A vision for the future shapes your business model

 

After discovering the passion that I discussed in my last post and looking to what other successful individuals in that field are doing, the next step is developing your own vision for your company’s future.

Loving what you do is the most important part of this entire process. It makes the hard parts easier and the fun parts incredible! Yet, even when you know what you love, you still have to practically apply that passion to a business model.

Patrick Stahler writes in a blog on building a business model that “Entrepreneurship is eternal learning what the customer really wants and what works and what not.” Translating passion into a market customers will buy into is an obstacle that you need a vision to overcome.

Shaping the vision for your business comes in two parts: short-term and long-term. Obviously, the immediate future for your startup isn’t going to look like the business you dream of operating. As a result, you have to put into motion a plan while keeping your long-term vision in mind.

For Belltower Artisans, the short-term plan we enacted was simply making pottery and selling it. We wanted to share our passion with others and spread the joy of handmade ceramics.

Years in the future, we want Belltower Artisans to be a community of makers in which artists can have their own space to work surrounded by other masters of that craft. We dream of it being a place where each worker doesn’t have to pay for those exorbitant startup costs and can fit into our shops with far more ease than doing it on their own.

Places like Mid-South Ceramic Supply Company, our primary supplier of clay and equipment, offer this in a small dose, but we want to take it further. Essentially, we want to help people make a career out of their passion!

No matter what your dream looks like, you have to develop that alongside your short-term goals so that you can build toward everything you want your company to be. What does your dream business look like?