What He Said: The 3 Parts to a Small Business Vision for Practical, Hands-on People

There's a few other business bloggers I follow. Two of my favorites are Mark Silver and Todd Hargrave.  They both speak of business through the heart but with a practical feet-on-the-ground understanding of the need to support yourself through your work; just the sort of things we massage therapists are often looking for.

Mark recently wrote a great blog about developing a robust and beautiful vision for your practice. I've asked (and received) permission to reprint it here.

Enjoy!

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The 3 Parts to a Small Business Vision for Practical, Hands-on People

by Mark Silver
March 13, 2013

I was at tea with a friend of mine the other day who is also a business owner. He had had some struggles recently, and we were both agreeing that he needed a clear vision for his business.

He stopped and looked at me, "My partner wouldn't agree with you. She would ask, 'What do you *mean* by a vision?'"

I stopped, silent. I'm not a naturally visionary person. I have trouble thinking further than six months out and I don't dream great big dreams of world domination. My natural tendency is to tunnel into details and get'r'done.

However, the last five years of building a team and stepping into leadership has convinced me how important a vision is. It's also helped me come to my own understanding of what a vision is, especially for practical, hands-on type people that don't live with their heads at cloud level.

So I proceeded to tell my friend the three parts of a practical, actionable, profitable yet high-flying vision for a small business.

Why Is A Vision Important?

When I first approached the topic of "vision" I was really resistant to it. The two models I had seen, big, corporate visions of being "first" in some world-domination plan, or dreamy, idealistic views of complete transformation and ushering in a new age left me doubtful.

As a small business owner, there was zero chance of, let alone any interest in, any kind of "world domination." Similarly, the only way to complete large, lasting change as a small business was to count on thousands, millions of other people also doing good work. No matter how successful Heart of Business became, it was only ever going to be a small business. Yet cumulatively our work can make a tremendous impact.

I had written some early insights about vision before that had come from my studies of globally-recognized spiritual leaders. Great, useful insights, but it was missing some practical pieces about what makes the business profitable and sustainable as a business.

You can have vision, but if you're in business, you also want a business vision, one that serves your business as a business.

Without a vision it becomes really hard to make strategic decisions. It also becomes hard for anyone else to work with you as a teammate, because they don't know where you are going. They are stuck constantly asking you for direction or decision-making.

It's also really hard to diagnose what might be going wrong in your business. It's all too easy to get blown around by the latest fad, someone's crazy suggestions, or just how you're feeling on a bad day.

If you take on the work of identifying for yourself these three elements of a small business vision, it will make business-building in the coming years much easier for you.

The 3 Elements of a Small Business Vision

First: Who You Serve and What Problem You Solve

One of my earliest insights into business remains at the heart of almost everything. A business is defined not by what you do, which is a mistake many fall into. Rather, a business is defined by who you serve and what problem you are helping them solve.

Currently our Alumni Community is working on exactly this as the monthly focus, which I call your One Compelling Sentence. People struggle without this for years sometimes, but once it's identified, you can finally start to get some momentum in your business.

It's one of the key ingredients that our star practitioners Jason and Yollanause to help their individual clients double their revenue.

Second: Why It's Important to Serve Those People

Why do you care about these people and the problem they are struggling with? How do you see it contributing to a better, more vibrant world?

When you know your why, it helps you keep from getting too caught in just chasing money. It helps keep your heart buoyed when you are working on projects that are tedious but necessary. It helps you make decisions about who to work with.

It also inspires clients and team members. People can band around a larger "why." It helps your business contribute to a mission in the world.

For us here at Heart of Business, I know that if small businesses with heart can flourish, it means that the economy is being redirected, at least in part, away from businesses that aren't serving life. It means that more people are getting the healing they need. It means that more healing of the damage caused by business over the last few centuries is happening.

I talk about the three reasons for love in business in the video on this page, and it contains our why.

Third: Your Revenue Model

Simply said, a revenue model is how your business brings in money most effectively and sustainably while still serving the first two parts of your mission.

Many business owners have not worked out their revenue model beyond, "Well, I work with clients and they pay me. Sometimes I do a workshop."

A revenue model directly supports the rest of your vision. One business owner I know has a belief in herself as a catalyst. Consequently her business model does not include long-term support of clients, but more in-depth, intense, shorter offers like one-day workshops, or books.

Here at Heart of Business we have a real commitment to see people heal as well as be more effective. We take real joy in supporting people as they go through the process of both learning and healing.

Consequently our services include one-on-one individual work over months, a year-long in-depth group program, and an Alumni Community with many spiritual resources. We do offer short duration workshops and books and courses because they serve people, too, in tremendous ways.

But we make sure that we aren't leaving people in the lurch who need more support so we can truly serve our mission. We structure our profitability around that mission.

It's Taken Awhile

When I look back over the more than a decade that I've been at this, I can see how the kernels of all three elements were present, but it took me awhile to identify them and consciously develop and focus on them.

In fact, a miss-step in not identifying the third element for us caused a nearly disastrous decision that took months to recover from.

Having all three of these in place means that we've been humming along, picking up steam, and having fun. Team members can function without a lot of direction (read: interference) from me, and we're growing and developing.

Mark Silver is the founder and heads the team at Heart of Business, where they've been helping thousands of business owners since 2001 who want to make a difference and need to make a profit. Mark is a recognized Master Sufi Teacher in his spiritual lineage, as well as an acclaimed business healer and consultant. Find out more at www.heartofbusiness.com.