Blogger – Karen J. Gregory
Any business, or individual for that matter, that wants to create success for themselves must continuously assess their situation…good or bad. You must determine where you currently stand, where you want to be in the future, when you want to get there, and how you plan to get there.
So how do you figure this out? Through a step-by-step discovery process of determiningYOUR Big Picture — the picture of what your business and life could look like. Many of the discoveries I am going to share with you apply to not only businesses, but also to individuals so apply them as you see appropriate.
5 Discoveries that are key to creating a foundation for success:
1) Value Proposition: Have you discovered or realized your value proposition? Why would others buy from you? What distinguishes you from others who do the same thing? What makes a clinet want to buy from you?
2) Financial Performance: Today, where do you stand financially? Is this where you want to be? What do you want your revenue to be in 12 months? In 24 months? Why did you choose that number? If you don’t get there, what will happen? If you do get there, what will happen to your business? For you?
3) Influential Clients: Wouldn’t it be great if all of our clients were so well connected that they provided work for us continuously through leads and referrals? If you’re super strategic about who you choose as your clients, then this could be a reality. So, strategically determine who is your ideal client? Are they in a specific geographic location, industry, or size? Not everyone is an ideal client.
4) Fewer, high paying clients: Selling to fewer clients who are buying more from you is going to reduce the amount of administrative and operational work that you have to juggle in your business. For example, if your 5-year goal is to make $1M a year in revenue, would you rather do that through 1000 clients, 100 or 20…maybe only 10 clients? Think: less work, more focus.
5) Action Plan: The only way any of this will work is through an Action Plan. What is the big vision of your business? Do you want to reach $1M in revenue within 5 years, have 4 employees, and expand into another geographical location? Or maybe you want to stay small, a one-person business that subs out work, as needed, who enjoys a consistent revenue stream and lots of flexibility. Once you have your big vision, start working on the action plan because in order to make all of the above work, you have to plan out how you’re going to get there. You must be focused on what you are pursuing and what you aspire to be as a business — YOUR Big Picture. The action plan should be incrementally focused beginning with short-term actions or goals and building up to your longer-term goals.
It’s not rocket science, but it does take hard work and perseverance. Start by working through and writing down your value proposition, your short and long-term financial goals, your ideal clients, the number of clients, and the action plan you need to implement to attain your goals. Where are you today? Where do you want to be? And how are you going to get there? By when?
Work through these 5 discoveries to build a foundation for success and you will discover YOUR Big Picture.
We’d love to get your thoughts? Did we miss something?
(NOTE: Attend our FREE Small Business Coaching Session: “The Big Picture” on Tuesday, April 8th, 3-4:30pm at the Cocoa Beach Regional Chamber of Commerce, Merritt Island, Florida. RSVP toinfo@hrssconsultinggroup.com)
