(Mondays are Lynn Miles Peisker days at The Daily Blur. Lynn serves as the Executive Sister and Chief Plate Spinner at the Imagination Advisory Group. Check out her growing archive of posts here.)
We talk a lot about small businesses in our line of work.
But the truth is no business is small.
If it’s yours, if you own it, it’s your whole world.
That’s not small.
That’s huge.
Whether you have a huge manufacturing company or a small home-based busi
ness or an income generating blog or a family farm, if you own it, it’s not small. Not to you.
Not to us.
We’re making the verbal switch from small business to owner-operated business in our dream client list of characteristics. It’s part of our goals and values to work with companies where the owners are hands-on and invested. That’s where we find the highest level of caring, the strongest commitment to excellence, and the best opportunity for mind-bendingly wildest-dream-busting success.
But there is a big IF involved. I alluded to it earlier. Do you know what I’m talking about?
The owner operated company that will succeed has defined the Goals and Values of their organization from the very beginning. They revisit them, revise them and stay true to them as they move forward.
How do you know what your company goals and values are? Here is one week’s worth of exercises that might help.
Day One. Name three words that describe your company.
Day Two. Construct a description of your company in the year 2033.
Day Three. Write your company’s obituary. Include cause of death.
Day Four. Make a wanted poster for your ideal employee. Include character traits as well as crimes as charged.
Day Five. Create a profile of your ideal customer.
Day Six. Name five things you WILL NOT DO NO MATTER WHAT.
Day Seven. Bring to mind your favorite grandparent, teacher or pastor (a person of great significance in your life that you highly respect.) Write that person a letter about your company.
Now look back at what you have written. Have you used those three words from the Day 1 exercise more than once? Are there other words that you have used more frequently? Write no more than the five most frequently used words from your exercises on an index cards and carry them around with you for a week.
At the end of the week, reflect . Do they still resonate? If so, you may have just found the identifying markers of the core goals and values for your company.
In an owner-operated company, there is no more important step than to identify these goals and values. It’s the foundation to everything you do.
Invest your time accordingly.
Enjoy your week!
This is one of the best business blogs ever posted on the Daily Blur. A step-by-step plan with a concrete call to action. Thank you for making our business better.
Thank you, Claudine! It’s not enough to know we need goals and values. We have to get busy identifying what they are, in life and in business. Have a great day!