Why your business needs to be built on a strong foundation
I’m Christopher Briggs, creator of Your Business Foundation.
You’ve come to the right place if you’re the owner of a microbusiness who is established but is struggling to get it to the next level or if you’re a new business owner or start-up founder who wants to build their business the right way straight out of the gate.
If you’re the CEO of a more established SME company that you want to expand or prepare for exit, then this is the right place for you too.
My role is to provide you with the tools and guidance that you can use to achieve all you want from your business.
I help business owners get 3 fundamental things right. I call these the 3 Fundamental Building Blocks that basically make the difference between building an extraordinary business or a mediocre one that just does ok.
Strategy
This is the core of your foundation. A strong, coherent strategy lies at the heart of every successful business. It is a clear strategy that will give you the certainty of knowing where you want to be and how to get there.
No strategy and you’re ‘winging it’ – you’re being opportunistic not strategic. You can only hope that with luck your business will be successful.
Systems
This is one of your supporting building blocks. Put the right systems and processes in place so that your business runs efficiently and effectively without you in it everyday and you will be able to step back from your business and be the leader it needs you to be.
Being able to do this is vital if you are to create and successfully implement the right strategy that drives your business to the next level.
Your business is never too small or too young to start systemising. You need it to work for you, so you stay in control and not the other way round.
Leadership
This is the other supporting building block to your strategy block. This is about you and your mind-set, about you standing at the helm of your business and being in control of where you want to take it and how you will get there. Because without you there will be no strategy and your business will limp along directionless.
And this is as much about leading yourself as it is leading others.
These 3 building blocks, when working well, will give you that vital certainty and control.
This is what that strong foundation is all about.
Without these 3 building blocks your business foundation will be weak – that is to say, instead of based certainty and control, it will be based on hope and luck. You can only hope you’re doing the right things to grow your business and that with luck nothing unexpected will happen that will hurt it.
With this foundation your business is like a stone castle built into a cliff that has withstood the elements for hundreds of years – it’s strong enough to weather the storms ahead. Without this foundation, your business is more like a sand castle – it’s weak and vulnerable and won’t last beyond the next incoming tide.
This might sound a little dramatic, but unfortunately the analogy matches reality. Too many businesses struggle to do more than just get by and too many fail, all because they lacked this foundation.
The challenge for us both is that building this foundation isn’t the sexy front-line part of a business. It’s not the part of the business that will give you the buzz when you make a sale or launch a new and exciting product or service.
But it is the part that will make those sales and new launches successful. It’s the behind-the-scenes, essential part of your business and it’s the part that will make all the difference to its success.
This isn’t a short cut, shiny object promise to vast wealth but the serious core stuff that a business needs have in place if it is to succeed.
I don’t show you how to write business plans or establish an online presence or how to close a sale. I will help you create and successfully implement the right strategy so that you strategically grow your business with certainty and control.
And that means having the Systems and Leadership blocks working and supporting the Strategy block too.
If you’re in this to build an incredibly successful business that you’re proud to stand at the helm of and if you want the best chance of building the business that becomes all you deserve then you must eliminate hope and luck and instead establish the certainty and control that these building blocks give you. This is how I can help.
It’s important that you know more about this foundation and see for yourself exactly why it is vital for success. So, as you’re new here, this is what I recommend you do.
START WITH THESE 2 FREE EBOOKS
I’ve written a couple of ebooks that give you more of what this foundation is all about, why it matters and how these building blocks translate into tangible strengths that all successful businesses have.
I have a blog and write a new post most weeks. Take a look, gain some useful insights and get to know me better as I’m sure my personality comes through in my writing.
Here are some past posts worth checking out.
How to Transform Your Business and Yourself
The Biggest Difference You Can Make to Your Working Day
Your Biggest Risk is Your Greatest Asset
Are You Sending Your Prospects to Your Competitors?
GET TO KNOW ME
I know I’m not going to appeal to everyone and that’s fine – because I don’t want to.
There will be business owners who will be ‘too busy’ to do this, who can only work at the coal-face, who focus on tactics – actions – that links to no coherent strategy.
For a while, businesses like these do fine – from starting out they make sales and they grow. But at some point the business will flatten and the owner will keep busy just trying to maintain what he or she has.
Or something will go wrong and the business doesn’t have the strength to overcome the unexpected set-back.
These are the 50 percent that fail in the first 3 years or the 80 percent that fail in the first 10 years.
I will only work with business owners who understand that to achieve long-term success they need to build a solid, strategic business and who are willing to step back and allocate enough time and resource to do this.
If you’re that kind of strategic business owner then take a look around my site and see my current offering and the ways in which I can help.
The bottom line is that I do this because too many small business owners struggle to achieve what they first dreamed they would and it shouldn’t be that way.
Stay with me. Step back and take time out to absorb and think about the stuff I’m telling you and I’m here to help if you need me.