Showing Up

Did you ever consider how you’re showing up in your life and your business?  They’re connected, you know. 

A couple of weeks ago we talked about the ABC’s of Great Leadership.  How about the ABC’s of Having a Great Life and Business?  Authenticity, belief system and compassion are key components of living a fulfilled life and doing great work. 

Our lives begin in complete authenticity and freedom.  As children we make choices totally based on our own fulfillment.  And then the world happens to us, and we get conditioned to live based on other people’s choices for us.  It’s natural and has to happen to some degree to protect us and so that we can function in society.  At some point, though, we all have to reconnect with ourselves… rediscover ourselves… get back to the core of who we are and choose the beliefs that support the highest and best of ourselves.

I work with small business owners all the time who talk about potential – the business has potential, their staff has potential, this new idea has potential.  Reading between the lines of what isn’t being said, what I hear is “we could be successful if only…..”  I would be rich if only I could win the lottery Saturday night.  Does that kind of thinking help us confidently spring into action, or does it cause us to resist doing anything because we think we aren’t enough, don’t have enough and don’t believe enough to get it done? 

To be authentic and to show up that way, we need only to focus on now and recognize that we have everything we need at this moment to do what we can do today.  Then do it.  We are free to choose a belief system based our growing capacity instead of an “if only” potential mindset.  Show yourself some compassion – accept and love who you are.  You are the only person in the world who can do what you do in the way that you do it. 

When you can show up in your life and your business as the best YOU that you can be, the world will happen for you.

Are you thinking about starting your own business?

 

According to the US Census Bureau, more than 18 million people in the US are self-employed.  But the SBA reports that only about 44% of new businesses survive four years.  Why do most people take the leap into business ownership?  

Given the state of the current employment situation in our country, people who have lost their jobs often feel they would create a better situation for themselves if they were in control.  They are burned out on the restrictions and lack of freedom that most traditional jobs offer.  And the illusion of security, that exists when you work for someone else, is just that…an illusion.  There are no commitments in the “at will” employment community, and benefits that companies once considered a cornerstone of their cultures, are disappearing because of rising costs. Aside from freedom and control, probably the number one reason people decide to start their own business is because they offer a service, or they’ve invented a product that they’re passionate about.  And the only way they can engage in their craft is if they’re independent. Our economy and our psyche are totally ready for the courageous individuals who take the plunge to bring to market their unique take on a service or a new product that could potentially create more revenue to pump up our local larders.

How can they prepare themselves?  They may make the best product, or have the most innovative service and of course, they know their product or service inside out and backwards.  But if they don’t know the business basics, they will end of up part of the 56% that don’t make it beyond four years.  A must read for anyone contemplating starting their own business is The E-Myth Revisited.  Author Michael Gerber explores the difference between working in your business – what you do.  And working ON your business – how you do what you do.  This is the information that not enough of the 18 million take the time to check out, and contemplate, and incorporate into their business plans. 

Yes, you may have invented the next best thing to sliced bread, but if you don’t have systems to run your business…if you don’t have a marketing plan and a method for executing it…if you don’t have a clue how to sell (and the thought of selling makes you feel geechy…), recognize that if you want to be one of the elite 56%, you should first assemble a team of professionals who have the experience and passion to do the things you aren’t trained to do or interested in doing.  So you can continue to invent the next best thing…and the next…and the next.