I enjoyed a wonderful conversation with a relatively new business owner recently. She is in the start up phase of her business, looking to share her message of hope with the world. (I love the excitement of start up business owners… it’s almost contagious.)
We talked about what she wanted to create and why she wanted to create it. During this conversation she mentioned a desire of one day taking her message globally. Honestly, I think she was a bit embarrassed even saying it, the reality seemed so far away for her. The actual reality, right now, is that she needs to get her website up and create a free offer. Her business vision is so big, she feels very disconnected from it, and honestly I am not convinced she truly believes it is even possible (although her vision board in front of her stares her down daily with that vision). Does she have a big vision, yes! Is it doable, YES! But not unless she purposefully builds an online business designed to meet the structure and success of the vision!
If you want to build a house, you wouldn’t show up on a raw piece of land with a hammer and nail and think “let’s get started.” There is a process that must be followed in successfully constructing a home out of a raw piece of land. Long before the first 2×4 shows up, there is testing, prep and clearing of the land. After the land is ready, then there is marking the site, pouring foundation, and a hundred other tasks. Every aspect of the land and house is being executed based on a blueprint! The blueprint is the guide of the entire process from which trees need to be removed to the angle of the roof; every detail will be implemented according to the blueprint of the house. Yet many times, we jump into business with a hope and a dream and then wonder why we are not ending up with the beautiful, spacious home we envisioned. Purposefully build an online business by developing a success blueprint that will guide you through the various stages of business. Otherwise your business VISION is really just a wish!
Every day we should get up and put something into place that is working toward purposefully building our online business. Not simply moving from milestone to milestone (although the milestones do have to be met), but also putting solid structure around the desired outcome we hope for. As this wonderful, brilliant business owner was discovering on our call, the need to get a website up and create a free offer were simply the next milestones to be met, and not the end-all in how her business would become successful. Her business will be successful when she decides to purposefully build an online business, every day, in every decision and every task. The success of her vision will require her to create a process or documentation for how she gets results with clients. This is a purposeful practice in the early stages of business to ensure you are working FROM the vision and not TO the vision. When you purposefully build an online business, the vision will not be something you are running toward, it will be the very truth that is directing each step along the way.
Many online business owners, specifically in the information marketing world (coaches, authors, speakers, trainers, etc.), have built online businesses that solely rely on them to deliver, every single time. Because this is the model the entire business and revenue is built on, it becomes very difficult to leverage or expand the brand when there are only so many hours in the day. Do you want to have multiple offerings, take a vacation, or retire, you may want to consider building your business around the result your clients experience from a formula or method you’ve created. When you need to hire a coach or trainer to support your clients, you will have a clear path for them to follow. This will ensure your clients get the same result, as though they were working with you. This is how you purposefully build an online business, laying out clear paths to multiply yourself when the time comes (long before you need that time to come).
This is true also if you are considering building a multi-VA team or any type of implementation expansion. You are doing tasks every day that need a process, then you could easily hand the task over to a team member and essentially support the expansion of your business. As OBMs, we have to function at the level of leadership that allows us to see around the corner many times. If we are so focused on the right-now of a task, we will miss what is needed for the next step, hindering us from successfully supporting a business owner in their vision. To build something is to understand the varied layers needed to make that ‘something’ strong and sustainable. The same with business. It’s important that the business is strong and sustainable through the strategic operations and processes we implement as online business managers. We are careful to not get sucked into the reactive nature of progression, but keep our eye on the vision to ensure WE purposefully build an online business for each or our clients and our ourselves. 😉
If you are struggling with what this blueprint looks like for your business (or potentially, you have a client you know is really struggling with how to develop this blueprint for their business), Tina Forsyth (our beloved pioneer leader here at OnlineBusinessManager.com) has a new program she is launching that takes ALL THE GUESSING out of successfully building an online business, from vision, to team, to process, to revenue. I encourage you to check it out here: