Is Your Business Capable of Dancing?

You could say that our businesses have been going through a bit of a change recently.  The consuming frenzy has slowed down and we’re forced to really take a close look at the basics; what we are in business to do and provide, who our idea customer is, what’s important to them and finally how we’re going to set ourselves up to provide it.

It’s hard to actually do any of this when you are in a state of “freaked-out-frenzy.”   You have to take time out to THINK.  Yes.  Just stop doing everything and think.  For whatever reason, we’ve decided that thinking is lazy and that doing is what makes us profitable.  But thinking is perhaps the most efficient use of your time in a market and economy that is changing by the minute.

What to Think About

Now that you’re sitting still.  Stop and think about why you are doing all of this.  Is it success?  What is success anyway?  As a word, it’s supposed to be a noun; person, place or thing.  But if I asked you to show me a picture, you couldn’t.  That’s because success isn’t anything more than a conversation.  A series of agreements that we’ve made around life and what it’s “supposed” to be like.  For example, we’ve just all agreed that more money is better than less.  We’ve agreed that driving a BMW means you are more successful than if you’re driving a Chevy.  Living in a big house means that you’re more successful than if you’re living in a small house….and so on.  WOW – that’s a lot of stuff that we’ve signed up for- that appears to be just “understood.”  That’s the way it is.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Redefining Success for Your Business

And so in business, we’ve decided that success is maybe having more customers or certain kinds of customers at any cost.  Success is hitting some set of metrics…at any cost.  Our definition of success for our business tends to put is in this “at any cost” frame of mind — and this is where things get dicey.  ”At any cost” as a criteria throws us into strategies we may not have considered before – and ones that may not be in the best interest of what this business is about.

So how can you start re-defining success for your business and more importantly, how can you create strategies around it that will set you apart and make you more attractive to your ideal customer?

1. What is success for you — really?  What is your company about?  What feelings and emotions do you stir in your customers when you’ve delivered 100%.
2. Instead of just “surviving” what if you could flow through your business like a dancer; moving quickly and easily across different areas of your business – without being stuck?
3. Instead of taking yourself and everything around so seriously, in what ways can you PLAY your business?  Playing in your business instead of working in it will open you up for new opportunities and can improve your customers’ experience with you.
4. Instead of winning or dominating the market, in what ways can you partner and play with others in your space?  What co-branding opportunities might open up for you if you played with other participants instead of competing?

We are all in this market space together.  The experience of running a business is what we make it.  So doesn’t it make sense to explore the possibility of playing and dancing and simply taking the time to have fun in our business.  Isn’t that why we started it in the first place?