What do you want your business to look like in 5 years?
Welcome to the Ultimate Business Tune Up Podcast where our one and only goal is to help you TUNE-UP your business so that you can have the long-lasting success and fulfillment that comes from owning a solid, profitable and sustainable business.
Each week we’re going dive deep into a single topic related either to improving your business itself, improving your team engagement or improving your relationship with your customers.
This week our topic is arguably one of the most important assignments for every business owner – STEERING YOUR BUSINESS.
As you know, I use a bike as a metaphor for a business. And if you’re riding a bike, you’re probably trying to go somewhere specific. And to steer your bike, you use your handlebars.
So you may ask – how do I steer my business? Well, I believe we steer our business by having a compelling vision and by providing strong leadership.
TODAY we’re going to focus on Your COMPELLING VISION. Your dream for the future of your business. The dream for what success looks like for you and your team over the next several years.
You may ask why this is so important. My response would be that there are two very important reasons:
The first – is for YOUR benefit. Owning a business can be challenging. In the course of a typical week as a business owner you’ll likely face difficult decisions, difficult team members, difficult customers, difficult suppliers, difficult competitors and at time, a difficult economy.
To combat this barrage of challenges, you need a rock solid VISION that you can turn to and remind yourself why the fight is worth it.
Let’s face it – many business owners just give up. They quit the fight. Why? Because they didn’t have a big enough reason to keep fighting. That’s what you get when you have a solid, clear, describable compelling vision of your ideal business future.
The second reason is for your TEAM MEMBERS. Those who work for you and with you need and want to know that the business is heading somewhere – and that that somewhere is someplace they too want to go.
If in their minds the business is going nowhere, they’ll quit in search of an opportunity that IS going somewhere.
If the somewhere is not compelling, they’ll quit in search of a more desirable destination.
If you don’t believe me, let me share with you two recent experiences I had.
I walked into my office last week and along the way ran into a business owner who worked in an office near mine. As I passed and said good morning, I notices she was downcast. I stopped and asked what’s wrong.
She shared that her best employee – her go-to #2 – had just given his 2 week notice that he was quitting.
I asked if I could speak with her employee and when I did he shared with me that the primary reason he was leaving was because he had no clue where this business was going and whether there would be a good place for him in the future. Meanwhile, the company that was courting him shared their vision in a very compelling way and told him specifically the roles that may be open to him in the future should he decide to join them. The decision was an easy one for him.
Then, only days later, I arrived at a meeting with a new client to find the husband and wife owners sitting life-less at their conference table. I tried to bring the energy level up, but couldn’t. So I asked – what’s wrong.
Their key admin person – their solid rock – had just told them she was leaving. They were stunned.
I asked if we could talk with her to understand more, and we asked her to join us in the conference room.
As she talked it became clear – she had been talking with her husband and he was challenging her on where her future was with the business and she had no answer. She honestly did not know. The owners had never shared with her anything about the future of the business or the opportunities that might be there for her in the future.
So she agreed with her husband that she would quit and come to work with his father’s firm. They had a plan, laid out a compelling future for her with this new business, and she was hooked!
Has this happened to you? Perhaps not.
Could it happen to you? Absolutely!
In fact, it’s biblical:
Proverbs 29 verse 18 says “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. Essentially, it is giving us the guidance that without a long-term plan – without a vision – people are doomed to wander aimlessly.
That’s one biblical truth that applies DIRECTLY to our business life. The business application of this advice is “without a vision, your people will assume there is no future for them – and with that, they will look for something different or in their mind, better.
So what keeps us from having a CLEAR, COMPELLING VISION for our business?
1. Sometimes it’s hard to even image our ideal future. We’re so focused on getting through the day, making this next payroll, handling the current complaint from a disgruntled customer, or trying to figure out how to cover the job duties of the person who just gave you their notice that they were quitting.
2. Many of us do not think in flowery, futuristic imagery. The idea of “painting a beautiful picture” of our ideal future seems a bit “woo woo” – out there – too dreamy for the way we approach business.
3. Some of us have grown to be pessimistic and just can’t “lie” about something we’re not sure is true (or could become true).
If you don’t have a compelling vision for your business, then you’re riding your bike trying to steer with NO HANDS!
That worked great as a kid – showing off to our buddies. But it doesn’t work in business. There’s too much at stake. The risks are too high.
Particularly NOW – when the unemployment rate is extremely low and the idea of work from home is a real thing – which allows employees at all levels to consider job opportunities that may even be outside of the area where they live!
So what should we do?
It’s simple – we should set aside some focused time to write out our COMPELLING VISION for our business.
But rather than give you a recipe or formula, let me give you a couple of real life examples:
Example #1 –
One business owner simply wrote down all the things that frustrated them and then transformed each frustration into the opposite ideal future state.
Here were a few of the statements he included in his ideal future vision of the company:
• Everyone has clearly defined roles and responsibilities
• The communications on our team are much improved – clear, concise, timely.
• Our customers walk away feeling great about their experience of doing business with us.
• Our online reviews are all 5-star ratings with glowing praise for our team.
• We cut the time it takes to complete our orders by 50% – quicker response time
• We anticipate the needs of our customers and measure our success by avoiding their calls to our customer call center.
As he shared this with his team, they all got excited at the possibility of working at a company that operated like that – and they wanted to be there to help him make it happen.
Example #2 –
An owner of an HVAC company wrote out his story in narrative form. He shared
• why he got into the business in the first place
• what he wanted to do differently from other HVAC companies
• described the kinds of people he wanted to work with
• shared the territories he hoped to expand into
• and shared how many team members he hoped to have in 5 years.
When he got done, we took the main bullet points of his story and put them on a huge sign in his warehouse so everyone saw them in big, bold words every day.
Example #3 –
One business owner decided to creating a series of videos of him being interviewed and asked questions about
• What was it like in the beginning
• What is most important to you and why
• What do you want our customers to say about doing business with us
• Why is this important to you
• If things went as you hoped, what would this company look like in 5 years.
He then shared the videos during his monthly all-hands meetings and answered questions that anyone had from the videos.
Then he post these videos on his youtube channel so all new employees could watch them.
This became such a win for him that he would do periodic updates on the progress they were making towards his COMPELLING VISION.
You don’t have to use one of these methods, but you do need to do SOMETHING!
What ever you do, be genuine, be real, be you. Don’t be fake or contrived. Don’t make it a big marketing production.
But just know – This is a BIG reason why so many people decide to make a change – because they can’t read your mind!
I hope that helps! I hope you’re inspired to be creative – to get out of your confort zone – to set the time aside to do a favor for yourself AND your team members.
People LOVE to follow leaders who are heading to a better place. Our job – as the business leader – is to be CRYSTAL CLEAR on the BETTER PLACE that we are leading our team to.
Thanks for joining me today. It’s been a blast. Be sure to tune in next week when we are going to discuss another important topic –
HOW TO HIRE GREAT TEAM MEMBERS!
You won’t want to miss it!
Meanwhile, if you have a question, suggestion or would like to connect, shoot me an email at rich@tourdeprofit.com
Make it a great week – and whatever you do… RIDE HARD!
– Rich
