The three pillars of a sustainable business
When you search for images of an ancient Greek temple, most of what you see will have at least a foundation and columns remaining.
This image springs to mind when I think of a sustainable business.
The foundation is the mission.
The columns are the business pillars of happy employees, loyal clients, and business goals.
Why these pillars
Each business will design its pillars differently, based on its mission and values.
But with these three pillars fully addressed, it will have the structure in place to manage the day-to-day.
How does addressing these three pillars create that structure?
Happy Employees
Of all the pillars, this is the most important one.
If your employees are not happy, they won’t do the work well.
And if they don’t do the work well, your clients won’t return and grow with you.
And if your clients don’t want to work with you, you won’t reach your business goals.
This pillar is about creating the conditions for workers to be successful. As such, it matters whether you have one employee or fifty.
Loyal Clients
Clients are great.
Repeat clients are better.
Repeat clients with big smiles on their faces are the best.
Loyal clients are the gift that keeps on giving, and you receive that gift because of how you work and how you connect with people while you serve them.
Business Goals
When you started your business, you had an idea.
A vision of what this business could be.
No, it was more than that: it was a vision of what your life could be.
Create that business: know what it is, what it wants to be, and how it will operate day by day. After all, you won’t achieve goals with ideas: you will achieve them with single micro-tasks that build towards that dreamt-of whole.
What next
How do you represent each of these pillars in your business?
What are you doing to support each of these pillars, and why are those the things that matter most?
Contact me to go over how to make the best of these based on your mission. Start with a back-of-the-napkin scribble; that is enough to start building the support and structure your business needs.