There is this idea out there that there is a single best way forward if you can just fit within the parameters of a template, if you can implement all the business strategies sequentially. I did a quick Google search and came up with these blogposts in less than a minute.
The Complete 35-Step Guide for Entrepreneurs Starting A Business
How to Run a Successful Business-Top 5 Tips
15 Strategies for Quickly Expanding Your Business
There is no doubt some great wisdom embedded within these blogposts and you can learn much from any one of them, I am sure. However, before you contemplate the “how”, it might serve you best to consider the “why”.
What is Your Primary Motivation for Starting a Business?
Do you want to earn a lot of money?
Do you want to help people?
Do you want to be the expert in the room?
Do you want to have freedom to create?
Do you want to have complete autonomy?
To be fair, you are probably motivated by more than one thing but which of these speaks most clearly to you? Or maybe it’s something completely different that gets you out of bed every day?
The biggest caveat of owning your own business is that you get a chance to create a world you want to live in, but it’s also easy to lose sight of that as you grow. Pretty soon, you feel like your company owns you instead of the other way around.
So What’s a Business Owner to Do?
Remember that there is no external template that perfectly fits your company. Your unique blend of experience, talent, personality and ambition, filtered through your primary motivation, all work together to form a customized business model that makes sense only for you.
So read the blogposts and books. Go to the conferences. Network and learn. But filter all that knowledge through your custom lens; keeping what works and throwing out what doesn’t.
Ultimately, the best way to grow your business is to be true to your origin story and as you grow, communicate this core business identity over and over, in ways that foster the “what’s next” of innovation without sacrificing the “why we do what we do”.
To Do List
Spend a day creating your own customized business model, one that speaks to your experience, your talents, your personality, your ambitions and especially your foundational motivations. Hold it up regularly as a lens to make sure the world you are creating is in alignment with your core values.