All the fancy marketing tools, all the great products, all the great service, must flow from having the foundations in place.
Decision-making, strategic direction, marketing strategy, branding, even day-to-day operational decisions, become easier once you have the foundations right. And that goes for whether you are a large business or a small business, a large team or a small team, a large organisation or a small organisation.
Many business leaders have a laser focus on their vision. Fantastic.
For others, it is a little misty. To create clarity I say, “write it down”. Not because I want to make it seem difficult. But because writing down your foundations (values, mission, vision, and goals):
• Clarifies exactly what you want, why you want it, and when
• Creates focus
• Generates energy
• Tests commitment… it’s the first step in telling yourself that you are serious about your success
• Allows you to revisit them easily.
Many people tell me that they want to lay these foundations, want to have clarity, but haven’t yet done so.
And yet, once done, they report how it has filled them with positive energy, focus, commitment, motivation, zest for life and business, and you’ll immediately feel more successful. In fact, the great thing is that once done, all the luck starts to go in your favour, all the coincidences start to work for you.
And it’s the strength of these Foundations that will determine the sustainability of your success…
“If I had 8 hours to cut down a tree, I would spend the first six hours sharpening the saw”. Abraham Lincoln
If you don’t have your foundations laid, you are probably working with a “blunt saw.”
It takes time. It takes focus. It takes you away from the busy-ness…
It is, in fact, the first test.