When you start your business, the number of logistics you have to take care of will have you running from one move to another. Before you know it, you’ve got your head down and focused on the smallest detail to keep your business going.
Spending day in and day out focusing on the small things becomes a habit, and it may not be easy to see the whole picture and trajectory after a while. However, taking your business to the next level requires looking at the entire game board and not just the next move.
In this article, we explain the difference and how your brand affects the game. Here are three things we want you to consider when considering how to take your business to the next level.
Keep Your Eye on the Prize
If all you think about is what you’re going to do today, next week, next month, or even the next 90 days, then that’s likely all you will achieve. Part of seeing the entire board is taking those individual steps because that’s going to be very important to get from point A to point B. But you also need to be able to see things in certain intervals when it comes to your business.
Think about it as “reverse engineering” your goals. You set a goal and say, “I want to make a million dollars a year.” You know you have to talk to 10 people to get one deal, and that’s worth $10,000. That means you need 100 deals to make a million dollars, so you’ll have to talk to a thousand people to get the 100 deals.
When you think about seeing the whole board regarding your brand, it’s seeing a bird’s eye view of your career instead of just doing a deal to make money. You still have to get the deal done, but you also have to see the whole thing. And when you lay out your brand and point out what differentiates you, you begin to attract those who are also attracted to that differentiation.
Outrun Your Competitors
Countless businesses will be in the same industry as you and provide similar goods or services. You want to stand out from your competitors and become the destination for the specific type of business you offer.
Let’s use car dealerships as an example. Many of them only focus on two things when they run campaigns to promote and grow their business:
- How many deals can they get by the end of the weekend?
- How many deals can they get by the end of the month?
Focusing on these shortsighted goals causes them to be very reactive to the market instead of being proactive on their own. Their business also becomes a commodity instead of a destination.
What’s happening here is the difference between strategy and tactic. Strategy is why you do business with someone, and it usually depends on the business’s point of differentiation. The tactic, however, is why you should do business with them today. The tactic often comes down to that call to action, where your promotions, deals, and discounts come into play. And you never want someone doing business with you based solely on price.
But if you keep that point of differentiation and clear focus, you will outrun your competitors. It’s the one thing that will make you a destination instead of a deal.
Expand Your Business
You can’t just grow on deal after deal after deal. You aren’t expanding your business until deals start making deals. That’s what your personal brand does for you.
It’s not wrong to be looking for deals and working on them. After all, you must do that fundamental part of business right and never forget that the client is why you’re there. You want to work deals, but you also want something out there that brings you the next potential deal.
That’s what helps your business grow exponentially, and when you have a brand that stands for something, that brand carries through to those clients. You want loyal and satisfied clients, and you know you have both when your clients pass your branded materials on to their friends.
If you look at your business as something created from having deal after deal, or if you’re looking at it with the attitude of, “Okay, it’s a 90-day paycheck, and I have to work this,” then you’re missing the point of those moments inside the gaps. You want that time to be just as productive as every other day.
That’s what your brand does.
That’s seeing the entire game board and the intervals in between.
That’s how to take your business to the next level.
The Takeaway
You want to see the entire game board instead of just your next move because you want something that brings future deals and business. All of this comes down to your brand. Differentiating yourself today sets you up for a future where you attract business instead of constantly searching for your next deal.
Are you a Coach, Consultant, or other Expert with a life-changing message to share? Download our free ‘Ultimate Guide to a Freedom-Based Brand’ to learn how to position & present yourself and your offers differently in order to maximize your time and dramatically increase profits.
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BrandFace LLC is a personal branding company for coaches, consultants and other experts who want to STAND OUT from their competition and attract their ideal customers so they can become recognized and sought after authorities in their industry. Tonya Eberhart & Michael Carr are international bestselling authors and the partners behind BrandFace. Their mantra is, “People don’t do business with a logo. They do business with a person.”