"The Biology of Business: How Does It Work?"
Anyone who has been in business for a while can tell you how it works from a logistical and financial point of view. In fact, if you’ve naturally got a mind for this, it doesn’t take that long to determine if it’s working out in these areas.
While the numbers on your quarterly report are the bottom line, there is often a lot more going on “behind the scenes” than we give credit for – even with the best system analysts working to see the connections behind the numbers...
So here, we’ll go back to very beginning to see where the energy in your business is going to and coming from to produce your gains. For some, this may be the breath of fresh air that infuses your business with what's needed to get everything back on track. For others, I can guarantee you’ve never thought of your business in such an organic way. Regardless of how well we think our business is running, Einstein had a famous quote that said, “Problems cannot be solved, with the same mind that created them.” This doesn’t just go for solving problems, it also goes for making things work so much better, than they have in the past. A new way of looking at how to accomplish something – if it works – will take care of both of these places at the same time. So let’s take a closer look at the business “wheel,” to see how all of our gains are being produced. You might want to hold onto your hats here…The reverse engineering water is about to get deep!
Picture a wheel that has only four numbers on it: 12, 3, 6, and 9, just like a clock. 12, is your starting point. Here, you have the intention and desire to successfully move your goods or services out to a customer in a positive way, who will repay you – in the form of money, so that you can continue this process.
At 3, are the managers who oversee the operations of how this will take place, so that the customer is satisfied and hopefully will be returning soon, as well as telling their friends about the great deal they’ve received. In order to carry out this mission, you have a team of employees in various roles who take that positive energy and the means to distribute it – along with your goods and services – to the customer. The point of sale is where everything up to this point is converted into money, so that your business can continue running. As time goes by, the business increases its value in terms of monetary gains, as well as how many customers it can handle successfully.
Everyone in business knows these four steps very well; almost to the point where they aren’t considered, unless there's a problem turning the wheel around. So, we’ll stop here with what you already know, and we’ll dive a bit deeper so that you can really see what’s at work during the transaction. Understanding this will not only fix any potential problems you have, but it will also allow profits to rise, as positive energy has a way of building on itself, as long as it's being put into motion.
Along this wheel, there are only three key parts of your business. That would include positive energy, the logistics that move it along, and the financial aspects that come into play. These elements are involved long before and after a transaction is made.
What isn’t known by most of the business world (yet) is how energy moves through each one of these places to arrive at the customer, and back into your bank account. The traditional philosophy usually focuses on the customer first – because that’s where the final conversion takes place. However, as far as energy is concerned, it’s everything that’s happening from 12 to 9 o’ clock on your business wheel that determines exactly how this exchange will turn out. So, let’s take it from the top…
At the top of the wheel – positive intentions and the desire to do a job well done, so that profits continue to build along with everything else (positive energy), moves from the CEO through the board of directors to the managers, and onto the employees. The employees take that energy and the logistics to carry out the “mission” of your business, and they prepare for a successful transaction to occur. This also requires a happy and willing customer. However, if everything else is in place, a positive reaction (like chemistry) is literally, inevitable. With this turn-around, more energy and money from the customers and your employees combine, and they return back to the top to complete the cycle, all over again.
Okay. So, I’ll run through the scenario once more to make sure you got the point. The CEO, the directors, the managers, the employees, and even the customers, are all responsible for successfully turning this energetic wheel around, repeatedly.
That means, in order to really run your business as successfully as you’d like, each person needs to be moving positive energy out through your business and right back into it again, just like breathing. No longer can a person say – this or that, about how something is turning out. Emotionally and logistically, each one of us completes the whole, and no one can perform their role to the best of their abilities without working together and appreciating the process. Why would appreciation play such a fundamental role in the growth of our business?
Because appreciation means – just that. It doesn’t just apply to financial ends. Emotionally, it recognizes what has occurred between us, and it sees that we’ve made something positive happen, together. This doesn’t just motivate one to do a job well, it’s actually responsible for half of the positive momentum of your business, and the health of everyone involved with it. But, the energy cycle doesn’t stop there. It’s only the beginning. For this cycle to continue to work, besides having a good product or service, positive emotions need to be in place. How are they created? Not from hourly pay, perks, benefits, or anything else – however important to the equation they may be, logistically and on paper...
Like the wheel moving, energy is being created, re-cycled, and multiplied every time a successful transaction occurs between us. Easy enough to understand; but in order for this process to continue, there needs to be enough people on the floor, and the logistics need to work, so that people can successfully do their jobs – not just logistically speaking, but emotionally. This simply cannot happen when the business is constantly hectic and unorganized. The negative energy that comes out of this scenario, eats up the positive energy that’s trying to be built up, and it clouds our ability to notice and feel good about what’s working. This is often why it becomes that much harder to solve problems, as this dynamic continues. Eventually, that spiral of energy begins to pull down what we are trying to grow.
Since our biology is always “on,” we gain energy from what we are doing, and how. Making the logistics work, allows the employees and the company as a whole, to gain energy in the process of using it. This, more than any other part of your business is what will grow profits – on all fronts. Why? Because employee functions make-up the bulk of what’s happening here. And everything that’s happening – at an energetic level – is affecting everything else we desire to accomplish. It would be convenient if energy was only localized for problems, but we would also lose out on its synergistic growth properties, as well.
There’s no need to worry about “everything” understanding this connection, however. When the logistics are working, just a fair amount of positive energy is needed regularly from employees to accomplish their tasks, and energy’s momentum takes over. It moves through each person with every positive interaction, and it builds on itself. Here, everything becomes stable and those positive turns only continue to move forward. Like anything that’s in motion, a simple push every now and again, will keep that wheel rolling – forever. With that said, of course, there will be times where the wheel spins faster or slower with the flow of business. That’s simply the natural rhythm of life. Moments of “rest” are built into how this healthy system works; so it’s actually good to slow down for a bit, every once in a while. This is where we can really see appreciation, in action. In those moments, we can catch our breath and realize what we’ve done together, successfully. Besides, positive energy only requires a slow, but steady pace to do its job. Speeding up doesn’t produce more gains. Our own biology is a perfect example of how this idea works.
In fact, it’s only our biology and atoms that run everything we do, in life. This doesn’t change because of our role or position. There’s no escaping the natural laws of how energy works for anyone, simply because we are all a part of it. Since we are made up of atoms and we are surrounded by them, maybe you might grasp why these positive energy principles are so important to how our businesses and our lives, function. Again, no matter who or where we are, we cannot separate ourselves and our results, from what we are doing, and how.
As long as we can happily and successfully complete one sales cycle, then we just need to understand each step along the way, so that the winning formula can be repeated. Like a fantastic recipe that requires a certain ratio of ingredients to work every time, this is how we need to think of what’s necessary to run our business in a healthy and lucrative way, so our results are pretty much guaranteed. How would you be able to tell if your recipe is working? By how much money is being generated? Not exactly; as tempting as it might be to only believe in what you see. A spreadsheet won’t always reveal to you the spaces in-between the numbers, or – what’s actually taking you there. It’s a fair indicator, but to double check the math to make sure the equation is balanced, simply ask the people in the trenches at each step along the way. They’ll be able to tell you if you need to put a few more people on, or if a few steps are getting in the way of the process running smoothly.
Like communication in a healthy relationship, that back and forth of sharing feedback is always needed, so that we can appreciate and understand what we are doing to make good things happen. It’s very important to realize if a problem or issue needs to be addressed, it’s not for blame. It's only for understanding how we can get back on track to success. Everything shared about this or anything else, needs to be done in a more positive way, so that energy continues to build results, along with us. This system doesn’t require perfection or rigidity to work its magic, but positive energy between us needs to be the overriding factor in how we work together. Having logistics in place that work, allows these two ends to meet naturally. So, positive energy between us and the momentum it builds is what’s producing those gains – from the inside out of your business, long before and after a sale is made.
In closing, understanding energy isn’t that complicated. It follows the exact same path as we do. If we are doing a great job, what’s keeping that going? And if we need a little tune-up, look to see at each step along the way, where the block is – in the process. Once freed, positive energy will come and go – right back into our business – as it always does, to produce the results we desire to see. To get things “up and running” again, take it one transaction at a time – in real time. You’ll be able to see quite easily, what you need to do so that your business can continue to grow and move forward – like clockwork. Remember that what’s found “here,” needs to be put into the context of an entire day's work. Sometimes, what looks good on one turn-around, might cause a bit of a traffic jam with hundreds of transactions.
So, for now, keep this very simple formula in mind to create those gains in every way: Healthy and positive energy shared, combined with the logistics that keep it in place, with a pinch of appreciation added in regularly – will always produce those numbers!
