Framework for Your Business
The terms Mission, Vision, Purpose, and Core Values often get blurred in business and in life. They can be looked at as fluff to fill our website or display in the foyer, but they are essentially the framework that guides you. If you’re not running a business, you can apply these to life and watch as the clarity unfolds. If you are running a business, pay close attention to how these directly affect your goals.
Your Framework
We call them Company Core Components™—Mission, Purpose, Core Values, Brand Uniques, and Vision— and they describe what we do, why we do it, and the character we possess when we take the necessary actions to create a desired future.
Protect It
When correctly identified, communicated well, implemented properly, and protected, Company Core Components will be the most important part of your business. Take some time today to reflect on the definitions below, and if you can’t articulate these clearly, make a to-do to collaborate with your team and frame the foundation of your business.
Company Core Components (CCCs):
Mission is your important assignment.
Purpose is the reason for your Mission.
Core Values are the beliefs that guide your Mission.
Brand Uniques are one to three unique actions by which you achieve your Mission.
Vision is the future you’re creating through your Mission.
Most Important Assignment
Today, let’s focus specifically on your Mission. Your Mission is the most important assignment you or your company were created to do. What problem does your company or products solve? If you’re a swimming pool company, maybe your most important assignment is to provide entertainment to families, or it could be to offer an oasis for the stressed. As you work through your Mission, you’ll start to see how the five CCCs work together. Your Mission is often born out of a personal experience. Your Mission is what you are known for. As a pool company, you might be known for making pools, but there is more to it than that. You are known for the experience you create. That is the real Mission.
Filter
Once you are crystal clear on the real “what,”—the actual important assignment your company has—you’ll be able to build upon it. Don’t just put it away in the drawer. Use your Mission in your marketing and most importantly as a filter for all you do. If a new opportunity comes your way, screen it. Does it align with your Mission? If not, either scrap it, or put it on a list for later. Now is not the time to get distracted. You are one quarter of the way through 2022. It’s time to ask yourself the hard questions and get focused. There is still time left to turn things around for the year. Where are you with your annual goals? Have you made a fourth of the progress? If not, what has you off track? Do your goals actually align with your Mission?
Goal
Working directly from your Mission will provide you with a specific goal. Now, take that goal and break it down by the number of months left in the year. Start working backward from the bigger goal all the way to what you can do each day toward that goal. Here’s an example of where people go wrong. Their goal might be to make $100,000 in their small business this year. They have some courses on their website, some books out, and they are a motivational speaker. Without a clear plan to sell those courses and books, or get paid to speak, they will never reach their goals. So start with the Mission. Let’s say their Mission is to help freelancers start their own business. The first question they need to ask themselves is do their products align with their Mission? Do all of their courses, books, and speeches support freelancers starting their own business? If so, great. Now it’s time to do the math and begin marketing. If not, a refocus may need to happen either within the Mission or within the products.
Break Down
If the Mission is in alignment, it’s time to break down the goal into daily actionable steps to achieve the goal. Start with some math to help get an idea of what you need to be accomplishing daily.
For the sake of the example, we will say we have 8 months left in the year and that our courses sell for $200, books at $15, and speaking engagements at $500 (this is a newbie, remember). So how do we get to $100,000. How many courses, books, or speaking engagements would it take to get to $100,000? Most people want to start with the bigger number and just do the division. But that would be 200 speaking gigs in eight months. Not likely for a new speaker or for any speaker really. That’s almost one per day! So let’s be realistic.
Infrastructure
We will have to do some marketing and leg work on the front end, but then we will gain traction, and let’s say, we are skilled enough to get one per month thereafter. That’s seven speaking engagements between now and the end of the year. That’s only $3,500. We still have $96,500 to go. But before we start making assumptions on the rest of the money, let’s talk about what we are going to do every day to get these speaking engagements. How many reach outs, social media posts, emails will you need to create in order to book one speaking engagement? That depends on you and how good your copywriting skills are. Do you have a polished presence on social media with some speaker clips or videos? A media kit? A speaker contract? A well-written keynote speech? A place where event planners can contact you? Find out more about you? In other words, do you have the infrastructure in place to support your goal?
Start here. Get clear on your Mission and build the infrastructure to support your goal. If you are full-time in your business, knocking out some of these to-dos should happen fairly quickly, and you may be able to delegate to your team. If you’re starting a side business, these things could take you longer. The important thing is that you capture what needs to be done and calendar it. This is what it means to filter everything you do through your Mission. You are working daily on things that matter to reach your goals.
One Pillar
We realize that $3,500 isn’t your goal, but this isn’t all you will focus on for the rest of the year, this is just one income producing activity. We will continue with our math and goal setting in our next Purpose blog post (you can get notified of this in our 3-2-1 Newsletter below). No reason to get ahead of ourselves. If you’re new to processes or planning, this might feel overwhelming. Here’s an example of some to-dos that could be calendared based on today’s focus.
Write a clear Mission statement using the Company Core Component Worksheet.
Make sure all my social media bios reflect my Mission.
Updated website to reflect Mission and add speaker page with contact information.
Craft a well-written keynote speech and begin practicing it on a regular basis.
Chop speaking videos into clips to be used on social media.
Create a media kit on my website.
Draft a speaker contract thinking through the details so I’ll be prepared to speak with event planners.
Create speaker focused social media content for the next thirty days. (not every day will be speaker focused but you must include this focus)
Schedule social media content for the next thirty days.
Reach out to at least ten event planners per week.
Create ads (if applicable).
Until next time, download the Company Core Component Worksheet and begin working on your to-do list. If you can’t see how to apply this to your company, reach out. This is exactly what we love helping business builders do—simplify with practical processes and tools.
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