Growing a business requires diligence, focus, and a clear vision. While this may seem like a manageable set of requirements, often times business owners find themselves being pulled in countless directions. From billing questions to marketing meetings to hiring new recruits, a business owner can soon find that their workload is spiraling out of control. In order to help you effectively grow your business, we have devised five steps that will help you to create focus and a clear vision.
Step 1: Define Your Business Identity
Business success starts with a clear focus and vision. The first place that needs your attention is your business identity or brand. The approaches and ideas behind your work must be cemented into a tangible presence. This presence is both the publicly and internally-facing side of your brand. Business cards, logo, email, website, and social media presence must all reflect the same branded identity to your consumers. Internally, your brand or business identity must be understood by your employees; only then can they effectively communicate it to outside consumers.
Step 2: Spread the Word
Once you have gained a clear understanding of your business identity, it is time to share that vision with your team. Everyone on your team must understand the vision. From the summer intern to the CEO, every single employee is a brand ambassador. As such, if one member doesn't understand the identity of your company, then they will not be able to effectively communicate the selling points to interested clients or potential new clients. Understanding the company vision means being able to discuss it on multiple platforms. From Twitter to press releases, your employees must effectively communicate your company's clear vision to the outside world.
Step 3: Gather Support
It is not enough to simply understand a company's vision; the team must also fully support the vision. To pick on the auto industry for a minute, you never want your employees to become used car salesmen. A used car salesman is notorious for saying exactly what they think the customer wants to hear; however, the used car salesman also doesn't believe a word of what he is spewing. Employees must never become like the used salesman. If employees doesn't agree or support the company's vision, take a moment to discover why. Do they have valid arguments against the vision? Do they simply not understand the vision?
Step 4: Weed Out the Non-Supporters
If the aforementioned employees are not supporting the new, focused vision, then they might not be a good fit for the company. If they don't believe in the company's vision and goals, then how are they supposed to highlight the company's advantages to perspective clients? To put it simply, they can't; employees that don't believe in the company's vision will find it incredibly hard to effectively (and honestly) sell the company to clients.
Step Five: Use Your Company Platform to Hire
At this point in your company's journey, you have defined your vision, you have communicated that vision to your employees, and your employees understand and support the vision. Now, it is time to use your company platform as the basis for hiring new team members. This strategy will help you to see what candidates were attracted to your company based on its public branding of its vision and goals. During the interview process, be sure to ask the candidates how they will enhance your company's focus and vision.
While businesses might be constantly evolving to their chosen market space, it is important that they remain focused. Following these five steps will help you to convey a clear vision to your internal team. In turn, they will be able to effectively communicate your company's identity and brand to prospective clients.
