Strategy
What is your Entrepreneurial Purpose?
Do you have an Entrepreneurial Purpose? What about a Transformation Statement? If you don’t really know what this is, you’re not alone. Majority of the Coaches and Entrepreneurs that I work with have never heard about or considered this, but it is IMPERATIVE for the success and growth of your business.
When it comes to entrepreneurship you may find yourself in one of the following categories: -> You’ve never had a desire to be an entrepreneur and are more than happy working for a boss and a secure salary. -> You’ve always wanted to start your own business, but you’re afraid and don’t think you have the money or resources you believe you need to start it. -> You’ve taken the leap into entrepreneurship but are finding it to be overwhelming, hard, tough, scary and taking over your life. -> You have a successful business of your own and you absolutely love what you do and earn great money doing it! Wherever you find yourself when it comes to the topic of entrepreneurship, in my experience only the last one will achieve sustainable growth and success. and recent research done by Forbes confirms it. No matter where you fall on the scale at present, there’s just one thing standing between you and the success, freedom and abundance that you long for as a business owner and that is PURPOSE! See most people pursue entrepreneurship as a means to “getting rich”, a picture and perception that is drawn about being your own boss by so many especially in the media. We see the flashy cars, the jets, the designer clothes, the world wide travels and we think THAT’S IT! That’s my ticket to being rich. And its okay, most people have a desire to be wealthy and successful but are too afraid to admit it to anyone or even themselves. We’re brought up that wanting to be wealthy is a bad thing, but I would like to offer you a perspective change on this. Wealth in the right hands becomes a resource that is a vehicle that brings healing, hope and love to those who need it and the world as a whole. It isn’t a bad thing at all. It’s only a bad thing if you want wealth simply to satisfy your own material needs. Entrepreneurship is certainly a great thing because it creates jobs, generates wealth, but here’s the DTM (drop the mic moment) … to really be successful as an entrepreneur and generate wealth, the most important questions you need to ask yourself is: “how is my business serving my clients? How is it making their lives better or making the world a better place?”The truth is that creating a successful business and wealth, doesn’t just take hard work, dedication and passion, it takes PURPOSE!
Without a purpose, you’re ultimately going to find out that you struggle to stay positive, be consistent, reach the success you desire, not hustle your ass off and burn out and to generate real sustainable wealth. When you have an entrepreneurial purpose, success is not only created with more ease and sustainability, but entrepreneur life becomes fulfilling, fun and filled with freedom! Research conducted by Forbes shows that Purpose Driven Businesses are the fastest growing businesses, the most successful and also land the biggest clients. Now that is something to think about. Think about it this way …. If you were faced with a life threatening illness, would you rather go to the doctor who is just doing what he does for the money, or the one who is sold on his PURPOSE to heal, help and diagnose his patients to the best of his ability? When I decided to take the leap into entrepreneurship after having built a very successful corporate career and having positioned myself as an expert in the field of Marketing and Branding, I knew I was born to be an entrepreneur. I knew I wanted to HELP people. I knew I wanted to live a life of purpose. But it’s a lot easier said than done once the fears of having to write your own pay check becomes all to real. One day you wake up exhausted, negative, hating what you do, burnt out and unhappy because without even knowing fear crept in and you began to hustle to make money instead of living out your purpose as an entrepreneur. It happens to the best of us. Fear has a very sneaky way of creeping in and making us think that we have to push, drive, hustle, do, work and make things happen if we want to succeed. Here’s why that happened to me. I knew I wanted to live a life of purpose. I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but I never established what my entrepreneurial purpose was when I started my business, so I couldn’t connect the two in order to make it the foundation of everything I plan and do and how I grow and run my business.So what is an Entrepreneurial Purpose?
Your entrepreneurial purpose is your WHY. It’s a conscious shift to create and grow your business through service and not through sales. See when we are in fear about generating an income and succeeding, we come from an energy of wanting to make a sale. We need money after all, right? But when we come from an intention and a purpose of SERVING the entire ball game changes! That is when we are able to shift our focus and create our business from the intention of SERVICE. In other words our products or services don’t become things we try to sell. They become things of service that better people’s lives and or the world as a whole. And THAT is exactly what today’s consumer is looking for!Having an entrepreneurial purpose, a WHY will not just get you out of bed and keep you pushing forward when things get tough, it will also create more trust with and also results for your clients. Once you’ve established your entrepreneurial purpose its important to write down your Transformation status for your business. This is your promise as a business and why you exist. It is how you as a business transform people’s lives or this world through your products, services or existence. In a world where there’s a whole lot of destruction and fake going on, consumers are looking for brands and businesses that are real and making a difference and an impact in this world. If you haven’t got an Entrepreneurial Purpose and a Transformation Statement yet, don’t worry. Its NEVER too late! Get it in place right now and watch how it transforms your business and your day to day enjoyment of running and growing your business as well.“When you focus on your WHY the rest will come” – Oprah Winfrey
HOW TO FIND YOUR ENTREPRENEURIAL PURPOSE:
To find your Entrepreneurial Purpose and draft your Transformation Statement you can listen to the following episode of my Podcast “FOOD FOR THOUGHT”. In it I share steps for how you can discover your entrepreneurial purpose and begin to draft your transformation statement.4 easy ways to instantly increase your cash flow.
It’s that time of year where everyone is thinking about CASH FLOW, right?Increasing cash flow in your business can sometimes feel near impossible, but it really isn’t! Don’t believe me? Here are 4 very easy ways to instantly increase YOUR cash flow RIGHT NOW! 1) CUT – CUT – GROW:To increase your cash flow do an in-depth analysis of your day to day as well as your monthly expenses in your company. This includes everything from documents you and your staff print out, to coffee and tea that is consumed. Once you have a comprehensive list of exactly how much you are spending on what, look for areas where you can cut costs. For instance, if you are currently buying the most expensive brand of coffee, and your staff consumes a whole tin of coffee in one week, look at purchasing an alternative brand that costs less. The same goes for certain services you may be paying for. For instance, if you are currently paying X for your email hosting services, get alternative quotes to find a service provider that can provide you with this service at lower rates than your current service provider. When you start adding up your savings in the areas where you’ve cut, you will see that you have created an additional amount of cash flow that is now available every month, and this adds up to increase your cash flow over the next 6 – 12 months as well, giving you much needed cash flow to further grow your business. 2) TRADE YOUR WAY TO SUCCESSHave a look at some of the services you are paying for and the relationships that you have with those suppliers. Are any of your suppliers also start up businesses? Do any of these suppliers need the type of services you have to offer? Or do you perhaps need a specific service to grow your business but cannot afford it at the moment? Find a supplier that offers the service that you need, but who also needs the kind of services that you offer, and do a trade exchange with them. Trade exchanges are as good as paying money for a service, but services are being traded instead of money. Be sure to secure any trade exchange with a written agreement stating what each party agrees to give to each other in services every month, and put a monetary value to it so you are clear on the value of each of the services being traded. Also ensure that you put a timeline to the trade exchange stating the start date and end date or review date of the agreement to trade services. I’ve assisted many of my clients and students in building and growing very successful businesses with no capital, just trade exchanges, and built my very first business with trade exchanges as well. Who can you think of that you can do a trade exchange with right now? 3) UNLEASH YOUR NEGOTIATING SKILLS AND LEVERAGE YOUR RELATIONSHIP CAPITALHave a look at your existing suppliers and make a list of suppliers that render services you need to grow your business, and negotiate better payment terms with them. For example, if you are currently paying cash on delivery, negotiate to run a 30 or even 60 day account with them. This way, you have that cash flow available to grow your business for an additional 30 – 60 days from receiving your goods or services from your supplier. This ties in with the next point, so read on…. 4) INCENTIVISE YOUR EXISTING CUSTOMERSHave a look at your current payment terms that you offer to your clients. Are they paying in installments? Are they paying a deposit upfront? Are they paying in full upfront? Incentivise your clients to pay in full upfront by offering them a discounted rate for doing so. This will most definitely assist in cash flow in your business, right? For example, if you offer a monthly service at R1000 per month, incentivise clients to pay 6 months to a year’s installments in advance to receive a 20% discount on the total amount for that period. 5) BONUS TIPIncentivise your existing customers to send referrals to you. You can offer them a commission share if the referral becomes a client, or a discount on the services you deliver to them per for example 5 referrals that they send to you, who become customers of yours. If you action the above key steps to increasing your cash flow NOW, you can start the new year off with the cash flow that you need to grow your business and get the results that you want even faster.Here’s to your success! |