As a business owner, team leader or solopreneur, today you need to focus on one thing – you need to care.

You care about your family, your home, the game on Sunday, so why should your daily activities and interactions within the office be any different? If you don’t care, you may as well just close up shop and go to work for someone else.

“How we do anything, is how we do everything.” – Anon

Our world has changed. The game is no longer what it used to be and the expectations are higher.

But it’s more than just instituting a vinyl banner above the water cooler (that’s the sink for you solopreneurs). We have to care because we WANT to care. It’s a choice.

I’m sure you’re thinking to yourself, “Of course I care! It’s my business!”, but how is that represented in your day to day operations? If we were to ask your team members how you care, could they write us a list without much thought? Would they say you drop everything you’re doing for a client or would they lament your unavailability?

In the end, yes, it is expected of us to care, but it goes beyond simply practicing – we need to do it because its who we are.

Ok. So you care. You’re a beacon of dedication, radiant with compassion. Now ask yourself, does your entire team share your passion? Everyone in your company, from EVP to Mail Room Clerk must care just as much about your customers as you.

I speak on this from a personally painful experience. I care deeply about my clients. They know this because of the way that I interact with them. Most of them are well beyond simply clients. They are my friends. This is one of the reasons why I do what I do.

Who would not love to meet interesting, driven, passionate, caring individuals every day?

However, as much as I care, my team needs to care just as much, if not more. It’s my responsibility as company owner to ensure that everyone who interacts with my friend is treating them as such. Treating them as they would treat their own friends. This is one of my core responsibilities as a leader.

Making sure the people I bring to my friend’s “house” have a complete understanding and respect for the relationships we build, and sustain our business. When clients are not treated as friends by everyone within the organization there is imbalance and an opportunity for disaster to lay waste our plans.

I recently lost one of my close long-term friends due to this problem. While we’ll still remain close on a personal level, we’ve regretfully parted ways as professional “friends”, all of which is my fault. I failed to instill the standard of respect and caring, I initially nurtured in that friendship, within my team.

The opportunity for disaster struck.

Beyond the tens of thousands of dollars in revenue lost for my business, I’m mostly upset that I failed to serve them in the manner they deserved.

Lesson learned.

That lesson? Everyone must know, buy into and love the culture of caring first and foremost. Delivering quality results and product comes second to copiously caring. If we care, there is no doubt in our ability to serve those we care about.

My mission: Create a team of people who care deeply and unabashedly.

And how am I going to do this? By driving all internal and external actions by our Mission and Vision.

That vision is not mine alone. We drive our business from a collective idea of who we would want to work with ourselves. It’s a compilation of desires from everyone on my team, focused on a singular goal. To ensure clients are more than just customers. They’re our friends.

What’s your mission?