This morning I spent 30 minutes reading a novel (Tom Lake, which I’m deeply loving). I do this evening morning after breakfast and before sitting down for work at 10 a.m. It feels like a delicious, luxurious start to my day. And it reminds me that this, exactly this, is why I started my business. For flexibility, taking space and prioritising the things that fill me up.
Quiet and slow mornings are just one of the ways in which my day-to-day is aligned to my vision for my business. In today’s post, I’ll write about the joys of having a business vision, what mine is and what it means for how I run my business. And, if you want to go deeper, you can do so through the workshop I put together.
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What is a business vision?
When I started my business I had desires, dreams and ideas, but I wasn’t very intentional about the kind of business I wanted to run.
Nearly six years in I am very intentional about the kind of business I want to run. I have a vision for my business that is my guiding light every single day.
Having a vision for your business means knowing what kind of business you want to have: from what you want your days and weeks to look like, to the kind of support you need from your business, financially, creatively and otherwise.
Being really intentional about the vision for your business provides a lot of clarity.
If you know what kind of business you want, you know what you want your days and weeks to look like.
You know what kind of products and services you want to offer.
You know how you want to market your business. You know how and when you want to be available for customers and clients.
Having a business vision brings so much intention, calm and clarity to my business.
There is a slower, gentler and more profitable way of running your business.
Discover your way of doing your business with my 1:1 mentoring support.
No hacks, no hustle.
Instead: marketing and launching that is slow, gentle and gets results. Clear boundaries and priorities that encourage you to live a life next to your business. Accountability and support to help you create the live and business you crave.
My vision for my business
I started my business because I wanted more autonomy, creativity and ability to grow, including financially—I’d been told in no uncertain terms that this kind of growth was not possible for me at my 9-to-5 job.
But I didn’t immediately translate those desire into a vision of any kind: I started off offering in-person workshops and 1:1 mentoring only, marketing my business primarily through social media. It took me a while to figure out that I was allowed and able to build the business that feels good for me—and that this looked different from the business I was building.
Since then, I’ve become very intentional about what I want my business to look like.
The vision for my business consists of lots of space and rest in my days and weeks—by choice and by pure necessity. I still crave autonomy and creativity, as well as the ability to grow, financially and otherwise. I thrive in going deep and rather than chasing the fleeting and ephemeral.
All of this is grounded in slow, gentle and profitable, the key values of my business.
What my vision means for how I run my business
The most obvious ways in which my vision shows up in my day-to-day is through how I add space and rest.
I both love this and struggle with this. I love having slow mornings for breakfast, quiet and reading a novel before work. I love stepping out into the garden in the middle of my day to look at the leaves changing colour and all the busy insects. I love rolling out my map for Pilates most afternoons. I love being able to give myself the real care that I need.
And sometimes I struggle and downright mourn my need for rest. Taking a nap in the middle of the day feels both luxurious and a drag—but either way is much needed. On the days when I am most tired, or when I faced with a mental health bump, I mourn a time when I didn’t need to add so much rest to my days.
Space to me also means not chasing and not hustling, which is one of the reasons why I’ve been off social media for the past 3 years (!). I don’t do well with the ephemeral and the fleeting, I want go deep with my clients and in my marketing. Having space as a key part of my business vision means choosing my newsletter, blog and Pinterest over Instagram, Facebook and the like.
Having space as a guiding principle for my marketing means that my marketing is fairly minimal, and that I focus on community, collaboration and outreach.
Prioritising space also means feeling spacious about my income. As I wrote last month, having a financial ecosystem in which my income is made up of several parts gives me lots of peace. I’d hate having to depend on one service or product only (and frankly might also get a bit bored).
Offering both 1:1 mentoring and evergreen courses also satisfies my need for creativity. I love writing and creating, from these newsletters to the workshopsI’ve been adding for you and more. I’m good at it too. Prioriziting creation in this sense means that I limit the number of client calls I have every week to 2-3 max, leaving me with enough time to write and create (and, let’s not forget, rest).
My vision for my business also guides the topics I write on in this newsletter as well as the kinds of services and products I offer. You won’t see me launching an e-book on productivity hacks, or a programme with weekly live calls.
Workshop: clarifying your business vision
If you want to create or refine your own business vision, I have just the thing for you: a short workshop with worksheets in which I walk you through creating a business vision (incl. your business values) and what this means for your business.
This workshop will support you to clarify your business vision and how you can align your business to it, from the day-to-day to the bigger picture. Having a business vision gives so much peace and direction to your business, and makes it easier to make intentional decisions.
I’ve designed the workshop to be useful both if you’re just starting out, and if you’re an experienced business owner.
The workshop
I’ve created a 25-minute workshop to help you clarify your business vision, including your business values, and create a plan for what this vision means for how you run your business.
At the end of this workshop you will have formulated your vision and what that means for the day-to-day and bigger picture of your business. You will feel calmer, clearer and more intentional about how you spend your time and the choices you make in and for your business.
Take a preview at the workshop 📽️
I’d love to know what resonates with you from this post.
Please feel free to share this post it with business friends, in your newsletter or elsewhere. 💛
I’d love to support you in all phases of your business. Providing clarity, focus and next steps is something that my clients tell me I’m really good at. If you’re curious about how we can work together through 1:1 mentoring, check out what I offer or send me an email–no strings attached. I have payment plans available, and flexible options for mentoring calls.
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