Core Values and Core Focus

Not your usual management bullsh**

We took a day out of our business today to determine what our core values are and what our core focus is for the business for the next 12 months.

This came about as a result of Matthew from Rocket Lift recommending we read Traction by Gino Wickman – which we did.

So here are the core values we agreed our business is based on:

  • leadership
  • passion
  • betterment
  • innovation
  • teamwork
  • empowerment
  • transparency

I’ll write another blog post soon explaining what these mean to us and why we chose them, but for now I just wanted to get them down. Interestingly, this exercise took us about 45 minutes to complete.

We then spent about 30 minutes discussing our core focus. That is, the reason our business exists.

In Traction, Gino Wickman suggests that your core focus should meet the following criteria:

  • be stated in 3 – 7 words
  • be written in simple language
  • be big and bold
  • have an “aha” effect
  • come from the heart
  • involve everyone
  • be more than about money
  • be bigger than a goal

So here is our core focus:

Empower our customers to build an exceptional business.

It’s eight words. Sorry Gino.

This is the reason we get out of bed every morning. It’s the reason we built the video user manuals plugin. It’s the reason we make the free White label CMS plugin. It’s the reason we started the WP Elevation business mentoring program for WordPress consultants. It’s the reason we took over development of the Google Analyticator plugin from Ronald.

It’s the reason I’ve interviewed Joost, Vlad from ManageWP, Justin Cutroni from Google and Ben Hunt as well as Adii from WooThemes, Derek Sivers, Rand Fishkin from SEOMoz and Cristian Antohe from WPMail.me who’s interviews haven’t been published yet.

It’s the reason we invested heavily to go to Pressnomics last year and the reason I’m spending three weeks on the road this year going to WordCamp Europe and Pressnomics 2.0

Empower our customers to build an exceptional business.

It’s the reason I dissolved my web design partnership in 2012 so I could focus on this business full time.

It’s the reason I have a premium Mixergy account, a gold subscription to Audible and spend thousands of dollars every years on mentoring and coaching.

It’s the reason we have a full time assistant and developer working with us in the Philippines.

Empower our customers to build an exceptional business.

This is the reason we do what we do.

We hope we can contribute in some small way to help you build an exceptional business.

If you haven’t already, download the free “Better WordPress for Clients” ebook – it’s a great place to start.

And feel free to leave us any comments below.

13 thoughts on “Core Values and Core Focus”

  1. Hi, just wondering where you found your VA in the Philipines? would be good if you could recommend where to find? thanks

    • Hey Avani,

      My buddy Chris Ducker runs a service out of Cebu called Virtual Staff Finder. It’s a great service where they find candidates for you and present you with a shortlist of 3 to interview.

      He also has a co-working space called Location 63 that we use for our staff to work from.

      On another note, I’ve been thinking about the term “Virtual Assistant” and why I don’t particularly like it.

      Having been to the Philippines, spent time in the office with Norman and snorkelled with Whale Sharks together, I can tell you there is nothing “virtual” about him.

      Norman, like the many other staff I met working at Location63 for companies all over the world, is very much 3 dimensional with real dreams and desires and families and skills and lots to contribute – just like any of us.

      So my advice would be this: get on a plane, go to Cebu and meet your staff and get to know them. Tell them what you’re trying to achieve with your business and the team you are looking to build. It will make a huge difference to your relationship with them.

      And then go to Boracay Island and get a sun tan 🙂

  3. Hi Troy,

    Great Post and clearly Chris Ducker’s Location63 is the way to go with VA’s in the Philippines?

    Do you find that your VA having just a laptop is productive enough. ie: buying him a secondary monitor would help or is this impractical unless he worked from home.

    I only say this is that a colleague is buying their VA a 22″ monitor and figured that’s a great idea.

    I know how productive and easy it is to work with three 23″ screens 🙂

    Thanks for the Post, checking out the book shortly.

    Dan

  4. Love it guys,
    this is where I want to take my wordpress website building business in the future and with your products and support it’s very achievable.
    I’m just about to purchase your developer package for the video tutorials, and will be using white label and Google analyticator.
    I’ve just secured my 1st client so really excited.
    (holds glass of beer up) here’s to the future, cheers!
    p.s. do you know when the next wordcamp Australia is? I’m really getting into this amazing software and would love to attend the next one.

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