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At VFNKB we are here to help you! We want to help small business owners and entrepreneurs by giving you strategies for success in your business ventures, and it can also be applied to your personal life to help you to have personal success. At least 90% of what we do, we do in our heads so if we get our minds set in the right direction then we can accomplish so much more! Running your own business can be exhausting, and that can make it hard to have the time and energy to get the wisdom you need to keep your business successful. We are here to help you with that! Business owners share the wisdom they have concerning business practices, and Greg and John discuss these success strategies and how you can implement them into your life and business. Be encouraged through this program and know that you are not alone!
The first success strategy we look at is that YOU ARE THE ONE TO DRIVE THE VISION! Tamara Lohan, the founder and CTO of Mr. & Mrs. Smith, shares this wisdom. “You are the one to drive the vision. You can delegate the tasks, but the vision and the purpose of the company has to be yours.”
The first thing you must have is a vision. It is easy to get excited about starting a business, but an idea is not a vision. A business does not just happen, it takes work, and to have a successful one, you must have a vision. A vision is what you are going to do and how you will accomplish it. This will drive you!
“And the Lord answered me: “Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay.” Habakkuk 2:2-3 ESV
The vision needs to be easy enough that other people can run with it. It can be written in a few lines; very specific and direct. It should motivate you and remind you of why you are running your business! A vision will also bring order to your business, and since you are the one who drives the vision if you see disorder in your employees, then you need to evaluate things. Maybe you forgot the vision, or you are not sharing your vision with your employees. You can add it to your team meetings maybe once a month to share your vision.
“Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint but blessed is he who keeps the law.” Proverbs 29:18 ESV
Maybe you recognize that your business started with an idea and you don’t have a vision? With VFNKB Coaching, we can help you to find out what your vision should be and see what it looks like for you. You will have someone with you helping you to write out your vision and write it in a way that others can carry the vision as well. We offer coaching virtually, physically, and we also have our VFNKB Community where you can connect with other like-minded business owners who want to be successful and you can find other success strategies. Find out more HERE.
The next success strategy is shared by Kevin Davis, CEO of The Vine Trust Group. PERSEVERANCE! “If you persevere you can realize your dreams, and it may not always look like it will be from the beginning, but if you keep at it, you can achieve what you sat out to be.”
The difference between success and failure is often only five more seconds! Some people want to know how others were successful in business thinking they were smarter, but the reality is they didn’t quit! Quitting should not even be an option! One way to help yourself is to plan for how you will persevere in the moments when you will want to quit. You can also get your free copy of I Will Fight. Greg wrote about not quitting in this book, and it has many more strategies for your success. Get your free copy HERE today!
A question to ask yourself is how big is your dream, and how badly do you want it? You must want your dream more than the next person and more than the pain, struggles, and disappointments. Once you refuse to quit, your odds go up dramatically for success because if you quit it is 100% chance that you will fail.
Sahar Hashemi, the co-founder of Coffee Republic, shares the next success strategy that you must STEP INTO YOUR CUSTOMER’S SHOES! “Stepping into your customer’s shoes is where all the opportunities are there. All the answers are there; headaches begging to be solved are there. Keep your focus always on the customer no matter how big your business gets.”
When you step into your customer’s shoes, picture how you want to be treated. What problems do you solve for your customers? Think about how you would feel if that problem was solved for you. This is empathizing with your customers, which will show them that you care. Even Jesus Christ empathized with us by coming to the earth and living as a man. Even though He didn’t sin, he understood us and knew what it was like to walk in a sinful state and now He can explain us to Father God.
In the same way, you need to get to know your customer and build that relationship with them. What will differentiate you from other businesses? It is your customer service! It is how you value your customer and how you verbally communicate with them to make them feel special. Every employee must also recognize that the customer is the whole reason why they have their job. Businesses that do this will succeed! This will also put your business as one that people will refer their friends and family to because you have proven that you value your customers — empathizing with your customers matters!
“Build your network of other high growth small business owners. Nobody’s going to understand what you are going through like they do. The lows are so incredibly low that sometimes they can last days, weeks, months and you are literally on the floor sobbing. They can pick you up, build you up and give you the strength to carry on…,” shared founder and director of Onefile, Susanna Lawson. BUILD OR JOIN A COMMUNITY OF LIKE-MINDED BUSINESS OWNERS FOR ENCOURAGEMENT AND SURVIVAL!
Community is important. Greg shares that when he has had low times in his life, he was able to persevere because of the community he had in his life of like-minded people that he had built relationships with. You need to build relationships now so that when your next low moment happens, you have someone there to help you not to quit! We have built a community where you can build relationships before you face a tragedy in your life. You can join the VFNKB Community HERE. Interact with the other business owners, encourage them, and be encouraged yourself! We will also share more success strategies that you can only find in the community, and you can find the fifth strategy from this program in the VFNKB community.
When have you persevered in your business and not given up? What do you think about writing a vision for your business? We want to hear from you! Connect with is in the VFNKB Community HERE or write to us at [email protected]. Greg and John shared in this segment.
Image courtesy of Storyblocks.com
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