The 5 Pillars to a Successful Business

So, you have decided to step out of the daily grind. You have leapt a safe job that just serves to bring you money and created one that speaks to your soul. At first, it is exciting, you meet new people with the same interests as you and realize that your business venture may be more valuable than you have ever expected. However, slowly the life of a business owner begins to present stresses. It is not uncommon for new small business owners to become overwhelmed. Thoughts of not being good enough, or not knowing enough about finances and businesses management can keep you up at night. If you want to feel accomplished in business, then these five pillars can give you the framework to free yourself from the overwhelm.  

Your business is like the roof of a building. Without proper support, it will simply collapse. However, if you have a clear vision and purpose, sturdy management and leadership, fantastic finance, defined marketing and branding and a sales and growth strategies your business will be supported to stand tall. These five areas underpin your business so your business can support you and bring stability to your life.  

Your business and your lifestyle are supported by these five key areas: Vision and Purpose, Management and Leadership, Finance, Marketing and Branding, and Sales and Growth.

1. Define a Clear Vision and Purpose  

Before you begin developing anything else in your business you need to set a clear vision and purpose. Take a moment to sit and imagine what success means to you. Is it having time to walk the dog every day? Is it helping your customers in a way that no one else has before? Or is it something else completely personal to you. A clear vision will define your business’ path, it will underly every decision you make as a business owner and make sure that you use your resources wisely. With a clear vision, you will be able to move from feeling confused about making decisions to feeling confident about the clear path you will be taking.  Having a vision will help you get through the tough times. 

A defined purpose is the personal aspect of having a business vision. It is what drives you. What brings you to work every day and makes your business worth it.

What is it that made you step out of having a normal day job to creating your own?

Keeping your purpose relevant is the key to finding comfort within your new position as a business owner.  

2. Create a Supportive Management and Leadership System 

No matter whether your business consists of 20 people of just yourself, it is highly valuable to have a structured system of management and leadership. The first person that you must remember to manage is yourself. If you don’t look after your own mental and physical health first, then you have no chance of running a successful team. Consider your own needs, get enough sleep, eat the right food and don’t be afraid to ask for help. The Australian Government has developed a website with a range of resources to help you create a holistic business. Otherwise simply having a friend to exercise with can have enormous effects on your ability to problem solve during the day. Once you are in a clear mindset, you can then begin to focus on creating structure within your business and get tasks done with the utmost efficiency and direction.  

3. Find Financial Freedom  

Unless you have worked previously as a financial manager, it is normal to become worried when math and money are involved. Numbers can be daunting, that is no secret. However, there are a few things that you can do to take control of your finances. Financial freedom is all about planning and understanding.

Write down all the things that you know that you will have to pay for over the next year and their costs. Then divide those costs into weekly or monthly savings, don’t forget to add a little extra money for unexpected expenses. If the amount that you will need to save outweighs the amount you expect to earn, then you will need to re-evaluate the necessity of those products. This is the simplest way to get ahead of your finances and make sure that you have money in the bank for every occasion.

If you need more help with managing your finances, get in contact today to ask about our Financial Freedom Package. Throughout 6 lessons you will gain the knowledge and experience to become a confident manager of your finances so you can make better decisions around your money. 

 4. Target your Marketing and Branding  

Once you have gone through all the previous steps, it is time to define your customer.

• Who is it that you will be able to help best with your product or service? How do they think and feel?
• Where do they live?
• What do they do?

Understand your target market as if it were just one person.

Creating a market for your product or service is about defining the problem that you will be solving and how to best tell everyone about your solution. There are many resources on the internet regarding how to create a defined market, but try not to get bogged down in the information or throw money at a product without thinking too much about it.

Remember your vision and purpose and always steer your business towards that. As a small business, you have a lot of flexibility regarding your market. You can easily trial a few defined markets to see what suits you and your lifestyle best. The key is to make sure that you have one specific market at a time and have a method to evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing techniques as you go.  

5. Plan your Sales and Growth  

Finally, as you have started to build the foundations to a successful business, and your business gains customers and money flows in, you will need to develop the flexibility to move forward.

As your business begins to bring happiness to customers and solve their problems you will see a change in perspective. It is always important to periodically re-evaluate your vision and purpose. Take a moment to look at your business from an outside perspective and ask yourself these questions:

• Do my business practices and leadership strategies still reflect my ultimate vision for my business? or do I need to make changes by bringing on new staff?
• Am I still using my financial resources as effectively as I can? or do, I have the opportunity now to invest in projects that will better help my market and the business?

And finally;

• does my product or service still solve my markets problem in the best possible way?

A successful small business must always be flexible and developing. As you grow new challenges will arise, but with this framework, you will have the capability to achieve anything within your business.