Most business owners know that it’s important to have a vision for their business. The new year has inspired a long look at what happened last year and thoughts about where they want to be at the end of this one.
To do this, most look at numbers like:
- top line,
- bottom line,
- percentages, ratios, etc.
And that makes a lot of sense. These numbers don’t lie; they usually represent reality (as long as they are accurate and are *interpreted* correctly).
But it is more powerful to think about your “Brand Vision”. Even though it may seem like a slight variation of wording, Brand Vision is powerfully different than a “vision for your business” or “business goals”.
The word “Brand” brings with it many other meanings: reputation, distinction, value, customer perception, culture, and purpose. It talks less about what you want your business to accomplish and more about what you want your brand to become.
Chances are you’ve already set your business goals for the year. But have you created your Brand Vision?
How to Create Brand Vision
While successfully accomplishing your Brand Vision will certainly affect numbers like sales, profits, etc., there are a different set of metrics you can use to measure its success more accurately.
The first one would be your Net Promoter Score (learn about this key metric here: http://www.netpromoter.com/why-net-promoter/know/ ).
Was it 67.8 last year? What do you want it to be this year?
Another metric could be the results of an internal survey you give to your employees about how they feel valued, listened to, engaged, etc.
Although a bit more subjective, what if you asked yourself questions like:
At the end of the year..
- What do I want customers to say about our brand?
- What do I want employees to say about our brand?
- What do I want vendors, suppliers, and sub-contractors to say about our brand?
This bit of reverse engineering powerfully affects how you run day to day operations. And that steers the success of your business much more powerfully than business goals alone.
Get started on simplifying your marketing & growing your business by contacting StructureM today!
