Reconnect to your passion

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If you feel that you've fallen out of love with your business, take some time out to rekindle the flame, says Gerard Burke

Achieving profitable business growth is a little like winning at Scrabble. It requires a combination of strategy, skill and luck. While business owners have no influence over the luck element, they can control the other two.

In the early days of a relationship it is easy to keep the passion alive. But it's keeping the spark after the honeymoon is over that's the challenge.

The same applies in a business context. Virtually every entrepreneur brims with energy and enthusiasm when they embark on their venture but a few years down the line the passion can start to ebb away.

Rekindling the love affair with your business can be the difference between average and exceptional performance. It's no accident that champion growers are three times more likely to be as passionate about their business three years on as when they first set it up.

But how do you keep the fires burning?

The key is reconnecting with your 'passion', in other words, identifying what it was that inspired you to start your business in the first place and making changes that give you the time, energy, drive and support to feed that passion.

Toh Shimazaki Architecture, a London-based architecture practice, had been growing steadily for several years. Takero Shimazaki, the director of the company, realised early on what was holding growth back was himself.

Rekindling passion

"I had fallen into the classic trap of spending more and more time on operational activities and less and less on design. I was so engulfed by the running of the business that it had become impossible to keep a clear mind for design," he explains.

Cranfield School of Management runs the Business Growth and Development Programme, which helps owner managers create the future they want for their business and themselves.

Taking part in BGP helped Mr Shimazaki clarify the purpose of the business and reconnect with his passion.

"We realised that my partner Yuli Toh and I are the brand; our talent for design is at the core of the business and it didn't make sense for me to be doing book keeping," says Mr Shimazaki.

He re-evaluated people's roles and outsourced activities that were distracting him and his partner from designing.

"It doesn't mean I don't enjoy running the business," he says. "But I'm working on it, rather than in it. I get an A4 business summary from our accounting team so within five minutes I know exactly where we are."

Making meetings more -focused was another change. Growth and targets are discussed at directors' design meetings and the whole team is encouraged to bring ideas to two-weekly practice -development meetings.

This new way of working has freed up the amount of time Mr Shimazaki has for clients.

"Clients are referring us more and we have more time to attend events. Before, because we were doing everything, when there was an industry party to go to, we didn't feel like it. Now we do and each time we make new contacts," he says.

Have a clear plan

Mark Neeter is another business owner who was falling out of love with his business, Ovolo Publishing.

Ovolo publishes books such as The Housebuilder's Bible, Contemporary Homes and Barn Conversions.
"Progress was slow and I was wearing too many hats. I was being ground down by the volume of work. Inspiration and enthusiasm were on the wane."

He consulted business contacts and friends in the hope of discovering some secret, but he didn't want to reveal to them that he wasn't happy or that the business wasn't growing as fast as he had hoped.

"I wasn't even sure if I wanted to run the business any more. Very quickly I realised that it was my business and it needed me to run it," says Mr Neeter.

"This was not egotism - just a recognition that my vision and tenacity had got us this far and it was these qualities that would help us grow over the next five years."

The company took on two new staff in areas where he was struggling to manage. "One of these is a sales director, who, surprise surprise, is driving sales faster than I did," he says.

Step two of the process is to know where you're going. In the words of Yogi Berra, the great New York Yankees baseball coach: "If you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up somewhere else."

It might sound obvious, but few smaller businesses have a clear plan for their future and of these, only a fraction does anything with their plan.

Mark Neeter of Ovolo Publishing says formulating a plan was crucial to providing a blueprint for the company.

"Not something that sits in a drawer until the bank needs to see it, but an active document that is regularly revisited and updated and in which all actions have a timetable and an owner," he says.

Since, in an owner-managed firm, the future of the business is inextricably linked with the personal ambitions and drives of the owner, the business plan should start with the owners articulating what it is they want for themselves.

five steps to refuel your fire

Take a step back Remove yourself from the business – physically and psychologically, whether by taking some time off or enrolling on a programme. This will help you to look at your business more objectively.

Go back to your roots Identify what inspired you to start your business in the first place and make changes that give you the time, energy, drive and support to nurture that passion.

Work out what you want In an owner-managed business, the future of the business is inextricably linked with the personal ambitions, goals and drivers of the owner-manager. Key to maintaining your drive and direction is articulating what you want from life – and your business.

Phone a friend You might have great relationships with your spouse, family, friends and staff, but do you have anyone you can talk to frankly and openly about your business?

Get rid of the passion killers Deal with those areas of your business that are draining your passion – whether that means outsourcing activities that aren't your forté or investing in software to make certain processes less onerous.

Gerard Burke is programme director of the Business Growth and Development Programme at Cranfield School of Management

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About Business Growth and Development Programme

During the programme, each participant develops their own growth strategy and plan for their business and implements immediate improvements.

They also participate in four two-day modules at Cranfield with a two week gap in between.
Eleven weeks after the start, participants present their plans to panels who challenge their thinking and provide advice.

Six months later, participants reconvene to review progress with implementation of the plan.

Throughout the programme, each participant is supported by an experienced BGP counsellor who works with them on a one-to-one basis and within a small discussion group.

The programme's leaders do everything they can to ensure that each participant achieves a fantastic return on their investment in the programme.

One way in which they encourage this is to challenge every participant to recoup the programme fees within the 11 weeks elapsed time of the main part of the programme.

The vast majority of participants do this easily. Some do so spectacularly and regularly there are participants who achieve immediate financial benefits in the hundreds of thousands of pounds.