Utah is a wonderful place to start and grow a business, which can provide flexibility and financial independence, especially for women.
Ann Marie Wallace, the State Director of Women's Business Center of Utah, joined us with advice once you have identified a product or service that has potential for success.
She says consider designing that business using the following 4 aspects.
1. Personal Values: Consider what is important to you; what you care about, such as honesty, integrity, family, kindness or fun. Your personal values should and do affect your business, its culture, mission, vision, plans, and future. Incorporate your personal values into your business which will contribute to your well-being, happiness, and fulfilment.
2. Exit Strategy: Just like planning a vacation, consider where you are going with the business. For example, do you want to sell it for a profit, pass it on to a child or have it acquired by a larger company. Of course this can change along the way, but knowing how you will separate from your business will affect how you run your business. This is called an exit strategy and is achieving your highest professional goal.
3. Business Roadmap: Create a visual roadmap by marking your starting point and ending point (exit strategy), and then identify and add major measurable and dated milestones that mark progress toward your exit. Milestones could be reaching a specific amount in revenue, expansion, improvements in systems and process or breaking into new markets.
4. Visionary Leadership: Being a visionary leader isn't just for business owners who have employees. As Warren Bennis said "Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality." Even if you are a solopreneur (an owner running their business without employees), develop the ability to both envision your business' future and rally people around that shared vision.
By designing your business with your personal values, exit strategy, business roadmap and visionary leadership, your business can take you where you want to go.
Learn about these and more, practical skills and aspects of operating a highly profitable business by participating in a Women's Business Center of Utah cohort program at wbcutah.org/cohorts.
