (i.e., the right thing to do in a situation) can be inferred from applying your values.

  • What are your values and what do you stand for?
  • What are the organizing principles of your life?
  • What are your core beliefs?
  • What virtues do you aspire to, and hold in high regard when you see them demonstrated by others?
  • What will you not stand for?
  • What would you sacrifice for, suffer for, and even die for?

These are extremely important questions that are only asked by about three percent of the population, and that small minority tends to be the movers and shakers in every society.

Cheers

Peter