Understanding Strategy: A Critical Assignment
You would be surprised--Ask ninety-nine out of one hundred business owners and they will tell you, the way to build a successful business is to start at the bottom and build upwards.
You start with a seedling idea, and you then develop that idea month-by-month, year-by-year, until you eventually end up with a highly successful business, right?
Wrong!
Every extraordinary business is built from the top, downwards, not from the bottom, upwards.
Here's why.
If you were an Estate Agent, and I came to you and said, "I'd like to buy a house please?" you'd say, "What house, sir?"
If I said, "I don't know, I just want a good house, please," you would consider me deranged. I obviously have to know what house I want, in the area I want it, before you can provide me with it.
Yet, most businesses are started and run with no clear purpose, destination or consistent activity. Of course, you know you want to succeed. But what does success mean to you? What do you want success to do for you? What do you want your business to be when it gets there? And--very important--what do you want from your business, from being in business, from being an entrepreneur?
I'll share this with you although it is embarrassing to admit it now. I started my first business just because I was eager to start a business.
One day I decided the time was right; I arranged financing, premises, invested in a little Amstrad word processor, started advertising--and I thought I was in business!
I was doing my idea.
I was in the business of bringing my idea to life and offering it to customers. That approach to business is destined to fail, and it did.
It's how most businesses are started. And it's one of the reasons 80 percent of them fail within five years and another 16 percent fail within ten years. Yes, just 4 of every 100 business start-ups survive (the figures vary slightly year by year, but four percent is a close average).
It is sad but not in the least surprising.
You must have a crystal-clear vision of what your business will ultimately do, will ultimately be, and will ultimately look like. And you must know the direction to take to get there, the create that vision.
Being an entrepreneur makes you special--I mean REALLY special, you are just 5% of the population. It's a tough existence--but can be so rewarding.
You have to know where you want to go before you can possibly get there. I have to come to you and say, "I'd like a five bedroom, three reception-room house in West London, with around 2 acres of land, in a quiet location, within driving distance to ABC schools." Now you can help me find the house.
Let me be blunt.
I can't help you get to where you want to go if you don't know where that is.
You Need a Vision
I'll extraordinary businesses are built from the top, downward, by first imagining what they will look like and be when they get there.
Walt Disney first envisioned animated films and a fantastical park called Disneyland -- and then set out to achieve them.
Henry Ford first envisioned the world's first affordable car -- and then set out to achieve it.
Thomas Watson first envisioned one of the world's greatest companies -- and then set out to build IBM.
You must do the same, whether your vision is as gigantic as these, or whether you just want to excel in a niche market. It doesn't matter, as long as you do have your vision.
Spend 30 to 60 minutes creating the ultimate vision of your business as you want it to be in 5 years, or ten years, or twenty years, or whatever.
What will it look like, what will it do, who will it be selling to, how much will it be selling, what premises will you have, how big will that premises be, how many staff will you have, what will your sales be each year, will you be a local, regional, national, or international business, what will you be best known for, when your customers are talking about you to their friends or colleagues, what will they say about you and the service you provide?
Do you see?
Just talking about it is intoxicating, isn't it?
But when you take the time to envision what your particular business will ultimately look like, and be, you set-off magnetic-like forces in the mind that will drive you towards your goal.
When you know where you're going, instead of zig-zagging your way along a treacherous path of probable failure, you'll muster and laserbeam focus every hour of effort, every pound of investment, every element of marketing, every square foot of premises, and every ounce of energy into the direction of attaining your vision.
And when you are that focused and directed towards a clear-cut goal, you lift yourself a mile above not only your competitors, but almost every other business out there, and you accelerate your success, tenfold.
So take 30 to 60 minutes right now--or longer if you wish--to create the ultimate vision for your business.
Have fun with it!
And remember, it's not set in stone. You can and should change your goals as your business evolves and as circumstances or desires change for you. Or not, it's up to you.
You make the rules.
But having that vision now will so focus your energies and activities that you'll take-off with ten times faster and more successfully. If you want to change direction half way through, just tell the pilot, and create an adjusted vision.
You're in charge.
Have fun with it, and also realise the very powerful process you're setting into motion by doing it. Make sure you have your ultimate business vision finished and written down before you move on.
It's critical for what you'll discover throughout the rest of BusinessPowerElite
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