Investing in Greatness

Investing in Greatness

“If you plant apple seeds, you’ll get an apple tree.  If you plant weeds, you’ll get weeds.  Lots of them.”

These are very basic ideas that can apply to nearly any area of your life.  Think about seeds in terms of being things that you begin doing in some aspect of your life.  For example, habits: If you act a certain way, think a certain way, dress a certain way, etc., there will be “fruits” of those habits.  Image consultants such as Cathy Hankinson of 10 Second Impact has built her business around the fact that people will take the seed you’ve planted – their first impression of you – and create a mental map, mental picture or a set of beliefs about you and/or your business.Apple seeds grow Apple Trees

It seems like the need to purchase something for the business never goes away.  Many times, we operate from the belief that we can only purchase the minimum that LOOKS like it will get a particular job done.  We’ll purchase $10 parts from retailers that catch fire or stop working after a couple of week.  We’ll look for free services to use with our clients that work most of the time.  We undercut people to get the best “value,” just because the price is lower, without taking into consideration what the ramifications will be. 

Now this doesn’t mean that we over-purchase, we purchase without planning, or could without reservation.  It means that if we need a Heavy Duty truck, scraping the bottom of the barrel may get us a truck, but it may end of being a truck that may require extensive maintenance and repairs to keep going/  After a while, the thing looks like it costs us as much as it would have to purchase a newer model.  Not to mention, the black cloud of soot we leave at every customers’ homes or businesses is never appealing.

Think long-term with your purchases.

“You’ll always reap what you sow; more than you sow, later than you sow.” – Dr. Charles Stanley

Think about your purchases in terms of being investments in your company.  When you purchase a computer for your company, Investments you are expecting a certain amount of increased productivity out of it.  You aren’t expecting bottom-of-the-barrel productivity, and you certainly aren’t looking for something that is going to break down on you after running steadily for about a year.

Know, factually, that you cannot do it all yourself.  There are things your business needs that will actually cost you less to hire someone to do than to do it yourself.  Websites come to mind.  Not everyone in the world has the ability to create a compelling, dynamic website that will actually generate sales for them.  However, your website is often how people begin to gain perception of your business.  Your website needs to match your business and will be, at times, the difference between your getting the sale versus one of your competitors.

Business leader – yes there will be deals.  There will be once in a lifetime opportunities.  There will be miracles that simply fall into your lap.  Regardless, you still need to do your due diligence in order to make sure you are getting the best price without sacrificing quality, dependability and functionality.  You should feel confident that one day, you will be able to look back at the things that you’ve purchased and say, “this purchase enabled us to…and here are the fruits of the investment.”

If you want an extraordinary business, you’ve got to plant extraordinary seeds.  Grow extraordinary.

Aepiphanni Business Consulting: The Business Strategy People is an Operations Management and Business Strategy Consulting Firm dedicated to serving the needs of small to medium sized business leaders. We specialize in helping leaders create extraordinary businesses.  We welcome clients in the personal and professional services industries, including Creative and Design Services, Software & IT Services, Professional Services and Specialty Consumer Services.  As always, we welcome your comments, thoughts, questions and suggestions.  If you are seeking a business assessment, or have further questions about creating your strategy or developing your vision, please give me, Rick Meekins, a call at 678-265-3908, or email us at [email protected].


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