Do your business foundations need a review?
In today’s episode, we’re checking your business foundations! More specifically, we are looking for signs that you’ve got some wonky or cracking business foundations, and how you can reinforce them.
Read on or watch below to find out more!
Quick question: Why would we want to go all the way back to the start of our business journey???
Regardless of how long you’ve been in business, it’s ALWAYS a great idea to go back and check on your foundations. It saves you time, allows you to make more money easily, and often leads to reconnecting your business strategy with your bigger vision.
Let’s check-in, shall we?
Here are some signs that you have some wonky or cracking business foundations:
1. Business feels hard
Having strong business foundations means that your business has more ease.
When parts of our business are difficult and we’re finding things hard, it can be because we have a foundation that maybe isn’t in place effectively. We may be doing workarounds and need to work a little harder than we’d like. Or my biggest pain point: Needing to reinvent the same things over and over again.
2. Decision-making is foggy
When you’ve got those foundational decisions really clear, it makes all the other decisions so much easier.
It helps you decide what you’re saying “no” to, what you’re saying “yes” to, who you’re focusing on marketing your business and services to… all of those decisions are much easier and it also helps with where you dedicate your time, energy and attention.
3. Growth is stagnant
Your growth skyrockets when your foundations are really strong.
The launchpad analogy works so beautifully here: If you’ve got that really solid foundation, then you’ve got something firmer from which to launch.
When it comes to business growth, it’s working on the foundations that create those opportunities. When I’m working with women (whether it’s in my programs or as VIP one-on-one), the number one thing we work on is the foundations of their business. This is because it’s through solidifying those foundations that we see the enormous growth and return on investment for them.
A lot of people find themselves thinking at the surface level of their business and strategy: What am I selling? How much am I selling it for? Where am I selling it? How am I selling? What is my marketing strategy? How do I build my audience? How do I build my list? And how do I promote a webinar?
These decisions are actually the tip of the iceberg when it comes to business growth.
They have relatively little impact on your overall business success compared to the big decisions at the foundational level.
What are the big questions? What’s my niche? Why do people need and buy my services? What’s my value proposition? How do I accurately message to attract my ideal clients?
Those foundational decisions have a much bigger impact on the growth of your business.
Here’s how you solidify your business foundations:
1. Niche
It’s the number one foundation of your business.
Once you’ve made a decision and you’re solid, it’s the foundation for the rest of the decisions:
- Packaging up your products and services
- How you market yourself
- Messaging
- Copy
- Visuals
- Imagery
All of those decisions come from a strong foundation of niche.
If you don’t have a micro-niche that you understand deeply and know how to really connect with their priorities, then that is where I would be focusing your energy and attention.
Income coming in through business foundations for scaling and growth
It creates so many opportunities – not just in the early stages of business, but opportunities for you to get out of an income plateau.
I’ve actually seen this even for myself in my business when I review my niche and look at the ways where maybe I’ve started to expand out a little and not be as focused in.
When I review that and focus in tighter and tighter on a more specific niche, my income goes up again! Funny that!!!
Niche is where the magic happens.
2. Message
Your message is how you deeply resonate with your ideal client. Your message is the overarching message of your business and that is the WHY.
Niche is WHO and the message is WHY.
Why do people need your services? Why is this a priority? And why would they invest?
If you haven’t got that really clear and solid messaging, then when you try to write a post to promote your services, you’re reinventing the wheel and starting from scratch every time. It feels hard because you haven’t got that clarity of your core messaging.
3. Core marketing strategy
Your marketing strategy is made up of two stages:
1. Reach people
2. Make sales
Simple as that. And yet so many women do not have clarity on their core marketing strategy.
What is your number one way that you reach people? What is your number one strategy to make sales?
It doesn’t need to be complex. In fact, simple can be the most effective.
When you’ve been in business for a long time, this is usually when your core marketing strategy is the most complex and muddiest, because you’ve tried lots of different things and you’re keeping lots of balls in the air.
Take a moment to reflect: What works best? Where do you focus most of your attention? What could you double down on? What could you let go of?
One of the things I want to leave you with is a question to ask yourself as a self-assessment of your foundations and your confidence in them…
Self-assess your foundations:
On a scale of 1 to 10:
- Are you confident that you have a hyper-specific, micro-niche and you understand that niche deeply? And why?
- How confident are you that you can effectively articulate your message so that it deeply resonates with your niche? And why?
- How confident are you that your core marketing strategy is the right strategy for your business and will achieve your income goals in the short term? And why?
That insight might just help you to understand where you need to focus your energy and attention, particularly in developing your strategies and your foundations in your business.
It will also help you to understand where you might need to get some support and some mentoring or advice from someone who can help you get it sorted.
I have a free business foundations resource for you as well. It’s called Fast-Track Your Business and you can access it for free at tashcorbin.com/fasttrack.
As always, come on over to the Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group and share any aha’s that you’ve had using #podcastaha and the episode number (191).
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
