A key to success is a clear Business Vision – knowing in advance the type of business you are trying to create.
This is about being able to visualise, & importantly document, what your business will be like in granular detail – when it is operating precisely how you want it.
A Business Vision is important as it can:
- Act as a compass
- Guide decision-making
- Shape the way you engage with your customers and the type of experience you provide
- Help ensure you live your Business Purpose
Why a Clear Business Vision is Needed
When a business is launched, most founders have clarity around, why the business was established and the type of customer experience they want to provide.
However, if the Vision is not documented, as the business grows it can lead to:
- Targeting the wrong type of customer
- Processes that are internally focused, rather than customer focused
- Investments in the wrong areas of the business
- Reactive decision making
- Employing of the wrong type of people
- Money & resources being wasted
- A value proposition of “me too, but better” which is impossible to sustain
Your Business Vision Starts with the Customer!
Like your Business Purpose – your Business Vision needs to be built around the customer. This where a compelling Vision will be born!
- Who are the key customer groups your business is best placed to serve? (and importantly, who will you not serve?)
- What are your customers’ needs? How do they feel if they are not satisfied?
- What is their world like on a day-to-day basis?
- What are their challenges, problems, or frustrations? How do they feel if not resolved?
- What do they typically feel and say about your industry? What frustrates them? Annoys them? Leaves them feeling let down?
How do you want to change the customers world?
Like your Business Purpose, the next step in the process is to consider the way you hope to change or enhance, the customer’s world.
- What is the impact you aim to have?
- What specific changes do you want to see?
- What sort of experience do you want to provide?
- How do you want your customers to feel after they have purchased your product or service?
- What do you want them to say about you?
At the 500 group, after we reflected on the customers’ world and the impact we hoped to have, it shaped the way we went about our business, the processes & tools we employed.
Step 1 – Creating Your Business Vision
Having completed this preparatory work, the next step in the process is to envision what the business will look like, when it is performing exactly how you want it in terms of:
- Revenue?
- Profit?
- The number and type of people employed?
- Location?
- Products or Services offered?
- Client numbers?
- Systems and processes?
- Culture?
- Lifestyle?
- Etc.
Hint – using a Mind Map is a great way of pulling this information together.
Step 2 – Documenting Your Business Vision
To ensure your Vision is robust and engaging, the final step in this process is to write out your Vision in as much detail as possible.
That is; describe the business and how it will be operating when it is operating exactly how you want it.
Keep rewriting the Vision until it resonates with you (the team) at a deeply personal level. (Yes! This is the business we want to create!)
How to use your Business Vision
Having developed a clear picture as to what you are trying to create – the Business Vision becomes a practical tool you can use to guide the growth of your business and decision making.
You can also use it to review where you stand today:
- Does your target customer base need to be refined – changed?
- What current practices in your business need to change?
- Do you have processes, policies and documentation that are internally, rather than customer focused?
- What is missing from your offer, or the way you deliver your services, that would enhance the customer experience?
- What needs to change in the way you interact & communicate with your clients?
- Are you employing the right type of people?
- What up-skilling is required to allow you to realise your Vision?
- Etc.
Summary
Creating your Business Vision is simply the start of your journey!
A Business Vision will provide you and your team with a sense of direction and will help guide decision-making
However for the vision to be realised change and action will be required.
If you would like to learn more about how we use our Business Vision to guide the growth of The 500 Group, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
