Without question, my number one learning about business after seven years of small business ownership is the importance of aligning goals of the business with key elements of business culture and the actions that are taken to achieve the goals. This might seem like a simple concept, but more often than not, ambitious business owners create big goals and don’t, despite their best efforts, effectively work to develop a culture or take the actions consistent with achieving their goals. Consequently, these owners invest a lot of resources on things that are really never going to enable them to achieve their desired results. In far too many cases, the pursuit of goals becomes an exercise in futility.
We express this concept as our FORMULA FOR SUCCESS: BE x DO = HAVE
HAVE is the results; the vision, goals and objectives that represent the dream state of the business.
BE represents key elements of business culture – things like mindset, values, skills, critical resources, processes, and behaviors that underpin the business.
And, DO represents the strategies pursued and actions taken to achieve the desired results.
Bringing BE, DO and HAVE into perfect alignment is absolutely key to assuring that the success that you aspire to is in fact achieved.
The Success Formula can be applied equally to life as it does to business results. Here are a couple of examples:
If you want to improve your health, you’ll first define your health goals – your HAVE – then work to assure that there is good alignment between your BE – your mindset, skills, resources, and behaviors, and your DO – the strategies and actions that you take – to assure that your health goals are achieved. Without perfect alignment of BE, DO and HAVE, your goals will not be achieved.
If you want to grow your business’s top line from $1million to $5million, you’ve got to work align your BE – your mindset, skills, resources, and behaviors, and your DO – the strategies and actions that you take – to assure that your goal of $5million in sales are achieved. You’ll never reach that $5million mark if you’re BE and DO are not consistent with that of a $5million business.
It’s best to represent your goals, strategies and actions in a coherent plan that will allow you and your team to consistently dedicate the resources needed to achieve your goals over time. Regrettably, less than 5% of business owners have comprehensive, well thought out, written, and well communicated plans for achieving their goals. And even fewer have a core foundation that embodies the strategic focus of their business.
Our 7 Steps to a Great Business framework, along with our commitment to planning, gives you the tools needed to align your BE, DO and HAVE. When you’re Aligned, your confidence and commitment to the business will peak, and you’ll quickly get on the path to more success.
