No matter how a business owner feels about their business, their business will make a difference or impact, both to themselves, their customers and others in their community. Their strengths and weaknesses affect how they interact with others, and the responses to the services they offer will in turn affect how a business owner responds.
There are three different ways in which your business can make a difference.
Sharing of talent, genius abilities and knowledge.
Don’t be afraid to share what you know, your talents and your genius abilities. Volunteer at college opening days and describe to students how their careers can make a difference. Offer advice on their career plans or paths or mentor new business owners.
Help your community by organizing fundraisers which help worthy causes. Not only is this free advertising for your business but it helps make others aware that you care about the community in which you live.
Your intentions and how they affect your customers.
View your business by looking at it from your customer’s perspective. Your principles will make a huge difference in how they view your products. Does your business make it obvious to others what you stand for and what you identify with? Does it show commitment to others and that you don’t compromise on quality? Do you have a way to apply your intentions to your business?
Self-growth.
Business interactions can also make you more aware of how social conditioning has caused you to behave in a certain way and once you are aware of this, you can begin to pay more attention to what you do and what you say. Business interactions actually motivate business owners to take a deeper look at how their business fits into the community. They realize they they too can still be inspired by others and that learning is a lifelong skill.
Character is what you have when no one is looking. Be true to yourself and run your business with the highest of ethics. Realize that in order to care of your business and therefore others, you first have to take care of yourself to the best of your ability.
Don’t get so wrapped up in your own business that you become passive to what is going on around you. You can’t change things when you aren’t moving. Taking the safe road isn’t necessarily the best choice. Challenging yourself is a major part of owning your own business and making a difference in your own life. Ask yourself why you’re running a business and why THIS business? Some call this your purpose but there doesn’t need to be a purpose for everything. Sometimes you just do things because they make you happy. What observations are you able to make about yourself? What problems do you want to solve and how can you be the best at solving them?
By making a difference with your business, you become more intuitive and get to know yourself better. What time of time do you do your best work? What types of personalities do you feel most comfortable working with? What are your most interesting characteristics?
In the end, it is your relationship with your business that will result in the outcome that you are working toward. Realizing that the work you do for yourself actually has a huge impact on those around you can make you become more involved with your community, which helps build a successful business.
“If your presence doesn’t make an impact, your absence won’t make a difference.”
~Trey Smith
© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2015
image courtesy of thewaterproject
