Bringing Spirit into Your Small Business Can Help Build Your Big Vision

Just like separation of church and state, separation of the spiritual and business have, in the past, been a societal expectation. The model that says professionals should separate their emotional and spiritual aspects from their work lives may serve a purpose in a large corporation setting, where employers rightfully worry about employees bringing a personal religious agenda to work. But even in the corporate world, the paradigm is changing. Because—putting religion aside—who we are as spiritual beings cannot be left behind at work, where we spend most of our time. As a small business owner, your spiritual core, principles and values often form the basis of your business culture, and can even determine the level of success you achieve.

If you want to achieve greatness in your business, it’s imperative that you infuse all aspects of yourself, the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual—the “whole person.” When this alignment is present, you become empowered. This is key to embodying the Entrepreneurial Mind-Set.

According to the Small Business Administration, 99.7% of all employers are small businesses, not large companies.

So many of us choose to be entrepreneurs because we want who we are to be reflected in what we do, and we want what we do to have purpose and meaning.

Whether we’re conscious of it or not, our core spiritual beliefs about issues such as love, compassion, equality, service, loyalty, honesty, integrity, purpose, money, wealth, fear, ego, and anger are what determine how we go about building our business, and how we interact with our employees, customers, vendors and business associates.

In working with scores of small business owners, I’ve found this saying to be true—“eighty percent of business problems are well-disguised personal problems.” You can master all of the business skills you want, like sales, marketing, management, finance and systems, but if you’ve haven’t mastered what’s going on in your head, heart, and soul, you lose a certain degree of control over what happens in your business. It’s a matter of mastering not just the Entrepreneurial Skill-Set, but the Entrepreneurial Mind-Set as well.

Identifying your personal blocks, recognizing negative thought patterns that are causing you to procrastinate, and learning how to transcend the daily problems and challenges to focus on priorities are the keys to building a small business that creates the life you want. We are all spiritual beings. Planning regular time to meditate, contemplate, pray, journal, or read something inspirational and reflect on it can have an amazing effect on business results, yet these simple spiritual practices are often put at the bottom of our “to do” lists because they are not “active.” Silent time can bring forth the solutions to difficult problems, as well as creative business building ideas and strategies.

Having a strong spiritual practice, no matter what your religion, can lead you to a level of self knowledge that will save you time, wasted energy and keep you on a focused path to success.

I’ve seen this happen over and over again, and I’ve experienced it myself.

Science is beginning to back this up. Highly respected publications like Time magazine have published numerous articles about how science is showing, for example, that regular meditation reduces stress, improves health, and increases productivity and performance.

Whether you want to or not, what you value and believe, (your spiritual self), is infused in your business through the way you treat people, handle daily challenges, set goals, and structure your business. If you work each day on being very conscious and present when you make decisions and interact with others, that spiritual or mindful approach gives you much more control over the outcome of your actions, than if you choose to operate in default mode. If your thoughts are positive, confident, open, and joyful, you will attract positive and joyful results.

Business owners who build their business around the “whole person” usually:

• make more confident decisions
• think bigger
• empower those around them
• ignite passion about their product or service in others because they are passionate
• have a reputation for integrity and strong customer service
• expect to be profitable
• take a “whole business” approach, capitalizing on all the profit centers in their business
• are stronger planners and strategists
• manage to create time for other interests, family, friends

If you’re ready to think bigger about your business and are motivated to master the skills and mind-set to get you there, please join me and other motivated business owners at a free biweekly tele-meeting, Building a Big Vision Business. Sign up link is http://www.smartrack.net/bvsignup.htm.