Today I was doing a webinar for my team. They are beginning their journey of building an online business.
I have a vision for them, but what is far more important is what is the vision they carry in their minds for themselves.
A characteristic of many successful businesses, and here I’m talking both online and off line, is that they have a vision for their business.
Do they really know what they are working towards, and are they creating a business that matches their vision for the future?
What is a vision? It’s simply a picture of what success will be in the future. It incorporates answers to an array of questions: What does my business look like? How big is it? What are we famous for? Why does anyone care about what we do? How do people who work here feel about their jobs? How do I, as the founder, feel about the business? What’s my role in it? What important problems do you solve? What unique market position do we fulfill? What is our geographic coverage? Are we local? National? International? What value do we create in the world? How do we make a difference? Who are we providing value to? How much revenue and/or profit do we generate? What are we selling? What do people say about us? Where are we working from? How is our company growing?
A great vision is inspiring, it shows you what you want your business to be and what you are striving to achieve. It gets you excited to start your work.
The concept of developing a clear vision should involve thinking about where the business ought to be in 5 years time. You should make your vision inspirational – it is about what you would most like your business to be like, after all its you building it, and this is your vision.
Vision is where you are going. It should inspire and energise you, reminding you of your business goals. It’s what gets you to your desk every morning, keeping you there throughout the day.
Many of you are working hard, putting the hours in, for some of you those hours amount to a ridiculous amount of time, but I ask you, do you ever give yourself the time to stop ever so often, and consider what your vision is for your business and are you building it in the right way.
Your question to me may be, how do you create a vision for your business?
The first step is to ask yourself what you really want to create with your business. Visualise here. Imagine the ideal business that you want to own. Do not allow yourself to be distracted by what you believe are your limitations, by what you think is possible or not. Just consider the possibilities and how you really could create something totally unique that is exactly what you want you it to be like.
What does your vision include. Are you going to create a new shopping experience for your customers?
Maybe it’s a new product that offers solutions not already available.
Perhaps a service that you can bring that will inspire others to success.
It could be sharing your wealth of resources.
Or bringing your creativity to a wide audience.
To really trigger your thinking, to capture a vision that will inspire you beyond belief you need to capture your purpose. Purpose is the fundamental reason for your existence from a business perspective. It is the motivational force that drives what you do. It is your reason for existence in the business world.
To me here is the most powerful question you need to answer:
“Whom do I exist to serve, with what and why?”
Then ask yourself the question which will determine how important this really is to you.
“If you awoke with enough money tomorrow to retire would you still keep working at this business?”
Now to completely see the vision that is going to be the driving force of your entire business.
“What are the things that you desire to be and achieve in the next five years.”
You must be able to see it to achieve it. The future is like a magnet that pulls you in the direction that you want to consistently go.
Now to bring this all about, ask yourself:
“What steps am I going to take to help my company become the market presence I want it to be?”
Once you have imagined your ideal model and have a vision of what you want, spend some time considering how you will make a difference to your customers. Will your products or services meet a need so fully that your customers will tell their friends and generate referral business for you. Will your shop provide such outstanding quality customer service that once a customer they’d never think of going anywhere else. Will your words be so inspirational that people will want to follow you so they don’t miss out on what you say.
It’s time for you to allow your vision for your business to rekindle your excitement and to drive you on. Write a short statement setting out your vision for your business and how you will make a difference.
Let this be behind everything you do from now on.
Do this and get a clear understanding of where you want to go and why. Think bigger picture.
Have no doubts about the value of creating a vision for your business. It will impact everything you are building helping you to make better decisions, increasing your focus, improving how you execute your business plan and most importantly impacting your bottom line.
My vision for All The Missing Pieces is simple, to build a business that helps others turn their passions into a profitable business creating their perfect lifestyle.
Now can you do the same? Yes. You can. You have to believe in your vision. See it. Trust in it.
So what vision do you have for your business? Is it one that is clear?
Have a listen to the Podcast.
