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Is your business running flat? We call a business that has depth and self-sufficiency a Flourishing Business*. In today's high-speed, technology and media savvy business world a small or mid-size company that is trying to really grow and establish itself cannot just plod along slowly hoping that things will get better.

Your costs are always rising. Just keeping up with inflation will put you out of business. Health insurance costs rose 7.7% last year, twice the rate of inflation. Vendor's costs go up each year and they keep pace with their own rising business expenses, and in order to retain good people, you need to be able to offer them competitive pay raises.

Therefore, as a business owner you need to figure out a way to keep your revenue on a similar positive trend and do this proactively not reactively. Your business cannot just subsist, it needs to flourish. Your business can take shape if you follow the Flourishing Business* Methodology.

The Flourishing Methodology has nine critical factors that are proven to result in long term business success. Unlike many short term tactics that are encouraged by other business consultants, the Flourishing* Method is centered around the idea of creating natural and self-perpetuating growth. You start with the core and blossom out from there with each additional component adding depth to your strategy and resilience to your business. Shaping your business strategy like a bloom will allow your business to boom.

Picture your business like the face of a flower. The center of the flower represents the marketplace that you play in, and the products, services a company provides to that marketplace. This is ultimately the value that you provide. Your business needs to build around this value. When cultivating your value you must take into account the competitive landscape of the marketplace and plant your business on fertile ground.

You have to have a solid core, in order to expand your business. Plant your roots in a value to the marketplace that people desire and need. And be sure to continuously monitor this. Your value may need to change or expand over time. Keeping a pulse on the marketplace is one of your most important jobs as the business owner.

Once you are clear on your value, then you must add four essential *petals*: a focused strategy, apt employees, loyal customers and a steady cash flow. Without these four things you do not have a business, you just have an idea. This is not just for small startup companies. Many companies grow to the multi-million dollar level and find themselves in trouble having lost touch with one of these key areas. Each of these four essentials represents a key business success element necessarily to for your company's survival and future value. On the most simplistic level, if a business can take care of its customers, attract and retain great employees, keep a consistent positive cash flow, and clearly head in one focused direction, it will be alright. If you linger too long without one of these four critical components of your business, it will wither and die.

The business can then become enriched with the addition of four additional components. These aspects of your business can be optimized to create greater value and profit. To make your business the blossoming corporation that it can be, you must also optimize and add four other *petals* to your growing flower. They include: marketing and sales, planning and measurement, systematic processes and an optimized supply chain that includes wisely choosing and managing all of your vendor and outsourced service provider relationships.

Each of these areas must be a focused aspect of your company that you have nurtured for optimum efficiency and longevity. Just like anything in nature, things do not just stay the same; you are either growing or dying. You must know where you stand on each of these areas and have a plan for continuously improving it, making it stronger and better. As most successful business owners will tell you, the efforts that they spend upfront allowed for greater effectiveness in the long run. By using the Flourishing Business* Methodology to craft your business you will find that overtime your business will run itself and bloom in all seasons.

If you*d like to learn more about The Flourishing Business* and how we can help you start creating one for yourself, visit http://www.flourishingbusiness.com or call 404-521-2401. The Flourishing Business* is an Atlanta-based business advisory firm that assists entrepreneurs. The company has developed The Flourishing Business* Methodology for business success and The Flourishing* Methodology for optimal personal performance, achievement and self-actualization. The Flourishing Business* is and provides the products, services and advice that you need in order to achieve it.