Creating a Vision for Your Business!
September 1, 2009 by
Filed under Planning
“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.” Jack Welch, Chairman, General Electric.
Without a strong, defined vision, most businesses usually fail because the challenges got too tough – the business fundamentals outweighed the ‘passion’ and drive. The vision therefore drives the company through good and bad times. The vision is the purpose and ’soul’ of the business.
Creating a vision for your business
Define the vision…
- What do I see as the key to the future for our organisation?
- What unique contribution should we be making in the future?
- What would make me excited about being a part of this organisation?
A vision statement is a company’s inspiration. A vision asks, “Toward what reality do we want to lead this organisation?”
For example :
Walt Disney’s vision statement :
“To create a new kind of amusement park filled with the accomplishments, joys, and hopes of the world we live in.”
Microsoft’s vision statement :
“Empowering people through great software at any time, and any place, on any device.”
Sony’s vision statement :
“We invite new thinking, so even more fantastic ideas can evolve. We take chances. We exceed expectations. We help dreamers dream.”
IKEA’s vision statement :
"To create a better every day life for the many people."
Use these examples to create an unique vision for your business. How can you do or provide something so good that people cannot stop talking about you?
What Are Business Image and Brand?
July 28, 2009 by
Filed under Planning
Simply, ‘Image’ is the perception (picture) that consumers have about a particular business at any one point in time.
Whereby, ‘Brand’ is the relationship between the business and the consumer’s values. For example, when a consumer looks to purchase a running shoe they may think of Nike because of it’s alignment with winning and achieving.
Image and branding has everything to do with identifying your target market, identifying the values that are important to your target market and then creating an image and a brand that relates to those values.
Trying to cover all demographics and values is not recommended because it would be very difficult to achieve effective branding economically. The consumer will be disappointed with the product and the business.
For example, promoting luxury airline tickets whilst actually hearding travellers into small seats and delivering poor customer service will upset those consumers and word will get out and damage the ‘Brand’. Conversely, entering the marketplace promoting high levels of service at a cheap price, will hurt margins for the business and will unsustainable in the long-term.
Typically a brand will consist of an unique mix of values, such as :
- Consumer benefits,
- Style,
- Reliability,
- Quality,
- Price,
- Consumer age target (e.g. children, young adults, mature adults, Generation X, etc),
- Image projection (athletic, adverture, wealth),
- Culture,
and so on.
Branding can also be broken down into ‘external’ and ‘internal’. External branding is prodominately used to create new customers for the business via mass advertising, such as print, internet, radio and television.
Internal branding is reminding existing customers that you value their business of which the aim is to increase repeat sales from those customers. Internal branding will typically use such media as email, SMS, direct mail and the telephone.
Creating an image and a brand for a small to medium size business is not about flashy and slick advertisements. It’s about getting your key customers (target market) to recognise your business as their prefered choice for the products or service you provide.
Creating the Vision, Mission and Culture for Your Business
May 5, 2009 by
Filed under Planning
Step 1) Define the Vision
- What do I see as the key to the future for our organisation?
- What unique contribution should we be making in the future?
- What would make me excited about being a part of this organisation in the future?
A vision statement is a company’s inspiration. A vision asks, “Toward what reality do you want to lead this organisation?”
Step 2) Create the Mission Statement
How will the vision be achieved?
a) Who are you ? Define the characteristics of the people in your organisation. What are their qualities, attributes, etc ?
b) What business are you in?
e.g. the transport business
c) Who are your customers?
e.g. demographics, age, etc
d) What makes you different?
e.g. Starbucks
“Establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles while we grow.”
e.g. Target
“At the heart of our strategy is our commitment to delight our guest by consistently delivering the right combination of innovation, design and value in our merchandising, in our marketing, and in our stores. This is the essence of our “Expect More. Pay Less.” brand promise.”
e.g. Nike
“To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.”
Step 3) Culture statement
Ownership, integrity, teamwork, communication, etc
This is an example of a culture statement :
| Ecolab USSpirit Ecolab associates are the company’s heart and soul. Hungry to succeed and passionate to achieve, we embrace the unknown, fearlessly taking risks, confident in our ability to deliver results. We are eager and ambitious. We tenaciously persevere, surmounting obstacles with grit and determination. Above all, we find joy in our work, and in serving the company and our customers. Pride Determination Commitment Passion Integrity |
Billionaire In Training – moving levels
May 5, 2009 by
Filed under Planning
| This is an transcription excerpt from an interview with Brad Sugars, multi-millionaire businessman. I liked this portion of the interview, because it explains how to break out of the self-employed level of a business, especially the text highlighted in yellow below. – Mark Fregnan, Kinetic Media & Marketing. |
| Peter Sinclair: Now Brad, in your brilliant book “Billionaire In Training” you take us through from Level 0 right up to Level 5 as you unveil the key characteristics of a true entrepreneur. Can you briefly outline those 6 categories?
Brad Sugars: OK. The “Billionaire in Training” Level 0 is the employee. It’s where you should start. This is where you should gain both capital and knowledge. Having many different jobs is a great start for an entrepreneur. Peter Sinclair: We all need to start somewhere. Brad Sugars: Yes. Level 1 is where you move up to becoming self-employed. This is the most important step. It is also the toughest. Here you have to learn so much. I hope people are prepared to take my advice and have a lot of jobs in a lot of fields when they first start. That way they will generally have less to learn. Peter Sinclair: What you are promoting at this level is a good general spread of knowledge and experience. Brad Sugars: Precisely. Level 2 is the “Manager Level.” This is where you start employing people. It is still tough because you need to learn about people and not just the basics of running a business. I think at this point, I should give my definition of a business. It’s a commercial, profitable enterprise that works without you being there. Peter Sinclair: That in itself is a very important characteristic. The most successful businesses should be able to operate without the owner having to be there one hundred percent of the time. Brad Sugars: Correct. Level 3 occurs when you reach the situation that you just mentioned Peter. You become a “Business Owner.” You have systems, a team and a General Manager to run it all for you. Essentially you have reached passive income by this stage. Peter Sinclair: I just want to take a quick look at self-employment. Can I just take you back to Level 1 for a moment? Brad Sugars: Go right ahead. Peter Sinclair: For someone to break out of the boundaries of self-employment into a higher level, in what you call “the entrepreneurial game,” what would be some keys that you could suggest that could help somebody to progress? Brad Sugars: Level 1 is like a see-saw. You have to chase the work in sales and then do the work, the operations. To progress to Level 2, first start with the fundamentals of growing a business. You need to create a vision, a mission statement, a company culture, goals and then an organization chart. Employ someone to take over the most basic functions first, but not before:
Peter Sinclair: Brad, if our readers wanted to fast track through those levels, from your experience, how would you suggest they could do so? Brad Sugars: Progressing through the levels quickly is all about gaining knowledge. Someone who doesn’t learn from their mistakes will either stay where they are or go backwards. Brad Sugars: I’ll put it simply. If you think knowledge is expensive, try ignorance. Peter Sinclair: Touché! You say that profit is KING. That’s pretty self explanatory, but can you add to that? Brad Sugars: Peter, it’s not your mistakes that cost you a fortune, it’s actually the unwillingness to make mistakes, then learn from them. Too many business-owners focus on their total revenue or how many employees they have or how many offices they have opened. Really there is only one thing that counts in business… Peter Sinclair: And that thing is… Brad Sugars: PROFIT! |
Goal Setting and Planning
Goal setting
Why do so many people struggle to achieve goals? There are many reasons, but one of the most important is lack of constant re-enforcement and reminding that a goal exists. The way to achieve re-enforcement is to simply write the goal down. Specific written goals take a life of their own and have a much greater ability of becoming a reality.
Here’s how you set goals :
1) Look at your written down vision and life purpose. What smaller goals would help you to eventually reach your ultimate life ambition? What skills will you need?
- Raising capital
- Asking for donations
- Public speaking
- Book writing
2) Think about what ’smaller’ goals you would like to achieve in your life too.
For example, becoming a famous musician might not be your vision or life purpose, but you would like to learn how to play the guitar.
Use S.M.A.R.T. goals
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time – frame
The S.M.A.R.T. acronym above is a tool to assist you to be more specific in your goal setting. For example; don’t just write down that you want to be rich. Here is a more definite statement :
I will own three residential houses with a combined worth of 1.4 Million dollars by Jan 2012.
See the difference? The goal is detailed, not only ‘real estate’ is mentioned, but a specific type of real-estate – ‘residential’. Also the goal value can be measured (by a real-estate valuer), is achievable, realistic and has a specific time of completion.
Here are two templates you can use to help you set your goals :
- Life planning and goals – Achievements (for you last year)
- Life planning and goals – New goals (for you this year)
Personal vision and life purpose
May 5, 2009 by
Filed under Planning
| What do you really want from the gift of life that you have been given? |
| You know, very few people ask themselves this question then wonder why their life has no direction or purpose.If you really want to ‘live’ your life to the full, find a quiet place, perhaps with your partner or close friend, or perhaps on your own, and ask yourself this very important question :
What do you really want from the gift of life that you have been given? You may have one of these visions or life purpose :
The main aim here is to - THINK BIG. Pretend money and time are no object. Write down your vision and life purpose and include the emotions that it will bring you :
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| To achieve your life purpose, you will need to master a number of goals. These ‘bite sized goals’ may include specific skills or abilities.To help you set your goals, read this page (click here). |
