Blog: Business Vision – Foresight is 20/20

From one SMB owner to another - Why your “why” matters and how to find it.

Over the past 14 years, my wife and I have launched several businesses. While our entrepreneurial journey hasn’t always been smooth, it has definitely been very rewarding. A key reason for our success in the face of multiple challenges is that we have been well grounded in our “why” - our vision for our businesses.

In this post, I will share with you how keeping the vision at the core of every step as you build your business can lead to transformative growth and lasting success.

Why your personal “why” and business vision matter

Your own “why” and your business vision are connected. Both provide foresight and a sense of purpose that is essential for every entrepreneur. Together, they form the driving force that helps you stay focused during the tough times. This serves as the “North Star” that ensures you’re moving in the right direction at all times regardless of any daily distractions.

If you are not a “solopreneur” and have employees in your business, then you have to rely on their help to convert your vision into reality. So it becomes important to share the vision with them, get their buy-in, and ensure that the entire organization is working in unison to achieve the vision.

Even if you are a solopreneur, you will still likely need to build a network of resources - vendors, contractors, specialty services - to help you with various aspects of your business. You will need to similarly gauge an alignment of interests and build a strong and reliable network so that the relationships are not just transactional in nature and you can be confident of their support even during challenging situations.

In either situation, having a business vision matters for multiple reasons.

It helps you distill the vision down into strategies and plans to convert that vision into reality. You know your goal, you know what direction to move in, and you can measure your progress and take corrective actions if things start going off track.

You can find the right people to add to your team. If the vision resonates with their own sense of purpose, then you will build a motivated team around you. Having a strong team to lean on will ensure that you don’t burn out in the long run.

It helps develop a strong organizational culture.

When your business hits rough weather, which it invariably will at some point, the vision serves as a guiding beacon that gives you and your team resilience and keeps you on course.

First, find your “why”

A common example of why many entrepreneurs want to start a business goes something like this: you have the expertise and experience that will help you provide a top-notch product or service that will help a certain group of people (your target customers). This should generate sufficient revenue and profits which then become a viable source of income for you as the business owner.

But is that truly your motivation? What is the real reason you feel so strongly about this venture? Why does it matter so much to you?

The process of discovering your why won't look the same for everyone, but a good place to start would be to ask some of the following questions.

What is your real motivation in starting your own business and what do you hope to get out of it that is different from what you already have?

Why do you think your idea will succeed?

Why will your customers buy from you and not from your competitors?

What are your personal strengths? How can you overcome potential weaknesses? How will you be able to persevere during tough times?

Know that this is extremely important. Unless you are truly motivated by your own sense of purpose, you will find it difficult to make it through tough days and make tough decisions. Ultimately, knowing your “why” is what will keep you grounded and focused on your vision, no matter what challenges come your way.

Next, establish your business vision

Now that you truly know and understand your personal motivation, work on developing a vision for your business.

A business vision defines a company's desired future state along with its long-term aspirations and goals and aspirations. It provides direction and purpose, motivates employees and guides strategic thinking and decisions. Ultimately, it pushes the organization to strive for greatness.

Here are a few examples of vision statements for some well-renowned companies:

Apple: "To make the best products on earth and to leave the world better than we found it."

Google: "To provide access to the world's information in one click."

Ikea: "To create a better everyday life for the many people."

Nike: “"To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”

How do you define your business vision? Ask yourself the following questions. Even better, involve your team in this exercise.

What is your organization's main purpose and what problem are you solving?

What is your long-term goal? What kind of impact do you want to have?

How will your business be different?

What are your core values and beliefs?

Establishing the business vision helps in key ways. It helps define long-term goals and objectives for strategic planning. Employee Motivation: It inspires employees and provides a sense of purpose and direction. It communicates the company's direction to investors, customers, and partners, providing stakeholder alignment. And it helps build your brand, defining the company's identity and values.

Ultimately, leverage your vision to get to that next level

In summary, establishing your "why" and your business vision helps filter out distractions, allowing you to focus more on activities that truly add value and drive the business forward. Staying aligned with the vision helps you make decisions with foresight instead of trying to pivot aimlessly in order to find what works when challenges arise. This clarity transforms how you approach your business, making it easier to stay focused, plan and prioritize effectively, and ultimately reach the goals you've set.

The key thing to remember is that your vision is not fixed, it will evolve. You can refine them incrementally over time to achieve better outcomes, or there may be moments when internal or external factors require a more transformative shift.

Once you have established your vision, where do you go from here? My next blog post, “Manifest Your Business Vision”, provides a step by step guide of how to convert your business vision into reality. So go ahead and check it out. And stay tuned as I share more helpful information on related topics.