Imagine your business serving you, instead of you serving your business!

You plan for your business concept, plan your cash flow needs, your marketing needs, your staffing needs, licensing, insurance, location, inventory, equipment, and a myriad of other logistics that may apply to your specific business or industry.

As Entrepreneurs this is not only our nature, but it is how we are taught. It cannot be understated how important it is to plan in a business for your future or there may be no future! There is one thing the majority of Entrepreneurs miss in the planning of a new business or improving an existing business, themselves. How do the dreams and goals of what the owner coincide with the goals of the business? Do they match? How will the business serve your personal goals, dreams and desires?

This is, in my humble opinion, the most overlooked aspect of planning for a business. This is akin to getting ready for a cross country road trip. You wash your car, change the oil, rotate your tires, pack your bags, plan your trip on a map, and then leaving with only a gallon of fuel in the car. You will make some progress, but without a Vision (fuel), your business may not be as appealing or fulfilling as you originally had hoped.

I have been an Entrepreneur since 1989. I have had huge successes and miserable failures. When I was successful the business served me and my personal life I desired. When I have failed my personal life was not being served by my business and so there was no sustainability for the life of the business. If you try to succeed without aligning your Vision with the business, then your personal life will have to adapt to the business. There is, in the beginning of any business, a certain amount of misalignment between the business direction and Vision. This should be temporary! There should be a point when the business comes into alignment with your overall Vision that provides what I call Holistic Happiness. This is the place where your business vision and your personal vision intersect. This is the place of joyous, calm, confidence that makes going into your business, not like working at all.

I discovered this for me quite by accident. I have been very systems oriented in my businesses over the years. People would ask me how I managed so many people so well, had such high customer retention, or was able to market and grow my business so quickly. I, believing there are really no secrets in running a business, would happily share what I was doing in my business thus helping others. Little did I realize at the time that the act of helping others as humans first and other roles second was my true calling.

A few businesses later, I wrote what I really wanted for my life. I spent as much time planning and thinking that through as I would a well thought out marketing plan or financial plan for my business that I would own a business that was on purpose. My concept would bring me and my customers’ fulfillment and value every day.

Coaching/Consulting was the obvious answer for me. I recognized my other businesses had been just a front for doing what I really was drawn to do, helping other business people. So I started working as an Adjunct Faculty member as a business advisor and instructor for the Small Business Development Center at the local community college, and a short time later started Sadler Business Coaching. There has not been one day I have not been excited to go to work at either place. I feel exhausted at the end of everyday but it is a really fulfilling kind of tired. My personal life is more fulfilling as well. I am able to do the things I want to do when I want to do them through working the systems I have implemented, but it all starts with the Vision.

There are four components to get you working on your own Holistic system for your life and business. Vision, Mission, Goals, and Time Management.
For the Vision, write down how your life would look if you had no concerns about relationships, time, or money. Just write, don’t over think! Than pare it down to a two or three sentence statement that reflects what you want from life. Will your business get your there? When? What will you have to do to make that happen in your business?

Next write your Mission for your business. The Mission is how your business serves your customers. What would you ideally like for your customers say about your product or service? This should support your Vision. Most of us get these backward and that leads to burnout and disillusion in your business. You cannot serve your customer and put your own needs second. It simply is not sustainable to do so.

Following this is a goal system that supports your Mission and Vision. These should be very specific, measurable, timely, and list who will be responsible. The key is if the goal does not serve your Vision and Mission it is not a worthy goal and should be replaced.
The foundation for all of this is time management. There are a many systems to choose from. Be sure to schedule days away from all business activities on a weekly basis to be at your best while in your business.

Your days should be structured in a way to ensure you are working on the important tasks that support your Mission and Vision. This may require delegating some things you had done in the past or restructuring your organization as a whole. Remember the old adage: It takes 21 days to become a habit. Changing daily task/time management habits will be important to propel you toward your ideal life.

If I can do this so can you. You can have it all! It requires asking what you really want out of life. Talk to somebody you trust and respect and ask their opinion. Don’t isolate yourself in this process. It is important to be supported. It can be sometimes lonely as and Entrepreneur, but it does not have to be that way. If you always work toward your ultimate Joy, everything else will fall into place. It comes down to focusing on, Personal Growth, Business Management, and Holistic Happiness. Just imagine, your business serving you, instead of you serving your business.

Contact me for more information about having me speak to your organization, or one on one coaching for your purpose, goals, and balance. http://www.scottsadlercoach.com/

Failure is an Option

Let’s be real. Failure is always haunting us, circling overhead like a buzzard waiting for the prey to stumble. I have, like all of you, had my share of failures. Check these out, relationship, education, family, previous marriage, business, financial, hobby, and career and more I probably am not thinking of.

Where would you be without failure? Still in the womb! Friends, we need to fail from time to time to be able to expand our lives. If we did not fall when we learned to walk, how could we ever learn to run? Failure likes to pretend it is out of our control and there is nothing we can do about it. These are the times we must look to what our own accountability in the situation is or was. For me I can go through the list above and accept my part in the events and the lesson in all of my failures. It is the only way to truly move on from it and experience the success in waiting. Success cannot live simultaneously with failure. In order for us to get back on track and start creating success again we must nullify failures (fear) effects. I have listed six steps below to guide you through the process. It takes some work and time in most cases to work through some failure, so be prepared but keep moving to your next success.

1. Accept the situation is real, do not ignore it.
2. Accept your percentage of responsibility for the failure. This must happen to truly move on.
3. Show gratitude for the good in your life. There is always good in your life.
4. Believe deeply that this too, shall pass. Use it as an affirmation several times a day if needed.
5. Action cures fear, create a plan. Get advice, be open to suggestion, tackle issues, keep moving.
6. Plan for your next success, what good will come from this failure, what were the lessons I learned for my future? There is good and bad in failure. Give the power to the good!

What would have happened if Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Dave Ramsey and millions of others would have given up after failing? They were only unique because they followed the steps, or something similar to the ones above. You can start training yourself now by practicing these on small failures that happen organically everyday in your life. Car won’t start, meeting starts late, deals do not get closed, etc. How do you react to these things? However you react is an indicator on how you will deal with a major failure in your life. Apply the six principles above and feel the difference when you do not give failure power. As leaders it is critical to set the tone when failures occur. How will people react to your reaction? It always comes down to you. At the end of the day it is our action or inaction that defines who we are.

I know my failures intimately. I can recite each one to you if you ask me to and there are people in my life who can tell you about them too. But I would also tell you about how I overcame them, and succeeded. It all starts with the principles listed above. Life is about happiness, and there is no room in happiness for failure to exist as a lifestyle.

For more information visit my resource page http://www.scottsadlercoach.com/resources.html for reading material on this topic. Every one of the books here addresses overcoming failure. You can also contact me direct with any questions by phone or email. 503-364-2575 or scott@scottsadlercoach.com