Starting an Online Business - the People Factor

(Excerpt from Building a Purposeful Business by Jack Funderburk)

When starting an online business consider that business is people. This is the second foundational building block for starting an online business. You will not succeed in building your internet business without people. Building success into the lives of the people associated with your company should be one of your primary objectives. Valuing people must become an inherent part of your makeup as you are starting an online business and continue to build it as great service or product provider.

Someone reading this now is thinking, “Jack, I don’t even have a plan to hire people as I am starting an online business and I am certainly not going to have someone else do what I can be doing in this early stage; people really have nothing to do with my business at this point in time.” Or, “I’m going to be running a one man show as a part time endeavor, I’ll never need to hire anyone.” Or, “I’m going to use all subcontractors to get the work done, this is of no value to me right now.” When we are starting an online business we often want to do it as quickly as possible and what I am suggesting here will not delay your project but it will add great value to your business and your life.

The issue here is not the people who will or will not be directly involved in your business, but your attitude towards people and your value of people. Business is people. Considering “others” is the best way to become successful. If you do not recognize people as the most valuable asset of your business activity, you’ll have no business. We all know this is true regarding customers. A new business must lure prospects and buyers into its web of products and/or services. You need, though, to go beyond this to reckon with the challenge of encouraging and promoting everyone with whom you have any contact.

The potential which lies dormant in most people is powerful, and when you purpose to help others increase their own effectiveness and reach their potential, you will be rewarded by what occurs in them. The reward may or may not be financial, but this is irrelevant. To simply see someone else come out of the pits to achieve greater things is tremendously satisfying in itself. Right now, some may be thinking. “That’s great for you Jack, but frankly I’m struggling to make ends meet for myself right now and I can’t really be all that concerned about Harry over there.”

I can only encourage you to rethink what is important. People are your greatest asset, even if you do not presently see their reward and whether you are starting an online business or offline, the value of people is basic to all you do.

A HIGH SCHOOL KID WITH POTENTIAL

The most powerful example of this in my own life regards a man named Jim. Actually, when the story begins Jim was just a young energetic kid, fresh out of High School. He came to work for my company in 1976 at the recommendation of one of the other young people who was working for us. I was only a few years older than Jim. He worked hard but I did not personally supervise his work. His supervisor, didn’t really like him and didn’t see much potential in this young man. After working with our company for about six months, Jim was feeling as though he could no longer work for his immediate supervisor. So he approached me to find if I might allow him to go to Richmond to build up the territory where another young man had just failed.

When I talked this plan over with the man to whom Jim was responsible, I found he was totally against it and that he could see no way Jim was either old enough, mature enough, or had the knowledge to run with such a challenge. Against his recommendation, I decided to take Jim with me on a sales day in Richmond to determine if he had what it takes.

I had a very simple formula for sifting out salesmen in those days and after just one day out I felt as though Jim could do it. For Jim, this was all he needed (my belief that he could do it). When everyone around him was telling him he would fail just like the guy before him, I was supporting him wholeheartedly.

In the very beginning we had a win/win deal set up so that we would each profit, but we had to abandon this, as my company was not able to provide the support that was required. (To some degree this was due to the negative approach of the fellow who was formerly Jim’s supervisor, as he was responsible for implementing the plan). Jim was then on his own after only about six months. Still, he had my support to help in whatever way I could even though we no longer had a financial commitment towards one another.

About five years later in the midst of a recession with too much overhead, my company filed for bankruptcy and Jim’s was profitable and thriving. Jim then offered to help me by handling my contract work and we worked this way for years. Then fifteen years later Jim bought my sales agency business for more than anyone else would ever have considered reasonable. Did he do this as a charitable gesture? Not at all, he did it because it would be profitable to his company. But just as important, he made the offer because of a long standing commitment we have had toward one another over the years.

He knew I was ready to get out of the business and that I had other interests to pursue and he wanted to help me get to the point of fulfilling these desires. Did any of this have anything to do with those early days when I was the only one who believed in him, supported him, and encouraged him? You be the judge. Today Jim continues to own and operate that same business very successfully and our friendship has endured.

Value Everyone

Whether you plan to have employees when you are starting an online business or not isn’t the issue. Every day you will be in some contact with customers. contractors, associates, suppliers, the banker, the gas station attendant or the waitress where you have breakfast. Each of these points of contact, even though not directly related to the start of an online business, is important.

If you are one who makes it a habit of encouraging and supporting, even if it is by word only, you will be someone who is on your way to success. To think more highly of others, to value people greater than one does himself is a quality of people who are visionary and insightful. It is absolutely essential that you grasp this concept before starting an online business or move ahead in building your new business. After all, what point is there to any amount of effort you will invest in your future if you are not helping others along? The old song from the 60’s, “I Am A Rock, I Am An Island” using words like, “I touch no one and no one touches me may have permeated our thinking but it isn’t true, never has been and never will be.

What is true is that we are each interdependent of one another and this is just as applicable when you are starting an online business as when doing business offline. While I may have particular abilities or talents that you lack and another person may be a whole lot smarter than you or me, the art of business is pulling these elements together. As a business owner, valuing people is an important key to starting an online business and building it so it is profitable and thriving.

Yes, business is an art as well as a science. It is not just doing a particular job. This is why those of us who find this to be our “element”, enjoy it so much. It is not laboring to accomplish a particular task (although often one will be laboring to complete a given task); it is much more the challenge. The challenge is bringing people together, matching abilities and encouraging success. These goals and objectives and dreams will never be realized without other people.

And if you think about it, is there really any value at all to the accomplishment of any great idea if other people are not participating and growing in the process? Consider these important issues before starting an online business just like if you are doing business offline.

Business is people. Pulling people together and drawing on the resources of many different personalities, talents and abilities is what makes the management of a business. The owner of an online business, just like any business, is one who has a vision of what he/she would like to see happen over a period of time. It really is important to formulate your vision and mission statement early on in the process when just thinking about the start of an online business. I strongly encourage you to do this as well. Write your vision and mission clearly and use specific terms and keep it before you as you plan and as you make day to day decisions.

But, all important in the vision / mission process is to include the idea of enhancing, encouraging, inspiring, developing or growing people, and living by the high ideal that you truly value the people with whom you work and live as you start an online business or as you continue to build one you already own.

Consider the ServiceMaster Mission statement:

To Honor God; To Help People Develop; To Pursue Excellence; To Grow Profitably.

This is a company which has achieved spectacular success over the past 50 years. I use this example because we owned a ServiceMaster franchise some years ago and Marion Wade’s (the founder) desire to develop people was a significant influence in my own life. To value people as start an online business or as you build your online business will generate a win-win benefit for all involved.

My own mission statement is: To provide a working environment for people to exercise their gifts and abilities in the framework of service with excellence to meet needs via small business expertise.” ServiceMaster has tens of thousands of employees and CDS has only one officially (my wife) as we use alliances and contractors in our corporation. But we have direction for our future based on making people successful. Growing people will not necessarily be the primary objective of your business, but it should be an active, thoughtful essence which permeates what you do and why you do it as you begin the process of starting an online business.

At this early stage you have your thoughts and sights set on a lot of other things, but it is essential as you are starting an online business that you consider how you will be helping people along in the process. How do you value people in your day to day activities? Why are you starting an online business? How can your involvement as an owner challenge others to great accomplishments? Who will be the beneficiaries of a successful, profitable enterprise? What can you do today to begin the process? How will your business benefit those who are a part of it?

The answers to these questions will help you lay the foundation for your successful online business. No matter how small or large your internet business is or will be, please consider the significance of the people who will be a part of your business and a part of your life by placing extreme value on all the people with whom you associate as you are starting an online business or as you continue to build your new business.

Build your site the right way!