Whether you’re building a house or building a business, foundation is everything.
But what exactly should you consider your foundation?
Can you, should you, proceed without one?
Foundation Is EVERYTHING
Foundation is Everything!
Building a business isn’t rocket science but it’s not exactly the easiest thing to do either.
There are a ton of variables to consider.
A ton of things to do… stuff simply needs to get done.
You have to market and brand yourself … and get customers.
Afterall, you do have bills to pay.
But where do you get started?
You start with your foundation.
Start At The Beginning
When most start a business, they usually focus on services, products and price.
To me, that is ALL WRONG. To me, that’s putting the cart before the horse.
To me, you have to get even more granular, even more basic than that.
To stay in business, you have to evaluate and understand WHY you got into business in the first place. Recognizing this and taking a step back into this understanding will help you STAY in business later. When times get hard… all you’ll have to do is revisit your WHY and it will motivate you to keep going.
To me…that’s the starting point. Your “why” should come way before your “who” and your “what”.
So to start at the beginning, Start With Why
Why are you in business? Why did you have such an overwhelming desire to do this thing that you do or want to do? What does your business look like? How many hours do you work? How does it fit into the grand scheme of things… things like your bigger picture called life? How does it improve your quality of life?
Build Upon Your Humble Beginnings
Only after you have your big picture view of what it is (your business) and how it fits into your life and how it improves your life… then, in my humble opinion, you can proceed to the WHO (ideal peeps you serve) and the WHAT (the great work you do with them). Until then, you’re being reactive instead of proactive.
Reactive positioning creates clients… people that want what they want when they want it with no real rhyme or reason. Proactive positioning creates customers… people that want what YOU have to offer. They want the dish that you’re serving up.
Subtle (but huge) difference there.
Having a strong foundation can help you shift from pushing folks along the buying process (clients) or pull them/attract them to you at a time that’s right for them and keep them coming back (customers).
I don’t know about you but I think I’d like more customers and less clients. 😉
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~J
