Lately, in louder and greater numbers, I have heard small business owners talking about the "good old days". It's not surprising. In these challenging times, many entrepreneurs feel like they are "swimming upstream and against the current." They long for the simpler, easier, better days. Unfortunately, many owners right now think their glory days are behind them. That's sad. Such a mindset is incredibly limiting and damaging. It causes one's business vision (mental picture of an ideal future) to decrease in scope and size. And if your business vision and goals are fading and shrinking, so are your current and future results.
Face reality. Have you let the tough economy shrink your vision? Shrink your dreams and possibilities? Are you thinking merely to survive instead of thrive? The economy WILL improve in time, but will your vision?
Or, have you simply caught up to or outgrown your current business vision and just don't know it? Have you failed to upgrade and upscale it over time? When is the last time you updated and upgraded your written vision? The Growth Coach business coaching process requires thousands of our clients to examine and refine their business and personal visions 4 times a year. Among other coaching practices, it gives them unbelievable clarity, confidence, and direction.
To take YOUR business to a much higher level of success and performance, you too must expand your vision of what is possible. Do not restrict your growth by thinking small. Instead of thinking about mere incremental grow, start thinking and dreaming about geometric growth. Expand your mind and vision. Think 10 times growth! Why not?
Instead of serving 100 customers, imagine serving 1,000. Instead of providing value to 100,000 customers, visualize a million. Instead of producing 10,000 widgets, why not produce 100,000 widgets. Instead of personally earning $100,000 a year, imagine earning $1,000,000 or more. Why not? Why not you? Why not now? Stop the excuses!
Think 10X. Worse case, you don't hit 10X performance. What did you lose? Nothing but stale "small thinking". 10X thinking is a mind-expanding process that will get you out of your day-to-day, limiting beliefs and thinking. It will expand your possibilities, creativity, innovation and strategies. So what if you don't get to 10X performance. What if you only hit 2X or 4X? Isn't that much better than aiming for and hitting a mere 5% growth? Think 10X.
Yes, the economy has been rough. No doubt. But don't be afraid to dream big once again. You did it before. Have the courage to write down an updated, upgraded, and Technicolor vision on steroids. Don't worry about how you will achieve it at this point, the "how to" will materialize if you have a vision that excites your soul (and your team's) once again. With technology, alliances, innovation, big businesses struggling, and gigantic emerging markets, tremendous LEVERAGE is always available. Also, the economy will improve and grow once again...be sure to improve and upgrade your vision before then.
All you have to do is use your imagination and start thinking and believing BIG once again! Think 10X. Ask yourself, "How could we grow our business 10 times? How could we go from a 500 customers to a 5,000 customers?" "How can we provide 10 times the value to our customers?" Ask your employees, advisers, and vendors these same questions as well. Also, don't be afraid to ask another critical question, "How can I increase my personal earnings 10 times?" Write down all these ideas - do not judge any of them at this stage. Just let the ideas flow. By enlarging your vision, you expand your mind, creativity and strategies.
Be confident, you grew dramatically before. Your business today is 10 times as big as it once was. Therefore, you already know how to grow a business 10 times its size. If you already grew it 10 times as large once, with a bigger vision and leverage, why couldn't you grow it 10 times as large again? YOU CAN! You must think abundance and opportunity, not scarcity and risk. You must also realize the mindsets, strategies, assumptions and habits that got you to your present plateau need to be enlarged to get you to the next plateau. You must grow...business coaching can help!
For your business to grow, YOU and your VISION must grow. Click here to take a simple on-line business coaching assessment to see ways in which you might grow yourself, your vision and your business.
Nothing is holding you back from much greater success and satisfaction except your limiting beliefs and confining vision. Think big and believe big! Take out a note pad and pen and spend half a day dreaming about and creating a much larger business vision. The economy will expand. The real question is, "will your vision expand?" Think 10X!
Daniel M. Murphy
President, Founder, Business Coach
The Growth Coach
Business Coaching Franchise System
Certified Business Coaches throughout North America