Every and any successful business needs a solid business foundation. Your company’s foundational elements are its guiding light in times of uncertainty. They are what you and your employees can turn to each day in order to make sure you are on the right track. They are what you can trust in when things get hard.
How do you build a solid business foundation? What’s most important in it?
To answer those questions, the most important thing for you to know is what your business foundation needs to include to be strong.
So, what are those?
A Core Purpose
A strong core purpose is integral to you, your business, and your employees. Without any sort of purpose, you and your team can easily become lost, bored or dissatisfied. That’s one of the worst things that can happen to your company.
“At some point in your career, there will come a morning when you’ll awake and ask yourself, “What am I really doing?” It’s at this point that earning money by making/selling whatever will no longer be motivation enough.” – Entrepreneur
Everything from day-to-day work, to the overall vision of the company, needs to tie back to your overall core purpose. A strong core purpose ensures you and your team are never left wondering why the work is important. It cuts out any room for doubt.
Core Values
Do you have solid core values for your company? Do your employees know your core company values? Are they easy to understand? Do you live your values every day?
Enforcing values in every aspect of the job is vital for your company. It’s not enough to just write them down somewhere and cross your fingers, hoping your team will ‘get’ it. You need to embody them in the way you act and all the work you do. You need to make sure your employees know them and believe in them. As a leader, you also need to set an example in respecting those values and sticking to them.
“Reinforcing core company values is about leading by example and rewarding good behavior… it’s also important to get serious about terminating those who violate your company’s code of conduct.” – COO Alliance
Core values direct your employees and your company, so it’s important to take them seriously. They play a large role in your company’s success.
A Core Vision
Strong leaders have a strong, clear vision for their company and its future. Great leaders know how to guide their team toward a unified perspective of the future.
A lack of a clear vision or any vision at all leads to confusion. “It can also result in employee dissatisfaction and turnover since there is a lack of purpose and overall connection.” – COO Alliance
A core vision is what guides a company. It’s important to make sure your vision is tangible and easy to understand. That starts with you knowing it fully and in detail. Then, you need to figure out how to communicate it to your employees in a way they can easily digest and repeat to others if need be.
If employees are sure of where you are taking them, they are more likely to support you in your vision.
Passion
There are very few things in business and in life that matter more than passion. Passion is contagious. The stronger and clearer it is, the more contagious it is, too! When you’re passionate about your work, your team sees your enthusiasm, and are more likely to ‘see’ your vision and grow passionate for it themselves.
Passion ties everything together and can:
- Make you more attractive to clients
- Keep you motivated through difficult times
- Ensure more long-term success
- Increase employee retention
- Provide your team with a higher sense of purpose
Before you can secure funding, hire employees, or even open for business at all, you need to be certain of your business’s core. A sense of purpose, strong values, and a clear, Vivid Vision®, will make sure you have something solid to build upon. Without those four things, it’s nearly impossible to grow a strong, successful business. The greatest businesses all start with a great foundation.
What do you do to build a strong foundation? Are there any companies that you think have the strongest foundation? Let us know in the comments below!
If you have questions or would like more information, I’d be happy to help. Please send an email, and my team will get in touch with you!
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in November 2019 and has been edited for accuracy and comprehensiveness.
