Did you know that all successful businesses have the same 3 foundations, regardless of their size or sector?

These are:

1. The audience it serves
2. The solution it sells
3. The service it provides

For example:

I help freelancers (audience) establish a more stable and secure business (solution) through coaching and hands-on support (service).

This sounds astonishingly simple and yet many, many businesses exist without this clarity.

And each piece is like a link in a chain: if a piece is missing or broken, the chain eventually breaks.

The missing piece

These fundamentals are what enable the rest of your business.

If you struggle with marketing, selling or consistently posting on social media, it's probably because you've not got the clarity you need in some foundational area.

You might be unclear on your audience - so you don't know who you're actually talking to, or what to say.

Or maybe your service is very ad-hoc and sporadic, awaiting client direction, and so you don't feel able to proactively market your business.

Whatever your challenge, you can probably map it back to a shaky foundation.

Building the foundations

In the olden days before social media when you had to network in real life around real people, you needed to have this stuff locked in.

One of the first things you'd be asked is: so what do you do?

When I started freelancing in 2009 I only had one foundation in place. I would say "I build websites" (service).

Which was often met with a tense and slightly confused "cool.."

What problem did I solve? Erm... they didn't have a website?

Who did I build them for? Oh, anyone who'd pay me really.

Now there is nothing wrong with not having a tonne of clarity - you can still sell without it. But I believe there comes a time when you get exhausted by the instability this lack of clarity creates.

It attracts poor-fit clients. It's why you don't feel you can say "no" to the wrong stuff. The low clarity gives way to fear, and you end up taking on anything that comes your way and getting tired.

This is where burnout comes from - people overcompensating for their lack of clarity. They work their butts off doing more and more when they could be doing much less, smarter.

I talk often about getting into alignment. Well, this is really what I mean. Intentionally aligning yourself with your business. Consciously creating your experience of life, rather than life living you.

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Here's a short exercise to gain some instant clarity on what steps you need to take.

Rate yourself 1-5 on the following questions (5 being full clarity):

1. How well do I really know my audience?
2. How clear am I on the actual business solution I sell?
3. How clear am I on the specifics of my service delivery?

This simple scoring system will tell you which foundation you need to focus on.

And if you'd like support from me to find clarity, just reply to this email. This is 90% of the work I do with people.

Thanks,

Matt

P.s. A client recently made a nice testimonial video about working with me to gain purpose and direction in his business. Watch it here.