All Aboard - Your Entrepreneurial Vision in Action.

Your Starting Point: Developing a clear vision
The starting point of designing, or redesigning, a business to be something exceptional, vital, and profitable in the marketplace is to develop a clear vision of what the business will look, feel, and act like. This includes developing brief descriptions of your unique business development components, such as the customer, people, and client fulfillment systems that will serve as the guiding force to realizing your business vision.

Creating the vision, or what we at E-Myth refer to as the "Strategic Objective," is an entrepreneurial exercise that forces the leader to describe with clarity and conviction what their business is all about. No matter what stage of the business development cycle your business is in (infancy, adolescence, or maturity), as the leader of the organization, you must be clear about where you are going, and what the destination will be like. Customers, investors, partners, and employees require this level of clarity if they are going to commit to going there with you.

Your Way Forward: Communicating your vision
Think about the development of your vision as buying a ticket at a train station: you have identified where you want to go, and the business will be the vehicle that will take you there. But what if you’re the only person standing at the station, and there is no train in-sight? To get the locomotive that is your business in motion requires:

• Fuel
• Passengers
• Engine

Money and proper financial management systems are the fuel that the business runs on. Your prospective or current employees, customers, and partners are the passengers, and they must buy into where you are headed. The company’s distinctive operating systems and way of doing business compose the engine which propels it forward. The Strategic Objective must include each of these important components.

Furthermore, the company’s external positioning statement, advertising, and recruiting messages, as well as the company’s internal plans, goals, objectives, and performance standards are important communication channels for integrating and broadcasting the vision. Every component of the business that you can weave your vision into is a leverage point of action toward achieving your goals.

Getting Where You’re Going: Making plans and taking action
Having a plan and informing the internal and external stakeholders about the business’ destination represents a major leadership achievement. You have challenged yourself to not only develop a vision, but to communicate it to the people who will help you achieve it. Next, a sub set of plans, objectives, and key performance indicators must be developed to motivate movement on a sustainable and tangible level.

The various function areas of the business, and the people who are accountable for delivering results in those function areas, require detailed action plans that relate to the various spheres of work. Your Strategic Objective will detail the company-wide goals and objectives, while these action plans will describe specific business functions and departmental goals and objectives.

Arriving at Your Destination: Your vision becomes reality
At this point, your entrepreneurial vision will have traveled from being an internal dream, through the rough terrain of strategizing and testing, and will have arrived at its destination by becoming a living reality.

As you embark on this journey in your own business, please remember that this forum and your fellow Community members are keenly interested in your successes and lessons learned, and can be a vital support group for you. By posting your thoughts, comments, feedback you are contributing to the expanded mindshare of your peers.