A start-up business is exciting. You gather ideas, create a business plan, and collect capital to begin a possible life-changing endeavor. But wait, there’s something else you need to do.
For many entrepreneurs, once the ball gets rolling, it can be easy to get lost in the day-to-day operations of running a business. When this happens, many business owners lose sight of where they’re going.
To help prevent this from happening, one simple tool has been used by countless entrepreneurs all over the world. In a recent study by TD Bank, 1 in every 5 entrepreneurs use this tool to achieve business success. What is it? It’s a business vision board.
DOES A BUSINESS VISION BOARD WORK?
If you know about the Law of Attraction, then you know what a vision board is. It’s a manifestation tool that makes use of images mounted on a board to organize your desires, goals, and dreams. Well, surprisingly, vision boards are not limited to personal goals. Many businesses use it to achieve success.
In the said study stated above, it is revealed that 1 in 5 successful entrepreneurs use some form of vision board when they start their business.
This study revealed the following positive results:
- 76% of the 520 small business owners who used vision boards to start their business say their businesses are where they envisioned them.
- 63% said they believe visualizing helped them develop and map out their business plans.
- 82% said that so far, they accomplished more than 50% of their goals.
This study showed that vision boards can be an effective tool to help businesses achieve overall success. Dr. Barbara Nusbaum, the psychologist who partnered with TD Bank to assess the results of the study, stated that images help business owners in their thinking, as well as in the process of achieving their goals.
One of the very reasons why vision boards and visualization work to help businesses achieve their goals is because of neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is a neuroscientific term that explains our brain is malleable and trainable.
Visualization is considered to be one method to promote neuroplasticity, in a way that it rewires the brain to have greater access to ideas and solutions, as well as to keep it focused on moving towards certain goals.
When you create a business vision board, you are creating clarity and focus. This can help to block out distractions and filter out unnecessary processes in your start-up business. When you have a clear goal, visualizing this can help rewire your brain. What is left is a laser-cut focus on your business goals.
7 REASONS WHY YOU NEED A BUSINESS VISION BOARD FOR YOUR STARTUP
Now that you know what a business vision board is and how effective it can be to help entrepreneurs achieve success, we’ll give you 7 reasons why your business needs it.
This list will inspire and motivate you to create one, even before you begin making your business plan.
Here are the 7 reasons:
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INCREASED FOCUS AND CLARITY
The first step to making a business vision board is to create your goals. And it can be as simple as knowing your “why.”
Simon Sinek, a bestselling author, and speaker wrote the bestselling book, “Start with Why.” Essentially, his whole message is about finding the very reason behind everything you do. Why do you want to start a business? Why this particular business? And why do you want to keep doing it?
One of the prominent examples in his book is the company, Apple. Sinek believes that Apple has enjoyed its massive global success because of its “why,” which drives everything the company does.
The company does not operate on what they do, such as creating innovative products, but Apple operates on changing the status quo and empowering individuals. Every decision Apple does is said to be based on this very reason why they exist as a company in the first place.
When you create a business vision goal, your “why,” is the first thing you need to decide on. All the images, quotes, motivational words, and affirmations you use on your board will base on this very reason.
Because of this, a business vision board can help you get clear about why you want to get started on your business in the first place.
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CLIENT ATTRACTING
One possible purpose of making a business vision board is to attract a specific range of clients.
Most often than not, businesses have a target audience they have in mind. They list the age, gender, buying power, and needs of a target market, and create solutions for those clients’ needs.
You can use a vision board to manifest your target audience by collecting images and words that define your market.
What is the gender of your target client? What is their profession? What is their income? By answering these questions in visual form, you can use the power of visualization to attract your perfect clientele.
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REDUCED STRESS RESPONSE
Whenever you start something new or experience something you’ve never experienced before, your body releases cortisol, the stress hormone. This is because the body needs to adjust to these unfamiliar stimuli.
Visualization is known to reduce the body’s stress response by making it familiar with the new experience. A vision board can encourage a visualization habit that trains the body to feel the emotions of achieving success.
If you’ve never run a business before, it’s safe to say you’ve never experienced success in a business. This experience is something new, and thus, your body goes on a stress response.
But when you’ve visualized this success happening as if it were true and happening in real-time, when you’ve achieved something in real life, it will be as if you’re familiar with the experience.
With fewer stress hormones, you can fully enjoy the experience and make better decisions.
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HELPS MEASURE GROWTH
The images you post on your business vision board can be used to help you measure your growth.
For example, success to you would mean opening a brick-and-mortar store after starting an e-commerce business. Or buying new equipment. You searched for these images and mounted them on your board.
After giving yourself 6 months to achieve these goals, you can take a look at your business vision board and check if you’ve fulfilled them. Do you have a physical store now? Have you purchased new equipment?
A business vision board is an easy way to help you measure your business growth and check whether or not you’re heading in the right direction.
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KEEPS YOU MOTIVATED DESPITE SETBACKS
Starting and running a business is hard. Not everyone will succeed. And not everyone will keep going when the going gets tough.
A business vision board can help you stay on track when things are not going your way. When you’ve had fewer sales than you predicted, when you’re receiving complaints, and when things aren’t looking up, your start-up vision board can keep you motivated and inspired to keep going.
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CREATE THE PERFECT PRODUCT
You can also use a business vision board to create the perfect product. Use the Product Vision Board template developed by Roman Pichler to create a product that provides solutions to your target clients’ problems.
This tool helps you create a reference point for all the decisions you’ll make about your product. Once you get started, your product vision board can also help you stay on track and keep you connected to your initial vision.
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KEEPS YOU INSPIRED
Research the most successful businesses in your niche and use them as your inspiration. Print out pictures of these entrepreneurs, look for their famous quotes on business and success and mount them on your business vision board.
One example of a successful business owner who used visualization to help her achieve success is the founder of Spanx, Sara Blakely. She is known to have used visualization as a tool to help her achieve her goal of being self-employed and creating a product that she could sell to a lot of people.
Another business owner and bestselling author who used the Law of Attraction to achieve success is Jack Canfield, creator of the bestselling book series, Chicken Soup for the Soul.
After having produced the first book, he issued a check to himself for $100,000. At the time, he was only earning $8000 a year. But after believing he deserved that $100,000 check, he was able to reach his goal within a year.
Look for inspirational business owners and mount their pictures and success stories on your business vision board to help you stay inspired and motivated to reach your business success.
Take the time to make a business vision board that will create the first step to the life that you want. You can start with a digital vision board with images you collect from different free image downloads, or you can also make one on Pinterest.
If you opt for a physical vision board, you can make use of complete vision board kits like The Vision Board Magazine Kit by The Vision Cloud. This kit has everything you need to start a business vision board and a personal goals vision board.
It comes with a foldable board that can stand on its own on a desk, or you can also mount it on a wall using the adhesive strips that come with the kit. It has over 500 images to use in the magazine kit, with different categories from travel, to hobbies, career, and wealth.
Aside from these inclusions, the kit also comes with a goal-setting worksheet you can apply for your start-up, as well as activities that can help you organize your goals.
A business vision board is a must for any entrepreneur who wants to reach their goals. Sure, there will be bumps along the road, but to help you keep going, and stay inspired and motivated, a business vision board can help you get to where you want to go.
