The common ingredients for a successful business
By Susan Hahn
Freedom to Make a Difference
As I celebrate five years of entrepreneurship, I also celebrate having successfully accomplished the objective that drew me to go out on my own—the desire to make a difference in the lives of people striving to fulfill their potential.
My primary objective became a reality by way of having found the freedom to conduct business as dictated by my ethics and values—and not that of others. It is this very same freedom that led to profits within 18 months.
As I see it, my associates and I are paid to provide authentic and integrity-driven consulting and coaching. As long as we deliver services on that basis, we will continue to be successful. If we falter, even slightly, we run the real risk of losing it all and becoming part of the statistic that states that 99% of small businesses fold within seven years.
In addition to a commitment to authenticity and integrity, the recipe for a successful business includes many other ingredients. Staying with the analogy of a recipe, we know that there is not just one recipe one can follow to create a culinary masterpiece. Think for a moment about the hundreds of recipes out there to make a fabulous pot of chili. The recipes are all different and yet each results in a delicious bowl of chili. Though not a cook, I assume there are at least a few common spices found in most chili recipes. From there, the chef chooses ingredients based on that chef’s background, experience, training and taste buds.
As I think about what I would consider the fundamental or common ingredients for a successful business, I keep coming back to the same themes. The following are those that strike me as the most crucial.
The Three C’s: Conviction, Clarity and Courage
If you are beginning as a sole proprietor, conviction is what will keep you going. It’s that fire in your belly that will have you refusing to let go or give in, no matter how tired or discouraged you become. When you look back, you will barely remember those fleeting moments of exhaustion, literally from one day to the next. That fire is burning brightly after each night of rest, and it is this very passion that creates the intense emotional excitement that keeps you taking action and moving forward. As a matter of fact, the word emotion in Latin means that which moves you or puts you into motion.
Once the conviction is there, it is important to maintain clarity of focus. I share my experience around clarity and how important it is to not let that focus become blurred.
I launched my business on June 1, 2001; three months and 10 days prior to one of the most traumatic experiences in the lives of every human in the United States and many around the world—the event that today is simply referred to as 9-11. Virtually everything came to a halt. No-one was looking for executive coaches or mediators or consultants. They were, however, looking for help in New York. As an individual certified in conducting Critical Incident Stress Debriefings (CISD), I could easily have hopped a train and gone to New York—and been paid well to do so.
Nowhere in my new business planning for Swan Consulting Group, Inc. had I included the desire to focus on work in CISD or psychotherapy. Though difficult, because there was no income being generated through my new business, I stayed the course and did not accept the work in New York. There were thousands of others for whom this kind of work rewarded their current convictions.
Though the Swan Consulting bank account balance continued to drop, deep down I knew I was doing the right thing. I kept the clarity of focus around what my business was to be about. There was a small amount of cognitive dissonance or internal tension for me in making this decision because I have always been one to drop everything and run to help others. I found a way to resolve that for myself and contributed by sending money. A year down the road, I volunteered my travel, accommodations and time to co-facilitate strategic planning for the Massachusetts’ 9-11 Fund Board of Directors. I stayed the course by maintaining clarity around my convictions and the mission of my business. I stayed the course by maintaining clarity around my convictions and the mission of Swan Consulting.
In 2002, Martin Seligman published work which focused on “signature strengths”. We all have them, and there are no two people with identical profiles when it comes to signature strengths. According to the work of Seligman, one of the signature strengths is courage. Within courage, Seligman discusses valor and bravery as not shrinking from “threat, challenge, pain, or difficulty”, the willingness to “take intellectual or emotional stances that are unpopular, difficult, or dangerous, if you believe they are correct.”
Sometimes, the courage to stay the course and not allow yourself to be thrown off the authentic and integrity-driven track requires very difficult conversations and actions. As an entrepreneur, I can fire any client who decides my coaching or consulting is not what they choose to follow—or they can fire me. This does not end my ability to support myself financially and it doesn’t mean I’m out looking for another job. I can walk out the door, feel good about myself, and never look back. I then walk in to the office of one of my other clients and continue doing the work around which I have a true passion and is driven by my ethics and values—not that of someone else.
I am a coach, consultant, mediator and trainer, and I have not yet been fired by, or had to fire, a client. I have definitely said; “At this point there are only two choices. The first is that you (the company) accept that xyz needs to happen or the second is that we use our time together today to terminate our business partnership.” Those are some powerful words, and there is no such thing as bluffing. As an entrepreneur, I can have those difficult conversations that most employees, even executives, are not willing to risk. By way of this prevailing freedom, every single day I make a difference in the lives of people striving to fulfill their potential.
So, once the conviction, clarity and courage were there, how did I go about making Swan Consulting a successful business? The answer boils down to building and maintaining relationships, giving the gift of myself, and committing to lifelong learning.
As so beautifully stated by Henry Ford, “If you think you can, or think you can’t, either way, you’re right.” Stay the course with conviction, clarity and courage.
