Being able to articulate your company’s vision simply is powerful.

It supports your decision-making, how you lead, and provides a guidepost for your company to work towards.

Sharing it with your team, your clients and suppliers can be equally as powerful so people know what you’re about. People are attracted to doing business with companies that have passion and purpose.

If you haven’t articulated or written your business’ vision in a while, I encourage you to use this simple framework which includes what success looks like.

Here’s a vision framework for you to work with:

A few months ago I was searching dog breeders and their websites….yes, it’s happening. Something the kids have been wanting for years is finally going to happen :). We are now on a list to receive our puppy in the Fall.

The point of my sharing this is that as I was looking at breeders’ websites, they started to sound very similar - they all offer puppies of a particular breed, they all guarantee the pedigree, most offered first shots, and so on. But a couple of websites stood out. Some offered more resources than others after you received the puppy. And this got my attention.

We will be first-time dog owners and this was very reassuring to me. Having shopping lists and resources for new pet owners was right up my alley. One breeder offered support through a community page.

The point I’m making here is about differentiation. They all really offered the same or similar ‘offering’ (a cute little puppy of the breed I was looking for) and yet a couple really stood out to me as a buyer.

Even though I called this the second driver, these are really in no particular order and not necessarily in the order in which we would focus on for your business. If you missed the first driver of company value that I spoke about, you can check it out here.

To grow your business and to build a valuable asset, this is likely the most common area we think about for a business: Financial Performance.

Financial Performance is simple to understand but not necessarily easy to achieve…

There are 8 drivers of company value that contribute to the valuation of whether your company will be easy to pass on or to sell in the future. Through my work supporting business owners to grow their businesses in a way that maximizes their future exit options, I have found that these 8 drivers aren’t always obvious.

And, through focusing on these 8 drivers, this is the process to grow your company, so if you’re not looking to sell anytime soon, these drivers will offer you a roadmap to enjoy growth in the meantime.

The first driver I would love to talk about first is Hub and Spoke. I wanted to start here because typically, almost every owner I’ve worked with has an opportunity in this area…