In this bonus Podcast Episode, I celebrate 17 years in business by sharing the five greatest needs for business success that I’ve learned throughout my journey. Reflecting on my experiences, I cover the importance of having a business coach, staying accountable, creating a clear marketing plan, implementing systems and surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals. Whether you’re in your first or seventeenth year of business, these practical insights will inspire and guide you on your entrepreneurial journey! Read on to discover how these five greatest needs for an online entrepreneur allowed me to remain relevant in the marketplace and build a successful business!
In the month of October, I celebrate another year in business! Because I am not certain what day I actually started, I’m going to use October 1st to celebrate my 17th year in business.
Over the past years, I’ve learned that these are the five greatest needs as a business owner in order to be successful:
1. You need a business coach.
Do I believe that you need a business coach from day one and that you must be working with a business coach every day of your business? Absolutely not, but I do believe there are times in your business where you could use the services, the expertise and the advice.
I have had numerous business coaches and I have to be completely honest, not all of them were worth the money that I paid them. But many of them were worth more than I paid them.
Having a business coach helps you to gain clarity and get pointed in the right direction. It helps you to grow as a person and as a business owner, and it can be an invaluable part of your business. I believe that 1000%.
Finding a business coach can be challenging, and it is important that you find the right person. You want to align with them in your beliefs and in your goals.
2. You need accountability.
Now, whether this comes in the form of an accountability partner or a group of people, I think you can tell from the September Podcast Series, Focused & Productive: Mastering The 12 Week Year, which I co-hosted with my friend and accountability partner, Trisha, that I value accountability! It has helped me, probably more than anything else in my business.
A business coach can also provide accountability for you. One of my business coaches over the years was my friend Christa Hutchins. She is a productivity coach and provided accountability. We would tell her what we needed or wanted to do for the week. Then at the end of the week, we would email her and it was an accountability update.
As you’ve heard on the podcast, it’s important to have an accountability partner, a friend, or someone that you trust who will commit to you and you to them in order to have that accountability in place. It is a serious commitment. It has to be commitment from both sides for it to actually work, which is why I said that my relationship with Trisha has worked because we both were committed.
3. You need a clear marketing plan.
For many years, I threw spaghetti at the wall and hoped that it would stick. That is the analogy I’m using because I did not have a clear marketing plan for my business. I was flailing around trying this and that. This is where that coaching piece comes into play, since a coach will help you to create a plan that works, not just throw spaghetti at the wall.
Having a clear marketing plan – and following through with the plan – is one of the ways that I have been able to be successful in my business.
You have to actually do the work. You can plan till you’re blue in the face, but if you don’t implement the plan, then all is lost. It’s futile. Implementation is key.
I can remember the very first business conference that I went to back in 2009. I flew to San Antonio, Texas, and I went to what was called The Boss Conference. One of the speakers talked about taking action. Even if it’s imperfect action, it’s better than no action.
Having a clear marketing plan and then implementing that marketing plan is key.
4. You need systems in place.
I have quite a few friends and clients who call me the systems queen because I absolutely love a good system. If you don’t have a system for things, you are not doing it consistently the same way every time. Consistency in business will make or break your business.
Not being consistent will break your business. Being consistent will make your business.
Consistency will work so much better if you have a system in place. You need systems for basically everything you’re doing in business from your bookkeeping, to your task management, to your goal setting and to your email management. All the things need a system in place. That is one of the things I feel like has made my business is the implementation of systems.
5. You need to surround yourself with like-minded people.
If you want to be successful, you need to surround yourself with successful people.
You need to find someone who is doing what you want to do. And you want to follow that person and emulate what they do and put that into place in your business.
I’ve done this by finding business coaches that I loved following what they were doing and implementing it in my business.
Do you have to do everything that they do? No. Do you have to be a carbon copy of them? No, but you can implement paces or strategies from what they’re doing into your own business and you can be successful!
A word of caution
Now let’s back up a little bit and talk about how you want to be around like-minded individuals, because if you’re not, you’re surrounding yourself with other types of people.
Sometimes those people are negative.
We have to eliminate the negative in our lives and in our businesses, if we want to be successful. This is something that was very difficult for me because sometimes the people who were being negative were people I really loved. But I did not love their attitude or their mindset. So I had to eliminate – or at least hold those people at arm’s length – and not be as close to them as maybe I felt I should be in order to be successful. This helped me in my personal life as well.
How do you find like-minded individuals?
You can join clubs and organizations. Over the years, I’ve been a part of several online organizations where I was able to get to know individuals and begin to build friendships with them.
There are in person, face-to-face organizations such as the very first one I ever joined called NACWE, The National Association of Christian Women Entrepreneurs. Its founder was Diane Cunningham and she had a tremendous impact upon my business.
I joined NACWE in 2010 and I was a part of her organization for several years. She is no longer the current president. The organization has been sold a couple of times, but it is still a very solid organization that I would recommend someone joining if they are looking to bond with like-minded Christian business owners.
Another one that I’ve recently joined as an author and speaker is the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association or AWSA. I joined it back in the summer and attended the AWSA Indiana conference in August. These ladies are a sisterhood. They are all working together to further God’s kingdom in whatever way that they can, whether it’s writing a book, or speaking, or some combination.
AWSA is a group of like-minded individuals, ladies who are doing things that God has called them to do. They make you feel like you can do the same thing.
So joining or finding groups of like-minded people is going to help you to succeed in your business!
To wrap up, I believe that these five things are essential to be successful in your business:
- You need a business coach
- You need accountability
- You need a clear marketing plan
- You need systems in place in your business
- You need to surround yourself with like-minded people
I hope that this episode was an encouragement to you, and if you are on Year One or Year 17, it will help you in your business today!
Questions? Join the Group!
If you have specific questions about hosting a virtual summit, I’d love to get those because that would help me to make sure that I’m covering everything that you’re interested in knowing during this series on the podcast. You can submit your questions inside The Christian Business Advantage Facebook group. I look forward to seeing you there!
