Leading a small business, doesn't mean you can't have a BIG vision.  In fact - you want to extend yourself and have a huge vision.  Don't fall into the mistake of thinking that vision statements are for big businesses only, it's not.

It’s  for YOU – the small business.

The reason you want to take time to develop your vision is because it provides you with your end picture. It describes what you’re wanting to build at that higher level.   Let’s not make this hard, because it doesn’t have to be.  In fact once you’ve developed your vision, you want it to be no longer than a one to three sentence statement.

A simple way to begin is to ask yourself:

At the highest level, what do I want to achieve…

Be honest, what do you really want to achieve?  Is it market dominance, or is it to be the best at what you do.  There is no right or wrong here.  It’s about you, your business values and where you want to end up. 

To help you think about this, let’s have a look at some brands that you may already know:

Virgin Atlantic: “Our vision is to contribute to creating happy and fulfilling lives which are also sustainable.”

Amazon: "Our vision is to be earth's most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online."

Zappos:  “One day, 30% of all retail transactions in the US will be online.  People will buy from the company with the best service and the best selection - Zappos.com will be that online store.”

DebPilgrim J: “To help you start, grow and lead your business, so that you have the freedom to live the life you desire.”

Make it BIG.  Make it something that others want to ask questions about it, want you to explain it further.  And don’t feel you have to put ‘corporate’ words in YOUR statement – be proud of your vision.

Once you are clear on your vision, the other parts of your business will fall into place.  From here you can develop your mission – that is why your company exists, what you do well every day?  Your mission will describe the ‘how to’, ie., your level of service, how you will deliver your products, all those things that bring your vision alive.

You vision is important because:

1.  It can become your decision making tool.  You want to ask yourself when developing new products or services, or when asked to collaborate on a project, speaking engagement etc :  “If I do X, will it bring me closer to achieving my vision?”  If the answer is yes – perfect!  If the answer is no, then you know what to do!
2. It helps you clarify your goals and objectives.  If you have trouble developing goals, once you’ve got your vision it becomes so much easier.  Your goals will lead to the achievement of your vision.
3. It keeps you focused.  By looking at your vision each day – you will know exactly what you need to focus on.  When the ebbs and flow of business occur, you will be a stronger position to keep moving forward and not be distracted by those bright shining objects, because you are very clear on what you are achieving.

Your Success Assignment:

Block out some time over the next week, take out some post it notes, and ask yourself:

• At the highest level, what do I want to create…

Go bold!

For more accountability and support, why not join the conversation our blog or our facebook page, and share with us your Vision.

Be a leader, not a business owner!

Leadership I believe is one of the critical links to business success, yet often as small business owners we can struggle to see ourselves as a leader. We see ourselves as a business owner, as a doer in our business, as a motivator of staff (if we have any). It is something that needs to be focused on.

Leadership is about developing a vision, about developing your personal vision of success for you both professionally and personally.

I want to share with you four questions that I have used frequently over the past 10 years with my clients. These are very simple questions that I heard from a keynote speaker at a conference I attended years ago. These questions will help you to build your personal framework around being a leader.

1 . How do you see yourself as a leader?

Ask yourself: What is your leadership point of view?
How would you describe your leadership style?
What matters to you in terms of your leadership?
Do you see yourself as a leader?

2. How do others see you?

Ask yourself: Do you know?
Do you care?
Are you right? (i.e. is your information accurate?)
How do you assess this every day of the week?

Note: Some of the best leaders are extremely conscious of how people see them. They ask for feedback frequently and evaluate it. They think about it daily and ask themselves:
“Is what I mean being perceived the way I intended”? “ If not, how do I need to change my message?”

3. How do you want to be seen?

This involves needs and values. If we don’t know the needs and values we are driven by, they can wreak havoc in our environment. The best leaders are in pursuit of respect first and popularity second.

4. How must and should you be seen to be effective?

If you don’t know this, then working with a mentor can help you look at the gaps and help you to see what you need to do tomorrow to be seen as more effective.

Once you've answered the questions above, and if you're ready for it, I'd like to share with you an exercise that I do each year around December time. 

It's an exercise that one of my Lecturer's recommended we do, when I was studying for my Masters Degree, and it's again a tool that has always stuck with me.

It's interesting because it's an exercise I would always use with my corporate clients, and these where in some cases jaded Senior Executives and CEO's who didn't feel as if they had much control over their lives.  At times they would resist this exercise, but the ones who took the time out and completed it, always feed back how profound they found it.

When I moved my focus back to small business owners for some reason I stopped asking my clients to look at this exercise.  I'm not sure why?  But after my recent realisation that I had stopped leading my business, I looked at my current letter to the future, and it helped me regain my balance, and now I would like you to try it out...

Here's how it works:

Writing Your Letter To The Future

Find a quiet space to begin, and have your journal (or a piece of paper) in hand.  

• Write the date that is into the future.  I normally do 31st December, speaking about what has happened in the year.
• Write a salutation (greeting) to yourself.
• Start of with your first paragraph explaining the reason you are writing the letter to yourself.
• Then go into what has happened for you in the past twelve months - be specific!  For each part of your life, create a new paragraph.  The more specific you are, the more real it is.  Take time to develop this letter.  Once you feel that your letter is complete...
• Sign off on your letter.

Place your letter in a safe place, ready to be read at that time in the future.

As always, please feel free to share with me your experience in writing your letter to the future.

Want to use this Article?

I would be honoured if you did, just be sure to use it in full and include the following information:

Deb Pilgrim helps you start, grow and lead your business, so that you can create the life you want. When you work with Deb, you get the results you always knew you could!  To find out more about how you can work with Deb visit her website, and whilst you are there download her latest report that will show you how to be one of the Top 5% of Entrepreneurs who succeed.

I always believed that being a member of the Royal Australian Air Force gave me a great foundation for my life, both professionally and personally.  The things I learnt from my time in the military have been invaluable to my business success.  The expansive skill set of strategic planning, competitive intelligence, decision making, leadership development, high standard enforcement, and innovation in execution are just a few of the skills that I walked away with.

When I first started out in business, I looked at the skills I had, but then quickly realised that to be effective, I needed to translate them from a military context, into a context that would provide me with the greatest value to my business.

I am reminded of these skills whenever the end of the year is upon me, as I normally will spend the last couple of months of the year planning and preparing for the next year. 

Here are three of the skills from the military that I find most useful for my business:

Intelligence:  In the military, there is always a systematic and ongoing analysis of competitors.  Understanding and reviewing the intelligence of your competition allows you to stay alive!  So when was the last time you spent time studying your competitors?  Do you know who your top five competitors are and what can you learn from them?

Action Step: Before now and the end of the year, take time to identify your top 10 competitors.  Use the questions set out in my previous article – Competition is not a Dirty Word and diligently work through these questions, so you have a better understanding of what your competitors are doing.  Use this information to either make changes to what you are currently doing or allow it to show you that what you currently do is cutting-edge. 

Planning and Preparation:  The military are known for their comprehensive and structured planning – which they do very well.  Not only is the planning  comprehensive, but it is timely and well executed.  There are only 64 days until 2011 hits us – have you begun to put together your strategic plan for 2011?  What are your goals and targets?  Have you started to develop your 2011 Marketing Plan?  Remember that 90% of all small businesses don’t have a marketing plan in place.  Make sure you are one of the 10% that does.

Action Step:  Block out time between now and January 1st to plan for 2011.  If you're not sure what you need to do here, now is the time to identify the specific type of support you need to help you develop your plan.  Get clear on this, and 2011 will be your best year.

Leadership Development:  The value of a great military leader was more than just what they did, it was how they did it, how they made decisions, lead their teams and presented themselves overall.  Many had to learn to be great leaders, and often in very trying circumstances.  I often find that when working with SME’s, they either don’t understand or don’t see the importance of being a strong leader.  But I would like to challenge you to think about this differently, whether you are a solopreneur or have a small team, your leadership skills and development is vitally important. 

Action Step: Please don’t make the mistake of not seeing yourself as a leader.  Take time to create a vision of the leader you would like to be and see the impact this can have on your business.

I look forward to hearing how you plan to spend your next 64 days.  Feel free to let me know.