Building A Strong Foundation: Why an Aligned Strategy is Essential
July 7, 2023
How is your summer going?! For a lot of business owners, the summer can be a slower time and often provides a much needed break. Trips with family and friends. Enjoying the ease and a more relaxed pace. Sound like your summer? I hope so! If not, can I ask you to consider something? Are you operating your business from a place where this will ever be a possibility? Have you aligned your business strategy with your goals and desires? Are you inadvertently sabotaging yourself with your stories?
The stories we tell ourselves have a lot of power over our reality and what we create in the world.
When we align ourselves and our businesses with practices that focus on mutual benefit and receiving, we open ourselves up for feeling supported and from here we can create sustainable growth.
This also works in reverse. When we tell ourselves things like “I’m not a numbers person,” we automatically discount our abilities and give away our power. And we can do this through our belief system without even realizing it. Here’s an example…
A couple of weeks ago my husband and I were talking about this whole situation where he was trying to decide if he should park his car at the airport or a friend’s house for an upcoming trip. This friend is traveling with him but he’s selling his house, so Matt had all these reasons for why he was putting his friend out by leaving his car there.
Despite that his friend had offered. And it would save money. Furthermore, he lives right by the airport and it makes zero sense for both of them to drive. He had been talking about this FOR DAYS. Back and forth on what to do.
He had decided in his mind that this was some huge deal. A big inconvenience. That this was an actual problem. And he wasted a lot of time worrying, debating, etc. Instead, he could have simply been open for the help, grateful for the offer and excited about the money he saved!
Stories like this waste time, energy, and keep us from adopting practices that would support us and our business growth.
Here are the facts:
My husband (Matt) lined up everything for this trip. Booked it. Planned it. Made every reservation. Genuinely cared to make sure he and his friend had the best experience.
His friend offered to let him leave his car at his house.
His friend is selling his house.
It saves money and a parking spot for someone else if they drive together.
That’s the end of the facts in the story.
And the rest… is story.
Story that we make up about how we can’t inconvenience anyone. Story that we make up about why someone wouldn’t want to help us. How people don’t actually want to support us but offer out of obligation. That it’s okay for us to do for others, but not expect anything in return. That we shouldn’t take up space. How our needs aren’t important or at least certainly AS important as the needs of others.
And the end result of all this story?
We block support. We block good flowing back to us.
We essentially tell the entire world with our actions that we are not available to accept more help, more ease, more joy, more money, more good.
How many of us run our businesses like this?
We tell ourselves a story that if we want it done right, we must do it ourselves. Our business strategy is hustle for the eventual payoff…then we can relax and be happy.
We don’t utilize our network because we don’t want to put anyone out. Our growth strategy is to invest as much money as we possibly can afford…and one day we will be profitable.
We give away our services for free or worse, take clients we don’t like because we need to pay the bills. We tell ourselves no one would pay us for our gifts or that making money has to be a struggle. Our financial strategy is…nonexistent. So we don’t pay ourselves what we should. We barely keep our head above water. We feel like as long as we are making “Revenue” then we are making money.
Are we? Are you?
What is we took an aligned strategy instead?
We focused on our Passion – our why, the reason we got into business in the first place, and we started operating our business from a place of clarity and focus. Our business became a source of joy and an outlet for our creativity and passion.
We could create an aligned business strategy that focused first on what we value.
We focused on our Profit – we didn’t wait for “one day” to become profitable. We looked at our business finances and made the necessary changes to become profitable TODAY and going forward. We grew our business in a sustainable way and paid ourselves first along the way. Not from the crumbs.
We could create an aligned business strategy that guaranteed we always had enough for unexpected expenses, taxes, and funded our dreams.
We focused on our People – we stopped being lone wolves and invested the time and energy to train our team. We identified the 20% of our business offerings that were attracting the customers we love to serve, and we strategically began to eliminate the rest.
We could create an aligned business strategy that attracted and retained top talent and products and services our customers couldn’t wait to purchase.
We focused on our Processes – we stopped running our businesses from a place of stress and anxiety and we started investing in processes that would create sustainable growth and scalability. And we documented these processes, so they were clear and repeatable.
We could create an aligned business strategy that implemented processes that provided ease and more space for creation.
How would your business change when you began to align your strategy in this way? How would your life change?
Would you finally be able to relax and enjoy a vacation or time with your family without worrying about work?
Be able to pay yourself a salary that supports your greatest desires?
Turn down a client that wasn’t aligned because you knew there were plenty of dream clients waiting to work with you?
Finally understand your financials and not feel stressed every time you logged into your bank account?
I think it’s time.
