Every successful business needs a solid business foundation.
Your company’s foundational elements are its guiding light in times of uncertainty. They are the core tenets you and your employees can turn to each day in order to make sure you are on the right track.
Here are the elements of a solid business foundation:
Core Purpose
Purpose is integral to you, your business and your employees. Without purpose, you and your team can easily become lost, bored or dissatisfied.
“At some point in your career, there will come a morning when you’ll awake and ask yourself, “What am I really doing?” It’s at this point that earning money by making/selling whatever will no longer be motivation enough.” – Entrepreneur
Everything from day to day work, to the overall vision of the company, needs to tie back to your overall purpose. A strong core purpose ensures you and your team are never left wondering why the work is important.
Core Values
Do your employees know your core company values? Are they easy to understand? Do you live your values every day?
Enforcing values is an active endeavor. It’s not enough to just write them down somewhere and cross your fingers, hoping your team will ‘get’ it.
“Reinforcing core company values is about leading by example and rewarding good behavior… it’s also important to get serious about terminating those who violate your company’s code of conduct.” – COO Alliance Blog
Core values direct your employees and your company, so it’s important to take them seriously. To get you inspired, here is an infographic of the core values of America’s top 7 tech firms:
Core Vision
Strong leaders have a strong, clear vision, and can guide their team toward a unified perspective of the future.
A lack of vision leads to confusion. “It can also result in employee dissatisfaction and turnover since there is a lack of purpose and overall connection.” – COO Alliance Blog
For instance, core values. A core vision is what guides a company. It’s important to make sure your vision is tangible and easy to understand. You have to be able to communicate it to your employees in a way they can easily digest and repeat to others if need be.
“It’s not good enough for senior leaders to develop a powerful vision. They need to make sure that the vision is clearly communicated to every employee, along with the goals that will help bring the vision to life.” – PeterBarronStark
If employees are sure of where you are taking them, they are more likely to support you in your vision.
Passion
There are few things in business and in life that matter more than passion. Passion is contagious. When you’re passionate about your work, your team sees your enthusiasm, and are more likely to ‘see’ your vision.
Passion ties everything together and can:
- Make you more attractive to clients
- Keep you motivated through difficult times
- Ensure more long-term success
- Increase employee retention
- Provide your team with a higher sense of purpose
Before you can secure funding, hire employees or even open for business, you need to be certain of your business’s core. A sense of purpose, strong values, and a clear, vivid vision, will make sure you have something solid to build upon.
If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!