Your Business Journey - Where are you?

Are you an expert or a specialist in finance, real estate or wellness industry? Mortgage broker, financial planner, accountant or real estate agent, property investor, buyers agent or naturopath, physiotherapist, chiropractor? This framework helps you to understand where you are and to self-assess how many years left in your life to go through this business journey at personal and leadership level.

You may be working for someone else in the corporate world. Are you thinking of starting own business? because you are great at what you are doing and want more recognition and more growth at a personal and professional level. This will help you too because this is the roadmap to fulfilment. In this journey, the expansion depends on you, how far you will grow personally and in business. That's why the circles are increasing. Either you stay where you are at, condense, freeze or grow. Let's start with the inner most circle.

1) Being an expert or specialist, you are excellent at the delivery of your services. I bet no one can produce results like you. Your clients will be satisfied with your services (after they become your client). You want to help anyone and everyone because you love your craft, you have skills and experience, and passionate about helping people. In a job, this may be recognised or goes under-recognised. You start a business out of passion and calling for an adventure. However, in your own business, you need to find clients. This feels like a nightmare till you realise the next role you must choose to take on. You don't take help and support of a business coach or mentor and don't appreciate business specialist and expertise.

2) Remember the day you decided to start a business because you were very good in your job and may or may not recognised for your craft and you want to share your gifts with your potential clients. When you start your business, you step into becoming a business owner. This takes some misses to understand. It's like seeing the child born and then realising now you are father or mother. In order to learn this role properly, you need business skills and personal growth, personal development skills along with coaching and mentoring. This demands change, education, willingness to step into 'Business Owner' identity. Most of the time this comes at a cost of losing family time, money and efforts because of stuck in pain or denial response. You must learn yourself or pay for finance, operations(admin), sales and marketing expertise. Because of cash flow challenge, you start relying on word of mouth and do everything by yourself. This is also called Start-up phase. As business owner starts seeing growth, it feels another level nightmare to manage sales & marketing. Hiring someone to help you becomes a challenge. You may feel like how another person can do as good as me in any part of the business. It feels difficult to let go and lose control. The pain teaches you to move on to the next phase.

3) The day you hire another person in your business, its a mixed feeling of happiness and added responsibility. Someone else will be helping you in the business as well as you need to teach them, manage them, involve them in your day-to-day. Your routines and habits call for another level of change. Now you need to step into 'Business Leader' identity. You are the boss, manager and the leader to keep growing business to the next level. Here you need more leadership skills and must define, refine and implement a culture of improving productivity and innovation. Internal risks, issues and challenges take bigger priority because you don't want to go back to becoming just a business owner. The team becomes the driving force for your business growth because you have grown through learning the skill of delegation, letting go of your insecurities, fears and doubts. You will be on the other side of the fence because you were employee once and now you are business leader and manager. It's empowering as well as feel compassion to realise how far you have come, what a journey. During COVID some businesses have shut down or had to let go of employees. If your business paused or shrunk, its nothing to do with you. This is the time to diversify and innovate in your business value chain because you are the leader/ I highly recommend to involve your team.

4) During certain times, your business scale and teams are productive. You are attracted to contribute more at many levels be at education, causes close to your heart or the change needed at the industry level. This becomes the ultimate fulfilment for you, your business, teams, industry and at the environment level too. You feel a sense of deeper purpose.

Either you are green and growing or ripe and rotting. Would love to hear where you are in your business journey. There will be moments of I wish I had known this earlier. Trust my posts, articles and masterclasses help you to raise awareness and would love to hear your thoughts and comments.

I have designed a special masterclass for helping small businesses to help them progress and expand from 'expertise/specialist' thinking to 'the business owner' thinking and would love to help them to reach till "contributor" thinking and experience this identity. I have invited specifically mortgage brokers to start with however these 3 Top shifts are applicable for expert/specialist service-based small businesses to pivot during this crisis times. If you know who may benefit this, share the love as well as accept this gift with kindness.

Click here to attend this on-demand The 3 Top Shifts business masterclass

Be safe & keep learning & growing,

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