3 Rules to Build the Business YOU Want

Thinking about how my month will shape up motivated me to share 3 rules that I follow to build my Ideal Business that you should be following too.

Rule #1 – You Decide What You’ll Do And What You Won’t.

It’s your business so you should decide which clients you’ll take, what hours you’ll train, how you’ll market, how you should price your services and everything in between.

For me, those two trips work because the second one will just put me in Florida a couple of days before my family comes down for vacation. I had another trip tentatively planned for the time in between but I decided that it was too much travel.

Family first is a ‘rule’ for me.

Now I get that if your business is just getting started you might take on a few clients to pay the bills or make some sacrifices that you don’t really want to make forever…I know I did.

But you need to map out your Rules and work toward sticking to them or you’ll be running a start up business forever.

Rule #2 – Market Smart.

I’ll admit it, I really enjoy marketing and selling. I think of it like a game that I’m always trying to improve at playing.

But part of the reason I enjoy marketing is that I know how to market smart.

See, marketing smart really centers around 3 things…

– Fishing where the fish are.

– Making sure your message will speak to the prospects you want to attract.

– Building relationships.

One of the things that is great about spending time in person with the people I consider my Ideal Clients at these two meetings is that I get to know them far better than if I was just working with them virtually.

They are exactly who I want to work with – and spending time with them will help me learn where I can find more people like them and how I can make sure my messages is speaking to what’s important to them.

So sure – I’m going to talk about the Ideal Business…but I want to know where they go when they’re not coming to our meetings…are they attending certain events? What websites do they pay attention to? Who else do they follow?

And I want to know what Ideal is to them…so I can better speak the language that matters to them rather than just expecting people to adapt to me.

You can really learn from your best clients in that same way.

Then use what you learn to get referrals, better target on Facebook, form strategic alliances, and you can show how you are different time and time again through web copy, the social proof you use, talks you give, how you educate clients and staff to talk about you and so on.

Rule #3 – Play To Your Strengths.

I know my strengths…and there aren’t too many.

Connecting / Relationship Marketing

Coaching

Marketing / Selling / Producing

Writing

Business Development / Business Optimization

So meetings where I can connect, coach and work on business development and optimization fit perfectly for me.

I try to build my business so that most of my time is spent on this stuff. Probably 90%.

You should do the same…figure out what you do well or want to learn to do well…then build around it. Systematize, minimize, delegate or eliminate the rest.

Those are 3 rules I live by when it comes to business. I know how important they are to me…I suspect they’ll be just as valuable to you too.