Or so it is said…what kind of picture do your employees and other business associates paint of you and your company? And how important is it? Even more importantly, how would your clients and customers paint it?

Anyone who works for you, with you, or partners with you in any type of a business relationship becomes a representative of you and your vision of what is acceptable or tolerable in your organization. If you endorse them or use them as a sub-contractor, your name and your reputation get associated with them, like it or not. Their level of professionalism becomes your level of professionalism.

What kind of picture are they painting?

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Sometimes a big hammer is the best tool for the job, but only if you’re using it the right way!

This past weekend I headed down to my parent’s house to meet up with my brothers and do some ‘clean-up’ around the house.  It was great to see everyone and other than the 95 degree heat and the 95% humidity it was a good weekend to get some stuff done.

One of the big jobs that needed to be done was taking down an old metal shed building that was out behind the house.  I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing that shed was close to 40 years old – it was primarily made of aluminum with an all metal frame on a concrete base.  After that much time, it was full of all sorts of junk, old wood, lots of spiders and a couple of other critters.  It took a while, but we got everything out and then it was time to start demolition on the structure.

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Culturally the US has a real problem when it comes to trying to keep up with the Joneses (who knew there was a wikipedia article on that phrase?).  Business owners and entrepreneurs aren’t immune from this issue and probably even have it worse than the general public.

As an entrepreneur starting out, you are going to work very hard and likely not make much money for at least the first year and probably the first couple of years you are in business.  Once you do build up some momentum and start making some money, you’ll have a lot of pent up demand and the desire to tangibly prove to the world that you’ve made it!

The problem is that this mindset can drive otherwise successful business owners into a bad spiral – causing lots of stress, making less than ideal decisions and generally hurting the business and the owner.

All because the owner has forgotten (or doesn’t have) their own definition of success.  Because absent your own definition of success you are likely to fall into someone else’s definition of success and keeping up with the Joneses.

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photo by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center

Undoubtedly you’re familiar with Archimedes famous quote:

“Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.”

If you’ve studied any physics, then you know Archimedes is talking about the concept of leverage, which essentially means that through the proper use of tools you can do a lot more than you could through straight brute force methods.

It’s an important concept in physics and baseline for a lot of engineering principles, but for a small business owner, it can likely mean the difference between long term success or exhaustion and failure!

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  photo by AGirlWithTea

What does it take to make a business grow predictably?  Signing up a big client?  Rolling out a hot new product?  Actually those are outcomes…what I’m talking about are the ingredients it takes within a business that if mixed properly and cooked just so will create growth. 

These critical ingredients are embodied in you as the business owner and within your team, whether you have 1 employee or 100 employees.  If you’re missing one or more of these ingredients – then you’re likely not growing consistently and you’ll be at risk in the long run.  The important thing is to have the right mix of these ingredients and to make sure you’re using all of them consistently.

So what are the ingredients you need for growth?  Let’s take a look:

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