A Believing Entrepreneur

Bedros Keuilian, CEO and Founder of Fit Body Boot Camp, wrote in 2018,

Your beliefs about business will have a much greater impact on your success than what you put on paper.

Your Business Plan

Conventional advice when starting a business is to develop a business plan.  Numerous books, podcasts, blogs, and motivational speakers constantly remind business owners and entrepreneurs about the importance of developing, writing and publishing a business plan.  If you want a business loan, venture capital, a microloan, or equity financing, a written business plan will be required.

So, why would anyone say that your beliefs about business will be more important than this business document that everyone demands you write?

Because a business plan is only a snapshot.

Even though your business plan is a well researched, thought out, highly plausible plan for your business going forward, it is only valid for that one moment in time.

Bedros Keuilian’s quote is a good reminder that what you put on paper does not necessarily match reality.  As soon as you write your business plan and begin executing your business, things change.

For example, for those who have been in business for a while, are your costs the same as they were five years ago?  Is your business clientele more reliable today that it was ten years ago?  Is it less reliable?  And does your business operation look just like it did when you started?

Going forward, do you think technology advances will make what you have included in your business plan obsolete?  Will new laws change how you conduct your business?  Will buyer trends and preferences change or stay the same?

The lesson is everything, including your business plan, is a form of chaos.  If everything is constantly changing, what can you count on?

Business Beliefs

The one business aspect that should not change is your business principles.  Business principles are the foundational ideas internal to you that represent what is desirable and positive.  They help determine the rightfulness or wrongfulness of your decisions, and by association, your business’s decisions.

These are the principles you accumulated long before you dreamed of starting your business.  They will drive all your decisions despite your business type, the economy, and who is in the White House.  These are the rock-solid beliefs that will withstand any business turmoil both inside and outside your business operations.

Do you know what your business principles are?

Don’t worry, most people have not taken the time to articulate them, but it will be helpful if you do.  Here are several business beliefs for you to use as an example in determining what your business beliefs are.

1. Focus on only the things I can control. Focusing on things outside your control causes unnecessary anxiety and takes your attention away from the things that matter.
2. Risks are necessary but should be minimized. Why take on any unnecessary risks when you encounter plenty of risky opportunities in the course of your business?
3. No matter if I fail, I will get up and try again. Many now-famous business people have failed, gone bankrupt, and have had to start over.
4. I will always learn new skills to keep my business constantly relevant. The key to nearly all business sustainability is continuing education.

The Bible

Having a strong belief system that anchors your business, despite the changes that render your written business plan obsolete, is imperative.  Many business people come by this belief system through their upbringing or a mentor early in their career.

The Bible, however, is unquestionably the most concise, relevant, and timeless compilation of great business beliefs.  Take, for example, these four Bible verses.

• Lazy hands make for poverty,but diligent hands bring wealth.  Proverbs 10:4

• In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves. Psalm 127:2

• So, whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

• The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance,but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty.  Proverbs 21:5

Your business beliefs should always outlast your written business plan.  And as long as these beliefs are sound, ethical, and represent who you want to be, your business will be successful.

Should you have a concern what these foundational beliefs should be, or if you have difficulty identifying what your beliefs are, go the Bible.  It will always provide the beliefs you need.