By Wendy Hearn
Whether you're starting a new business or developing an
existing one, if you want to build it up, first you
need to design it. This design should not only attract
success but 'fit' for you personally. Instead of molding yourself to fit your business and conform to a
particular way of doing business, you can design your
business so that it is unique to you.
If you think you can't design your business the way you
want it to be, it's possible that conventional thinking
and some of your ingrained beliefs are getting in the
way. Most things are possible. You just need to shift
your thinking out of the box and look for possibilities.
Force-fitting yourself into how you think your business
'should' be will often result in discomfort. It's like
being a square peg in a round hole. Instead, design
your business to be unique and personalized to you so
that it enhances your life, instead of torturing you.
Too many people go into business for themselves and
then find that somewhere down the road they've lost a
big part of themselves to their business. The reason
may be the long hours they're working or they feel
stuck and frustrated by how the business has turned out.
Whatever stage you're at with your business you can
choose to design it the way you want. On a blank
canvas, lay out the foundations, the structures and the
finished result. A key to designing your business is
to get in touch with your authentic self, focusing
internally and trusting yourself, then identify what
you truly want from your business. When you've got it
designed, you'll be ready to take the steps towards
making your business as you see it. You'll need to go
to work on your business, not just be working in it, to fulfill this design. Working on your business means you
must stop regularly, take a couple of steps back and
look at the whole of your business objectively. This
gives you an opportunity to assess, evaluate and
identify new improvements, possibilities and ideas.
Designing your business is more than a business plan;
it's also about how your business is integrated with
your life. Designing your business requires it to be
in alignment with your values, and your personal vision,
mission and purpose. It needs to support your creative
productivity; it needs to compensate you for what
you're best at. The design needs to include your
business aims, the ideal way in which you want to
operate, as well as the preferred clients you want to
work with and the roles and responsibilities you
ideally want to carry out yourself. As you're on the
road to growing your business in such a way that it
fulfils your design, there may be some choices you need
to make along the road that aren't ideal. For example,
you may need to do some of the work that, in a perfect
world, you don't want to do, but if you have the design
already in place, it gives you a clear idea of your
aims.
Your business can be the way you want it. First make
the choice, design it ideally for you and then follow
through consistently with inspired actions to transform
the design into reality.
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