How to Go From Being the Business to Having a Business

“I am the business.” I have heard this quote from several people especially entertainers. It sounds really cool and fancy until you dig deep and understand the implications of that quote.

According to the BusinessDictionary.com, ‘A business is an organization or economic system where goods and services are exchanged for one another or for money.’ By this definition, when you are ‘the business’, if you don’t exchange goods and services personally, no money comes in.

I have been privileged to work with a couple of people in the entertainment space recently who have been ‘the business’ for quite a while and have realised that their earning potential is limited by their ability to get up and ‘perform’. I resonate with their challenge because I am in the same space as they are as a business coach.

As a knowledge entrepreneur, entertainer, coach or solopreneur you are most likely the business even if you have a team supporting you.

I believe I am attracting these people because I am also transitioning my organization from being built around my ability to deliver to running as a system that can deliver with or without my active input.

If you are in the same space, here a few things you can consider to transition:

Define the product or service you can offer that is not dependent on you to deliver.

What are you really offering and how can you offer it without being the one to personally deliver it? Is it possible? Or can others deliver a part of it so you can focus on building an organization?

Decide how you will structure your organization to deliver it seamlessly.

What kind of structure do you need to ensure you can deliver the same or similar value seamlessly? You might need to break down the current implementation process into different roles or create new departments to help you deliver the product or services you are offering.

Document the process or systems that will help you deliver this.

Systems are very important for your organizations to run smoothly and deliver value. Even if you are in the creative business, having systems are important. Creating a standard operating procedure will ensure that your service process is clearly documented and people can easily refer to it.

Deploy the right people to execute it.

People are an important key to allow you go from being the business to having a business. You need to build a team of executors. People who can make decisions and take action without depending or relying completely on you to tell them what to do. Even if you can’t afford to pay a lot in the beginning, you could start with offering internship positions and training them to fit your organization’s culture. You could also outsource to competent organizations who could give you the same value for less.

A practical example of someone who went from being ‘the business’ to having a business is Mo Abudu. She went from hosting her show Moments with Mo to creating Moments a show that spreads across various African countries with different hosts.

By doing this, she could concentrate her attention on building an organization and expanding its arms.

I wrote some chapters on creating systems, transitioning and scaling your business or brand in my new book Uplevel. You can learn more about the book HERE.

Now my question to you is; are you the business? And how do you intend to sustain it?

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tale-alimi

'Tale Alimi is a foremost business coach, business growth expert, Entrepreneurial thought leader and Host of the Entrepreneur's journey radio show currently airing on WFM 91.7. She has an expertise in guiding business owners and professionals to up-level their business and revenues. 'Tale has started and run several businesses and has experienced what makes a business succeed or fail and she brings her experience to bare in helping business owners build successful and thriving businesses. She also has over 13 years corporate experience in Consulting, Telecommunications and Technology sectors; she was part of or led teams that grew the business revenues of these organizations. She was a lead facilitator at Businessday SME Connect conference. She has a Masters in Business Administration from Lagos business school, a certificate in personal coaching from the coaching academy UK and is currently the Lead coach/CEO at Tale Alimi Global( talealimi.com.com). Connect with 'Tale on Facebook and Twitter by clicking the icons below.

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