Hey, how is your back end looking? Is it supporting your goals or maybe not?

In today's episode, we're going to look at your Business Foundations.

Hey, it is week two of 2021, we've got one week down and 51 ahead of us. I told you we're going to be counting these down. I want you to check in on your goals, see if you're on track. We're still early in the year, and I know you may be laying some of your plans to get things done.

All right. Well, today I'm actually re-recording this episode right now because originally I recorded an episode about your Word of the year or, theme of the year. I love doing that myself. And so I was sharing some insights, but I went ahead and changed my mind after today's topic came up several times. So I'm going to shift. I personally love having a word of the year. Mine this year is Ready and I'm sure I'll share more about that in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, I'm going to include the link to a two part blog post that I did about that. I hope you find it useful. Feel free to reach out in our Facebook community. If you have questions or if you'd like some more information, you can get there by going to ThePurposefulCEO.com/Facebook, or you can check the show notes and it'll be there as well. Today, I want to talk with you about your business foundations, the Money Making Pillars, if you will.

They are the things that will support you in meeting your goals and scaling your business. Some of the things that have been coming up and I've been hearing are along the lines of I have to make this work this year. Or I have to make my side gig, my main gig with everything that's going on in the world and this pandemic, I have to make my side gig, my main gig. Here's a pretty common one between homeschooling, trying to record my course content and getting four to six hours sleep, I don't know how much longer I can do this. Followed by, I don't know if I'm even cut out for this or I don't know what to do next. And there was even I feel like I lost so much time when I had covid. I mean, that's a real deal thing. Now, people were just sidelined for a little bit. It's heart-wrenching to hear and see the frustration, the panic, the self-doubt, the earnestness that people really want to make this business, that they're they've started, they want to make it work. And probably it's even more so for me because of the times that I've been in that place. And they come readily flashing back in front of me as I'm hearing these things. And they settle in my chest. And most of us have been there, not so much the pandemic, but we've had things that have come up along the way in life. And as we were growing our business, that made us feel and see, some of you may have said some of those very things.

Now, I know first hand, obviously, that there is a lot to unpack in there. And while I'm not a mindset coach, I know some excellent ones that I can refer people to, along with some other experts that can help in those areas. The stepping back and looking at the areas that I can help with, business development, strategy, business operations. Typically, as we dig a little deeper into those conversations, it becomes clear that there are some key foundational pieces that are missing and that will contribute to those feelings. And once you get them laid, you actually can alleviate and head off many of those negative thoughts and feelings. So today we're going to briefly go over those and then there's a PDF that you can get so that you are able to sit down and work on it. You can find that at ThePurposefulCEO.com/pillars and again, I'll put it in the show notes so that you can get to it more easily.

All right. First up, whatever you want to call this piece, it doesn't matter to me as long as you call it done.

So there's some resistance to different terminologies and things like that. So whether you call it your passion and purpose, your mission, vision and values, why you do what you do, your roadmap or something else, again, it doesn't matter as long as you call it done. This is such a crucial pillar of your business. It's not just fluff or an exercise to be checked off your list and save somewhere on your hard drive buried in a folder.

I believe that this is your compass. When you keep this is your focus front and center, it will help you stay in alignment and save you time and money because you end up not going down as many rabbit holes or distracted by so many shiny objects. It does help you stay in alignment with why you're doing what you do and what it is you're creating. And by keeping it right there in front of you, obviously what you focus on grows stronger. So I do see it as a guiding light or a compass that can help direct your way. As opportunities and different things come up. You can look at it and say, hmm, does this take me closer to or further from where I'm headed?

Next step, is a clearly defined ideal client avatar or your ICA. Now, this allows you to tailor everything you do to them, your audience, your ideal person that you want to work with. And again, the PDF will go into more detail on all of these so that you can work through them, so we're just looking at them overall today. This will allow you to tailor everything to them, right? Your products, your offer, your marketing, anything that you're doing to support your audience. Knowing who they are is extremely important.

Speaking of offers, that's next on the list. So what do you do? How do you do it? How do you package it or deliver it? What results are your customers getting from it? This is important to get clear on this because this then drives the following pillar, which are your business goals and metrics.

Peter Drucker, who, he has been hailed as the father of modern management, he said if you can't measure it, you can't improve it. And I love that. I mean, really sit down and think about that. If you can't measure it, you can't improve it. And in this case, I'm talking about things like setting your income goals, which I talked about on last week's podcast. You haven't listed that. Go back and get the PDF for that and work through that as well.

Also, the numbers that you need to track to ensure that you're on the right path and if not, allows you to course correct, rather than getting to the end of a situation and finding out that you're totally off base, you're tracking these things as you go and the things that you track are going to depend on your goals and your offers and things like that. Another area you could track is how much you want your business to grow in any given time period.

It could be your email list. It could be your podcast listeners. It could be your sales, obviously. Depending on where you are, you get to decide how much you want to grow and then you track that to see again if you're on track. And of course, then we have your systems, tools and your processes. The right tools and well thought out processes or lack of will make all the difference in not only your business, but your sanity.

So looking at these five pillars, these five areas, so first is your passion and purpose or your mission, vision and values, again, whatever you want to call it. When you map that out, you put it down on paper and you keep it in front of you, then it's like, oh, this is why I'm doing what I'm doing. This is where I'm going. And this is the impact that I want to make in the lives of my audience as well as myself and my community.

When you have that down, then you'll see that your ideal client avatar, it's like, OK, who are those people that I do do these things for? Who are those people that I want to create a change and deliver relief to whatever problem they're having? Which then once you know who your ideal client is, your offer again, what are you doing? How are you helping them? And then your goals and metrics so that you can see these things that I'm doing for my ideal client, these offers that I have, are they on track? Are they what do I need to change? What do I need to tweak? So it's not really whether or not they're good or bad numbers, they're just numbers, as my friend Kelly Reynolds over at Reynolds OBM tells me all the time. But it allows you to see where you are and where you can make changes and it puts you in the driver's seat of your business like you get to drive this bus rather than sitting and worrying about where you are or I don't know what to do next and all these other things. When you have this foundation in place, it actually supports you and gives you that confidence that you need so that you can pull yourself out of that and you can go look at the facts, which are the numbers. And then you say, OK, if this isn't where I want it to be, what do I need to do to change it? And again, you are in charge. You get to choose.

I know it probably feels like a lot. I've been there. I felt the same way back when I was implementing these things in my business. So first of all, I just want you to take a deep breath. You have come this far. Give yourself a pat on the back. Kudos to you. This is just another notch on your CEO toolbelt. I just want you to remember that all of these parts and pieces contribute to your confidence, your stability, and they can actually ward off some of that panic, frustration and confusion that comes up.

Truly, you're going to come up against things as you grow your business. And just because you don't know how to do something, I know you're good at what you do. Right? You are so good at doing and delivering what you do, just because you don't know these parts and pieces of the business operations and all of that, those are all learnable. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't be in business. That means nothing other than, oh, here is an area that I need to learn about so that I can grow to that next level.

So for the PDF, you can go to ThePurposefulCEO.com/pillars and get that or check the show notes for the link. It'll be there. And as you're working through this PDF, if it feels like, wow, this is a lot, I really wish I had somebody to talk to you about this or somebody to help me implement it. The Purposeful CEO Blueprint is launching later this month. I'll be sharing more details, a link will be on the show notes as well. I'll share more information about that next week on the podcast.

But just know this is all learnable. It's all doable. And you've got this. There are resources available to support you as you move through this part of your journey to becoming a profitable CEO.

Be sure to reach out in our Facebook community with questions or if you just want to connect the link again is in the show notes. It's ThePurposefulCEO.com/Facebook. The better equipped you are with facts about your business, the simpler it becomes to know what action to take next. All right, well, that's it for today. Be sure to tune in this Thursday as Natalie Gingrich shares her journey to do things her way.

In the meantime, let's go make a difference.