Creating Your Vision for Business Right Now
Usually every January I hold an Envisioning Your New Year workshop, to help business owners create their cleanest and most powerful vision for the coming year. We discuss clearing out the old, the deep wishes for coming months, and how to manifest our vision.
Visioning is important for humans. Creating your vision helps us keep closer to the deeper thoughts and inner wisdom we each have for our life and business. Learning to listen one's inner voice rather than always being swayed by other's voices is critical for ongoing success.
Visioning is a crooked path
Most of us open a business and expect it to be a straight path toward success. But it never is, for a few reasons.
- We learn, grow, and mature and with that our interests change over time.
- Our customer's needs change over time.
- We see opportunities that weren't available when we first opened our businesses.
Bobbi Brown's path and how her vision changed
I listened to celeb makeup artist and business owner Bobbi Brown a few days ago as she talked about what she's learned as an entrepreneur. Here's her take on how our vision changes over time.
- We go through phases as business owner, and that's the norm. Bobbi's been a freelance make-up artist, a cosmetic producer, a teacher of other make-up artists, a hotel owner, and more. We change, and that's OK. If we are serious about following our path as a business owner it will take us places we never dreamed of at the beginning.
- We need community. This is one reason I founded the CEO Circle over a year ago now. It's a small but connected group of women entrepreneurs and no topic is off topic – personal or business. It's open now for new members, and I encourage you to check it out for yourself. You can't do everything by yourself.
- We sometimes face tough choices between two things we equally want to do. Don't dither. Make a decision and don't regret what you missed out on.
- Pick team members who are smart, hard-working, good at what they do, and you like them. Make sure they know their role is to support you. Look for flexibility. Look for team members who don't take things personally. Hire people who aren't afraid to try things they've never done before. Click To Tweet
- Don't put taking a job beneath you. If you want to break into a new industry go take a job for a while and start your network in that industry.
- Networking and expanding your centers of influence is everything.
- Building a brand takes take and nurturing. It just won't happen overnight. Some ideas will work and some won't, but start somewhere.
- Prioritize what you need to spend time on and arrange your days around those priorities.
- Try new things, or as Bobbi says, “don't just stay in your lane when you're building a brand.”
- Show instead of tell, especially if your business is built around products.
- Identify your target customer.
- Don't overspend and go broke.
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