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by
Debra S. Valle
Fuel for your business
Sustaining the focus and passion necessary to run a business takes time, energy
and effort—especially for small business owners and professionals trying to go
it alone. Our ability to keep pointed forward, to keep from being distracted, to
avoid the trap of “feeling busy” versus actually “being
productive” is the key to our success.
I believe we make our journey less complicated and more effortless by
thinking of our businesses as having both “bodies” and “souls.” Using the “body”
as a metaphor, we are able to identify the foundational elements necessary for
our businesses to function, and then go about setting these pieces into place.
Looking at the “souls” of our businesses, we are better able to explore ways we
can remain inspired, creative and focused on our journey.
In this, the first of two parts, let's focus on the “bodies” of our
businesses and a simple tool we can use to take stock of what we have and what
might be missing.
The body as a metaphor
Building your business upon a solid base is a requisite to success. Just as the
human body depends on multiple systems to work properly, so does your business
require certain fundamental systems or “organs” that are reliant upon
each other. Absent one system or one vital organ, the body of your business ceases
to function.
Like a body that needs a brain to think, your business needs a strategic
plan, a “visioneer,” an overseer. Just as the lungs breathe air in
and out, your business needs a marketing strategy to communicate your beliefs, standards
and available services to your customers; like the stomach that processes and
digests what comes in, transforming nutrients into energy, our businesses
need administrative time to process and digest our opportunities and then
convert the information into new business; like our bladders that
store fluids and help redistribute energy, so must we in our businesses hold
on to and manage resources (ideas, money, project plans, suppliers, vendors), setting
boundaries and storing reserves, allocating resources where appropriate. And finally,
just as the body needs a strong skeleton to support its weight and protect vital
organs, so does our business need a solid framework—all those “nuts and
bolts”—or else it will collapse.
How healthy is the body of your business?
As a business owner or entrepreneur, consider for a moment the systemic nature of your
business and the inter-relatedness of its parts. For example, without our lungs, our heart or
liver our bodies cease to function. What's missing in the body of your business? What's
malfunctioning or holding you back?
Even if you have the greatest product or service in the world, without functioning organs
and a solid sustainable structure, your business—just like your body—will
fail.
Take inventory
Let's look at the pieces of your business as you would the parts of the human
body. Inspired by the work of Warren Bellows and other eastern healing
practices, I linked various organs with business departments and functions as
made sense to me. You may want to adjust as you feel inclined. The important
thing is to use this opportunity to take inventory of your business and discover
for yourself what's working, what needs a workout, and what's simply not
effective or not in place. Make it easy on yourself at the start by only looking
at the most fundamental components of your business.
Here are 10 categories to help you begin:
- Brain (architect, business plan and strategist)
- Eyes (market research, customer service, customer retention)
- Heart (branding, reason for being in business, the grand design, the greater purpose)
- Lungs (inspires others, sets standards, marketing and communications to others)
- Stomach (new business development)
- Bladder (resource manager, financial manager)
- Liver (cuts out the fat, sets the goals, time management consultant, legal advisor)
- Kidneys (as the generator and pump, sales & distribution or fundraising)
- Digestive System (sorts out relationships, office administrator)
- Skeleton (infrastructure)
See Fuel cells for instruction on how to complete your inventory and begin creating an action plan right away.
Take action
Armed with information as to what is and isn't working within the body of your business, you're ready to take
action—and you will—but first remember that the body of your business is only 50% of the equation. In
next month's “Fuel” we'll look at the other 50%—the “soul” of your business—and how
this spirit within, buoyed by a solid foundation, can lead you onward and upward, through good times and bad, as
you strive to reach your goals.
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Fuel cells
Use the following process to take inventory of the body of your business. This exercise underscores how all aspects of your
business, from marketing and branding to accounting and customer service, are
reliant on one another.
- Using pen and paper or your computer, list each of the 10 body/business categories
mentioned in the article above, plus any others you might want to include.
- Leave at least three blank lines after each item.
- For each body/business part, brainstorm in relation to your business by asking
yourself, “What's missing?” and “What could I improve or pay better attention to?”
- Now ask yourself, “What's holding me back and why?”
- Finish by asking, “What is critical for me to manage or grow this aspect of my business?”
- Review your answers and start another list, labeling it “Actions I am willing to take.”
- Write down the steps you are willing to take in the next week, the next month, the next 90 days,
and in the next year to “beef-up” the body of your business.
- Save this information. You'll need it for future planning—and you'll be adding to it next month
when we take a look at the “soul” of your business.
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Fuel for your soul
Consider these words of wisdom:
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where
they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
– Henry David Thoreau
“The loftier the building, the deeper must the foundation be laid.”
– Thomas Kempis
“The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation.”
– George Santayana
“We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the body, but as if we
could not live without it.”
– Seneca
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