For many of the business owners I’ve spoken to, they don’t want to create an “empire” or make millions, or be big in some glitzy way (although they do want to do really well). What they want, in truth, is to do something they love, help people, and, gosh darn it, have the business actually be something they can depend on to support them.
That’s it. Dependability at a certain level so they can care for themselves and their loved ones and their lives without worrying.
A lot of people, in search of that dependability, get caught taking on one formula or another. There are lots of “successful” folks out there saying, “If you just do it X way, then your business will take off!”
It doesn’t really matter what X is… because, for the vast majority of folks who try it that way, it doesn’t work.
Why not? Formulas work in math. Recipes work in cooking. Why don’t they work in business? And what does work?
The trouble with formulas.
When we have a mathematical formula, especially a simple one that most of us can handle, like A x B = C, there are very limited variables, and it’s all predictable.
But, what I’ve noticed with recipes, is that following a recipe exactly sometimes works… and sometimes there are variables unaccounted for. I bake bread frequently, and I can’t just follow the recipe- I have to pay attention to how the dough feels, because if it’s warmer or cooler, or more humid or less humid, the dough needs slightly more or less water.
Also, we made a lot of pesto this summer, and we grew three different kinds of basil in our garden. One kind was purple, and beautiful! And smelled lovely. But the taste was noticeably different, and I have to be honest and say I didn’t like it in pesto.
If you’re a gardener, you also know that the same plant can taste different depending on the makeup of your soil. We have wild berries growing near us, Autumn Olives, and some plant’s berries are delicious, and others have so much tannin it’s hard to eat them at all, even though they are only ten feet from each other.
Our businesses have an incredible number of variables in play.
People selling formulas, or recipes, for your business, are usually only speaking to a tiny number of variables. The structure of the offer they want you to do (membership site? Group program with 50 people in it?), the price (umpteen million per person?), and not a lot else.
Meanwhile, there is SO much at play. Your skills, your gifts, what you love to do, what you hate to do, your personality. Then there are the commitments in your life outside of your business and how they use aspects of your creativity or resilience. Your health. Your family. Plus there’s your audience, and who are they, and what do they need or want?
Plus, what about deep heart guidance? I don’t know about you, but my guidance sometimes tells me about really subtle things that need to be different… and sometimes big things.
So many variables that aren’t taken into account by other people’s formulas and how-to’s and shoulds.
So is it all just a free-for-all?
Actually, it’s not. There is room for a tremendous amount of creativity and individuality, but it’s not just “whatever you want” because there are principles at the heart of how business works, how relationships work.
In cooking, you may have heard of “salt, fat, acid, heat” that chef and author Samin Nosrat talks about. These four elements are principles that help you understand how food goes together. When you understand the principles, then you can make up your own recipes with a much better chance of making something delicious.
Similarly, when you understand the principles behind developing a dependable business, then you can start to craft it according to your heart and gifts, with some real confidence that it will actually work.
For instance, one principle in the area of business model is “Limiting Purchasing Decisions.” This is NOT about taking choice away from a client, but it’s about being clear about what really helps them, and not splitting the offer up into many tiny decisions.
If you know that, in general, working with clients for at least four months is what enables them to get traction with what you help them with, supporting them to make one decision to engage for a minimum of four months is going to be way better for them and for you, rather than having them make 12 different purchasing decisions, one for each of 12 sessions you might want them to do during those four months.
But, that principle would also support an offer that lasts for 12 months meeting once per month. Or doing a deep dive once a quarter for a year.
It could even apply to doing a group astrological process where the number of times the group meets during the year is somewhat unknown, and the schedule is completely irregular, because it’s according to awarenesses of astrological phenomena, but participants still sign up for the year, instead of per event.
By the way, that last example one of my clients actually does use successfully.
The point I’m making?
I want to encourage you to learn the principles behind business development so that your heart, guidance and creativity can be as free as possible.
And I also want you to be free of self-judgment or shame because someone else’s formula didn’t work well for you. Of course you were attracted to trying it! Of course you want the results and the dependability in your business that may have been promised.
You can get there, absolutely. Integrating principles, heart and creativity with joy and persistence… and yes, you can do it, too.
with love,
Mark Silver, M.Div.
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love.
