We do not become an entrepreneur to suffer our activity (not me anyway). We want to create our job, master our days, choose the tasks we accomplish. Except that sometimes, by dint of doing, we forget to be. Head in the handlebars, you no longer feel aligned with your company. We lose the flame that animated us when we started.
I speak knowingly. I suffered a big misalignment with my business a few years agos. I did not flourish in my activity. I worked without desire or passion. It wasn’t what I wanted. That’s probably not what you want either. Thanks to this experience, I know how to feel aligned with my company. And that’s what I’m going to share with you in this article.
Feeling aligned with your company: my experience
I never dreamed of being an entrepreneur. Before 2016, I didn’t even know that was a possibility. I lived in a classic pattern: study then CDI. No one around me had their own business.
I am not self-employed out of deep envy. I did it following an opportunity at the end of my studies. Being a freelancer was the only way to continue working on the social project that I had been supporting for 6 months on an internship (and for which I had built all the communication). So I took the leap.
years of fog
I started my business without knowing what it meant. Or what I really wanted to do. I let myself be carried away by life and opportunities.
From 2016 to 2019, I presented myself as a communication officer for companies in the SSE (social and solidarity economy). I knew how to do a lot of things.
SO, I presented all my caps.
Communication strategy. Writing content for social networks. Web copywriting optimized for SEO. Press relations management. Preparation of crowdfunding campaigns.
I had a catalog of services, with a common thread, but without a soul.
When I started to communicate on my activity, it was laborious. Because I couldn’t find the deep message I wanted to convey. Result: I often spoke in a vacuum. Doing too many things, it was hard to understand what I was proposing (besides talking very little about it, but that’s another concern).
And the more the months passed, the more I lost confidence in myself and my abilities. I had trouble finding clients. Above all, I underwent a large part of the missions entrusted to me. I was working on projects that were more in line with my values, but I didn’t feel aligned with my activity.
Be aligned with your business
In 2019, I am going through a big difficulty: 6 months without bringing in any turnover (well, a few hundred euros, nothing crazy). This is the trigger for me. I don’t know where I’m going with my business and I need help.
So, I invest my last savings in a coaching for put my whole business back together. We start from scratch with a healthier foundation. It was the best decision of my life!
My company’s problem #1: it doesn’t look like me.
Nothing screams “Clementine”.
I don’t put my soul, my values, my passions, my emotions into it. There are no differentiating elements from another communication officer.
Who am I as a professional? What message do I want to convey? What is important to me? These are questions that got me on the right track. And to fully assume what I wanted to do and say deep inside me.
4 steps to work in accordance with your values
You can imagine that feeling in tune with your activity does not happen in 1 hour. There are a few steps to go through to be fully aligned.
1 – Have a vision for your business
The first is always the hardest for me. Imagining my life in the very, very long term worries me a lot (even more since my ecological awareness, thank you ecoanxiety). I can’t tell you exactly where I will be in 10 years.
On the other hand, I know what I would like my life to look like in a few years, personally and professionally.
And that is already have a vision. No need to have a specific 15-year plan. Knowing where you want to be next year is a good start.
Having a vision for your business will help you make the right decisions for you and put your energy into the actions that bring you closer. In your communication and in all other aspects of your business.
It also serves you hanging point. When in doubt, you can go back to your vision to adapt what you do. It gives you direction and purpose.
2 – Find a positioning aligned with your business
Second step to feel aligned with your company: define precisely what we do, why and for whom. This is called positioning.
Positioning yourself, allows you toexplain a sentence who you help, how you do it and for what result. It gives clearer meaning to the message you want to convey with your business.
It also helps you to be more identifiable by your ideal client. He understands better what you do and what you are able to bring him.
And no, you don’t have to specialize to have a unique and differentiating positioning.
Finally, your positioning will give a framework to your activity. It will prevent you from going all over the place and losing meaning in your actions. You follow your path.
3 – Identify what makes you unique
We all have our uniqueness. Because you are our own person. To feel truly aligned with your business, it’s important to be aware of this.
What makes you different from others? (In particular people who do the same thing as you).
There is bound to be an answer to this question. And no, it’s not ‘Nothing’.
I’m not the only content strategy mentor. I am not the only one to support entrepreneurs to find customers and sell thanks to their content on the internet.
And yet, I am unique.
It involves several things:
- My vision of communication (honest, transparent and genuine)
- My personality
- My values and my positions
- My methodology for building your own content strategy (which works whether you’re selling products or services because it’s based on you).
It is by relying on my uniqueness that I stay aligned with my business.
4 – Build offers that delight us
I told you at the beginning of this article, for a long time I deeply did not like my offers (the services I offered). As a result, I spoke little about it. So I sold little. CQFD.
We are business leaders. We sell offers (of services or products). If we don’t like and we don’t believe in what we do, no one will do it for us..
The day I built the offers that enchanted me and made me vibrate, everything changed.
Because I felt completely in my place. I wasn’t afraid to talk about it. On the contrary, I can talk about it for hours every day because I love what I offer.
When you find the right offer, you feel aligned with your business.
And the recipe is simple: a solution to a problem encountered by your ideal client + something you love to do.
It’s the perfect combo to grow your business. You will take pleasure in your work, feel fulfilled, gain confidence because you will help your customers in return. Isn’t that why we created our companies?
Feeling aligned with your company is not always easy. Sometimes we lose sight of why we started on our own (or why we decided to continue for my part). When you feel a misalignment pointing the tip of your nose, the best solution is to come back to the most important thing: you. What makes you vibrate? What do you want to do with your life and your business? You are the most important person in your life and your business. Focus on yourself and you will always feel in tune with your business.
And if this is not the case for you at the moment and you need an outside perspective, we can review your business together so that you can better communicate and sell afterwards during an accompaniment. individual.
