“Business is a coward, it runs away from any uncertainty”. AT Dlamini, respected businessman and previous Prime Minister of Eswatini, made this statement in the early noughties while we were negotiating a business deal. And this rings true to this day. The uncertainty around the coronavirus has not only led to stock markets around the world crashing; the dramatic drop in the oil price, panic buying of toilet paper and countries going into recession have all been attributed to the outbreak of COVID-19. So far, twenty plenty has turned out to be anything but that.
I often used to jump on my bike on weekends in the days pre GPS and Google Maps and venture into the forests and rural areas of Eswatini. The roads were sometimes washed away or poorly marked. I knew, however, that if I wanted to get to Meikles Mount I should travel in a generally north-easterly direction towards the A1 lookout tower, and when I hit the bigger road that goes down into the valley, bear left towards the koppies for a cold one.
The same applies to your business. Unexpected challenges will present themselves, that must be negotiated. Sometimes you need to veer off the path you’ve chosen for reasons beyond your control. Knowing where you want to get to, what you are aiming at, makes it so much easier to decide how to get there. On the other hand, as the cat said to Alice, if you don’t know where you’re going, it really doesn’t matter which way you go.
So say the bosses
One of the most valuable books I’ve read and learnt to apply is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Habit 2 is to “begin with the end in mind”. It turns the pro-activeness, the taking control of your destiny, as proposed in Habit 1, into concrete action by developing your mission statement. Robin Sharma follows the same train of thought in The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: find your purpose and follow it.
So let’s apply this not only to our personal lives but also our businesses. Find your purpose, your mission and vision. In 90 Rules for Entrepreneurs, Vinny Lingham states that you need a very clear, long term vision for your business. One could say that Simon Sinek takes this to an even deeper level in Start with Why. Understanding not only what you want to achieve, but also the why, gives real meaning to you, your staff and your customers. Simon says “people don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”
The Sologix solution
Our sole objective at Sologix is to help you run your business better. We do this to help create sustainable jobs and so address some of the key social issues in our society, like unemployment, crime and inequality.
Our business and online coaching courses recognise the vital importance of a well-crafted mission statement and clear vision for your business. GrowthWheel, the business toolkit we use to make the heavy lifting light, has broken this down as follows:
What you do is not only the products or services you offer but also the solutions to the problems your customers face. Who you do it for is your target market. How you do it is how you differentiate yourself from the rest. The value that you create for your customer is why they do business with you. Lastly, people want to believe in who and what they support. Why you do what you do is what attracts them to you.
We consider knowing your mission as so significant that we have dedicated a course to help you develop this. The Elevator Pitch course incorporates developing a mission statement and an elevator pitch for your business.
Become part of our Sologix community in order to gain access to our high quality, versatile and proven resources that will help you to run your business better. Join an online course or contact us for personal business coaching by sending us an email here.
