How will you be remembered?
What is your legacy? What will people say about you and your business when you are gone? If the business continues will people remark on what it did for clients? Will the name stir golden memories or just a confusion of recollections?
Why?
At the heart of every successful business, particularly a consulting business there is a reason why the organization exists. Whether you’re a solopreneur or a group with offices across the country there is a core purpose that keeps the firm alive.
But it is more than that driving force. Over time it also becomes the results achieved. Those for whom you have delivered become a tribe linked to each other by those results and the passion that drives the enterprise.
It is most commonly called your mission.
Because of the emotions involved it is difficult to state simply and clearly. One of my clients who had easily completed all the exercises and worksheets presented to her earlier said that this one was “Wicked.”
The Wicked Worksheet
The Why of your business is not easy to put into words for most consultants. The easiest way I have found to get to the WHY of a business is to start with the easier questions and work into it. Repeat until it “feels right”
- What one or two words describes your business or organization in terms of what it delivers?
Examples: Marketing Advice (for a consultant) Delivery (for a package service)
My What word is: ________________________________________________________
2. Add one word that says how you provide it.
Examples: Do it Yourself Marketing Advice Overnight Delivery
My How word is: _________________________________________________________
3. Add a word or phrase that tells people Where you provide it.
Examples: D-I-Y Marketing Advice in person or recorded Overnight deliveries in the USA
My Where word is: _______________________________________________________
4. Add a word or phrase that tells me Who it is for.
Examples: Do it Yourself Marketing Advice in person or recorded for small businesses the “little guys” Overnight Delivery in the USA for businesses
My Who is: __________________________________________________________________
5. Next comes when, the need use or occasion that helps make your offering special.
Examples: Do it Yourself Marketing Advice in person or recorded for budget limited “little guys” Overnight Delivery in the USA for businesses on a deadline.
The when of my business is: ________________________________________________
6. What is important to the customer about that? ___________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
Examples: Do it Yourself Marketing Advice in person or recorded for budget limited “little guys” who need confidence to build their Business.
Overnight delivery in the USA for businesses on a deadline that need to be sure it will get there on time.
7. With that in mind sum up Why this business or organization exists in as few words as possible:
_______________________________________________________________________________
Examples: Z-axis Marketing’s Marketing Without Money TM for the little guy
Federal Express When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
Will your Mission stand the test of time?
Jerry Fletcher is a sought-after International Speaker, a beBee ambassador, founder and Grand Poobah of www.BrandBrainTrust.com
His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for on and off-line Trust-based Consultant Marketing and Brand development advice that builds businesses, careers and lives of joy.
Consulting: www.JerryFletcher.com
Speaking: www.NetworkingNinja.com
DIY Training: www.ingomu.com