Achieve Exceptional Performance - Ben Morley

Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in business development but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Ben Morley, a Business Consultant, and Trainer, based in Seattle, WA, USA.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

Most businesses struggle with problem-solving and growing revenue. I design custom solutions to those problems, so your company emerges stronger and prepared for the next level.

My customers are business owners and leaders who find themselves in a season ready to guide their organizations into the next chapter. This may be through resolving constraints and achieving more clarity in their operations or expanding their offerings into new markets. My clients come from a broad spectrum of categories - services, manufacturing, and transactional.

Tell us about yourself

After flying as a pilot in the US Air Force for 27 years, I wanted to build upon the principles learned from leading teams around the world to help business owners elevate their organizations, especially in a season of transition. Our missions usually were time critical and required making decisions from incomplete information in dynamic environments. The same can be said in many business environments, where becoming "familiar with the unfamiliar" is a skill set that can be strengthened to yield significant benefits for both the organization and the customer. Being able to guide my clients in these transitional situations continues to spur me on daily, motivating me to help them find great value in their offerings regardless of the season they find themselves in.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

Helping clients make significant gains with a process, oftentimes leading them to realize how much potential exists within their organization. For example, I helped a client find a $63,000 savings in 30 minutes, another reduced their process time from 7 hours to 5 minutes, and recently I showed a client how to increase their monthly revenue by $1.12 million while utilizing their current workforce and equipment.

What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?

Sometimes stopping to ask if it is all worth it when going through a lean period. Doubt and second-guessing yourself, imposter syndrome, if you will, can creep in fairly quickly and become an impediment if it is not recognized for what it is - it's just an emotion, and emotions are data, not directives. Everyone deals with these issues regardless of industry, and taking a moment to recognize this and see the value already brought through your efforts can help soften the blow.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

1. Ask yourself how you want to live rather than spending too much time determining what you want to do. Begin with this broad framework as you consider the business you want to launch to ensure it will be supporting the lifestyle you desire, rather than trying to force lifestyle into a business that may not be as compatible with how you want to spend your time as you initially thought it would be.
2. Ask close friends what skill sets and superpowers you possess that they think would be of great value to potential customers. Sometimes we can be blind to our strongest attributes, and those who know you best may help to unearth those talents for you. This can help validate the direction of your intended endeavor or possibly change its course to better ensure success.
3. Learn the difference between values and culture - values are your beliefs, but culture is your behavior and carries much more weight between the two. When culture does not match beliefs - a team member is rude, or the service is poor - it doesn't matter how good the vision statement is on the website as it's just words on a page. But when culture is in sync with values, an organization can grow exponentially from simply good to outstanding in short order.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.benmorley.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/benmorleyldrshp
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/benmorley2/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-morley-b768b46a/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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