In business, we can get so caught up in the details: profits, cutting costs, taxes, budgets, sales, and so on. It’s easy to become so focused on these things that we forget about why we started a business in the first place: to help others.
It doesn't matter if you are currently a business owner or not, this way of thinking can be applied to all aspects of life.
It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have—a store, a restaurant, a construction company, a cleaning service, a realtor, a graphic designer, ANYTHING—instead of focusing on all of the minute, tangible details of the business, it’s sometimes more important to just look at the bigger picture and ask yourself, “What can I do to make the client happy? What is it they want, and how do I provide that for them?”
Michael LeBoeuf, a business author and professor, said, "Every company's greatest assets are its customers, because without customers there is no company."
This doesn’t mean ignoring the goals and milestones of the business, but don’t lose sight of the true purpose of the business in the process of achieving those goals.
The basic premise of a business is one party providing services or goods to another party in exchange for something of value. The beauty of this system is that things naturally go where they are most desired and things can only be sold for what someone is willing to pay for them.
So if your business sucks and doesn't help anyone, it won't last long. If your business consistently provides a useful product or service to someone, you're going to do just fine.
I’ve learned this lesson the hard way. There was a two or three month stretch where my business was killing it. I was making record sales and was busier than I’d ever been in my life.
Then all of a sudden: nothing.
I realized that I began to look at each client as a tool for income. I wasn’t truly taking their needs into consideration. I saw them as dollar signs, instead of people with needs. As a result, the quality of my work was deteriorating and people stopped coming to me. After I noticed what was happening, I quickly shifted focus from myself to the clients. I started treating each client as if they were the only client and what do you know, my business slowly starting to pick up again and I was even more successful than I was before.
While I shamefully tell this story, I don’t think I’m the only one who’s experienced this. Learn from my mistakes and avoid this type of thing. Make the business about the client and success will follow.
If you're interested in business, check out this book by Donald Miller.
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