No doubt you, like me, as a business professional want everything about your business to look, well, professional. From first glance to lingering look, we really want our business brands to shine.

Because of that, I’ve worked hard and spent a lot of time and money over the years making sure my company’s image is the best it can be.

Professional Is NOT Enough…
Unfortunately, the longer I serve in this business, the more I realize our prospects and clients want more.

While it’s easier, safer, and seems more “humble” to polish my professional brand and hide my personal one, for service-based professionals such as you and me, the elephant in the room is this… that’s just not enough.

Because people work directly with “us,” what matters is their impression and experience of “us.” The person, NOT the brand.

I am my business. And you are yours.

We Are Our Businesses
So lately, I’ve been pondering the question, “Are you spending as much time and money investing in yourself as you are in external things?”

And I’ve realized I want (I need) to make more regular deposits in these three areas…

• my relationship with God
• my relationships with others
• myself.

Doing this ensures that my clients will both see and receive the very best I can give.

Our Relationship with God
II Corinthians 3:18 says, … we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

In other words, we become what we behold.

There is no better way to become like Christ than to spend time with Him, enjoying Him, learning of Him and worshipping Him. This takes time. And attention. And it will be the best business and life investment you and I will ever make.

Our Relationships with Others
Friends and loved ones add so much to my life. When I’m with them I laugh till my sides hurt, see things in a whole new light, and am reminded that the world is bigger than me.

I begin “friend-time” harried, hurried, and worried and leave informed, inspired, and filled up with love.

So, I’m embarrassed to admit it but more than once I’ve turned down time with family and friends because I had just a wee bit more work to do, forgetting that there will always be more to do.

Really, when’s the last time ALL my work was done?

Carving out time to be with others is good for them, and it’s good for me.

In Ourselves
Remembering that you are your business and I am mine, if we’re not healthy, skilled, or wise, we won’t have anything to offer.

Who do our clients need us to be? A better listener? More prayerful? More present? More in tune with God?

And what do our businesses need from us? More creativity? Better communication? More courageous decision making? Stronger connecting?

If so, we can’t just wait for the time, money, and margin to make that happen, because that time will never come.

Just as the farmer needs to sow before he can reap, the committed entrepreneur knows that investing in himself or herself now is what will create time, money, and margin later, not the other way around.

Today it’s hitting me all over again, that there’s a reason why we judge a book by its cover. It’s because the outside reflects what lies within.

By continually investing in our relationship with God, others, and ourselves, we’ll become the best that we can be, and that’s someone our potential clients will see and hire.

How about you? How do you regularly carve out time to invest in these three critical areas of your life?

I hope you’ll pop over to my Facebook page and share what’s working for you.