When I first started my business in 2003, I didn’t truly acknowledge that I was indeed in business. I was just a creative person who liked to coach people and who liked to make art. I was simply following my passions and helping people. I didn’t think of myself as an entrepreneur, especially since I was doing all of that on the side while I continued to climb the corporate ladder. But when I finally took the leap from my day job in 2006, I knew I had to start taking my business more seriously. Now that I’ve been in business for more than a decade, I’ve seen my business mature into a system that needs to be consciously tended to and cared for in order to continue thriving.
Your creative business, too, is a living and breathing entity, and it needs TLC to blossom and prosper. Whether you’re fairly new to your business, or you’ve been at your work for a while, it’s helpful to take a step back and check in — to assess the overall health of your Entrepreneurial Ecosystem, especially if you want sustained success. So let’s take a look at where your business is right now and identify what’s needed for your business to fully bloom.
Your Entreprenurial Ecosystem
For this exercise we’ll use the fun visual metaphor of a flower — which you’ll turn into a doodle — to help you assess some of the key pieces that go into your business success.
What you’ll need:
- A large blank piece of paper
- Colorful markers, crayons, or pencils
Big Vision
Your business probably stems from something you’re really excited about bringing into the world. And I imagine that, as a creative entrepreneur, you have a big vision of where you want to take your business. In the top right-hand corner of the paper, jot down a few notes about the big vision of your business. This is the limitless, blue-sky thinking that right-brainers are known for. Let yourself dream big.
- Where do you see yourself and your business heading? What does success look like to you?
If you’d like to add some images, include a few collage elements in the background. But don’t go overboard, because you’ll be drawing other elements on most of the paper.
Core Message
Now, draw a circle in the top center of the paper. This is the center of your flower. Inside the circle, write a brief description of what you’re taking a stand for in your business. This is the core message that your business is based on. Think of it as the irresistible nectar that attracts your honeybees (a.k.a. your right people).
Don’t worry if you’re not able to fully articulate your core message yet; we’ll cover this in greater depth in the next chapter. So for now, just to get you started, here are a few prompts to help you fill in the center of your flower.
- What are you taking a stand for in your business?
- What impact do you want to make with your work?
- What are you passionate about, and how are you helping people?
Inspired Actions
Next draw some petals around the center of your flower. In each of the petals write one of the actions you’re taking to move closer to your big vision. For this particular exercise, your list of actions doesn’t need to be exhaustive or superdetailed. Just highlight either the main activities you focus your time and energy on in your business, or the key tasks of the current projects you’re working on. I call them inspired actions because you want the activities to be aligned with your values and big vision, not simply things you think you “should” be doing.
Moola Goal
Now get your green marker and draw two vertical lines to make the stem of your flower. Inside the stem, write in your overall moola goal for the year. This is the gross income you want to make before expenses.
We’ll go into moola-making in more depth — right now we’re simply doing an initial pass to get some numbers on paper, so don’t stress about it. Just use your gut instinct, and know that you can always come back and revise this later.
What You Offer
At this point you have the basic elements of your flower, including the center of the flower (your core message), the petals (the actions you’re taking to support the Big Vision), and the stem (your moola goal for the year).
Next, you’re going to draw leaves on your stem. For every product or service you offer, draw a leaf and write in a description of it and the estimated income you can earn from it. You can put existing products or services on the left side of the stem and planned ones on the right side.
Do the leaves add up to the moola goal on your stem? If not, what adjustments can you make to what you’re offering? Are there leaves you can trim off that are not serving you?
The Sun
In the top left-hand corner of your paper, draw a sun. The sun represents expert guidance and support. Its radiant beams shine light on new opportunities or potential blind spots. Inside the sun, write the names of the luminaries you surround yourself with. These can include your mentors, teachers, and role models, as well as trusted advisors who provide you with their expert guidance.
If your sun is blank, begin building relationships with mentors who can show you the ropes, or start working with teachers whose message resonates with you. Successful entrepreneurs have access to experienced professionals in their circle who help them identify areas of growth, and who can illuminate a path through the dark patches. Sure, you may be able to figure these issues out on your own, but most likely it would take more time and effort to fumble through them alone than to figure them out while standing on the shoulders of giants.
The Soil
Near the bottom of your doodle, make sure you include some soil. The soil provides much-needed nutrients to your flower. The soil is enriched with the information, knowledge, and resources needed to grow your business. Do you have the skills required to take your business to the next level? Are you familiar with the trends affecting your industry or your clients? Do you have access to data to help you make educated decisions? If not, how can you fortify your foundation with valuable and helpful information and resources? You don’t need to overload yourself. Instead, find the right amount of information to keep the nutrients in the soil in balance.
The Roots
Draw some roots from the flower stem into the earth. The roots represent your core values. Your values are what provide meaning to your work and are what your business is grounded in. These are the things that are most important to you and that you can’t live without. On each root, write a core value or related string of core values. How are these values showing up in your business (and your life)? Are you making decisions based on your core values or based on external “shoulds”? When your business is deeply rooted by your core values, it can withstand even the harshest storms. If your core values are not strongly represented in your business, these fragile roots will make it difficult for your business to stay grounded and be resilient during challenging times.
The Watering Can
Next, draw a watering can (and please, remember this isn’t about being artistic!). The watering can symbolizes the emotional support that helps keep your flower strong and vibrant. We all know what happens when a flower doesn’t get enough water, right? It shrivels up. On the watering can, write the names of the people in your life who provide you with emotional support. This support could be in the form of encouragement, a shoulder to cry on, an empathetic ear. These people are the first ones you call when you have some good news to announce, your nurture huddle (a group of supportive cohorts), and other people you can turn to for trusted feedback who are willing to tell you the hard truth. If your watering can is running low, make time to cultivate connections with kindred spirits and develop these important friendships.
The Honeybees
Remember what you wrote in your core message in the middle of the flower? That core message is the nectar that attracts your honeybees. The honeybees are the fans and customers who are drawn to your work and who help to spread the word about you by carrying your message. Do you have a sense of who the honeybees are that you attract?
Are you attracting a whole swarm of your right peeps or just a few influential ones who can help put you on the map? Are you getting the kind of engagement you want?
Feel free to draw in any other elements that make up your Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Assess Your Entrepreneurial Ecosystem
Now take a step back from your Entrepreneurial Ecosystem sketch and reflect on the following questions.
- Are you clear about what goes in the center of your Business Flower? Why you are doing what you’re doing? If you’re not certain, pay special attention to the next chapter, about articulating your core message.
- Do you have empty petals on your flower? That means you probably need to take additional concrete, doable, and value-added actions to help you move forward. If you’re not sure what actions to take, at the end of each chapter you can refer to the left-brain checklist for ideas. Make sure, though, that the actions are aligned with your big vision, and that they are related to making moola in some form.
- If you notice that you’re missing leaves on your stem, and you’re not sure how to reach the moola goal on your stem, start brainstorming about some leaves you can add to fill the gaps and increase your moola-making ability. In chapter 5 we will cover crafting the way you offer your products or services, but it’s helpful to start thinking about this now, even at a high level.
- Lacking enough water, sunshine, or soil to support your flower’s growth? The final chapter will show you some strategies for sustaining your success, including ways to get the support you need in order to thrive. These are the ongoing practices that will help you tend the garden of your Entrepreneurial Ecosystem.
Even if your flower needs more petals, leaves, sun, or water, the cool thing is that now you have a sense of what to tend to in your Entrepreneurial Ecosystem so that you can create sustainable success for your business. And it’s good to check once in a while to see if weeds are choking off your flower. What unwanted extras are getting in the way of your growth?
Excerpted from the book Building Your Business the Right-Brain Way: Sustainable Success for the Creative Entrepreneur. Copyright © 2014 by Jennifer Lee. Reprinted with permission from New World Library. www.NewWorldLibrary.com
