Business Success: Aligning You With the Results You Want?
By Steve Smith

---

Owners that achieve business success eventually learn what areas of their business to master. Given the size and complexity of your business, there may be lots of moving parts to oversee which can complicate the concept of successful business owner alignment. In my coaching practice and business career I‘ve discovered two things that derail most owners’ ability to achieve alignment: knowledge good business practices and dealing with distractions. By aligning yourself and your resources with the outcome you want, you can position yourself for the success you want.


​Alignment is a simple concept to understand but very difficult to achieve in business.
As a business owner, you should have a clear idea of where you want your business to be at some point. It could be an organization that produces a certain amount of revenue and serves a particular number of customers. It could be a well respected firm with connections around the world or it could be considered ‘best-in-class’ among competitors in your hometown. Whatever you want to achieve, it’s only going to happen if you devote your focus, time and resources to that specific outcome. 

The trouble is most business owners don’t really know what they want. They begin with a dream and the passion to enter their chosen field but soon get mired in endless details and distractions that cause them to get stuck or sidetracked. The results are long hours, a paycheck that’s less than the job you once had and a feeling of overwhelm and frustration about where it’s all going to end.

Alignment is the process of focusing areas of your business in a single direction or common pursuit so that everything that can support your business’ success is going in that direction. It requires knowing your end game and the purpose of each resource contributing to that outcome.

The benefits of having a properly aligned business are huge. The money you invest in infrastructure will be better spent and increase your level of capacity. The staff you hire will produce much more with less mistakes and dysfunctional workplace situations. And you, as the owner, will be able to run your business in less time and with fewer issues that can’t be resolved. Less headaches, less overwhelm and a greater felling of being in charge.


If your return on your time and talents are not achieving the results you want, here’s a check list to begin your own diagnostic. After all, if you can’t determine what is out of alignment with the results you want, you’re not like to be able to make course corrections that will improve your situation.

Is your mission for business success clear?
Do you have a written plan that clearly defines what you want to achieve? You can’t hit a target you can’t see and any employees you have won’t help much if they think your mission isn’t clear to you.

Do you have goals that will achieve business success?
Without specific, written goals it’s unlikely you’ll achieve what’s important to you or your business. Goals tell us what we need to accomplish to reach our mission. They also tell us when and why we fall short and what to do to change the outcome. You can’t climb a ladder with our rungs and you can’t reach your ultimate vision without goals.

Are you spending your time on things that will deliver business success?
Time is your most precious resource. You can’t get back the time you use unwisely and you can’t press the pause button to think about it. Take a look at your last 3 weeks of activity to see if what you spend time doing is aligned with your most important goals.

Do you have a handle on your finances?
Simply having some ne balance your books at the end of the month is not enough. You need an understanding of how best to use the finances you have so you don’t waste money trying to build your business. The areas you should be focusing your financial resources on are marketing, infrastructure, employees/contractors and product development. Of these, marketing is your only true activity that generates revenue so if you are low on clients, are you looking at your marketing or are you getting ready to purchase more office furniture?

Do you have an operating strategy for business success?
An operating strategy is simply a plan that insures all of your business components (employees, systems, suppliers, management, etc) are working towards the same goals and understand the ultimate mission. It includes performance benchmarks and regular interaction to determine if you are on course. If your company is more than just you, you should have one of these. 

Is your team positioned for business success?
One of the biggest challenges of any business owner is getting the most from the team. If you are not (or not on a consistent basis) look to see if the right people are doing the right jobs. Does everyone understand their roles and responsibilities? Are communication systems in place to insure productive sharing of information and ideas? Do your people like working with each other or even like working for you? When the team is running seamlessly, running a business can be pretty exciting!

Is your product or service still relevant to the market you serve?
As the years pass, many business owners continue operating the same way as changes in their market, their customer base and the economy change radically. If your market has changed, are you aware of the impact it’s having on your business. Are you willing to make whatever changes in infrastructure, personnel or products necessary to stay on-track? Failure to see change and make essential corrections can be exactly what your competition is hoping you’ll do.

Have you created processes for your workflow that will promote business success?
Every profitable business that stays above the ebb and flow of market conditions does so with processes. Processes are simply repeatable ways to engage customers, deliver services, run the operation, make decisions or a whole host of things that get better when everyone knows what to do. Your employees will be happier; your customers will know what to expect and you’ll be able to deliver excellent value at a competitive price, all with well thought out processes.

When you reach the success you want, will you know it?
Sounds like an obnoxious question until you ask someone how they achieved their last important task. We al tend to want to know what went wrong when things don’t work out as planned. We tend less often to ask ‘what went right’ when we make things happen. True success is learning what works and repeating it. If your goals are well defines and your operating strategy aligns your resources with your goals, make sure you have a way to evaluate the outcome.


As I stated at the beginning of this article, alignment is a simple concept. Getting your business aligned with the results you want is a much bigger challenge. Ultimately, the alignment process starts with you. Take the time to think about where you are taking your company. If you are experiencing disconnects within your business, constant problems to address and a feeling of never getting ahead, you have an alignment problem.  

---

---

About the Author:

Steve Smith is an experienced business & executive coach and President of GrowthSource Coaching based in Orange County, CA.  Steve works individually with business professionals who want to achieve top tier effectiveness in the organizations they run.  Steve graduated from Frostburg State University with a degree in business management.  In his spare time, Steve writes articles from a variety of business publications, travels with his wife on his motorcycle and cares for his adopted greyhound.

www.growthsourcecoaching.com