The GrowthGen Work-Life Framework – Clarity
There are six pillars to the GrowthGen Work-Life Framework. Today let’s look at the first one – clarity.
You need to start with clarity of purpose. Understand where you want to be, in both business and life.
Clarity requires self-awareness, which is one reason why we combined mindful training and business acumen in our events.
You need to be aware of
who you are
what your strengths and weaknesses are
where you want to be in life and in business
Let’s look at that last one more deeply.
You’re flat out running your business, but take time to think about what you want your business to be in the future. Say you sell flowers. There’s a big difference between
a tiny boutique business that sells beautiful flowers from one shop
a statewide or nationwide franchise
a corporate entity
The end goal will affect the way you operate and grow. Clarity of purpose helps you grow more effectively.
This is vital because 70% of businesses in Australia fail in their first year, and 50% of those that survive fail in the next five years. Clarity is the most important part of building the resilience you want, so you can deliver a consistent product or service every time.
Let’s look at my business. Like every small business, I started with good intentions. I wanted to create amazing events. That was it. But I didn’t think about the type of events I wanted to put on. ‘Events’ is such a wide field – there are party events, corporate events, festival events and so on. If I’d had clarity at the beginning about what kind of events I wanted to run, it would have saved me a lot of heartache and pain.
So many people start up with a big vision, but they don't have a very closely defined target market. It's so much easier if you narrow things down a bit. It doesn't just give you clarity internally, but it gives clarity to everybody externally too. They can immediately see that you're the right person to be dealing with. But we are all too afraid to pick a sweet spot and focus on it.
That kind of clarity is one thing we're trying to achieve with GrowthGen.
Another aspect of clarity is personal clarity. The most successful entrepreneurs in the world are all very self-aware, clear people. They know their strengths and weaknesses. They’re super self-aware and have clarity of purpose in both life and business.
That’s how they manage to be successful in their lives as well as in the business itself.
One of the ways they - and you – can develop that self-awareness is by working with other people and really listening to them. That’s closely related to the GrowthGen emphasis on coaching and mentoring.
Clarity of purpose was just so critical for me to be able to move forward. Even now, I’m still getting more clarity. There's parts of the business which I need to refine further. But since I’m aware and conscious of where I want to go, I’m so sure I’m going to get there.
A final thought about clarity.
“Clarity is like a window you can look through to your vision. The window doesn't stay clean by itself.”
All this stuff comes in and interferes and messes up your view. Whether it’s positive things like unexpected opportunities, or whether it’s problems that distract you, your clarity does not stay crystal clear. You need to keep polishing!