Small Business Today Magazine JUL 2014 PHENOMENAL PRODUCTS | Page 27

EDITORIALFEATURE

The Greatest Business Lesson 

I Have Ever Learned                
By Howard Partridge

L

ast month, I shared that I had learned two
secrets that changed my life. The first is that
you’ve got to have systems in your business
if you want a predictable, profitable, turnkey
operation.

The second secret is what I call “the greatest
business lesson I have ever learned”. The greatest business lesson I have ever learned is that
my business exists for ONE and ONE reason
ONLY.

And your business exists for the same reason…to be a VEHICLE to help you achieve your
L.I.F.E. Goals!

The everyday demands of a business have a
dramatic impact on our personal lives. The good
news (no, phenomenal news) is that the impact
can be POSITIVE! It doesn’t have to be negative.
So, the first step toward a phenomenal business
is to understand why it exists – to enhance your
life.To be a vehicle that takes your life from where
it is to where you want to go.

You went into business because you had a
dream of working for yourself and having more
free time, but then you got sucked into the constant demands of the business. Before too long,
you were enslaved by it.

The key is to design your LIFE GOALS first.You
must have a vision for what freedom looks like to
you. One of the tools I use is the Wheel of Life
that has the 7 core areas of life.You rate yourself
on the 7 areas on a scale of 1 through 10.You assess your life as it is now and compare each area
to what you want it to look like.

And your business exists for the
same reason…to be a VEHICLE
to help you achieve your L.I.F.E.
Goals!
goals. It’s the vehicle you have chosen. You design
the business to facilitate your life goals.

Don’t get me wrong – you’ll still work just as
hard – and if you don’t have money, you may
have to invest more “sweat equity” than you ever
imagined to get where you need it to be.You may
have to work long and hard in the beginning. But
if you design your life goals first and build your
business around that vision, you