How Values Form Your Business with Jeff Dudan

At the very core of your business, whether it still be an idea or it’s a solid company and growing, the values that you learn and deem important get instilled. These characteristics help you build up the best possible standard in starting and creating your business or service. Beyond just the business aspect, these common core ideals create mutual understandings when working with teams and can reflect the atmosphere of your work.   

So how do you build these values? Where do they come from, and how can you implement them in a positive way? Jeff Dudan, a recent guest on Making Bank, talks about how all of his experiences from participating on a football team to eventually starting his own business and everything in between, gave him the important values to build a prosperous franchise.  

Values from Teams 

Growing up, you’ve got a handful of people that have a lasting impact on you, those people that you eventually shape yourself to be like. These mentors, whether they be coaches, teachers, or family members, instill values in you that teach you how to work in a team, to set goals, and to push past obstacles. Learning how to win or lose, and fail or succeed, prepares you for the world of business.  

“I had a couple of basketball coaches in high school that were just…ahead of their time in terms of goal setting and visualization and a strategy on how to win,” says Dudan of his younger days on the football team. Being a part of the team helped Dudan recognize weaknesses and play on strengths, and eventually led him to push past a small setback. Learning that what he was doing to make him a better football player could transfer beyond just the field was only the beginning.  

After starting his company, he felt like he was stuck for a bit. “I wasn’t getting enough different voices, enough diversity in terms of voices. And it wasn’t until I really started to struggle, and I started to fail where I started to seek people…it’s a maturing where I really started to join groups,” Dudan says of started Advantaclean, his restoration business. 

 At that point, he met one mentor that was critical to his success. Broadening perspectives and having different conversations than the ones that he was having helped him move forward from the times that he felt like he wasn’t moving forward in his business.   

The value from coaches and from teams are beyond important in growth, especially in business. From having a coach to being a coach, there is a cycle in which you employing trust and you’re gaining new perspectives with each new person that you speak with, and overall that is going to benefit the business as a whole.  

The Values of the Business 

You must hold yourself with a pride with knowing that you’ve got a successful business. Going hand in hand, you must also trust the people you’ve hired to carry out the rest of your idea. Growth cannot happen for a company just with just one individual working towards a goal.  

By establishing company values, you’re establishing a set of guidelines for a team to follow. This way, you’re working for a common goal while you’re understanding what you need to do. Doing this will ensure that the pride that you carry for your business will reflect back onto those who you hire and will be received by your audience.  

“I think you can never communicate enough over communicating and, you know, nothing great happens until somebody makes a bold declaration, but it has to be repeated so much that it just becomes part of the DNA of an organization.” With communicating and training, it ensures that the customers have great experiences and are coming back. It’s important that the employees are doing the best they can and are equipped with the knowledge and tools that they need in order to create these connections with the customers.  

Knowing what is going on in your company and communicating with your employees is what it really takes to get the inner workings of a company up and at their maximum potential. With observing and firsthand feedback, you’re staring right into the heart of your business, and you can implement change and alter those experiences if they aren’t what you’re aiming for.   

Personal Values  

“I think the two most precious things in life are time and love. And if you can give both of those abundantly, you’re going to be around the target somewhere.”  

Businesses and people are going to change. Look at the world now – no one could have predicted or prepared for this situation that we are living through with COVID-19. But, if you take it day by day and use everything that you know to push forward and stay motivated, things don’t seem so bad.  

In Dudan’s new book, Discernment, he goes over entrepreneurial encouragement. The book focuses to ground you in models of thoughts that reflect on your decision-making skills. It touches upon intentional learning and breaking down the method you use to solve problems. Becoming better at what you do is something that entrepreneurs have to focus on each and every day, and it’s not easy. 

Remember, the values that you hold are the ones that show up in your work – each and every decision that you make can hold a great impact.