Business Concept Clarity: Determining the What, the How and the When for Your New (or existing!) Business

I love when people e-mail me questions.  It’s the BEST way to generate fresh, new and relevant content for my blogs.  This question was one that came into my inbox this week and I was going to answer it privately but I thought that many people may benefit so here it is as a blog post.

The question is this: I know what I want to do as a business because I am passionate about it but I can’t see the BIG picture of it all in order to really gain clarity about the next steps.

While answering this question could be an entire info-product or a few coaching calls, I’m going to break this down for you in the simplest, easiest way I know how.

1. Determine what will fit into your lifestyle.
   • Do you want to spend time doing coaching / strategy work? (Labor-intensive)
   • Do you want only passive revenue via the sale of e-books, etc.? (Only labor-intensive during setup)
   • Do you want to speak at various events? (Labor-intensive)
   • Do you want to become known as the expert in your industry? (Labor-intensive)
2. Once you figure out the KIND of commitment you want, determine what you’d like to do in your business.
   • Do you want to offer services (ie: coaching, strategising, consulting, etc.)?
   • Do you want to offer products (ie: ebooks, audio programs, etc.)?
   • Do you want to offer live events (ie: teleseminars or in-person events)?
3. After you determine what you want to offer, ask yourself how much time you want to be spending online.
   • Do you want a business that can run from virtually anywhere?
   • Do you want to spend some time working locally with clients?
   • Do you want an extremely active and thriving online profile? (Labor-intensive)
   • Do you want a web presence but not really an online “personality”?

At this stage, you should already know how much time you’re willing to commit, the kind of work you’d like to offer and how much time you want to spend online.  Next, let’s look at the specifics of WHAT you will do.

1. What sort of business do you want to run?
   • Think about areas you are really talented in — can they be turned into a business?
   • Do people tell you over and over again, “You really should be a _______!”?
   • What content area gets you REALLY excited and ready for action?
   • If you could spend your day doing only X, what would that look like?
2. Taking the concept you’ve come up with above, apply it to the following areas:
   • What would be ONE service you could offer around the content area you’ve chosen?
   • What would be ONE product you could create around the content area you’ve chosen?
   • What would be ONE teleseminar topic you could deliver on that content?

Once you’ve determined that, see if the business is scalable.

1. Can I delegate (or, if I have the time, do myself):
   • The scheduling for my services?
   • The creation of the info-products that I will offer?
   • The creation of the systems to deliver my info-products manually?
   • The scheduling for my teleseminar spots?
   • The research for joint venture partners?
2. If I get really, really busy in my business, can I turn to others to help support my clients?
   • Could you train other people to do your coaching / strategy work?
   • Could you train other people to speak to your customers on your behalf?
   • Is this business solely dependent on ME or can I implement other expert’s abilities?

So, you might by now have something that looks like this (I’m creating an example here):

I want a business where I can teach people, through products, services, teleseminars and live speaking engagements, how to run their businesses authentically.  I want an entirely virtual business so that I can utilize various tools to become an expert in my industry.  I want a thriving online practice.  A few of the ways we help our clients is through our one-on-one coaching sessions, our authentic living workbook and our live event titled, “Living, Breathing Authentically: The Necessity of Being You.”

My team handles all of the scheduling and support while I work one-on-one with my clients.  The info-products I have get delivered automatically via our systems that were setup by my team.  I also have a team of other authentic coaches who help the clients that come into the business that I do not have the required time for.  We work hard yet we all still have time to take vacation and honor our schedules.

Once you get crystal clear about WHAT the business looks like, you can move into the how and when.  This part is a little bit easier.  It simply requires you to do the following:

1. Create a calendar. Lay out the various goals you want to achieve with SOLID dates on your calendar.  Then, you’ll know the goals you are working towards. (For example: if you know you want to do an info-product, mark on your calendar the day you want to have it done and commit yourself to writing a few pages per day until you reach that deadline.)
2. Find the right people. Once you know the WHEN, you need to have people in place to help you accomplish and achieve your goals.  Do not move forward until you have a calendar in place because you need to communicate out these deadlines to the people working with you.
3. Hire a coach / mentor / strategist. Get someone who can help you walk through the hows, the whats and the whens.  If you aren’t sure, turn to someone who gets big pictures and who understands all the moving parts.  This will alleviate a lot of stress.

There’s a lot of information here but I’m hoping it really helps people to gain clarity and purpose when it comes to defining down what they want to do.  Once you do have that mental picture and that clarity, you can move forward stepping always into the right direction.

If you want additional support on the process above, I’m happy to strategize with you.  I do one-on-one strategy work with clients to help them come online and grow their business using the Internet.  Contact me today for information.

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