As a small business owner, you’ve probably heard the phrase ‘finding your Values’ thrown around during marketing courses, networking or other training – I know I have! – but why are they so important to the success of your business?
First off – What are Values?
They aren’t just a few generic words you pick from a list because they sound pretty, your Values are the 3-5 themes or core ideas that will underpin everything you do as a business.
Once you have these in place, you’ll find they guide your decisions, dictate who you hire and the standards of their behaviour, determine how you’re treated by your clients and how you treat them. They show up in your quality of work, in your marketing and in the type of clients you attract.
Whether or not you’ve actually sat down and worked them out, you already have values.
You’re already doing business according to values that are important to you. If you have staff, they have values and they are (consciously or unconsciously) working according to those values.
Why bother identifying your Values then?
By purposefully choosing your company values, you are confirming which core ideas are integral to how you want to operate and how you want to be seen by your customers. Once you have those defined, you can ensure that you’re communicating and living these values to attract the right customers and get the results you want for your business.
Values drive business success.
As a small business owner, your business is a reflection of you, and your personal core values are going to heavily influence the values of your company. And that’s ok! Your values will attract like-minded customers – and you’ll like doing business with people who value what you do.
From a one-man-band to a staff of hundreds, all businesses need core values and ideals to help them succeed – both in their marketing and in their day-to-day operation.
“If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand.” Howard Schultz
Without values, you have no clear direction for you or your staff and you are more likely to make the wrong decisions without values to determine your priorities. You’ll attract staff and customers who aren’t the right fit for you – which makes your life harder and takes the joy out of business.
So, let’s find your values!
While I said businesses usually have 3-5 values, that’s not set in stone and you can have however many values you feel are authentic to you. As a starting point, 3-5 is enough to have an impact and an influence on how your business operates, while being easy to remember and use in decision-making, without having to constantly refer to a list.
What a value looks like…
Your value itself will be a word or 2-3 words, such as “Community Spirit” “Earth-conscious” or “Curiosity”.
Underneath that value, you’d write a description, just a couple of sentences, about what that means to you or how you live that out as a business.
As an example, one of my personal values is; “Health”.
To me that means: “Having the energy and vitality to make the most of life”.
Before we find yours, let’s establish what a value is NOT.
Values are not meant to be;
- Promises to clients, e.g. “qualified professionals”. Values are not a place to promote the benefits and features of your company. That’s when it becomes salesy and not genuine.
- Expectations of your clients or staff, such as “punctuality”. Values should be what you hold dear, and how you want to be, not a reflection of how you want people to behave.
- Aspirational. Don’t pick a word you aren’t already actioning, such as “sustainable”, if you don’t actually have recycling or earth-friendly processes in place.
- Boring, stock standard words like “Quality” or “Customer Service”. That could be anyone’s value, and if that’s really truly a value of yours, try to find another way or word to describe it.
All the great values I’ve seen and loved are the ones which describe what’s important in life (not only business), such as caring for the environment, continual growth and upskilling, having fun, or family time.
How to identify your values.
Ask yourself;
- What do I spend my money/time on?
- What topics do my conversations usually steer towards?
- What do others rely on me for that I love providing?
Another way to look at it, is to think about what is going on in your business already. What are your clients saying about you in their testimonials, and what aspects do you love about your favourite clients?
Top Tip: Leave Google out of this process if possible!
While you can Google “values” and get a whole big list and pick the ones you like, it’s not an authentic way to do it. This limits your imagination to what’s been done before and becomes almost a priority, or hierarchy thing, instead of listening to your gut.
Remember, this is a process – not a 20-minute ‘speed-select my values’ session.
Here’s what I like to do:
- Write a big list of all possible values (from your own head, not Google!). Give yourself at least 20 minutes to clear out the conscious mind and let the unconscious mind wake up and join the party.
- Cross off the ones you least resonate with and ones you can probably group together as they have a ‘root’ value in common.
- Leave it a day, think and sleep on it, come back tomorrow.
- If you can add more, do so, if you can cross off more, do it.
- Choose the top ones (3-5) and begin writing your descriptions under them.
- As you do the description process, the main word/theme may change, or you might find that more will group together.
- Leave that another day or two, and revisit again.
Don’t be afraid to tweak your choices and get opinions from others. Find yourself a brainstorming buddy and ask them to pick it apart and question everything you’ve written.
Final Tip – Enjoy the process!
Once you have these values set in stone, you’ll find life gets easier because you know who you are and what you want as a business.
You can measure your direction and decisions by ‘does this line up with my values?’ and ‘will this help me achieve or live out my values’? And you’ll be more confident in the choices you make!
Values are so important and are unique to you and your business. No two businesses will have the same values, and that’s what makes the difference for your clients.
They get to choose a brand they’ll be loyal to (and they may not even know why!) and it means you’ve got an edge over your competitors, a reason to be different, and a way to stand out.
Now make it happen!
Schedule some time this week to go through this process – and click here to download my free guide if you need a little extra help with figuring out your values.
Let me know how you go – I’d love to hear how this has helped your business!
Need a little extra help with figuring out your values? Here’s where you can book a 1:1 consult with me so we can really get to the core of it for you.
