Regain Passion for Your Business

Last week I spoke to a group of business owners who work in the Wood Industry on the topic of growing their business. The intent of the talk was to spark new ideas on how to grow their business, shifting beyond tactical measures such as marketing and sales and instead building a framework for growth.

During the talk we discussed how passion precludes growth. Think about it. Growing any business regardless of sector or industry is a result of being passionate about what you do and in turn instilling that very passion in the employees, contractors and customers that you interact with and serve.

When I asked the audience who was still passionate about what they did, nearly 95% of the 40 attendees failed to raise their hand.

So how can we instill the passion we once had in our business?

First and foremost focus on your strengths. There is nothing that will zap the life out of you faster than spending significant time doing what you don’t like doing. Don’t misunderstand me, we all have to do things we don’t want, but if we spend the predominance of our time on these things, our passion quickly fades.

What are your strengths relative to your business? Are you ensuring you invest time in practicing these strengths while finding ways to incorporate other resources to support the necessary but less exciting tasks?

What’s your vision for the future? Most business owners that I’ve met either don’t have or do not spend the predominance of their time focused on their vision of the future. If you don’t have a vision how will you ever create the future you desire?

How do you plan to achieve your objectives? When I polled the audience, the majority did not have a current or relevant strategy. What are your top 3 to 5 objectives for the next 5 years? Do you schedule time each week to work on your objectives.

How are you incorporating the three ideas above to re-generate passion in your business?

© Shawn Casemore 2015. All rights reserved.