Small Business Motivation: Core Personal and Business Values Reality Check

Today’s dose of small business motivation comes from some inspiration and insight in the business and personal development book – “The Freedom Formula: How to Put Soul in Your Business and Money in your Bank” by Christine Kloser.  This short, yet powerful, book helps provide a core business (and personal) values reality check for all small business owners.

The essence of The Freedom Formula is that your small business, personal, and spiritual life are all connected.  The more you know who you are, what your core small business values are, and the more you integrate YOU into your business, the more you will attract wealth and success in your small business marketing efforts.

Plainly stated, your personal core values and business core values should be one and the same because your small business is an expression of who YOU are!

YOU breathe life and energy into your business through that expression.  The more you align your personal core values and business core values, and your spirituality, the more you attract and create the success you deserve. You come to a point of pure integration.

This has been our experience on our Secrets to Web Success blog partnership (Deontee and Cenay).

The Importance of Sticking to Your Personal and Business Core Values

First ask yourself…Have you ever worked with a client or customer who you knew was not a perfect fit for your products and services?

Perhaps you made a decision to increase your customer base at the expense of finding highly qualified ones.   You might have felt that there were certain clients who were not a good match for your services, yet you assisted them.  The reason you might have faced this situation is that you compromised your core values for short term profit.  When this happens there is a disconnect. While this may have helped your short term profits, it hurts long term.  Because the customer might have expected something different, you end up losing them.  Or you may end up with a nagging customer that drains the life out of you.  When you work with clients that are not a proper fit for your services not only will the situation demotivate you but it will drain the energy and passion you might have for your small business.  This goes down a negative spiral.

So how do we get back on the track to attracting the perfect clients we want?

Small Business Motivation Step 1: Recognize Your Core Values

Identify and communicate your values to your clients and in your marketing (blog about page and posts, websites, brochures etc).

Ask yourself what your core values really are (sometimes they change).

Your core values are those values that you would not compromise because you feel very strongly about them?  If you are not sure ask yourself:

What values would I stand up for in a case where these values were violated?

Take a moment and write down what your top 3 values are and share them with us by commenting at the end of this blog post.

Examples would be:

• Collaboration, Community
• Creativity
• Freedom
• Fun
• Gratitude
• Health
• Honesty, Integrity
• Learning, Personal Growth
• Success, Accomplishment
• Wisdom etc.
  

Step 2 Check and See if You are Expressing Those Core Values in Your Internet marketing and Offline marketing content

Revisit your about page on your website or blog.  Make sure you are expressing your core values in your marketing.  If those values are not being expressed, integrate them into your marketing material.  Perhaps you are missing some or perhaps you just need to reevaluate and modify those values to fit your current belief systems.

One of the reasons many small business owners are not fulfilled in the work that they do is that they compromise those values to try to catch all of the prospects to bring in immediate gain and income.  Instead of working with a client who does not fit your values, refer that prospect to another business if that referral can better match the needs of your clients instead of wanting to catch them all.  This will free up room for you to attract clients you do want to work with.

A very powerful quote from the book “The Freedom Formula” is…

“Be you ALL of the time. As opposed to putting on a game face or you trying to fit into someone else’s idea or your own misguided idea of who you think you should be.

…So, as you discover and express more of your essence, the more you distinguish yourself in an overcrowded market of entrepreneurs who are trying to be someone else.”

Can you honestly say you are being yourself in your business?  Add your personality, flavor and personal core values to your business!

Here’s an exercise my fellow personal growth fanatics will appreciate.

1) Write down your values and a way that you recently might have compromised one of them.  How could you have approached the situation differently?

2) List 3 similar small businesses/small business owners in your market that you might connect with and refer those clients who are not aligned with your value system.  There is no such thing as “competition” if you are expressing who you and your business represent.

3) Set a goal to update your small business Internet marketing and offline marketing materials with your personal/business core values within the next 2-4 weeks.  Delegate or do the task yourself.

The more you express who you and your business essence are the more you will stand out from the crowd and the more you’ll attract the right clients.

P.S.

Share your thoughts with us.  Values, mistakes, etc.  We, the Secrets to Web Success Team, believe all business owners can benefit from our mistakes and successes.

We appreciate you.

About The Author

Dali Burgado, also known as "The Dali Blogger" teaches creative entrepreneurs how to carve a web presence that connects with their Inner Guru and their target audience. Her first online marketing love is SEO. She's an avid connector on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. When she's not coaching or teaching, she's tweaking sites for Search Engine Visibility, working on her PHP and Javascript coding skills, Singing Opera, or learning about gardening. Circle Dali on Google+