The Power of Running Your Business with Clarity, Confidence, and Control
Most business owners are dealing with some level of uncertainty. Economic conditions, government regulations, and consumer behaviour (to name a few) are all out of your control. These things contribute to uncertainty. If you don’t have financial leadership or the ability to implement your business plan strategically, adverse conditions can derail your plans for success.
Clarity, confidence, and control let you focus on what’s important and transition from a reactive to a proactive state. They go to the heart of your organization and allow you to move your business forward.
Clarity creates the pathway to success
Lewis Hamilton, a driver for Mercedes in Formula One racing, is the best there is. He’s won five out of the last six season championships, with his only loss in the previous six years coming against his Mercedes teammate at the time. That’s not a coincidence.
In F1, the quality of the team is equal (or sometimes more important) than the quality of the driver. The driver is responsible for controlling the car and making critical decisions during the race. Still, many of these decisions rely heavily on information fed from the team. They provide insight and foresight, which gives the driver clarity on where they are and what they need to do to reach the podium.
Owning a business is a lot like that. You can make it around the track by yourself, but if you’re not being fed the right information, you might be doing it blindly.
Being able to interpret your financials and use data to forecast adds the clarity required to achieve your business goals. Knowing where you are today, and the financial impact of your business decisions ensures you’re not just making your way around a track.
With clarity, you’re able to make significant gains and avoid obstacles that can impede the success of your business.
Confidence leads to the decisions that bring real impact to your business
In 1994, the New York Rangers were down 3-2 to the New Jersey Devils in the Eastern Conference Finals. Rangers’ captain Mark Messier made a bold, public prediction before Game Six: “we will win tonight.” That night, Messier scored three times. The Rangers would win the game and eventually the Stanley Cup – ending the team’s 54-year championship drought.
When asked why he guaranteed a victory, Messier responded: “I felt that would be a great way to let my players know that I believed we could go in there and win Game 6, because we had beaten them six times during the regular season – three times in their building.”
To everyone else, it seemed bold and risky, but data supported Messier’s confidence. From historical results between the two teams to their current state, data contributed to the confidence Messier required to make a decision (in this case, a bold guarantee) that paid off in a big way.
Valuable data, whether it comes from your financials, reporting, or otherwise, provides the confidence required to make decisions that positively impact your business. It’s not just about having confidence in your decisions; it’s about having confidence in the results of your decisions.
When relevant data supports your decisions, you gain confidence. And when you have confidence, running your business becomes less stressful, and you get that much closer to achieving your goals.
Control ensures you’re moving towards your goals at all times
You have clarity on the path ahead and confidence in what your business decisions will achieve. When those combine, you gain something of incredible value: control.
If you have control of the variables that impact your business, you’ll find yourself working on it more (instead of within it). You’ll be able to develop a calculated business plan and know how to achieve it. Challenges like dealing with sporadic growth or a sudden plateau won’t seem so challenging, because you will have an idea of why those challenges exist and how to mitigate them.
Simply put, having control of the variables that affect your business changes everything. It has a significant impact on your business, your career, and even your personal life.
Putting it all together to achieve what success means to you
Whatever success means to you, clarity, confidence, and control are the key elements required to get there. They allow you to focus on what’s important, make smarter business decisions, and build a roadmap for the future.
There’s no secret to success. But knowing where your business is today, where you want to take it tomorrow, and having the right tools to get there means you don’t need one.