Busi Raphekwane is an entrepreneur
development expert and founder of
The Transformation Legacy. Contact
her at: busi@transformationlegacy.
com, 010 005 5753 or visit:
http://www.transformationlegacy.com.critical fundamental in the business.
There are three critical things that every
entrepreneur should consider to ensure
that they remain a valuable asset to
their business:
1
Gain an in-depth
understanding of
who you are
The process of personal growth starts
with you getting a good understanding
of who you are. This will help you know
exactly what you bring to your business
to make it a success and what you may
bring to the business that could become
a barrier to its growth. Self-awareness
refers to conscious knowledge of
one's own character, values, strengths,
talents, capabilities, vision and desires.
Successful entrepreneurs have a good
understanding of their strengths and
weaknesses and know how to master
who they are and harness their inner
strengths. This brings tremendous value
to the business as the entrepreneur is
able to align what the business requires
with their strengths - and to bring in
others in their areas of weakness.
It's important for every entrepreneur to
know that the business resembles the
character of the entrepreneur; therefore
you need to know what character traits
can create a barrier for the growth of the
business and which ones will result in
exponential growth for your business. If
you want your business to succeed, you
need to start the process of knowing and
understanding yourself.
This can be done using different methods
from formal, to informal methods:
▪ You can do a 360 assessment of
yourself by asking key people who know
you (such as colleagues, clients, family,
friends etc) to give you feedback.
▪ There are various profiling tests
available online which you can take to
assess yourself.
▪ Spending quiet time regularly to
connect with yourself to run through
some of the things you are great at and
those that require improvement.
▪ Seeing a mentor or coach is
tremendously valuable in the self-
awareness process.
2
Set personal development
targets
When you know yourself well you are
able to identify which areas require
outsourcing, improvement, enhancement
or advancement. In order for you to start
the process of actively growing the most
important asset in the business; you
need to set development targets which
will also incorporate the process you will
embark on to develop yourself.For example, you may know that you have
poor people skills and as a result you lose
your temper when dealing with difficult
clients. You need to review this and decide
whether this aspect of the business can
be outsourced, improved, enhanced or
advanced. If the nature of your business
requires that you speak to clients daily,
you may need to outsource the function
to someone with good people skills.
Therefore the goal might be: to find a
client liaison employee with great people
skills. Should this not be an option for your
business, you may need to improve this
aspect of yourself and in this case the goal
might be to attend communication classes.3
Measure your personal
growth
''What doesn't get measured, doesn't get
done'' (author unknown). Every month
you would review the performance of
your business by looking at your income,your expenses, your profit, your cash
flow, how much tax you have to pay
etc. All of this is done to assess how
your business is performing against your
targets and this process is crucial to
the sustainability of the business. It is
also important for you to measure your
personal growth against the personal
development goals you have set for
yourself, to ensure that you are on the
right track. Remembering that you too
are an important asset to the business,
measuring your personal growth will
give you an idea of how far you are from
reaching your targets and how much of
an asset you are to your business.It is important to always remember
that as an entrepreneur, you are the
most valuable asset in the business
and the business will not go further
than where you find yourself. Your
personal growth plays a significant
role in the success of your business.
If you would like to see your business
succeed, the process starts with you
constantly asking yourself: "Am I an
asset to my business?''The process of personal growth starts with
you getting a good understanding of who you
are. This will help you know exactly what you
bring to your business to make it a success
and what you may bring to the business that
could become a barrier to its growth. Self-
awareness refers to conscious knowledge
of one's own character, values, strengths,
talents, capabilities, vision and desires.
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