The question why is usually associated with small children… ‘Why is that lady fat mummy?’ ‘Why is the sky blue? Why do I have to wear those shoes? …the bane of every parent’s life, the ‘but WHY..?’ question must be asked a hundred times a day.
What a shame we don’t ask it as often in business!

Well ok…maybe not a hundred times a day…but it is a very important question for anyone who wants to build a successful enterprise.

The most important WHY, and the very first time it should be asked, is when we are first thinking of starting our business… Why am I doing this? Why do I believe it’s important? What is my cause? My driving purpose?

As Simon Sinek will tell you in his great book ‘Start with Why’, too many businesses start with what they are going to do, and how they are going to do it…many don’t ever consider the why. Yet it’s the why that inspires, that draws a crowd, that makes for loyal, lifelong customers. It inspires your people too…they believe they are involved in something bigger than a job…they buy into your cause, and as a result they take ownership, they perform consistently well…they enjoy their work.

We buy into the why of a business not the what. If it was the other way around maybe people would be queueing round the block for the launch of a new Dell product, but they don’t. They come out in their millions for Apple because it is built around a why that inspires. A why so strong, that even after the death of Steve Jobs, and with the media predicting their demise and slating their new product, they pulled off their most successful launch ever.

Steve Jobs’ created a movement with a why that was all about challenging the status quo and empowering the individual.
Richard Branson has done something similar at Virgin. His why?…because UK consumers deserve better.

My why?…because business is all about strong, trusted relationships.
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What’s yours?

For more information on how MPL can help you visit www.mariannepage.co.uk or contact me on hello@mariannepage.co.uk

Back in the day, an old boss once said to me ‘It’s not about relationships Marianne, it’s about results’. I disagreed with her at the time, and over the years I have become even more convinced that business is ALL about relationships. It is in fact the relationships that drive results and deliver business growth.

I’m not just talking about the relationships with the people in your business here…we’ll come to those in a minute…I’m talking about the equally important relationships, like the one you have with your business…how passionate you are about what you do, how in touch you are with the Why of what you do?

Since everything in your business starts with you, this is a really important relationship to keep on top of. Noticing when your passion is fading, and doing something about it, could be the difference between stagnation or growth.

And what about your relationship with money…like me, you must know people who have a really bad relationship with money…who either feel they don’t deserve to have it, or who spend it as soon as they make it….or maybe they spend money they don’t have and get themselves into unmanageable debt. An unhealthy relationship with money, has been the ruin of many a business owner.

The other important relationships are of course, the human variety, and like all of the relationships in our business they need to be worked on to keep them strong and healthy.

I’m actually not one of those people who believes that ‘business is business and friendship is friendship’…that ‘fine line’ that people talk about just doesn’t exist in my book. You can’t have one set of values and behaviours with your customers, another with your suppliers or employees, and another for your friends and family. You are who you are – values, warts and all.

Consistency is king when it comes to any relationship. And the key to consistency in your business, is process.

Simple and effective systems and processes in your business, will not only help you to build strong relationships, but also to maintain them. Systems that make you easy to do business; systems that give your customers a consistent experience; systems that support your people, that develop them, reward them, help you hire the right people in the first place…that’s what will build the strong, trusted relationships essential to business success and growth.
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It really is all about relationships.

For more information on how MPL can help you visit www.mariannepage.co.uk or contact me on hello@mariannepage.co.uk
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Is your business on Purpose?

Of course there are a number of ways to take that question, but for me, there are only two that really matter…

In a business context, I’m talking about process and systems. There are so many of us in business who fly by the seat of our pants! It’s fun, right? It’s edgy…it keeps you on your toes…every day is different.

Well that’s great, and may even work really well while you’re a start-up, or a one-man-band…but what happens when you want to grow? What happens when you have a small team and they also have to wing it…when they are all delivering your service or creating your product in their own way…muddling through as best they can? Can you imagine how much time and money is wasted?

Running your business ‘on purpose’ means that everyone in the team knows what’s expected of them. They follow a set process, a set procedure for every activity…they ALL follow the same processes and procedures…they do things on purpose. Not randomly, not as they feel like it, but on purpose.

Time is saved. Money is saved. You have control.

Is that how you run your business?

The other ‘on purpose’ I’m referring to (and without getting too heavy for a Friday evening) is your life purpose. By that I mean, are you doing what you were put on this planet to do…using your skills to the fullest…following your passion? Is your business built around your passion? …around your values and beliefs? Do you have a clear vision for the future that you’re following…or have you been caught up in delivering someone else’s vision, and now feel stuck on a hamster wheel that you simply can’t get off?

Do you start every day, week, month, planning session, with the powerful question…”What am I trying to achieve…and why?” to tune you in to what’s really important and keep you heading towards your vision.

If you’re living your life ‘on purpose’ then the answer to most of these questions will be yes. If you’re not, then I would highly recommend that you spend time with someone who can help you get back on track.

We all have a passion for something, we all have gifts and we all have a vision of a desired-future…so why not go after it?

Live your life ‘on purpose. Life is way too short not to.
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For more information on how MPL can help you visit www.mariannepage.co.uk or contact me on hello@mariannepage.co.uk
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Why are you in business?

It’s one of the most fundamental questions that every business owner should be able to answer.  What is the underlying reason behind why you set up your business?

The most successful businesses are built around someone’s passion…the business owner who has a really strong WHY, will always surpass the guy who focuses entirely on the WHAT.  Think about Richard Branson…his WHY is that he felt customers were getting a rough deal…being taken for granted…and he wanted to give them better…in the air, with their mobile phone, in the gym.  That’s his passion, his WHY, and he’s always followed it.

So what’s yours?  Does it still drive you, and drive your business?

Sometimes we start out full of passion, but somehow lose it along the way.  Often that’s because when we started out we were small, maybe even a one-man band…we were in control of everything, had time to check everything was just right – with our service and our products – and we were making profit…pretty good profit.

But as we’ve grown, as we’ve taken on more people, we’ve lost that control…we’re still trying to check everything, follow up on everyone, to make sure that our products and our service are just as we want them, but we don’t have time, and in trying to make time we’re exhausting ourselves.  Mistakes are being made, costs are going up, profits are plummeting, and we are so busy working the day to day that we don’t have time to think about how we’ll achieve the vision of the future that we once had.  Passion is a very distant memory.

And the danger is that we never escape this downward spiral…we simply run ourselves and our business into the ground.  It’s an all too common scenario.

Passion, like water, is most powerful when it is contained and harnessed…when it has a structure around it.  Your passion for your business needs similar structure…

It needs systems and processes that are the blueprint for how you want things done…it needs a hand-picked team of people who buy into your passion and who get that their job is to work the systems and follow the process…and it needs you to get out of their way and allow them to get on with it.

Only then will your passion drive your profits and deliver sustainable growth.

Don’t believe me?  Take a look around you at the Golden Arches on every high street and in every retail park…a business built around one man’s passion, that has been driven to sustained and continuous growth by the power of consistent process and systems.
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Fancy a bit of that success?  Let your passion drive your profits – systemise your business.

For more information on how MPL can help you visit www.mariannepage.co.uk or contact me on hello@mariannepage.co.uk