Ingrid Cliff asked:
Today I am about to let you into a secret. A secret that will help transform your business. It is something that all business coaches and business development people know and teach and it is something that all successful businesses do. And the best part of all it is (on the surface) very simple to do.
Think of this article as your mini business building program. If you follow these steps and apply them to your business, your business results will grow in a way that you will not have imagined was possible.
If you want a wildly successful business there are only 3 steps you need to take. That’s right – just 3. Everything else is just window dressing.
So what are these three steps? The three steps to business success are that you need to align your business in thought, word and deed.
Each of these words are a major step in your business building program and each are sequential which means that you can’t skip steps or do them out of order.
You need to apply each step in precisely the order: thought – word – deed.
Let’s explore each of these steps a bit more.
Thought – The Essence of Your Business
The first step of creating any success is the thought – you need to clearly think about and know where you are headed. Think of it like setting out for a journey in your car – you need to know the destination you are headed. You don’t just get in and drive – you think to yourself “I am driving to Brisbane”.
With your thoughts you need to be able to visualise where you are going and to capture the essence of your business. You need to be able to clear the pathways in your mind and in your space to know what you want to create.
You need to be able to know in every fibre of your being where you are headed – be totally clear on what you are aiming for.
There are lots of tools you can use to help you with this process ranging from facilitated planning sessions, brainstorming, thinking about your ideal client and your ideal day, thinking about the sort of staff you want to have working with you and right the way through to drawing a picture of the essence of your business (or having one drawn for you if you are not artistically inclined).
Word – Create the Magic
The next step is converting your business essence into word and form.
Throughout the ages people have known that words have power. They have the power to harness emotions (think about speeches such as “I have a dream” by Martin Luther King), they have the power to declare a position (“We will fight them on the beaches” by Winston Churchill) and they have the power to inspire action (“We will place a man on the moon” by Kennedy).
Without putting pen to paper or speaking your business essence out loud, all your thoughts are just dreams.
Some of the things you can do to put your thoughts into words are create a business plan, create a corporate plan and a marketing plan, put together your website, have letters written to potential businesses, write down the process and systems you will be using to deliver your service or product, writing your position descriptions and get the essence of your business converted into design through business cards and your logo.
At this stage your words and form need to be clear, compelling and clearly reflect your business essence.
This is the stage where you may want to talk with a Feng Shui consultant or energy worker to clear your space and set your words into the space of your building.
Deed – Take the Actions
Action is vital. This is where you put everything you have thought and written about into action. You actually implement and measure the results of what you have done.
This is where you send out the letters, make your website live, put your systems into practice in the workplace, implement your business plan and do the work of your business.
But strangely enough if you have fully taken the thought and deed stages – sometimes the action comes to you!
One of my clients had this experience. We stopped and talked about her business – her dreams for what she wanted, her ideal clients and lots of other things. She knew deep in her heart what she wanted to create. I then wrote her a 3 page letter outlining her services to potential businesses.
The funny thing was as soon as she received the final letter – she had a “yes that’s right – that’s who I am” feeling deep inside her. The next day her phone started to ring and she is now fully booked. Oh – she still hasn’t sent the letter out – she hasn’t had to!
So there you have it. The three steps to business success are thought – word – deed.
If your business is not performing the way you would like it to then you need to go back to the thought stage and start with your big picture dreaming.
If you have a clear picture but are still not getting business – then words and form are your blocks.
If you have clear and powerful words but are still not getting business – how committed are you truly to action?
Align your business in thought, word and deed and reap the rewards.