How’s Your Vision?

A lot of businesspeople never really think through their most important priorities, the skills they need to focus on strengthening, what I call the ‘Core Competencies’ of business. The illustration at right shows the six such Competencies that every entrepreneur needs to get ahead. If you were to rate yourself on a 1-10 scale in each of the six, where are you strongest? Where is your greatest opportunity for improvement?

Howard Schultz, who reinvented the coffee shop business with Starbucks, says "Vision is what they call it when others can’t see what you see. How’s your ‘vision’ "?

It’s easy to let 100% of your time and energy be consumed by the day-to-day and totally lose sight of the big picture, the future picture of your business that motivates you. The savviest entrepreneurs divide time and energy into short-term; medium-term; and long-term, and budget some time every week to think about, work on, and create some progress for each of the three. One of my favorite questions is: what do you want your business to look like, be like, operate like 3 to 5 years from today?

— Dan Kennedy

Dan Kennedy is an author, consultant and business coach. Additional information at www.FreeDanKennedyNewsletter.com