The Owner’s Journey
Business owners work through many stages during the time they run a business. For the most successful owners, they’ll take a business from ideation all the way through maturation and potentially an exit. It’s common to look at a business through the lens of the business itself and the various stages of a business can be broadly defined as: ideation, marketing, execution, growth, stability, maturity and liquidation or exit. However, it’s less common to look at a business through the lens of the owner’s journey and that’s what we’re going to focus on today because while similar, it is different from the stages of a business. The owner’s journey stages are as follows : Stage 1 – Idea and Inspiration Stage 2 – Planning and Learning Stage 3 – Foundation and Funding Stage 4 – Marketing and Sales Stage 5 – Launch and Daily Management Stage 6 – Growth and Scaling Stage 7 – Sustainability and Adaptation Stage 8 – Exit and Transition Let’s take a closer look at each of these stages STAGE 1 Idea and Inspiration Great businesses begin with great ideas and we often hear owners share a story about their personal discovery of a problem they had to navigate through. Successful navigation of these problems can create viable businesses and is a stimulating time for many owners. Ultimately, one of the greatest challenges during this stage of an owner’s journey is balancing optimism with pragmatism. The clearest sign that you’re ready to move on from this stage? When we commit to turning the vision into a reality. STAGE 2 Planning and Learning You may be able to start a business without planning. However, your odds of success are going to be dramatically lower than if you had planned. We’re confident, that while you may be able to ignore planning (to each their own), you’ll always be learning once you commit to turning your idea into reality. This stage of ownership is often where we’ll build confidence and overcome our doubts and fears about the viability of our ideas. Keep an eye on overwhelm in this stage, as people are very free with advice as you’re still getting up and running. STAGE 3 Foundation and Funding Business fundamentals such as setting up our legal entity, assessing our funding options and implementing the formal arrangement of the business all happen in this stage. Be aware of heightened stress levels as finances are one of the top causes of friction in relationships. This stage also happens to introduce increased work load and potential challenges with managing the business with the rest of our lives. STAGE 4 Marketing and Sales Just because something sounds like an amazing idea and solved a problem we have identified doesn’t mean the market is going to adopt it or feel strongly about it. Businesses thrive when products, services and solutions all address pain points people feel strongly about. Without that emotional response, a business can be dead in the water before the idea really ever gets off the ground. Frustration can go hand in hand with marketing and sales and dealing with rejection is a key challenge for many owners, especially if they don’t already have a strong comfort with sales and messaging. STAGE 5 Launch and Daily Management When you officially launch a product or service, it’s an absolute thrill to see it take off from the ground and to find your early adopters. That thrill can quickly dwindle when we are faced with the grind of the actual day-to-day operations of the business and also have to address consumer feedback. Responding well to tedious activity and to criticism is essential for owners in this stage. STAGE 6 Growth and Scaling One of the greatest bottlenecks and challenges owners of small businesses have is delegating with effectiveness and developing a team to help manage to growth and development of the business. It’s why so many owners never shift out of owner operator into greater roles. During this time, owners are faced with changing the control they exert over the business and allowing for others to begin to take responsibility and accountability for activity that may have originally been yours. Times of transitions like these lead to identity challenges and require great personal growth for owners to learn new skills such as leadership and management. STAGE 7 Sustainability and Adaptation Once our businesses have grown to a certain point, our attention will quite naturally shift to business sustainability and, hopefully, continuity. Additionally, we’ll be tasked with adapting the business to changing markets, environments and consumer wants. In a key inflection point for owners, this is a great time to re-evaluate our personal goals and a natural point for us to consider what the next stages of our own lives and involvement with our business is. If we find that our goals for our lives are not in alignment with what the business demands as owners, it can cause anxiety and uncertainty for many owners. STAGE 8 Exit and Transition Although 80% of businesses are unsellable, our goal is to help every business owner have the opportunity to successfully exit their business. Ultimately, an exit will always happen. It’s simply a question of whether the exit is done with intention or not. Unfortunately, when we allow transitions to occur without planning for them, it can lead to serious repercussions and, as we often see, a business that will be shutting its doors. The exit stage is one of the most difficult in the business owner journey. Exits and transitions require us to process a tremendous amount of emotion around identity, value and face our own expectations of success and failure. Why Does the Owner’s Journey Matter? Chances are the owner’s journey isn’t as carefully analyzed as the stages a business will go through and yet not only are they fundamentally intertwined, the human element to owning a business has a tremendous influence not just on our own well-being but on a business’s health as
What it means to be courageous in business
When you hear courage, you probably don’t immediately think about business. You may think of police officers and heroism, or service members overseas, firefighters from 9/11 but you aren’t too likely to think of business leaders. Yet everyday professionals and business leaders exhibit courage in business. What it means to be courageous in business is to develop and display the skill sets of risk/reward decision making, to admit you are without all the answers and to stand up for what is right. 6 Methods To Make Sure Your Business Doesn’t Fail Stay strong! Did you know that 70% of businesses will fail? We put together a FREE guide identifying the Top 6 reasons businesses fail and give you actionable steps you can take on every one of these to make sure it’s your competition failing and not you! It’s our free gift to you and you can access it right here. Courage Through Decision Making Taking calculated risks in business means to identify and take action on potential failures. It also means to weigh the risk of that failure with the reward of success. Great business leaders display strong risk adjusted decision making and continue to push the boundaries of what their business and they are capable of. This is a skill best developed through experience, mentorship and wisdom. The Courage to Not Know As business grows more complex our ability to be an expert in all aspects hits a wall. Our willingness to openly admit our own limits of knowledge is an essential skill for professionals and business owners today. Better to admit lack of knowledge and ignorance than pretend to know what we do not. The Courage of Standing up for What Is Right It’s easy as professionals and business owners to sacrifice integrity and ethics in the pursuit of business. After all, plenty of people and businesses are willing to look the other way or blatantly break the rules if they think they can get away with it. Standing up for what is right takes courage. It takes a willingness to accept losses that otherwise might not be taken. It also leads to a culture of excellence that will be unmatched by any other company or professional that is willing to compromise their ethics and integrity. Is courage in business important to you? Let us know in our private Facebook community, the EML! You can join here! Join our community We can work with you individually and in a group setting with our unique 2 on 1 coaching that marries the expertise of a Doctor of Psychology and mindset coach with the business savvy of a former Fortune 50 sales executive. We specialize in helping entrepreneurs and professionals like you master your time, sales, and confidence, to evolve you to your greatest potential. To learn more about our coaching you can contact us here! Feel like you need coaching but not sure you can afford the investment in yourself? That’s ok! We have a scholarship available to diverse candidates of need. You can apply for our scholarship for our coaching and our courses here. Not enough time in the day, we get it. Check out our AYOP course, 2x Your Time, right here. We walk through everything from time management and calendar basics to how you can supercharge your days weeks and months through practices and techniques that are grounded in experience and proven by science.
How To Set Expectations With Customer Service
Customer service is about the culture you want your clients to experience. The culture you develop likely has some core, fundamental pieces to it. For example, culturally, most professionals and businesses want their clients to feel that they are competent, capable and communicative. These are commonalities for most business cultures. Not every culture is alike, however and there are always key differences here for businesses looking to set themselves apart. One way to absolutely set yourself apart is by setting expectations around how you run your business. One example I’ll give you is the ‘classic’ mortgage broker or real estate agent. They are tied to their cells and they make a promise to their clients; I will always be available day or night for you. I will always pick up my phone. I will always be there. This is an expectation they are setting with their clients. As long a they maintain that level of service they will always meet or exceed their client expectations. After all, anyone can say they will be available any time of day, but how many people will answer the phone at 11:30 p.m. We wouldn’t! Another example I’ve run across is the financial professional and a large brand name firm. My culture is all about answering the phone. My administrative assistant knows that NO phone call ever goes to voice mail during business hours. This, for him, was a key differentiator in his culture and customer service. Again, as long as they meet the expectations they set, their clients will always be happy. The challenge here is in both circumstances, these professionals are making a promise that could be very difficult, or, even impossible to meet consistently. When you put yourself in this position as a business owner, it creates opportunities and challenges. Take Nordstrom as an example. Their customer service is nothing short of AWESOME. If you’re not familiar with the classic Nordstrom story, go google it, seriously! Their customer service is out of this world and it elevates their culture and their brand and because they have consistently met client expectations it creates an outstanding customer service experience. Here’s the great news, you don’t need to be the mortgage broker or real estate agent that promises to answer their phone at any moment. You could just as easily be the mortgage broker or real estate agent that says, “I will return your call within 24 hours, always.” If the expectation is set, you’ll have clients that experience great customer service! To set expectations for customer service there is only 1 thing that really needs to be done, but it absolutely MUST be done. You must communicate to everyone what your culture is and what the expectations you can and will ALWAYS meet are! If you cannot meet those expectations DO NOT SET THEM. It will only create a poor customer service experience. Set something you can always meet or exceed and you will always win. The key here is simple. Communicate up front, from day 1! If you’re looking to join a tribe of like minded professionals that believe in the #beRICH mindset: Rising to Mastery, Inspiring Greatness, Celebrating Knowledge and Helping Others along the way, you’ll want to check out our private facebook group, Entrepreneur Mastery Lab. You can join the movement here! Join our Facebook Group Now!
The Scientific Method and Running a Productive Business
Could you imagine a world in which we never listened to our clients? A world where we never really uncovered what was most important to them and what they needed to address their pain? A life where they never achieved the results that were most important to them? It’s why marketers will tell you it’s all about knowing your audience and advertisers will tell you to test, test and test again. At the heart of this is the scientific method. Knowing your audience, knowing what connects to your audience and how to speak to it is all about finding evidence and using the scientific method. The scientific method is an essential aspect to running a business. If you’re just out there guessing about what people want and guessing about what their needs are it’s going to be a LONG journey to really achieve any success or make any sort of impact with people. To achieve real productivity you need to use evidence gathered to help accelerate how quickly you’re able to connect with your audience. On our most recent podcast we had a tremendous conversation with Miranda Fuller of LauderAle Brewery. Miranda sparked our conversation around the scientific method when she shared with us the similarities between her background in science and biology with the business of brewing! To check out our conversation with Miranda you can listen in here or any of your favorite streaming platforms! Listen to Podcast In the meantime, here are some of the best ways to quickly gather evidence to make sure you operate at your most productive. Empirical evidence – no matter what, nothing is more applicable in business than getting into the shoes of your ideal clients. If you want to enhance your productivity make sure you understand the frustration and struggles of your clients and really dig into their business. Tweak Not twerk, please don’t. Tweak. A good process and a process and routine will allow you to tweak what you do to come up with the very best possible methods to be the most productive. This can’t be done without following the scientific method. Interview and survey your audience constantly Business changes and the experience you’ve had is not necessarily the same environment your prospects are dealing with today. The more evidence you collect the more you’ll be able to identify trends and be ahead of the curve on changes if and when they need to happen. Join our Free Facebook Group – Entrepreneur Mastery Lab We strongly believe in creating a space where everyone in business can be successful. Where all of the resources, wisdom and insight needed for business owners and entrepreneurs is at your fingertips. Where experts all over the world can share their experiences and celebrate their knowledge. If you’d like to join us in our vision of building out this dream, join us in our free facebook group here! Join Now!