What Business Are You In?

Have you ever wondered what do you not know about your business, or maybe what questions should you be asking yourself about your business?

Join me on this episode of the virtual entrepreneur. If you're new to this podcast. A very warm welcome. I am your host Herbert innocent. And this is the go to podcast for entrepreneurs who see their business as a vehicle for change.

On our last episode we talked about People First opportunities, second, and then transactions or money. Third, we didn't get a chance was in that episode. Stop. Go back that episode and have a quick listen, it might give you some valuable and key insights on things to consider.

On today's episode we're going to be exploring some of the few very beneficial questions that you might want to ask yourself as a business owner to help you progress forward.

Now, this has been this episode has been me going and learning what other successful entrepreneurs are doing approaches they're using questions they're asking and coming and presenting them to you here in a filtered manner.

In today's episode we're going to explore, explore some of the questions that they use in order to get themselves into the right mindset in not just building but also growing a successful business online, offline.

And the first question is the question.

What business are you in.

I first came across this question, a very very long time ago. Right. And the question isn't so much as in what does your business do, but what business are you in, and a very good example of a business that really really addresses this question is, Apple, as well as the McDonald's franchise, right, for most people, they see McDonald's, as a business that sells french fries coke and all this fast food, but for the actual business owners, right.

McDonald's is really a franchise business right they sell McDonald's, that's their product. Right. It's a business of selling McDonald's, not the food, but the actual business because they sell the franchise, the turnkey operation. Right. And that is what McDonald's is it's the business of selling that business.

Right, and Apple is not so much in a tech company, right, but more so with Apple still with FAS in terms of what they do but from what I understand from what I've seen, it seems as if they provide technology, but also in the music industry in the mobile phone as well as in the computing industry,

So they're not so much focused on providing technology, but they sell something else beyond that, right, and it's been described as lifestyle. It has been described as many different things. But if you're looking at the pricing models if you look at their pricing and revenue structure, or the way they seem to be making money. It seems to be focused on really being a lifestyle product, a lifestyle brand.

Right, so the red leather than selling the commodity, right, which is the physical products most selling that lifestyle. Right. So, these are two example but the best one I've seen is the McDonald's franchise, it's much more explained in that model, it's explored in more detail.

So if you're thinking yourself, well, what is my business that might be a very good place to start. Starbucks also does the same thing, right, with Starbucks. A lot of people may think you know they sell coffee, but really they're selling the space, right, what they call the third home, or the third space between home and office, right, where you can go and spend your time.

So there's that there. So there's those two things first. Right. And so this question, one of the things that I've learned is by looking at that question, it allows you to address two things, allows you to make better decisions.

So for example, if your business depends on having a piece of land, a piece a building facility, then it may make sense to consider where do you put those, where do you which buildings do you use as offices head offices for your business, depending on what exactly your business does. Right.

And so, if you look at McDonald's they attempt to select the best real estate buildings for their McDonald's franchise, not just to maximise, how much people they're getting but also, it builds value in the business in the franchise that you can buy, right, because they are selling the franchise down selling the french fries. French fries.

You know the method through is the vehicle through which they're selling the business. There are many 10 key operations, and by turnkey essentially it's a business that has been rebuilt completely and can be replicated. Different models can be franchised without changing or hurting the quality of the services that are being delivered.

So that's a very beautiful questions for a lot of business owners to think about, especially if you want to build a long term lasting business legacy, if you think I've, for lack of a better word.

The next question is does your business make money.

And this question is a very deep, is a, is a question that is not mostly asked by by new business owners, not very well addressed, are very well understood.

Does your business make money, right, for the majority of businesses, they really just, you know, lose money, or break even.

Right, so does your business make money, is it profitable.

In other words, we will continue to be profitable.

One example that I heard was, you know looking was the advice of looking at businesses that have been here for hundreds of years, if not 1000s Looking at those models and seeing how you can use those model. Models business models with a technology on top of them, so that you're continuing on that, because if it is, if it has survived those changes, the likelihood is that it will continue to survive the next upcoming changes.

And the third question that I've seen is Can your business expand beyond you. For a lot of solopreneurs, which is a very nice catchy phrase that means, you know, you work for yourself and you essentially have a job, right, you have a UI, you have a job where you're you are your own boss and you are your own employee. It's not so much a business when you have that, because if you get sick, no money comes in.

Right. And so, to be a solopreneur, I've seen entrepreneur explain that, you know, sometimes we get caught up in these fancy languages, words.

Right. Fancy words that we think have value.

But being in the position that we are, which is in the position of creating businesses that can last and produce, not knowing the words we are using can have significant harm towards ourselves, you know, and the effort that we've committed and put in place into building businesses. So for a lot of solopreneurs, because sometimes the business may generate revenue they may see that they have a business, but really they just have a job, and sometimes it's okay if the job is paying you better than the job you could have gotten someone else.

Right. But really when it comes down to it, you don't really have a business because you can't sell it so much as pass it on. If you are a solopreneur, you can't replicate the result very well someone else because it's solely dependent on you, on your moods, feelings, so if some days you're feeling down, then the business is not is not performing as well.

And the next question after that the fourth question is, are you in the right business.

I heard someone say something very strange, and I think this was Grant he said you know, if you hate doing it then you must do it until you become the best at it, and he was referring to himself I think when he was doing sales, till he became a very good salesperson. But I think when you're not very good at something, That's when he had the most, the best opportunity for growth. To do so much more to excel.

Whereas if you feel like you know something, then that energy that lack of wanting to know is not as persistence. I'm not quite sure exactly how far to explore that. But are you in the right business.

Can you do much more in that business, I suppose.

And the final question I mean there's several questions here but the final question that I would like to share with you that I see in here is, you know, what does your statement, say, your financial statement, yeah. What does it say, and the most important statement, I think to look at is their statement, the top line of your box that says, you know, money coming in versus money going out. That's it. That's the only statement you know we'll get there.

Because the more money coming in the better.

So those are the five questions that I've been seeing being asked, and I've seen more than I've seen a fair of successful entrepreneur talk about those questions.

And I think they hold merit in helping you making better decisions in how you drive your business forward. So I wanted to share those to help you ask yourself, well, what business are you in.

Right. And does your business, make money. In other words, is it profitable Can you see it, because if you can't see it. If you can't, you know, if you can't, and if you don't understand it then you don't have it, like, so for people investing in Metro bonds and all this other stuff. If you really don't have it you can't, you don't have much control over it and you don't understand it then it's not really a business for you. Another thing is can you business expand Can it grow. If it can't grow as a business, it's a job.

And are you in the right business.

Because if you're not in the right business, then the chances are, you need to realise that at one point you may want to change and so be expecting that change. And what does your financial statements, say, you know, in your business.

So I saw these questions here and when they're being asked, I thought they were very powerful questions for businesses to focus on, because if you focus on the financial statement where they're going to get good results if you focus on what business you're in, then you want to get caught in the traps of shiny object syndrome.

And better yet if your business can expand and can make money. And if it's the right business for you then you've just checked the three very very important boxes, about your business, and this should be a good news as this can help you move forward. So I want to thank you for tuning in on this episode of the virtual, an entrepreneur.

I hope you got some value from these notes here, the notes for this particular episode can be found at her bed marketing help.com that is H ER b e r t marketing help.com.

With that said, I will talk to you on our next episode of the virtual entrepreneur. And as always, have a wonderful evening.