Is it time to get back to the basics of your business?

I first created my 10-Step Roadmap to Creating a Virtual Business a year ago this month. After realizing what I really wanted to do, I sat down on a Friday night and got it all written, formatted, and published within a few hours. It all just came together, and the process flowed so easily. I’d felt like I’d found my calling and was finally on my way to creating the business of my dreams. I never thought that a year later I’d be going back to the basics of my business.

For the last year, I’ve built my social media presence, offers, and marketing around my 10-Step Roadmap. I did some tweaking earlier this year – improved the look of it, changed up the name, and added the DANCE acronym to the content. In March, I planned out a year’s worth of offers, content, and value based on the roadmap. Through it all, the roadmap has been the foundation of everything I’ve done.

The Step Where I Spend the Most Time

Step 10 of the roadmap is the Grow and Evolve step. I affectionately call the step the cha-cha, pivot, and slide. Sometimes we take two steps forward and one step back. Sometimes we completely change directions, and sometimes we just slide a little to one side. It’s about personal growth and evolution as much as our business growing and evolving.

A year ago, I pivoted from being a business tech coach to being a business coach. It may have seemed to those looking at it, that it was a huge change, but for me, it was orienting towards a goal I’d held for over 25 years. Since then, Step 10 has been about course correction for me – learning new ways to do things. The last year has also been a journey of self-discovery. I’ve learned a great deal about myself and how I prefer to do business. It’s been about discovering who I am at my very core – getting back to the basics of me.

My Three Revelations

Over the last few months, I’ve spent quite a bit of time back in Step 10. It wasn’t a change in direction like before, but more about clarity around my journey. I thought about how many battles I’d had with the Imposter during my 30 years of building businesses. By finally being able to make friends with him, I was able to confidently choose how I grow my business. I am excited about sharing that part of the story of my journey to help others who are feeling the same way.

A part of making friends with the Imposter was realizing that the only “right” way of growing my business was the way that made me happy. As I learned more about myself, I reflected on what makes me happy in the areas of my business that I struggle with the most – sales and marketing. I realized that by marketing like a lighthouse – not a tugboat – I could enjoy the sales and marketing process. By accepting that only I know what’s right for me, I could review all the approaches that I’d learned from all the other coaches, take the parts I resonated with and incorporate them to create my way of doing things. Being the lighthouse for my business quite frankly lights me up!

Then I discovered my business superpower – something that makes me and my business totally unique.  My superpower comes from asking questions and then listening to understand. I hear the feelings behind the words, understand the story behind the story, and connect thoughts and ideas in a new way. By doing this, I help people uncover their own business superpower. My superpower makes me more than just a business coach who has overcome Imposter Syndrome. By using my superpower in all areas of my business, I finally feel unstoppable.

Taming the Shiny Object Syndrome

This week I have been working on my plan for August and for the rest of the year. I knew the plans I had made in March were going to need to be tweaked quite a bit because of my personal growth over the last few months. I looked over my plan trying to decide how I was going to include all the new things I wanted to share.

I’ve always loved the novelty of learning and teaching new things. It’s part of who I am. It’s one of the reasons I love teaching. I also know that I can get overwhelmed by taking on too many new things. So, I remind myself to stay focused. Then I get afraid that I’ll get bored if I limit myself to just a few things. I know that one secret to being happy is about finding the harmony between learning and focus.

Back to the Business Basics – But Better

After trying to update my existing plan, I decided I just needed to start over. While struggling with trying to find a place to start, I realized that I didn’t need to create a new plan. I just needed to get back to where it all started – my roadmap. I looked over the roadmap and chuckled at how far I had come since I first created it. It was time for another update. Since the roadmap has been a sort of documentation of my own business creation journey, it stands to reason that as I grow and evolve, it will as well.

Taking the time to update my roadmap is helping me to get back to the basics of my business while incorporating all the growth and development I’ve done over the last year. The 10-Step Roadmap to Creating a Virtual Business has been the keystone of my business – the thing that holds it all together and makes it all work the way I want it to.

From Creation to Confidence

The roadmap still has 10 steps that make up a DANCE, but steps and DANCE have evolved. The biggest change is that the journey is no just about creating a business but gaining the confidence to grow a business to success. I started by incorporating Authenticity into the DANCE. Authenticity is about knowing yourself and building a business that uses your strengths and lights you up. It’s about uncovering your business superpower and using it in all areas of your business – from your offers to your stories and how you spread the word about what you do.

The new and improved 10-Step Roadmap to Business Confidence will guide you through the process of uncovering your business superpower and using it in all areas of your business to take you from stuck to UNSTOPPABLE. Even if you have been in business a while, this can help you get back to your business basics.

The DANCE is now:

D – Dream – Your dream business is born and your success starts
A – Authenticity – Become yourself in all areas of your business
N – Narrate – Tell the stories about your and your customers’ journeys
C – Create – Nurture the creative energy to build your business
E – Evolve – Your business continues to grow and evolve

Download your copy of the new and improved 10-Step Roadmap to Business Confidence Workbook.