Meeting your needs?

What do you want your business to give you? Is it meeting your needs?

At the end of last year I wrote about taking action towards your goals. In that blog I shared how I was in the process of setting up an email list…

Since then I have set up my MailChimp welcome email to include a free eBook:

10 questions to ask yourself about your business

(taking my own ‘medicine’ and taking action :) )

The eBook contains questions, tips and exercises that I have found useful personally and/or with my clients – here’s what’s in Chapter 1:

What do you want your business to give you?

[To get your free copy of the eBook, sign up for my fortnightly newsletter using the sign up box on the top right of this page, or at the foot of the page if you’re viewing on a mobile device.]

The same exercise can be done whether you are self-employed or employed – in fact, doing this exercise helped me figure out what I wanted and needed in life and that staying in my job in the organisation I was in was not meeting my needs…

I’ve also used this exercise with people looking to change career, through choice or redundancy. The exercise helps people figure out what they want in the ideal case and to compare that with their current situation (sometimes redundancy suddenly takes on a whole new appeal!)

What do you want from your business?

Are you meeting your needs?

What do you want to get from your business?

Let’s ‘begin with the end in mind’ [The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (habit 2) – Stephen Covey]

Try this exercise based on our six human needs – on a large blank piece of paper:

Capture something that represents you in the centre.

Place the six human needs around the outside.

Certainty

Variety/Uncertainty

Significance

Connection/Love

Growth

Contribution

For each of the above needs, capture what that would look like in YOUR ideal business

– e.g. certainty – you might write: regular income, ability to pay bills, client waiting list etc. etc.

– Remember to let yourself dream big!

(don’t worry about practicalities yet – ignore your inner critic!)

What did you learn?

Your current situation and any future opportunities can be compared against this map.

Do you have too much/too little or just enough certainty? etc.

Research shows that:

– People who love what they do are getting 6/6 needs met.

– People who choose to quit are getting < 4 needs met.

What do you want from your business?

Three years on from when I first did this exercise, I am loving what I do and my ‘map’ is much more balanced.

I’m working on certainty of income…

…and I have realised how I can meet my need for connection (since there’s only me in my business) through collaboration and being part of the team that runs the Macclesfield 4Networking meetings.

Bridging the gaps

Running your own business can be very satisfying but can also be tough!

I come across a lot of business owners who are feeling stressed.

If the gap between where you want to be and where you are now seems very large, this post outlines six ways in which networking can help you bridge some of those gaps (and it’s not only about getting those sales!)

For more information on our six human needs, see for example Tony Robbins’ TED talk.

Are you meeting your needs?

What about you? What do you need? What does your ideal situation look like?

How will you get there from where you are today?

Please let me know your thoughts by adding your comments below…

To find out how I can help you to understand what your ideal business or career would look like and to bridge the gaps from where you are now to where you want to be, quicker than you would on your own, please get in touch via the contact form or call me on +44 7526 740486.

[To get your free copy of the eBook ’10 questions to ask yourself about your business’, sign up for my fortnightly newsletter using the sign up box on the top right of this page, or at the foot of the page if you’re viewing on a mobile device.]

Happy New Year! Wishing you a healthy and prosperous 2017!

Sian