I first realized the importance of a value-based company when I visited Zappos recently and was inspired by a business that operates daily off of a specific set of values to serve the company and the customers. It really got me thinking about my own values for Team Suzanne and how living those values daily serves my clients, my subscribers, and my life.

We often get so busy marketing, strategizing, and serving that we don’t take the time to identify our core values for the business. I think this is one of the most important visions I have created for myself lately and when you can stay on track with your business values, you naturally help more people and make more money. It is really key to have them in writing so that you can be reminded of your purpose. We all get busy, overwhelmed, and frustrated. When your mission gets marginalized by life, you can revisit these and get back on track.

Here are the values of Team Suzanne! I am proud to say that I strive to work and live by these daily as does my office and support team:

Discover The Values of Team Suzanne

We are all being recruited all the time. Walk through the airport and you’ll be recruited for credit cards. Visit church with a friend you’ll be recruited to come back. Walk through the mall and Auntie Ann’s will recruit you to have a pretzel sample.

As human beings it is in our nature to recruit. We are not solitary human beings…which is why everyone is born with a natural ability to sale. So stop for a moment and think about who is recruiting you.

I constantly see individuals who don’t show up, want to quit, and don’t ask for help find it easier to recruit other people into believing that a program isn’t working or they will not succeed or “it’s not your fault … it’s the coach, the program, the people, the style”. Misery loves company.

Learn more about the Cycle of Quitting

Most service providers and helping professionals, coaches, consultants, or change agents get into business by accident.

Here is how it often looks:

Sally is unhappy.
She wants to change her life.
She seeks support to change her life.
She gets it.
She likes it.
She wants to give back — wants to be a part of the same.
Uh oh — now I am in business.

And then what happens next becomes a series of decisions towards growing or dying. The self-help you received that got you moving, taking action, and being the person that wants to bring that to others becomes the monster under the bed.

You believe all you have learned, but in business you have to model it. You have to live it as a model or business is very lonely and a lonely business is a broke business.

Here are the four areas that I see self-help folks not helping themselves, and it is not only hurting their business it is killing an industry from its highest level of transformation:

Learn 4 Areas Where Self Help Folks Need Help

Money commands respect.

Money deserves attention.

Money responds to love.

I love to talk about money. I particularly love to talk about the impact money can have on people, the planet, and change. Most of you are reading this because you want to make more money and you want to make a difference. Making a difference starts with your behavior. It launches from how you respect money. Money is energy and the greater respect you have, the more vibrant that energy returns to you. Prosperity is simple:

1. Honor commitments. When you agree to pay for a service, product, program, or item, follow through. Pay your bills on time if you expect others to pay you.

2. 100% responsibility. When “shit” happens, and it will, take 100% responsibility for your finances and communicate with people. People that show up and are willing will always work problems out.

3. Treat your business like a business. GMAC Mortgage, Ford Motor Credit, and Capital One do not let people dishonor their obligations — why would service providers? We certainly do not have to behave like Big Brother, but we could learn a few things about having policies and procedures about payments in our business.

4. Hold the space. My business requires people to meet their obligations and commitments. We always work with people that are willing and responsive, but if not we have standard operating procedures legally. We treat our business like a real business.

5. Pass your money on. Everyone talks about charitable giving, but I am talking about non-charitable. How much do you tip? Do you spread the wealth? Do you know that giving brings you more? (Even when it does NOT give you a tax break?)

6. Love your money. Watch it. Keep an eye on it. Make sure it has a house that takes care of it and brings more of it to you. Track your money and protect your money.

7. Don’t play dumb. Money likes smart people. It likes you to know where it is, how it behaves, and where it goes. The fastest way to go broke is to not know how your money is performing.

8. Do the hard stuff. Talk to clients and customers about their bills, what they owe, and hold the truth about money. When you shy away from money issues with your clients, you shy away from abundance.

Money is not the most important thing in the world, but touches everything that is. If you aren’t paying your bills or holding the space for your clients to pay theirs, you are out of money alignment.

Money commands respect.

Money deserves attention.

Money responds to love.

I know this always gets a big laugh.

But I am deadly serious:  Are you a H.O. (Hobbyist Owner) or a B.O. (Business Owner)? Business is about one thing and one thing only:  Profit. Yep, you also want to create massive change. But you can’t do that unless you can keep the doors open.

Because this question is at the very heart of so many business struggles, you should take 30 seconds and check out this powerful article just published on the She Knows Living website.

And you will find five on-target, dead honest secrets to insure you end up on the right side of this question.