Your Business Needs an MVP: Mission, Vision & Purpose: Maryann Croce (Blog) 

One of the challenges as a business owner is that you make a lot of decisions each day. 

Various sources estimate that an adult makes about 35,000 remotely conscious decisions each day. As your level of responsibility increases, so does the number of choices you are faced with. Assuming, that most people spend around seven hours per day sleeping that makes roughly 2,000 decisions per hour or one decision every two seconds.

As a business owner many of your decisions will have long-term effects on others. You may even want to turn off the day when you go home.  Decision making can lead to fatigue and burnout. When that happens everyone from your customers, team and family are affected.  Burnout will change how you show up. 

The Good News

Decision making is a skill. A skill you can develop and improve. The goal being to make better decisions more quickly and being confident with the decisions you have made. Imagine what better decision making will do for you, your team, business, and family. What challenges will you be able to overcome? 

• Attracting, developing, and retaining top talent
• Working well with customers, suppliers, and vendors
• Having a business that not only survives challenge but thrives on the other side of it. 
• Creating a work-life balance that works.

How do you get better at decision making?

It starts with your MVP: Mission, Vision, and Purpose. I know to many, dedicating time for this may seem at first as time you don’t have. I promise you it is worth it. Skip an hour of TV or streaming one night and work on it. It will be one of the best hours you spend investing in yourself. 

Start with your purpose

Why do you own a business?  The magic is in this seven-layer deep exercise. Many will start with reasons that most people have a job. To pay off bills or achieve a specific income level. Those things can be accomplished by a job. You do not have to own a business. So why do you own a business? When you dig deeper and keep asking yourself why after each answer, you get to the core reasons. Over the years when I asked owners why they own a business, here are some of the deeper responses. 

• “I felt obligated to carry on our family business.” 
• “I wanted to do it better than my past bad bosses.”
• “Someone told me I couldn’t do it.”

Then as they go seven-layers deep, finally they would get to some form of: 

• “I want to be in control of my future because I never felt that way growing up.” 
• “I want my family to count on me, because in the past people didn’t believe in me.” 
• “I want to provide opportunities for my family and team that I didn’t believe I would ever have.”
• “I want to help people in our community by doing what I’m really good at.”

When you do this exercise, you will find that your purpose is bigger than you. When you get to that point, your business has an advantage over your competition. People can align with a purpose that is bigger than them and want to be part of it. 

When I did this exercise years ago, I realized that the automotive industry was seen by some as unprofessional and I knew many smart people (owners) who I admired and respected in the automotive industry.  

My purpose: To honor those before me who paved the way to small business and the automotive industry. 

VISION: What challenge, problem, or situation you would like to improve? 

My vision is to have the automotive industry be seen as a professional and viable career opportunity for the next generation who enjoy growth and making an impact in their community.

Why? Because I want to encourage those in the automotive industry to have a sense of pride in the work they do and how they best serve their communities. There are many in the industry with years of experience who can mentor the next generation. 

MISSION: What you do daily to achieve the vision: 

My Mission: We are resource and an example of professionalism to our team, our customers and community. 

Your mission guides how you show up each day. Once this is established it helps with decision making because you have a north start. Something to guide your decision making in all areas of your business. 

• The Value of Customer Service
• Hiring, Onboarding, and Developing Your Team.  
• Marketing- The Messaging for The Brand You Build
• Sales- Confidently Serving Your Customers and Community. 
• Systems and Processes – Building a Business That Runs Independently of You.  
• Financial Goals: Survive to Thrive to Legacy 

Your Future Is Bright  

The goal is to have a business that is profitable, sustainable, and enjoyable. 

Profits are how your team, family and community thrive. The health of your business depends on profits. Without profits you cannot best serve anyone including yourself.

Sustainability is how you gain control of your business by letting go of doing it all. I talk to business owners that are always questioning how they can keep up at the pace they are working at. You cannot continue at the new business owner pace forever. It is not sustainable for your health or your relationships. By letting go you empower others to do what they do best. It’s what great leaders do. 

Enjoyable– The excitement and joy of opening your business doesn’t have to end. Looking forward to each day and getting to do what you do instead of having to do it makes all the difference in how we show up. How you show up affects your team, customers, and family. Enjoying what you do opens the door for collaboration, innovation, and creativity. Learn to improve each day. 

We are business owners to make a difference in the lives of the people we encounter and serve. The means by which you do that may be maintaining or fixing their vehicles so they can be their best for the people who are depending on them. Why you do it, is personal and deep. 

Building a clear MVP is a journey worth taking because you will improve your decision-making skills and your personal and professional bonds you have with others will become stronger. Personal and professional success is always about relationships. 

As a shop owner since 1999, I have faced many of the same challenges. You don’t have to go it alone. If you would like to discuss your biggest owner challenge I can help: Click to Schedule a Courtesy Owner Biggest Challenge Call and we will walk through it together. In 30 minutes or less you will have an action item you can implement right away. 

Maryann Croce, a certified partner of Todd Herman’s 90 Day Year™, is a leadership coach/shop owner. Her company Small Biz Vantage specializes in leadership development for trade business owners. She is an auto shop owner since 1999. You can reach Maryann at (203) 913-7741 or maryann@smallbizvantage.com Maryann speaks on leadership and mindset. SmallBizVantage.com