The CEO Elite

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Align Yourself with Purpose

A life’s purpose is sought by all humans. I believe it is one of the things that makes us human. Animals don’t look for their purpose, they simply live it. We, as humans, spend a great deal of time andcareer-firefighter-relaxing-job-purpose effort trying to decipher the meaning of our lives. Having meaning allows us to live in our purpose.

But how does living in our purpose actually benefit us and our business?

When we don’t have a purpose we stop things from happening. If you are trying to grow your business, open a new market, reach new clients, create new products, attract an advisory board, raise your rates, etc., without purpose it is harder and takes more effort to make these things happen.

Related Article – Spiritual Business: Beyond Balance

If you are not aligned with your purpose you will not have a “Desired Focus”. This desire helps you find the one thing in your business that is important enough to hold most of your attention and take more of your investment of time and money.  Without it, you continue to give to all aspects of your business with the same time, attention, and money. If you try to do all things equally you will likely not do any of them well.

Without Focus, there is no endpoint or destination. How will you know you have met your target? How will you know when to hire, fire, invest, rent, stay open, etc.? How will you know when you should give up and stop investing? How can you have any metrics at all?

Without a destination, there can be no strategic plans. Plans are like the GPS that tells you when to turn, how far to go, and when you have arrived. There is no way to get a GPS to give you directions until you have entered a destination. Strategic planning is the same. Once you know your destination or goals for your business, you can then start making the plans to get your business there.

Purpose Pointer_right Desired Focus Pointer_rightDestination Pointer_right Strategy Pointer_right Success

There is no way to a truly successful business without first understanding your purpose.

Want to hear Barb explain this further? Watch this video

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Characteristics of an Entrepreneur – Do you have P.O.P.?

Restaurant small business

As Entrepreneurs, there are so many things we need to know and do it sometimes feels like an impossible goal to actually be the person we want to be and serve all the people we want to serve.

Do you ever have this happen? When working hard to create something of value:

  • you feel overwhelmed by the possibilities and say to yourself, “this won’t work.”
  • you sell, but not consistently, and think, “this is not a big enough market.”
  • you have amazing feedback from clients but still believe, “I’m not worth more.”
  • you need more resources, money, feedback, insights, research, but you feel, “I’m not enough!”

Being an entrepreneur is not a ‘day job’, it is a lifestyle. Although there are a lot of skills required to run a business (not all of them need to be yours), there are considerably fewer characteristics that make a great entrepreneur and even less that are expressed in the typical business owner. If you are worried you are not qualified to be an entrepreneur because you don’t know HTML or you cannot manage an online Twitter account, then let me show you that you likely are. The answer is “P.O.P” and I don’t mean soda.

There are hundreds of skills required to run a business, most of which we can hire out. To be an entrepreneur we may have about a dozen characteristics, like vision, big-picture thinker, people orientated, goal-driven, and others. In a career as an employee, these are called our ‘soft-skills’. In the 1980’s being the ‘knowledge holder’ gave you the top management spot. Having soft-skills were not as valuable. Today, in an age when information is widely available to everyone, the one holding the knowledge is only average, not exceptional. The soft-skills is what makes a great employee and a great business owner. Here are the three characteristics most displayed by entrepreneurs who create and maintain a successful business as identified in by Ron Knowles and Chris Castillo in their textbook “Small Business An Entrepreneur’s Plan“.

P.O.P goes the entrepreneurial engine.

Passionate

This one seems obvious and is often not looked at as a positive characteristic. If you have ever heard someone say, “well, she is just so caught up in her own world” or “she thinks everyone is interested, she’ll never make that work.” For outsiders, our passion can seem outrageous, but let me assure you, without a strong connection to your passion you will not survive in business. It is because of passion, whether it be for the delivery of the service, the implementation of ideas, the development of products, or the management of the business, that an entrepreneur stays the course. It is very hard to do the tough work inside a business when it takes more than 8 hours a day or more money than you expect, to stay the course for years. Without a driving connection to your own purpose, which comes out of your passions, your business will not last long enough to be worth anything you or to others.

Opportunistic

Successful entrepreneurs see opportunities everywhere. Initially, you may only see the opportunity connected to your passion, but as you build this ‘muscle’ you will start seeing possibilities everywhere. Sometimes, seeing opportunity everywhere is to the detriment of the owner, as opportunities can drag a person in many directions if they are all pursued at the same time. If you see possibilities for new products from a conversation with a client or a new market because of a visit to a city during your vacation, you are already using this skill. Be open to all ideas as they come to you and create a process to help you evaluate to implement now, later, or not at all.

Persistent

The overnight success is usually at 10-year journey full of hard work, failures, steps backward, and small wins. It is because of passion that a successful entrepreneur stays the course. It is the opportunities that come from failure that hone the focus of a business to its most successful. Only a true entrepreneur is willing to pick up the pieces after a loss and make it work for them. If you want to be in business for yourself for a long time then you must be willing to be in your business for a long time. Learn how to ride out the troubles, change direction when it makes sense, and take advantage of the tides of opportunity that will come along.

Yes, you may have to learn a lot and implement new skills you never thought you would need to know, but if you really want to be in business for yourself 10 years from now you need to have P.O.P. Check in with yourself, get a friend to help you, or hire a business coach to help you identify your P.O.P. and align your business.

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Why You Need to Be Willing to Be Different

Red door opening on school hallway

Our industrial educated brain will tell us what it thinks we need to hear to keep us safe. It does not want us to get hurt, whether physical, emotionally, or spiritually and it will stop us from taking the risks necessary to make change happen. Don’t be too hard on yourself for thinking this way, we, in the western world, are the result of an education system that was developed to create an army of compliant workers for an industrial and manufacturing workforce to service a society focused on consumption.

The Disease

I did not fully understand this concept until quite recently. The start of this understanding came when I saw a re-run of ‘leave it to Beaver’. In this short piece, I watched June Cleaver, the mother, make sandwiches for her son and his friends. She individually wrapped each sandwich in cellophane, put them on a plate and walked them out to the driveway where the boys were playing basketball, about 25 feet away. The idea that you could now buy something, use it, and throw it away with no concern for the impact this behaviour had on our society, the economy, or the environment, was the start of the trend to buy-buy-buy. If we are not buying, our economies are declining. Our education system has taught us to work hard – get a good education – follow the rules – put in your time AND you will be rewarded with pay to buy new things. This mentality is changing, but it is hard to change 100 years of social education with 14+ years of individual education.

The Cure

Entrepreneurism is one of the best cures for this fear of non-compliance. Becoming an entrepreneur gives a perspective that has less fear around fitting in. It rewards the risky behaviour of not following the education plan. More schools are offering entrepreneurship as a course or a full program. There is a huge challenge with this as it is known that to be fully entrepreneurial you need to be free to take action, make ‘It’ happen, envision, create, implement, and sell. If a student is in school and envisions an opportunity, how can they follow through without leaving school? Society still looks down on not finishing school. If they get a business idea but stay in school to finish, it is likely they will fail at entrepreneurship. An entrepreneur must learn to take action, but with all the work in school, it is hard to do both. A very difficult balance.

For schools hoping to create a larger pool of entrepreneurs, my feeling is that we must have shorter, more intensive programs lead and taught by entrepreneurs.

For students wanting to take entrepreneurship in school, look for programs that encourage early graduation when the creation of your business is achieved.

The Challenge

Understand that a school is technically a business. It has a requirement to keep their funding in place and that is based on this outdated mandate to fill their programs. They use these metrics to determine their success:

  1. The number of ‘funding units’ (you) in each program.
  2. The program’s successful track record for job placement.

This makes me ask:

  1. If a program, like entrepreneurship, cannot show success by job placement then what metrics will ensure capacity enrollment?
  2. If a program is not well attended because less money is put on marketing it, will it be cut even if it is a successful global trend?
  3. What can we use to measure successful graduation from a non-industrial focused program like entrepreneurship?

There is a fear within the education system that stops people from making a serious change. A change that is needed to support the transition of our students into fearless entrepreneurs.

If two things changed in these systems everything might change.

  1. The structure of education to maintain income cannot stop a new entrepreneur from creating and starting a business – it must support it.
  2. Entrepreneurism cannot be taught by teachers that have never been entrepreneurs.

A quick story to demonstrate this mismatched mentality.

I was having dinner at a friend’s one night. She had invited another couple and they were both very intelligent, well education and working in the education system at the post-secondary level. We were discussing entrance requirements and teacher education levels when I said something that did not sit well with her, a Ph.D. candidate. I asked, ‘why is there a requirement for a teacher at a college level in a non-degree program to have a masters’ degree?” She clearly became defensive and said, “If the student decides that they want to go on to get a general degree or a masters’ degree it will make the path easier.

I was so surprised that the focus of education was to continue to sell more education instead of quality, skills-matched training required by the students for their life.

We are educating our students to feel the need to purchase more education so they can feel worthy to participate in the workforce. But this should not be true for entrepreneurs. They will never feel good enough if there is always something they need to complete before they start their business. This will lead to perfection paralysis, the inability to start something because they are not 100% ready.

Let’s teach our students to think slowly, deliberately about their path, and plan with confidence so that they can do what they envision can be done.

They need to think slow about their implementation and be quick to use their abilities. They need to be free of the industrial fear of being different and free to change their direction without finishing what they started so they can be open to successful change and opportunity.

Want to be truly successful? Use your advisory board to leverage your knowledge.

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What Else Do You Need To Learn?

Curved Library Wall full of books
Your Learning Curve

Does it ever feel like you have spent so much time learning, reading, attending classes, conferences, or online programs, working with experts or coaches, and filling up your knowledge bank that you could be full? What is there left to learn when you have learned so much?

Learning isn’t an On/Off switch. You don’t learn something new and suddenly you are an expert. This is the challenge with learning because so much of it feels like we have already done it. Sometimes we can even be thinking to ourselves, “I’ve already learned this, why can’t I make ‘it’ work the way it is supposed to?”

Learning is also not just about the ‘What’. It is about the how, when, where, how much, who, and why. Learning requires knowing the answers to everything around any one topic that you wish to be an expert in. Maybe ‘it’ hasn’t work for you because there is something about yourself you do not know or understand yet.

I have found that when I feel completely confident in my expertise at something I have accomplished several areas of learning. What I also know is that even with 20 years’ experience at something, there is always room for new knowledge on my topic of expertise. Let me elaborate using my expertise as a technical writer and secondly as a small business strategist.

Mastering My First Competency

My background in technology and my education gave me the foundation for my career as a technical writer.

  • I started in a high-tech company learning how to operate the equipment we were manufacturing. I had to know all aspects of the equipment to to help others be able to use it but I did not have any experience creating manuals. Email was new to business and most of my instructions were done via fax.
  • I was asked to help with some internal documentation and another person with experience using MS Word showed me some of the steps for using the software.
  • I was asked to use my knowledge about the equipment and MS Word to create the instructions for a service manual.
  • After the manual was published I was asked to write all the internal work instructions, build procedures and quality procedures. I created templates based on standards. I now had the title of technical writer, but I didn’t feel like a tech writer. I didn’t know the industry or what experts in this industry needed to know to be experts.
  • I attended conferences, continued to write, asked questions of experts on list-serv communities, and joined an association for technical writers so I could be connected to the industry and the masters.

After many successes, I got to a point where I could answer all the questions my clients had around what was needed, how much it would cost, how long it would take, who was doing the work, when could we start, etc. I saw myself as an expert.

Small Business Strategist

With my background and connections in small business and my own experience owning a small business that did technical writing I found I had a great deal of knowledge and interest in the support of small business owners.

  • I was volunteering to help small business owners because there was a need and people asked for my help.
  • I got certifications, read, worked with other experts, attended conferences and hired coaches to work on myself and the tools I could use to work with my clients.
  • I surrounded myself with experts, mentors, and other business owners so I would have continuous access to the ideas, insights, and mentality of the people I wanted to be expert at helping.
  • I invested in industry information and researched the small business industry.
  • I worked with small business owners as often as I could, as clients, in networking, or through volunteering.

It wasn’t until I say with certainty what I was able to do for my clients and know it was possible that I felt like the expert.

My Learning Curve

What steps do the learning of my two expertise have in common?

  • Start with the fundamentals I leaned in school, growing up, and other experiences.
  • Outside people needed me for my current skills
  • I got more skills
  • I spent time with others that were masters
  • I researched the industry and became more knowledgeable
  • I practiced the craft at every level, continuously.

I’m sure your learning takes a similar path each time you mastered something new.

Your Learning Curve

If you want to figure out why you cannot master something take a look at two things that you are very good at. Two things you can do better than other people. Then think back to when you were not good at them and look at how you learned it, what you felt, when did you start becoming competent and what you had to do to get to the place where you could do the work without having to actually think about how it would work for you. You will likely discover a pattern in the way you learn. You can use that patter to determine what you have not done to get you to where you need to be on your learning curve.

Finally – it is important to understand that 100 years ago a person would get an education and not much would change over their lifespan. Their knowledge level did not need to change much to be successful at what they did in life. Now we learn something and 5 years later someone else has come up with a disruptive invention to replace the program or technology we learned and our knowledge becomes obsolete. If you are not learning you are falling behind and you will not be able to sustain the level of excellence and thus the lifestyle you were originally schooled to live.

What else do you need to learn? Why everything of course. Don’t stop. Remember, school only provides you with the fundamentals of your calling – it is experience and the investment in further knowledge that gives you the mastery.

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When Should You Give Up?

chess board

Owning a business is a challenge day to day. Sometimes there are great rewards, huge accomplishments, amazing opportunities, and it feels great. Sometimes there are great disappointments, huge losses, and a feeling that path was lost. And often it is simply routine. Doing what has to get done, over and over. No gain, no change, and no closer to your desired goals. It can feel like there are only two options: Win or Lose.

So when is it time to “throw in the towel” and give up the race? When the losses are greater than the rewards? When there is no future vision that can be found to get you out of your current situation? When it is not fun or enjoyable any longer? If your business is not making money, month after month or year after year?

I believe that every business owner has a moment (or a day or month) when they think:

  • What am I doing here?
  • Am I doing the right things in my life?
  • Can I be doing something else that will make me more money and be easier?
  • Is there something else that would make me happier?
  • Should I go back and get a job?

All valuable questions and worth evaluating for yourself. If you are like me, that last question (Should I go back and get a job?) makes me wince. Not because ‘job’ feels like a four letter word to entrepreneurs but because I cannot see any future for myself inside any other business. What would I do? What position could I hold? Who would I report to? I have no answers for these questions.

When faced with the feeling that your business may not be a viable way to live your life you need to ask yourself the questions above but you also need to evaluate your business and not on your own. Take these three steps to evaluate if your business is even a viable revenue generating idea and get to the answer of ‘Grow it’ or ‘Give it up’.

Research and Evaluation

Go back to your original research for the development and launch of your business. Were your estimations and evaluations correct about your marketing, your sales, your product, your customers’ needs, etc. If you did not do the research initially then this is an indication that you are not as serious about business as you may actually believe. Go and do the research and evaluate it with your known operations and sales. What are the real trends? What are the real costs? Who is your primary and secondary competitors and what are they doing?

Sounding Board

Take your challenges, issues, research, and current numbers to a trusted sounding board for brainstorming. These people should have an experienced understanding of business (not just your business). Invite them to spend a few hours just focused on your business. Let them know all the numbers so they can tell you directly if you are on the path of potential or if you should shift your focus. Take all ideas as plausible. Don’t discount or discard ideas because they feel small, redundant, or impossible, just listen and capture the options.

Strategic thinking comes from having a bigger understanding of the playing surface (your business) than what is currently visible to you right now. If you could see the way out you would have done it already. Find all options and play with them in your business plan. What have you tried and how can you try it again with a small twist on delivery? What haven’t you tried and how can you make something new in your business? What is the expected outcome of trying something different and is it worth the time, money, and effort? Are you willing and able to step up, because I guarantee that every possible option is going to require you to get a little more uncomfortable than you are right now.

Make the Decision

With understanding and options now available to you the next step is to decide what to do.

Keep the business and make changes OR move on?

To make the right decision you have to know what you want. Yes, what do you want in your life? What are you willing to sacrifice (time, more money, relationships) to make your goals reality? Are you willing to do what it takes? You have the answers so what are you going to do with them? The answer, which ever it is, will not feel comfortable. Again, if it was you would already be doing it. Making changes, giving up more, or closing something down does not feel good, but it should feel right.

If the outcome of your brainstorming was that you should invest a lot more money and you didn’t also define a plan to get that money or you are unwilling to get the money, then closing it down is likely the only option at this point.

If reducing the size and focusing on a niche or smaller market was the option, and you did not define a plan to reduce the size and exactly who and where the niche market is, then this is not a viable option either.

Whatever you decided as the most potential option for keeping your business you must also have created the plan to make it happen. Without that plan you do not have an option.

The key to implementing the plan is that it must be working towards something you desire. Without a desire on your part to make it happen, there is a lack of effort to do the hard things required. Honestly, if it were going to be easy everyone would do it.

The reality is, you are doing the hard work so you can focus on work that feels more like play. With both passion around the work and a desire to fulfill your goals you will have the drive to make it happen. It will not be time to give up.