Team Play, Anyone?

You’re a micropreneur, right? And you’re probably asking yourself: “What does team play have to do with me?”

I am a firm believer that ‘being a partner with a client’ is the best philosophy for being successful in business.  Yes, I do believe that we need boundaries. Yes, I wouldn’t consider doing something that I didn’t love and I want to stay authentic to provide highest service.

But the truth is that sometimes we just forget things like the client is a human being!

I know that you, like me, strive to be very efficient at running your business. It may be that you are so stressed for time that you may not want to do “whatever it takes” to ensure the client is happy. But, there are times when you have to take it and do whatever needs to get done.

If you “get” this, you’re someone who has long term relationships with your clients. As a result, you tend to have more confidence in your skills and step fully into your expertise. You’re fully inside your skin.

Why? Because you have a real grasp on what it means to “be vested” in your clients.

Maybe you are asking: “Why should I be THAT vested in my clients?”  If you are a coach, it seems to go against the principles taught to you not to have an interest in the client’s outcome.  Nonetheless, it is a great question and I would like to answer it with 3 reasons.

Doing only work you are totally sold on!

Your work will not be excellent if you are not completely sold on what you do. This has nothing to do with who your client is and everything to do with who you are.

If you don’t get up in the morning singing the praises of what you’re doing, you’re in the wrong line of work. If what you do isn’t something YOU LOVE to do, you’re never going to get where you aspire to be.  Yes, there are off days…but on the whole, how do you feel about what you do? Do you love, Love, LOVE it? Or, are you merely so-so?

Why is this important?  Well, if you’re not happy, excited, passionate, (insert your own adjective here) at seeing a client grow… well then, at the end of the day, it won’t matter one whit how much money you make. You are not going to feel successful in your business.

What do you gain by taking the extra steps to make the client feel a success? Nothing but knowing that the work you do has purpose. Knowing that it has done what you promised implicitly or explicitly.

Life is nothing but relationships!  

I am guilty of suffering from the lone-ranger syndrome. It took me a long time and lots of hard knocks to realize that I can’t do it alone. Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to make you a success.

Your commitment to your work reflects in the relationships you have with your clients. I believe that if you can’t be invested in your client’s success it is because you are not overly convinced that what you do has value. Or, maybe it is a commitment issue.

If you are only working your business to be paid, you’d be better off getting a job, working for someone else. It takes a lot less energy.

When you ask someone else to share their life, dreams, problems with you, you’re asking them to entrust part of their life into your expert hands. You’ve just entered into a relationship based on faith and trust, the client’s.

Treating it as anything less than a relationship deserving your best, you will have violated that trust the client has put in you. You will have missed the gist of doing what you do.

Doing what you do is not just about the money. It is about love and faith and trust, isn’t?

Reap and sow, cause and effect

The eternal principle of cause and effect works in running a business as much as it does in matters of spirit. It is not simply for the holy texts. It is for you and your business.

You only get out what put in, into your business, into your relationships, into your whole life. 

If you plant a tomato seed, then expect tomatoes, not oranges or pineapples. If you don’t sow anything, then your harvest will be nil!

It is important to remember that to be successful yourself, you’ve got to place your client’s success above all. You’ve got to invest the time and effort into bringing their success to the highest level possible in order to reap your own.

Sowing comes before reaping. Cause produces the effect, good or bad not the other way around.

So, are you fulfilling the promise?

If you already live these principles, if they are firmly rooted in what you do, you can expect to have your business blossom. You will find fulfillment; you will be energized to continue growing as a person and as  a micropreneur. Your clients will be happy and will sing your praises forever. They will become friends and not just payers. 

It is my fervent wish that you do great things, that your work is fulfilling. But most of all, what I wish for you is that you know that what you’ve done has made the difference in someone else’s life.