Do you remember the range of emotions – from extreme excitement to sheer terror – when you were in your early years as an entrepreneur? Whether your entrepreneurial path is at the early ideation stage, or you have a longstanding business ready to reach the next level, the fundamentals of reaching your future goals remain the same.
We find it helpful, as you’re building out your plans for the coming year, to take a step back and revisit the “why” behind starting your business. What were you passionate about, and does it still ring true for you today? Do your customers and employees know about your passion? Is your purpose clearly stated in such a way that resonates with the exact customers and employees you’d like to attract? How are you planning to realize your vision in the years ahead?
I recently had the honor and pleasure of sharing how to create a plan for success at a SCORE women’s event in Denver. SCORE helps entrepreneurs accelerate business startups and growth. Sitting around the table were owners of diverse businesses including residential architecture, Brazilian travel for bird lovers, behavioral dog training, herbal wellness products, home staging, hospice home care, and many others.
Reflecting on the conversations with these talented women, I began thinking about what it was like when I was starting my own business, all the way through the accelerated growth over the last two decades. While there are many obstacles, we business owners must overcome throughout our own journeys, there are a few fundamentals we can never be short of – and those are Passion, Purpose, and Planning.
Passion was evident as the excited entrepreneurs shared their stories. The energy in the room was palpable as these ladies shared the “why” behind building their new companies and what fuels their fire every day. The anxiety only crept in when they admitted that they weren’t sure what next steps to take in order to make their business a success. In my experience working with hundreds of business owners over the years, it’s clear that passion is the key element to growing both a successful startup and an established business.
Purpose springs forth from passion. It is how you plan to use your business to change the world! The challenge is to articulate passion in a way that resonates with future customers. Crafting a succinct mission statement, value proposition, and differentiation statement brings clarity about a business’s unique purpose and how it solves buyers’ challenges like no one else can.
Planning is what takes the most time and is unfortunately the one key element that is most often left behind in the busyness of starting – and growing – a company. While it doesn’t feel as exciting as the passion or the purpose (some even consider it drudgery and push it to a back burner), a plan sets expectations, creates a path to follow, and offers room to review, assess, and recalibrate as needed.
I met women with shiny new businesses and untarnished dreams, yet the steps they need to take to start their business are not too different from steps that owners of longstanding businesses need to take to grow to the next level. Now is the time to plan, and none of us can afford to put it on the back burner.
At 5280 Accelerator, our team helps companies accelerate their growth by reconnecting with their passion, articulating their purpose, and defining their current and future buyers. We help companies develop strategic marketing plans designed to deliver results. If you’re ready to take a holistic look at how the high-level mission and purpose of your company translates into future successes – whether that be revenue, customer satisfaction, employee engagement, profitability, or all of the above – reach out to us. Now that your business is more than a twinkle in your eye, our expert marketing team can help you ignite the fire, take your business to new heights, and uplevel your dream!