5 Steps to turn your business vision into action – guest post by Shi Chen Coaching
Hi friends! Today I’m eager to share part 2 of Shi Chen’s guest series for this week on turning your business vision into action. If you’re a creative entrepreneur who has dreams on her heart to start or grow her business, then this post is for you! Prepare to be inspired to do those things that are in your heart to do!
A little about Shi:
Shi Chen coaches Christian business leaders with big ideas. She helps them to grow their confidence, build a team they trust, and achieve the goals that makes a difference in people’s lives. Her background in teaching kiddos, experience as an expat in China, and passion for discipleship has shaped her belief that leaders can succeed with the right mindset, relationships and resources.
5 Steps to Turn Your Business Vision into Action
When you’re a service based solo-preneur, it may feel like you’re responsible to do #allthethings. You wear the CEO hat, you’re the head of the marketing firm, the accountant/bookkeeper, and oh yes, you’re provide the actual work too. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the daily grind and lose sight of “why” you’re doing this in the first place. But that’s not why you went into business for yourself. You wanted to pursue your God-given dreams, make an income AND make a difference, and exercise your ability to be creative and resourceful in order to serve your audience and MAKE something awesome.
That would be a WHOLE lot easier if you knew how turn your big, beautiful Vision into accountable and achievable Action Steps.
Because let’s face it…if you DON’T learn this process, chances are, you could be:
- Dreaming BIG with your head in the clouds and no real progress to show for it. You may start to feel like a fraud, and your husband or BFF may be *trying* to be supportive, but wondering when you’ll just get a real job like the rest of us.
- Consuming freebies, webinars, and spending $$ on e-courses so you can LEARN everything there is to know about business. Meanwhile, your bank account is still sitting at 0, and you don’t have prospects, and not sure how to actually land your next client.
- Doing ALL the work and close to burning out, can’t remember why you started in the first place, and how you gotten yourself to this point where you’re frustrated, tired, and close to giving up.
Not a fun way to run a business. Instead, I’d like to walk you through the “Vision Into Action” process. This is a step-by-step process that will help you create meaningful and engaged work and focus on what really matters in your business. The good news is: this process helps to strengthen your thinking and propel you into action, which are essential skills to personal and business success.
Step 1 — Create Your Vision
Give yourself the permission to dream big with endless possibilities. These questions will help you determine your destination – the “WHAT” so you can know where you’re going, and the “WHY” so you know the purpose to create meaningful engagement towards those goals. Use the following prompts to help you flesh out details, and be as specific as possible!
“Imagine stepping into a future version of yourself (pick time frame here) where you’ve ALREADY achieved everything you set out to do. You’re confident, successful, and excited to share about what your life and business is like. What do you notice about your future self? ”
Step 2 — Reflect On Your Progress
Before we run full speed ahead, let’s slow down to reflect on where we are now, and what it took to get here. There’s value in understanding what’s working and what’s not working, and to gain wisdom from lessons learned.
1. What are accomplishments you’ve achieved that you’re proud of?
2. What’s currently working in your business?
3. What are some areas of growth in your business?
4. What are some valuable lessons that you’ve learned?
Step 3 — Pick Your Priorities
A 90-day goal-setting framework is short enough to motivate us into action, and long enough to track progress to see results.
This is where people get tripped up, and start spinning their wheels, because they think they have to do #allthethings like….yesterday.
NOPE! Instead, ask yourself this question: What’s the MOST IMPORTANT thing I need to grow or create in the next 90 days to create momentum in my business?
Step 4 – Plan & Strategize
Once you’ve picked your priorities and chose your goals, now let’s get to the fun stuff! The “HOW” aka the strategies.
I know you’d probably rather have someone tell you what to do, but seriously?! You became an entrepreneur so you can do things YOUR way and bring YOUR brilliant ideas to life. So here’s your chance.
The beauty of a BRAIN DUMP is for you to capture all of your ideas in one place. Here’s have to do one:
- Jot down all of your ideas of you have for projects that you’d like to create in all the various aspect of your business.
- Now, look back on your list and put a star (*) next to the ones that would make the most impact while being reasonable with your resources.
- Then, prioritize your starred projects by numbering them. You can begin to see how one project can be the cornerstone for smaller projects.
Great! Once you’ve picked one project to focus on, you can then assign a deadline, and action steps into your calendar in order to actually WORK on making it happen.
Step 5 – Take Action + Track = Get Traction
Dreaming and planning is one thing….DOING it is another. People hesitate to take action because they’re “in their heads” or “get in their own way.” But I’m telling you, it’s WAY better to try something and get feedback, then to wonder if this is the thing you should be doing in the first place. At least you’ll know, right?
It’s all about taking action and tracking your progress. Using a simple tracking sheet like in the “Vision Into Action” guide, an excel spreadsheet, a Google doc, or good old pen and paper, you can track and take notice of what you’re actually DOING.
The more consistent you are in your actions (and creating that awareness by tracking it), the more TRACTION you’ll create.
Now that you have the “Vision into Action” process, it’s time to put it into good use. It’s important to be aware of which part of the process you ROCK at, and which one you may need a little more support and attention for.
If you’d like to own a copy of the “Vision Into Action” process which includes places for reflection and journaling, planning and strategizing, and tracking, then you can sign up through my blog and it will be sent straight to your inbox!
As always, keep putting yourself out there, and trying to see what works and doesn’t work for YOU, and celebrating your progress along the way.
With joy,
Shi Chen
I’m excited to collaborate with Jenna Shriver (wedding/portrait photographer + creative business mentor) to bring you Deeply Connected – a Retreat and 3-month Mastermind program. We’ve combined our expertise and experiences to help 10 creative, heart-centered women (like you!) grow your faith AND grow your business. This includes a 2 day, 1 night Retreat (in Westminster, MD) on January 6-7, with a private online community and 3 month Mastermind program. It’s all-inclusive! The enrollment deadline is November 17th.
Visit my website at www.shichencoaching.com/deeplyconnected to reserve your seat OR reach out to Jenna or I to schedule a free connection call to see if the Deeply Connected Retreat & Mastermind is a good fit for you!
Free video trainings for Christian women in business:
Maximize your TIME: http://shichencoaching.com/blog/stewardship-maximize-your-time
Maximize your RESOURCES: http://shichencoaching.com/blog/2017/10/1/stewardship-series-maximize-your-resources-as-a-christian-entrepreneur
Maximize your TALENTS: http://shichencoaching.com/blog/2017/9/13/stewardship-series-maximize-your-talents-as-a-christian-entrepreneur
Creative Branding Portraits provided by Jenna Shriver Photography for Shi Chen Coaching. Are you a creative entrepreneur seeking custom high quality portraits to showcase you, your business, and your work? Contact me today for more information about Creative Branding Portraits. Natural light studio provided in downtown Westminster, MD, or I can travel to you.
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