A few months ago, I wrote about why teams require vision, mission, and values to be cohesive and high-performing. And how as a team leader, you need to live and breathe them so that the team follows you.

The same principlesapply when you are a solopreneur running or just starting your business.

As a business owner, I’m sure that just like the rest of us, you’d like your business to last and be healthy. Your dream lifestyle and family well being depend on it.

To achieve that, your business needs a core, a spine that will always be there no matter the changes that happen to the rest of the “body.”

This core should help you persevere in times of doubt, say “Yes” to the right opportunities and “No” to the wrong ones, even if they seem like “once in a lifetime” at the moment.

In my blog series on change we talked about the the anatomy of change, what is needed to embrace it, and how to lead your business through it. It’s because in today's changing markets driven by light-speed evolution of technology, as business leaders, not only we need to adapt it but also rive it in our organizations.

However, there are things in your business that should stay fixed.
Things that shouldn’t change at all or not for a long time, even if the strategies, products, or services you deliver change and adapt to your customers' needs.

Those main three things are:

• Core Purpose = the ‘why’;
• Values; and
• Vision

Let’s talk more about the them then.

1. Core Purpose – why?

You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things so that all the small things go in the right direction.

Alvin Toffler

When we start abusiness, the truth is that the main reason for it is hardly ever solely money.Yes, I get it that we want to make a living while running the biz, but pauseand think back why did you start it in the first place?

Was it because youwanted to be independent, have total control of your time? Or maybe to be ableto lead a balanced life where you can spend time with your kids? Or you want tohelp people become healthier, feel more beautiful or be more successful becausehelping others makes you happy?

The answer to thisquestion is your business’s core purpose. Now, it can create a mission, astatement that will embody it. The statement needs to be idealistic. If youthink it’s not idealistic enough once you have your first draft, ask, “why dowe do that?” and refine your answer. Repeat this exercise up to magic 7 timesuntil you get to a statement that you are happy with and is short of “makingthe world a better place”.

This way, you’ll define your core purpose as something you’ll always strive for that will never achieve 100. Something close to “make the world a better place.” Why? Because it will keep your business going and help you persist. Whenever you have any doubts about why you should continue to work on your business or feel discourages, the core purpose will give you the answer.

2. Core values – how do we behave?

When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.

Roy E. Disney

When you take timeand think of core values for your business, they will act as guiding principlesthat will help you navigate your entrepreneurship journey. It’s because theycan assist you in making the most critical decisions when presented withopportunities. Saying “No” to opportunities that look promising but can hurtyour business, in the long run, isn’t easy. It can be easier though if you knowthat such an opportunity doesn’t align with your core values. To putdifferently, having values gives your business its soul.

How do you determine your business’ core values then?

If you are asolopreneur, look at what’s important to you as a person and align them withyour values.

If you already haveemployees, look not only at your values but also at who is your best teammembers. The ones that you’d pick to recreateyour business if you had to do that in another country. How do they behave whenat work, what do they value?

Once you pickseveral them, put them through a time laps prism. Would you be living by themin 100 years? If yes, keep them. If not, scratch them off.

This way, you canget down to 3 – 5 core values. Your business doesn’t need more. Then, insteadof keeping them as one-word principles, try describing them a bit more byanswering a question – how do we behave? What do we stand for?

As a reference to help you, here is Disney’s example that will clearly show you how values can guide a business:

• No cynicism
• Nurturing and spreading of “wholesome American values"
• Creativity, dreams, and imagination
• Fanatical attention to consistency and detail
• Preservation and control of Disney magic

3. A Long-Lasting Vision – where are we going?

Vision is a destination – a fixed point to which we focus all effort. Strategy is a route – an adaptable path to get us where we want to go.

Simon Sinek

As a business owner,you should create a far-reaching vision on what you’d like to achieve in 10-20years from now. It needs to be audacious, BIG, and also needs to be achievable,even if the probability at this point is 60%.

To do that you canwrite it down or if you like visuals, creating a vision board will work aswell.

In short, yourVision or Big Hairy Audacious Goals, as Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras calledthem in “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies,” need to beachievable and will change, unlike your core purpose. Because once you reachthem, you’ll need replace them with the new ones for the business to havesomething to strive for and not become complacent.

Now, after you have done all this great and hard work, you can start developing different strategies that will help you achieve your vision. These strategies will change and adapt to customers' needs and market shifts.

So WHY should I do all that?

To conclude, all I covered above will allow your business to be healthy and last. WHY?

Because, it will help you see what are the important things to focus on as opposed to the urgent ones.

When you don’t have such clarity, here's what happens:

• you don't have enough time to accomplish your business goals;
• you feel overwhelmed and paralyzed;
• you procrastinate;
• you don’t accomplish much although you are busy all the time;
• you don’t see the progress in your business that you were hoping for.

Looks familiar? Yes, if you see some or all those symptoms in your day to day operations, maybe it’s time to stop and regroup.
And if you need help, I’d like to offer you FREE training CLARITY & FOCUS that will walk you step-by-step on how to do it. Yout can download it by clicking here.

Need more help or have questions? Then click here and let’s connect.