Core values act as roots for companies, laying the foundation as it were. In an ever changing world where the word ‘pivot’ has become synonymous with most startup companies, it has become of even greater importance that these core values are established as early in the growth cycle as possible. Without this, companies and people tend to drift. Their choices are then governed by external factors rather than an internal compass.

Discovering your Core Values

Core values are not a result of an afternoon brainstorming session. They originate from who you are as a person and a team. In your company right now, there will be a way of how things get done, how you communicate with one another and what factors are ‘non-negotiable’ deal breakers. They may not seem clearly apparent at first, however, with continuous searching they will always manifest themselves.

Clarity and simplicity are paramount when discovering your core values. They have to be simple messages that resonate with who you are and the people you want to work with. Unfortunately many companies setup these core values but pay nothing but lip service to them. These are often only the result of an intellectual pursuit paying heed to what would look ‘good’ rather than being representative of them.

There is no deadline as to when you need to establish these values. The important factor is that you make a concerted effort towards developing them over time. The key here is that you clearly define them since they will act as guiding principles. They will determine your hiring decisions, product decisions and just about every critical decision that needs to be made.

Running a Values Driven Company

Once you have your core values clearly outlined it is critical to incorporate them into everything you do. There are three major components where your core values play a critical role:

Hiring: The smartest and the brightest people have the ability to work wherever and with whoever they choose to. They don’t work for a company because of the salary or benefits plan. What they look for are companies who are aligned with their core values. This is what separates the great companies from the good ones. When a company does not have established core values where it can determine fit, you will end up hiring individuals who most likely will not have a shared work ethic. This is where companies breakdown, where communication suffers and everything comes falling down. Integrating your values into your recruitment process is a critical component to enable you to uphold the culture and values you want to live by.

Customers: We live in a very competitive world today. Edges and advantages that were previously derived from processes, intellectual property and size are no longer enough. The people whom we sell to, need to know why they should buy from you as compared to the next company who has a nearly identical offering. In most situations it comes down to who you are as a company and what you stand for. This is where your core values help you to stand out from the rest. If you truly live by them on a daily basis, this will be communicated to your prospects. When they find a shared sense of purpose in the way you conduct things, you make a far more authentic and lasting connection. This is what you need to strive for.

Internal Communication: As mentioned earlier, it is paramount that your core values become the basis of how you operate as a business. This requires us to integrate them into our regular activites such as performance reviews, employee recognition and internal communication. When evaluating the performance of an employee it is critical to see whether they are demonstrating the company’s core values alongside hitting tangible targets. When employees display these core values at work, they should be “recognized” as an example of how to live by these values. Lastly, all internal communication should have your core values as the underlying principle.

Running a “values driven” business is much harder than running one which only pays lip service to it and may cause short term loss of profits and growth. Hiring will be much harder and you will have to remove people whose values are not aligned with the company’s. However, optimizing for the short term always has long term repercussions, these will always outweigh any immediate gain. Hence, if you are committed to building and running a business for the long term, I would strongly advise and encourage you to make a decision to run a “values driven” company, sooner rather than later!

Steve Blank is one of the most influential thought leaders when it comes to customer development and lean startups. This is a very comprehensive slide deck with his complete methodologies and some great advice for entrepreneurs.

Every small business owner has visions about closing that one large referral client, who will help take their business to the next level. Large referral clients can accelerate the growth of your business, one does however need to realize, at what cost.

Far too often many business owners abandon their sales funnels when doing their best to close the big account. This is the first mistake:

1. Never abandon your sales lead generation processes altogether. You could reduce the time that is put into them substantially, but do not neglect them for an extended period of time. This breaks the momentum which is critical in moving your business along.

Pursuing a large client requires continuous engagement. When you have identified a certain need in the organization that you can fill, but the circumstances are presently not right to close the deal, do not give up. This is often the second mistake that is made:

2. Closing large accounts takes continuous effort, engagement and a lot of perseverance. Even if you get a flat out ”no” the first time around, do your best to remain connected in one way or other with the prospects. Ask the prospect to signup for your newsletter, monitor keywords to watch for activity in their space or perhaps send them a link or ebook that they might find helpful.

If you do not end up closing the sale, it is not the end of the world. Many business owners lose steam around this time and the business heads into a downward spiral. This is the last and most serious mistake that is made by small business owners.

3.It is most important at this point in time to do a recap of all the objections that were made, the materials or presentations that were sent over, also analyze any other factors that may have contributed to not winning the deal. Make the necessary adjustments, ask for feedback from mentors or even the client. Each “no” should make you stronger and push you that much further along the path to close the next big deal that comes your way.

*I write a bi-weekly newsletter on sales for Cloud Marketing Labs. If you liked this post I would encourage you to sign up for the newsletter.

Whilst growing up I was torn between becoming a high powered investment banker or a business owner. Looking back now, there were several signs that I would in all likelihood choose the latter, on account of  the things I enjoyed doing. For one, I started saving when I was around 10 years old. By the time I was 12, along  with some school friends, we came up with the idea to draw and create our own comic books and sell them. There were three of us,  2 of them excelled at drawing and I was the sales guy. That soon lead to us finding an opportunity to source and sell comics to other kids at school.

When I turned 15,  my grandfather introduced me to the stock market and the fundamentals of investing. Through this I learnt some valuable life lessons about making, and losing money. It helped that my father was a business owner, and conversations around the dining table were usually around related topics. Looking back now, the opportunity to be introduced to these concepts at such a young age was a great boon and boost for me. These lessons have helped me most definitively along my entrepreneurial  way.

I recently came across this Ted Talk. I could totally relate to where the speaker was coming from. This talk has some great tips and advice for parents on how they can help their kids along this life journey.

I believe the take away from this video is, that we should encourage our kids to pursue their strengths from a very young age. Whether it is playing an instrument, a sport or the drive to be a business owner. If we provide them the necessary guidance from a young age, we give them the opportunity to find their passion early in life. Additionally, mistakes made at this age are a lot cheaper than those made later on in life!