More often than not, people who start a business do so based on what they know — what they’re comfortable and good at doing — not necessarily what they’re passionate about doing. How about you?
Try this simple experiment to determine if you’re doing what you love. How often are you so excited about your business you can’t wait to start the day? How often is the opposite true? Do you dread even the thought of working on or in your business? Are you inspired and energized by your business or does it feel more like a burden or drudgery? Be honest here.
When you love what you do, there’s no sense of burden or drudgery. There’s only enthusiasm and joy. In fact, you’ll often feel better when you’re working than when you’re not. You’ll constantly seek to improve yourself and your business and ideas will flow readily. It’s fun being you in your business.
Why did you start your business? If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you wanted greater control over your destiny. Perhaps you wanted to build something meaningful that could be sold for a profit or passed down to your children. You might have wanted more freedom, financial abundance and the ability to travel frequently. Maybe you wanted to make a difference in some way or actually enjoy what you do for a living.
People sometimes start a business based on a product or service they believe will make them rich, but one in which they don’t really believe or even use themselves. This eventually creates a huge disconnect for which even riches can’t compensate. If you sell useless, low-quality or defective goods and services — and you know it —your lack of integrity will catch up to you, potentially destroying your business and any professional satisfaction you once felt.
Believing in the products and services you provide is a necessary ingredient in the enjoyment of owning your business. Not only does integrity feel good, it also attracts and retains talented team members and increases the number of loyal customers you serve. Integrity increases the fun, pleasure and success you experience in running your business.
Another key ingredient in the amount of satisfaction you derive from your business is your style of and ability to lead. If you don’t like to be a leader, understand what one is or how to perform this responsibility in an effective way, the amount of fun you have while engaged in your business will suffer tremendously. Ineffective leadership is, undeniably, one of the major pitfalls to happiness and success in business.
Effective leaders provide a consistently empowering example, use the best tools for hiring talent and invest in the development of their team members. Leaders aren’t perfect or infallible. They’re human, authentic, strive to be their best and support others in doing so as well. This behavior results in greater job satisfaction, loyalty, productivity and retention as well as improved customer service and sales. Becoming a good leader takes time and effort. But as you do so, your business runs smoother and becomes more successful and the amount of fun you experience increases exponentially.
The quality of your team is essential to your happiness and success. All business owners understand the challenges and stress poor-quality team members bring to the workplace culture. This is a situation well worth avoiding at all cost.
The more qualified, better trained, happy and committed your team members are, the better it is for everyone involved. People who enjoy their work perform at much higher levels than those who don’t. Hiring talented individuals is truly a science, and a qualified professional can provide proven strategies that dramatically improve your success rate.
Through my work as a professional development coach and consultant, I’ve met many business owners who are financially successful, yet aren’t thriving. Financial success is only one aspect of your business.
When you’re passionate about your business — when you truly love and believe in what you do — and are an effective leader who’s built a capable, happy and loyal team that offers exceptional products and services, greater financial rewards will follow. At the same time, you’ll derive a great deal of enjoyment from your business.
