Whether you’re a brand new start-up, still dreaming and working from your kitchen table, or a more established, multi-million-dollar company with years of experience under your belt, resiliency is a quality you need to grow a successful business.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines resilience as the ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change. Misfortune and change are apt words for the challenges every business will face (if they haven’t yet already in just the last two years alone.)
The bottom line: resiliency is more important than ever as we enter the unknowns of 2022.
We believe a resilient business is one that can stand the tests of time, change, and adversity. It’s building up from a strong foundation that anchors and lends stability in a constantly evolving world that presents unexpected challenges. A resilient foundation is necessary for successful, long-term growth.
At System Six Bookkeeping, we’ve been both the start-up working around a kitchen table and the multi-million dollar company. As we look back on our thirteen years of growth, we’ve identified three pillars that continue to move us from start-up to success: strategy, people, and execution.
Strategy
There are countless books on countless strategies to consider when creating a successful business. Those strategies are worth exploring and implementing to help meet specific goals. Still, when we’re thinking about long-term resiliency, mission, vision, and values – specifically, the ability to clearly define them and keep them at the forefront of your company’s priorities – will be the most important strategies of all.
We all need a north star to follow, whether we are in the dreaming stage of building our business or are already leading a large, successful company. Don’t underestimate the value of being able to clearly define your business’ mission statement. It will support your vision of where you want to go and shape the values that you want your company to embody.
People
You can have the most inspiring, brilliantly worded mission statement in the world, and it will be 100% useless without people to live it out.
In order to build a resilient business, you need to attract and retain great people who are as passionate about your mission, vision, and values as you are.
There’s no denying that the workforce is rapidly changing. Twenty million employees quit their jobs in the second half 2021 alone. (Source: cbsnews.com) There are layers of factors for this, of course, but employee stress and burnout are high up on the list. Employers face the unprecedented double-challenge of trying to retain their employees and hire in an increasingly competitive environment.
People are your company’s greatest asset. One of the core values we at SSB strive to live by is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. What do employees most value in today’s evolving culture? What do they need to feel valued and to be successful? It’s never been more important to consider these questions. In fact, Forbes claims that culture is a company’s single most powerful advantage. It not only has the power to increase sales exponentially (4x!), but fosters an environment to keep talented, committed employees that created this growth.
Execution
You’ve got your mission statement nailed down and amazing people to live it out with you – now, how do you go about getting the work done?
We believe resilient businesses have smart, efficient processes to keep communication and productivity consistent and well-organized. Your core values, as well as your desire for the well-being and success of your people, should be evident in the way you implement tools and processes that set you and your employees up for success.
There are many tools and services available to make this easier in 2022 – is your business up to date on the latest tools and technologies to take your productivity and organization to the next level?
Over the next couple of months, we are going to be taking a closer look at each of these pillars of strategy, people, and execution, and deep-dive into why we believe each of them is vital to building a resilient, successful business.