There are two main myths with business building that get spread around like wildfire and these myths are likely the reason that your business isn’t providing you with the lifestyle that you want.
MYTH #1 – You need to follow someone else’s ‘system.’ You need a franchise or a licensed business model to make your life easier and to have any success as a business owner.
Not so. Not even close. I can’t think of a single truly successful entrepreneur that has simply plugged in someone else’s paint-by-numbers system. Not one. Sure, we all pull from others and stitch things together to create our own approach, but if you want to build a great business you can’t do it by simply cloning someone else.
Think about all the businesses you admire. Te entrepreneurs you feel are truly successful. They’re all unique. They all have their own Brand. Their own style. Their own approach. Each of those entrepreneurs has their own goals, strengths and sets of experiences that they’ve built around… and it’s allowed them each to have great success in their own way.
MYTH #2 – Te best approach is to do what everyone else is doing. Wrong. You see it all the time. When someone launches a new offering, they look around and see what the competitors are charging and then they either:
- Charge the same – so they are ‘competitive.’
- Charge less – to be ‘more appealing.’
Unfortunately, this approach is terrible. When we make our decision to simply do what others are doing, we’re failing to recognize that we have different strengths and assets than they do. Not only that, but we really don’t know if they’re having any success doing what they do.
Whether it’s what you’re offering, the way you market or the prices you charge, the only way to build your Ideal Business is to be different or be better. It all comes down to crafting a plan that allows you to build a business around your values, your strengths and your goals that operates within the guardrails that you set. Instead, the focus is on…Use this FB Ad. Market to this audience. Follow my system.
Here’s a tip: That’s not how to build a successful business that you love owning.
Good business design begins with you. It starts with your Vision – the first step to building your Ideal Busi-ness. Te easiest way I know to get started determining what the compelling Vision is that you have for your business is to use the Dan Sullivan Question:
“If we were meeting three years from today, looking back over those three years, what has to have happened,
both personally and professionally, for you to feel happy with your progress?”
Three years allows you to imagine what’s possible and be both realistic and aggressive with where you want to be. Once you know what success looks like to you, then you can start to reverse-engineer it. You can determine what has to change, what you need to improve, what should be delegated or eliminated and what you need to build on. You are clearer about how much money you want to earn, what your work schedule looks like and what role you want to play in your business, as well as who you want to work with and what you want to be known for. Te clarity will allow you to take more action while that common overwhelm dissipates.
After you get clear about your Vision, you need to build your Brand. This is your second step to having the business you want. For the purposes of building your Ideal Business, your Brand is really made up of two things:
- Who do you want to work with?
- What do you want to be known for?
If you are clear on those two answers, everything else becomes easier. It will completely transform your marketing and your business as a whole. And remember, as important as it is to know exactly who you want to attract – you also want a clear idea of who you don’t want as a client. Your Branding plan needs to start by defining exactly who your ideal target client is (and conversely, who they aren’t).
I help entrepreneurs build their Ideal Business.
Then, the other component of building your Brand is identifying what you want to be known for. It’s basically a statement of who you help and what you do. For me, it looks like this:
That’s a little different than saying I’m a business coach, right? Now my ‘who’ is a small snapshot of the answer to the question “Who do you want to work with?” It’s entrepreneurs. And ‘build their Ideal Business’ is what I do.
So when you combine the answers to the two questions above it will be much easier to create ads and write sales copy and say things that your prospective clients actually care about. You’ll be able to “connect” with those prospects on a far deeper more emotional level. It gives you a position you can OWN in the market.
Positioning is the ‘perception’ that happens in the minds of your target. prospects. The story they tell themselves. Good positioning allows you to differentiate your business from that of your competitors. If you do a good enough job with “positioning” you render the competition irrelevant. You become a specialist for the ‘right’ people. And people gravitate to specialist over generalists – and they’ll pay more for a specialist too.
Your Brand will give you a position that will…
- Create a laser-focus in on your ideal target prospect.
- Filter out who you DON’T want.
- Differentiate you and your business from everyone else.
In today’s me-too marketplace – this is how you win. It’s why people will chose you above everyone else.
Once you have established your Brand it’s time to determine what your Ideal Business Model looks like. Having the right model in place is the third step to owning your Ideal Business. If you want to own your Ideal Business then your model… or the way you do business …must match your Vision and also be one that is a ‘fit’ for the people you want to serve.
So let’s take a look at how this could work in practice… Start with your Vision.
If you have financial, impact and lifestyle goals…how can you build a model that accomplishes all three?
How do you prefer to deliver your service?
What do you want your work schedule to look like?
Will you have a big staff or a small one?
Do you want an online component?
How much do you need to earn to reach your financial goals?
Can that be done through one offering or do you need multiple?
What areas are you strong in? How can you leverage those?
And then, let’s discuss your Brand and who you want to serve…
How do they prefer to be served?
Which model best fits their financial situation and lifestyle?
How can you best serve them?
I know this is a lot to throw at you, but far too many business owners just default to doing what they see others doing… and they don’t give any consideration to these questions, then they later realize that their income, their lifestyle and really the health of their business is in many ways dictated by this decision.
One other thing about your model from my personal experience: I (personally) prefer a business that allows you to serve the market you want to serve, that pays you a generous income (high profit) and is fun to own. Some people want big, sometimes just because they think bigger is a better reflection on them.
But to give you a little context – I’ve got a team of four people now and make more business profit and more personal income than when I had a business that employed 40 people. Don’t just assume bigger will be a faster path to all your other goals. You choose. The ball is in your court. Just don’t drift. You need to pick your path if you want to get to your personal goals.
So those are three steps that will get you on the path to owning a business that allows you to have the professional impact you want, earn the income you deserve and enjoy the lifestyle you want to lead. In truth, it doesn’t take any more work to build your Ideal Business than it does to do what you’re doing now. It just takes a few small shifts that yield big results.
