Is your vision clear? Who knows your business better than you? The answer should be everyone!
As an entrepreneur and as the leader of a fast growth company, I often catch myself thinking at breakneck speed to get through a set of tasks and goals for the day, week, month, etc.
Most entrepreneurs are task and goal driven and have very high expectations of reaching and exceeding these goals.
The pace I am required to think and the accelerated output both mentally and physically is sometimes astounding, often with excellent results, sometimes astoundingly poor. Keeping up isn’t an option; we set the pace.
My team works at incredible speed to achieve our business goals.
Recently at an Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) university in Europe, I was surrounded by some of the fastest thinkers I have had the pleasure of meeting, and listening to some of the most inspirational speakers and draw on a brains trust that was spectacularly rich with value content and thought leadership.
It propelled me amongst other things to ask, what is my personal vision for Job Capital? What is the vision for Job Capital and the numerous brands we have developed in the last 12 months?
Who knows exactly what we do, why we do it and how does the Job Capital team respond to the outside world when asked these very simple questions? I needed to stop thinking and start asking.
I thought very hard about the answer to this. And I started to ask why. I asked clients, the team, suppliers and peers to tell me what they think Job Capital does and who we are.
What our brand stands for and if they knew what our vision is. And each time I asked, I asked why three times, just to ensure I was receiving the message clearly, to equally ensure I could revert with a clear vision and mission.
The results not only gave me clarity, but also forced a move to ensure our market position is spot on moving forward as we continue to roll out more products across Australia and next across AsiaPac.
I was totally surprised by who knew what and how little of the company capabilities they were informed of. I made it my mission to get the message clear, correct, big and audacious!
Job Capital is simply “People and Payroll Management”. Our mission is to be the biggest supplier of outsource payroll and people management solutions in Australia. We aim to have a $120 million business by 2014.
Job Capital will be Australia’s only full circle service provider to offer outsource payroll, salary packaging, tax return and migration to every start-up, SME, business and individual that engages us.
We have a corporate social responsibility conscience to remove all paper from every office by 2014 through innovation, disruptive technology and excellent business process.
I see this vision clearly, I can articulate it clearly.
Sounds so simple, however it is a complex task that requires strategy, forecasting and budgeting, great cash management, superb clients to work along side with, a team of players that want to win and grow and love what they do. The list goes on and on…
Who really knows this? So what does this all mean to me and to Job Capital and to your new business trying to make its mark in the competitive space as a start-up?
Make sure your vision is crystal clear. Ensure your team can even get on the bus by knowing they understand everything you see now and in the future.
Stay transparent and accept buy in. And most of all… share this with every person you can. The more your story is told, the wider the audience, the clearer the message and the bigger the results will be for you and your business.
Thinking big and thinking with courage is the difference between being another competitor, or a true leader and champion of industry.
My personal inspiration came form listening to Ricardo Semler, CEO of Semco SA, speak recently. But more on him later!
