Welcome to Part 2 of the Business Foundation Formula. The second prong of this formula is your Business Operations. Business Operations focus on the actual running of your business. One key starting place is your organizational strategy. You MUST be organized. And you must be organized from the get-go. The key to a thriving business is being able to find information quickly and easily. Quickly and easily! I would start with your filing system. How are you storing information?

Now that we’ve established what’s needed to set up your Business Foundation Formula, we can move into the next phase, which is all about planning for growth. This is where we’ll talk about the things, and by things I mean handbooks and manuals, that you’ll want in place as you begin to get bigger and bring on a team - even if it’s just a small team.

Owning your own business comes with a lot of perks. You can work at your own pace and schedule, you can complete tasks the way you like them, and you don’t have to answer to anyone but yourself. On the flip side, however, it can be challenging to really get your business off the ground and in a good financial flow. Things like marketing, networking, and growing your client list all take time. Growing your business is the goal of just about every business owner. But how do you know when you’ve hit that sweet spot and need to think about getting some help? How can you be proactive and what are some things you can tackle right away to stay ahead of the curve?

Let’s talk templates. If you’re a service-based business in particular, templates are an incredible tool that can improve the efficiency of your business and save you so much time!

5 ways templates can help you:

What a journey this has been! I have learned and grown so much. My biggest takeaways were learning how to navigate social media and networking, and understanding how each of those play a role in growing my business.

If you're a service-based professional, spending time analyzing your client journey is a must! Since there are many parts to this process, we'll spend time breaking down each component separately.

So, let's start with your consultation. This is a prospective client's first impression of what it would be like to work with you.

Let’s talk about your client onboarding process. You’ve had the consult and they’ve said yes (awesome!); now you need to get them set up for success. So what does that mean for you?

Let’s talk about Expectations for a moment. When you’re starting a relationship with someone, whether you’re a coach, a consultant, a personal trainer, a bookkeeper, a travel agent, whatever; there are expectations for both parties. So what are those? And are they clearly outlined when you’re having your consultation and onboarding discussions?

Eventually, the relationship with your client will come to an end, for whatever reason. Maybe you’ve completed the work, maybe they need to take a break, maybe it’s just no longer the right fit. That’s all good!

So logistically, how do you wrap things up and bring them to a close? What happens next?

I’ve been thinking a lot about what Success looks like, these days. It seems like we’re told that success looks only a certain way and society promotes it to be only a certain thing. ‘You have to make tons of money.’ ‘You need to be making a dramatically large impact on society.’ ‘You need to work until burnout.’ But I don’t think this is accurate and I also don’t think it's fair. I think success is different for everyone. It’s personal. What success looks like to me, to you, to her, to them; it all varies.