• 11Clarifying your ultimate business vision
• 12Defining the gaps between present and desired
• 13Describing who you want to do business with

11 Clarifying your ultimate business vision

What is a vision?

A vision is the picture or movie you see in your mind’s eye of the future. It is the dream you have of the reality you want to be living. Your vision can be imagined by using your senses to see, feel and hear a ‘what if’ experience. It is a bit like the experience you have when you imagine your perfect holiday destination. You have a ‘vision’ of the kind of holiday you would most like to experience.

Why is it important?

Creating a vision is a way of anticipating the future. It is like planting a seed in your mind which, if you feed and water correctly, over time will grow and flower in the way that it was predestined to.

By allowing yourself to project into the future in this way you can check out if you like what you see. Describing your vision can inspire both you and the others in your team. Everyone needs something to aim for. It is like describing the view you will have at the mountain top before you start the climb. The motivation you have for the potentially arduous journey will be boosted more by being very clear about what you will see at the top than it would have been if it had been just a climb. It can be exactly the same with your business. If you have a clear and exciting vision in your mind, a vision that you can communicate to others, the journey will be much more energised and focused. Having a vision makes day-to-day activities more meaningful as you have a reason for doing them.

Your challenge

Your vision not only needs to be something that you aspire to business wise, but also something that fits in with your personal life goals. The two go hand in hand. It is no good having a vision for a business future that would involve work overseas and long periods of time away from home if one of your personal goals is to spend more time with your family. It is important to clarify your personal goals and incorporate them into your vision for the future.

What makes a vision reality?

To make your vision a reality you will need to take action today. Your daily choices of action will ultimately make the difference between getting there or staying put. Having a vision alone is not enough to make it happen.

SEEING YOUR VISION – SPECIAL RESPONSE QUESTIONS

Take a few moments to relax and take a walk into the future. Close your eyes and imagine yourself in this place where everything you wanted has been achieved.

• What do you see happening in your business?
• What does it look like?
• What kind of clients do you see?
• Who else do you see working with you?
• What are you doing?
• What are people saying about your business?
• What are you saying?
• What are you feeling?
• What are others feeling about the business you have created?
  Looking back
  From this place having achieved everything you wanted, imagine yourself turning back and seeing yourself as you are now. Ask:
• What were some of the most important things you did to get here?
• What is the best advice you can give yourself?

Taking it with you
Now imagine yourself taking this advice with you as you start your journey towards your vision.

Writing it down
Having done this exercise it is a good idea to write a description of your business vision. That way you can remind yourself of it from time to time, add to it or adapt as things change. Find a visual image that you relate to. Pin it up on the wall where you can see it every day.This will keep you anchored to your future.

How to use your vision

Once you have a vision, you can use it to motivate both yourself and others. Describing the ultimate vision can be the first step needed to kick start a strategic planning meeting with your team. Your business goals and objectives should come out of the vision and your strategic action plan will be guided by your business goals and objectives. Your marketing strategy will be part of your overall business plan guided by your business vision. Marketing your business successfully will be one of the important actions you need to take to get you to your ultimate destination.

12 Defining the gaps between present and desired

What is a defined gap?

So far in this book you have had a chance to think about where you are now with your business and where you want to be in the future. Unless you are living your vision right now there will be a gap between these two points – present and desired. You need to be clear about exactly what is missing. Creating a defined gap is about getting very specific about the elements of your business that you need to focus on in order to close the gap and achieve your ultimate goals. The gap between present and desired position will differ from business to business.

Here are some examples of the general gaps you might find yourself defining.

• Personal activities (time and focus).
• Quality of products and services.
• Location.
• Number of outlets.
• Market area.
• Target customers.
• Numbers of customers.
• Systems and procedures.
• Marketing activities.
• Staff team.
• Knowledge.
• Skills.

Why is it important to define the gaps?

Defining the gaps specifically is important because it will focus your attention on what needs work. Once you have clearly defined the gaps then they can be used to set appropriate goals and objectives with a plan to achieve them. Without defining the gaps it could be very easy to slip into the grass-hopper approach to business and marketing planning, jumping from one thing to the next or allowing yourself to get distracted.

Your challenge

Your challenge is to take the time to do this. To focus on what needs your attention. Be honest with yourself. This will pay dividends in the longer term.

At this stage you do not have to have the solution. That comes later. All you need to do is be very clear about what needs your attention. It may be that you don’t know what needs work or needs to be implemented to get you from where you are to where you want to be. If that is the case you could come back to this chapter once you have got to the end of this book. It would be useful to keep a notebook to hand and write down gaps as you come across them.

GETTING TO THE GAP – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

• In front of you have your notes from ‘where you are now’along with your ultimate business vision.
• Make a note of some of the problems you perceive you have now that may prevent you from reaching your vision.These problem areas will indicate gaps.
• Make a note of all the areas of your business where you see a clear gap.
• For each of those areas write down what the gap is.

How to use this information

This information can be used in a number of ways. Firstly the gaps you establish will highlight the information you need to gather, the processes you need to implement, the changes you need to make and the goals you need to set. Secondly it will give your thinking some structure, and focus your attention on the important issues to consider when business planning. Thirdly they will remind you of what is vital if you are to achieve your vision. Talking about it is not enough to make it happen – it needs action focused in the most important areas.

13 Describing who you want to do business with

Defining your ideal customer

Defining your ideal customer means clarifying the people who are, or are likely to be, hungry for your particular product or service. Your ideal customers will be people who have a problem that they are searching for an answer to. They will be people who are most likely to spend money on your product or service to fulfil a need or desire they have. Your ideal target customer could have certain demographic, psychographic, occupational or geographic characteristics.

Why is this important?

Knowing who it is you are targeting will greatly influence how you go about communicating your product or service to them. Ideally if you can find a hungry crowd for your particular niche product or service and can understand very clearly what their particular needs and problems are, you can tailor your marketing messages to fulfil those needs and solve those problems. This will mean your marketing can be targeted. Ideally for the greatest chance of success, your business will initially have been created to fill a need or solve the problems of a particular customer group.

Your challenge

Your challenge will be in how you go about finding your ideal customer. If you are an existing and established business you will have details of your existing customers and knowledge of what and how much they have bought from you over time. There may be certain patterns; things that your existing customer groups have in common that you could learn from. Your challenge will be in taking the time to analyse the data that you have right on your own doorstep. You can also learn from the customers that you don’t have yet, the ones that you think might be ideal for your business. These are the people who you need to find out about, what their problems are, what they want and what they are willing to spend money on. This will involve some targeted research.

What makes a customer ideal?

• They want what you are selling.
• They are willing and able to pay for it.
• There are a lot of them.
• You know how to get access them.
• You like working with them.
• You find them easy to sell your product or service to.
• They are most likely to keep on buying from you.

IDEAL CUSTOMER – SPECIAL RESPONSE CHECKLIST

To establish your ideal customer you will need to ask yourself some questions.

• Describe the kind of person who could be most hungry for your product or service.
• Who have your best customers been in the past?
• What have your best customers had in common?
• What kinds of people/organisations do you really like working with?
• What kind of problems and needs do they have?
• Where ideally are these companies/people located?

How to use this information

First of all you need to test your ideal customer description by asking some questions and doing some research. Once you are sure that this customer fulfils all of your criteria then you will need to design both your marketing message and your marketing materials to influence this customer positively.