Painted Picture

Business owners are busy running their companies. Between constant meetings, calls, emails, putting out fires, and trying to position the business for future growth, there is very little time to step back and look at your life holistically to see how the business fits into broad life goals. Leading a business will impact other areas of your life such as your friends and family, personal time and interests, and philanthropic and/or spiritual pursuits.

All too often, we see these other areas of life become imbalanced when leaders do not take the time to define the role that business should play in their lives.

The Painted Picture approach helps clarify and define what matters to you in terms of the future you desire. Accordingly, we recommend it as a pre-cursor to setting business strategy or exit planning.

We seek a holistic approach to the extent you desire – talking about goals that impact all aspects of your life – personal, family/friends, spiritual and professional. The emphasis is on the professional, and we will talk about the other areas as much or as little as you wish.

As part of the painted picture exercise, leaders complete pre-work which we review, and help set the stage for a 2-3 hour session. The goal is to outline a positive vision for the future – what would your business and life look like in an ideal setting in the next 3 years?

We avoid the topics of where you are today, or how to achieve the ideal goal. Once you paint a picture of your ideal future, we can help you work backwards to figure out what your short and medium term business objectives should be.

Listed below is a sample of the series of questions:

• What level and type of involvement you want to have in your business at that date
• What role and level of decision-making do you want to have in the years preceding?
• Is it important to have anything of your legacy, values or brand left behind?

1. All four areas must be in balance.
2. You cannot be your best in any of the four areas without being in balance in all four.
3. Being in balance leads to our core value of “convergence” – the crossroads of your gifts, talents, passions, and purpose.
4. Being at convergence allows you to operate at your highest level and to feel fulfilled.
5. Margin is essential; without adding time, we must prioritize the things that matter most. We must also consistently say “no” to the things that seem like they matter, but really do not.
   
6. Your best life is unlocked when you can focus: on being intentional, proactive, and strategic in all aspects of your life, in all four quadrants.

ClearPath Business Advisors believes that business owners should build a healthy, sellable business whether they plan to sell or not.

As former CEOs, CFOs, and other executives, we understand the levers that drive value for businesses, and the obstacles that get in the way of increasing that value. When combined with our significant M&A transactional expertise, we provide an outside investor’s point of view.