Clarity First: Think Like a Business Owner

The key to increasing revenue and having time to enjoy it lies in thinking like a business owner, regardless of your current role in the corporate world or as a self-employed professional.

• The clarity principle serves as the foundation of any successful business, requiring you to answer what you want, why you want it, and how you'll get there
• Surface-level answers aren't enough - you must dig deeply into what truly matters to you by repeatedly asking "what else?"
• Your "why" must be wrapped in passion and fueled with emotion to sustain you through challenges
• Your strategy (the "how") should focus only on actions within your control
• The four strategic parts of business include your marketing plan, sales process, business operation systems, and business project plan
• Effective marketing focuses on making yourself visible through consistent, value-adding content on 1-2 platforms initially
• A good sales process requires asking the right questions to understand what's important to your clients
• Business operation systems prevent you from "reinventing the wheel" for routine tasks
• A written business project plan with specific milestones keeps you accountable and reduces anxiety

Drop me an email at simsrm2017@gmail.com if you have questions or want to chat. Watch for my digital course launching this fall that will walk you through every step of the process.

Chapters

• 0:00 Think Like a Business Owner
• 1:11 The Clarity Principle Foundation
• 4:35 Four Strategic Business Parts
• 8:37 Marketing Plan: Who Knows You
• 11:19 Sales Process & Business Operations
• 13:21 Business Project Planning & Next Steps

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

In any of these three scenarios, I believe you have to think about yourself as a business owner. That's what I did during my entire corporate career. Why? Well, when you enter your job in the corporation, in the big business, and you're thinking about serving your customer, whether that customer is internal or external, and you're thinking about what it takes to run a profitable business, I think all the corporate objectives get taken care of. If my division provides a product that my customer needed and wanted and we added value to the overall business and maintain expense control, then the corporation, the bigwigs up there, they're going to be happy. The same thing, I believe, is true for the small business or the professional salesperson. Why? What does it take to increase your revenue and have time to enjoy it? Well, I believe you have to think like a business owner, no matter what your situation is today, and there are several steps that you go through when you begin to think like a business owner and you want to do that, to begin running your own business.

Speaker 1: 1:11

Step one is the clarity principle. That's the foundation of a business it really is. It means being clear about what you want, why you want, whatever it is that you said you wanted, and then having a plan for how you're going to get it. Three questions what, why and how. Now that what question is the vision for the future that you're trying to build in your business, the reasons why you want to reach that vision, why it's important to you and why that gives you the fuel to keep going is the answer to the why question and a strategy that defines what you're going to do to make your vision a reality. Well, that's the answer to the how question what, why and how. And you've got to be really, really clear on all three. But that's just the starting point. Without that foundation, it's near on too impossible to build a thriving, profitable business that's going to allow you to see your vision become a reality. Now, the key to this step is taking the time to do it right.

Speaker 1: 2:16

The first thing that comes to your mind when you start asking these questions may not be the true end result that you're looking for. I go through several exercises with my clients to help them dig deep and find the answers to those three questions that really matter to them. This step, in fact all the steps that we're going to talk about they all require some deep thinking. That means going deep and uncovering your true feelings and thoughts about your family, yourself and how this business is going to fit into that picture. So you start with that question what do I want? What do I really want? What do I really want from my business? Then you have to listen to the answer, listen, listen carefully and write it down. Then ask yourself what else? Write that down and then do it again and again, and however many times you have to, until there's nothing left to answer the question. If you do this and you think you're done after one or two times of going well, what else? I'd suggest you might want to sleep on it and try it again tomorrow, because there's probably more in you to answer the what do I want question than what you've found so far. But when you have all the answers, then you look at it all and you have to pare it down to the thing, the one thing that you want the most. It's not going to be a new car, new plane, train or automobile or house. What do you want your life to look like? What do you want in your life? That's your business. When you have that answer, you do the same thing for the why question. Now, answering that why question is probably the most important answer that you're going to need to come up with. You'll need to get under your skin and into your heart to answer it, because the answer to that why? Question has to be wrapped in passion and fueled with emotion. You know, if it doesn't bring a tear or two, I have to wonder if maybe have you dug deeply enough. Folks, if your heart isn't in this thing, then you might want to find another thing.

Speaker 1: 4:33

Step two is the answer to the how question. The how question how are you going to get to that vision? Well, how is your strategy? And that's a much more in-depth discussion that's beyond the scope of this podcast, I promise. The key to this one, though, is keeping action in mind my strategy, what's my action? What am I going to do? What must I do that's going to allow me to see my vision become a reality, not what somebody else needs to do, or what needs to happen in the economy, or all the rest of those things, or the weather. You have no control over that stuff. What do you need to do today, tomorrow and next week in order for your business to bring you your vision?

Speaker 1: 5:21

Step three is looking at the four strategic parts of your business. Those four strategic parts are your marketing plan, your sales process, your business operation systems and your business project plan. Now, each one of these has its own module in a digital course that we're building right now, but for today, let's define each one of those four critical parts that allow you to begin to move forward and build your business. The first one I mentioned was your marketing plan, and that's specifically what you're going to do to make yourself and your business more visible, because, you see, it really isn't who you know. Rather, it's all about who knows you. Dr Richard Kay taught me that when he was a guest on my previous podcast a few episodes ago, and he's so right. You know it's about visibility. So the first question for you in a marketing plan is what are you going to do to make your business more visible to your ideal client? Now, this, too, is a large module in the course that we're building, but in the time that we have today, let me just say this the answer is focus.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Choose a couple of strategies, things that you will do in your marketing strategies, things you'll do in your marketing to make your business more visible. Maybe it's social media or email marketing or personal observation or working in events, or even direct mail. Those are just some platforms that you might want to consider, but the key is you have to focus. You can't do it all. Focus, choose a couple to begin with and let the others follow as they properly and naturally fall into play. Choose one or two and begin there.

Speaker 1: 7:11

Create content that's focused on the audience to go into those platforms, not stuff about you or your product Talking about stuff that's focused on the audience to go into those platforms, not stuff about you or your product Talking about stuff that's going to add value to the people reading it by giving them things that they can use today. This is not an advertising platform. It's not a digital billboard. We're building a business relationship, and this is just a starting point. They have to know you exist and you're a good person and that you can add value to their lives. That's what we're talking about.

Speaker 1: 7:46

So you write that content and then you have to publish your content consistently. If you're going to do it once a week, on Wednesdays, hey, that's great. If it's going to be posted on, you're going to post something on Wednesday, friday and Saturday, that's great too. The key is to be consistent about what you're posting and when you're posting it, what day and what time of day. My podcast, for example, is posted on Wednesdays, hopefully every week that's the idea and it goes out at 5 am. I can schedule that all ahead of time. Be consistent Engage with the people that comment. When somebody comments on your posts or whatever you're doing, reply back and continue the conversation, and certainly no personal information or contact info has to be exchanged or should be exchanged online.

Speaker 1: 8:37

Now your sales process. That's the next one and this is what you're going to do and say once someone engages with you in that sales process. This includes all the things that you do and say to help you that are going to get your client to talk to you and figure out what it is that they want and they need. So how are you going to approach people? What questions are you going to ask to understand what's important to them? That's your responsibility as a professional. You've got to find that out and sometimes it requires some digging with your prospect, with your prospective client. You've got to ask all the right questions to find out what's most important to them. It's not their responsibility to read your mind and tell you what you need to know. It's your responsibility to ask the right questions and find out. So what are their buying motives? If you're a travel agent, who else is going and how important is this trip to them? What's your vision for whatever it is that's important to your client? All those kind of questions. That's how you're going to use that information, or how you're going to ask the questions, to use that information so that you can design several recommendations to present to the prospect. But unless you get this information, your recommendations are going to be like shooting from the hip or throwing a baseball with a blindfold on. You've got to have that information to determine what it is you're going to recommend the initial conversation to begin the business relationship discovery, to discover the pain point that the prospect is experiencing, designing the solution, presenting your recommendations, helping the prospect decide and then continuous follow-up. Those are the basic steps in any good sales process. But you got to flesh them out. You got to flesh them out based on your particular product, your particular client, your particular marketing plan and your particular situation.

Speaker 1: 10:47

Now your business operation systems are another big piece of your business and what you're building. These are the processes that you use to run your business every day? How are you going to implement your marketing plan? How do you handle product acquisition, delivery and satisfaction? How do you handle accounting and money? That's a decision you need to make before you get a lot of accounting and money to deal with. What computer systems are you going to use and what computer systems are you not going to use? These are the things that you want to use to run and operate your business every day, so that you don't have to run and operate your business every day, so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time you turn around, and it's not a lot of work every time you have to go in and do it. It's the same thing. It's a system.

Speaker 1: 11:36

Your business project plan is the last piece that I like to talk about, and that's where you're going to decide exactly what you are going to do, when you are going to do it and what exactly you need to do to make it all happen. Having a project plan allows you to think through what you've got to do long before you have to do it. That's important. With a plan, then you know exactly what you have to do every day and it reduces the anxiety and the stress. It's about what you're doing and are you doing it right? And if it's in a plan, you can determine that and you know where to move forward and what to do. See, the plan includes generating milestones. Those are specific dates on which you will have completed specific parts of the plan. Without milestones, you could wind up one day asking yourself where did all the time go and why didn't I do what I needed to do months ago? Yeah, that's the voice of experience. I have had to ask myself that question. But a business plan helps you get to there where you don't have to answer that. You don't have to ask that question. This is your implementation plan. This is how you'll do all the things you need to do in order to see your vision become a reality. And, ladies and gentlemen, let me just say this real quickly you can't do it without a specific written plan, written in your computer, written on a piece of paper. I don't care, I just want you to have it well thought out and documented somewhere so that you can go to it and it'll tell you what you need to do and when you need to do it. Otherwise, you're throwing that baseball with a blindfold on. This is a very important part of the whole process, I promise.

Speaker 1: 13:28

Now, all this stuff that I've been talking about makes it sound like it could take you years to be ready to introduce a new product or a new company to the world and actually start making money. And we didn't even begin to talk about managing all this so that you have time to enjoy your life. That's a topic for one of our next podcasts. I know it looks ominous and it does take time to get it all together and to be ready to launch or relaunch a business, but here's what you need to do to make it happen. You need a roadmap, you need a checklist. I'm building a digital course right now that we're going to launch in the fall, and that course is going to walk you through every step of the process. Right now, I'm following my own business operation plan and my own checklist to get it all done and launch that course and make that a new part of my business. But you know it takes a while. Can you not wait till the fall? Well, I certainly understand it if you can't, and if that's the case, then let me make this suggestion Start with the clarity principle, take time to brainstorm and answer those three foundational questions and get really, really clear about what's going on and what you want.

Speaker 1: 14:42

Just make sure you ask what else as you come up with answers. Okay, because I mean I've had people look at this and say, morris, this is stupid. What do I want? I want to run a successful business. Why? Because I got bills to pay. That's why how I'm going to go out there and work hard. Next, yeah, those are surface answers, those are surface answers that anybody could throw out there. I need to know what's personal to you. What do you really want? Why do you really want, why do you really want that and how are you going to get there? Start with that. That's a very important piece. And the clarity principle well, it helps you build that foundation and then you can begin building your strategic action plan. That's that marketing plan, sales plan or sales process plan, operations plan and implementation or your business project plan.

Speaker 1: 15:38

Now, between now and the launch of the course in the fall, we're going to walk you through the parts of the process on several podcasts, starting with a whole series on sales, and we're going to bring a whole bunch of guests to the show to share with you what their expertise is and give you ideas you may want to incorporate in your own business. If you have any questions or you just want to chat, please don't hesitate to drop me an email at simsrm2017 at gmailcom. That's sims S-I-M-S dot R-M-2-0-1-7 at gmailcom. I'd love to have a conversation with you. Well, that does it for this episode of the Commission Code Podcast. This is the place where we want to help you find the commission code to success in your business. Remember, go to MorrisSimscom for more information and in the meantime, hey, have a great week, get out there and meet somebody new, and we'll see you again next time right here on the Commission Code. Best wishes. I'm Morris Sims.