Make sure you understand yourself and how you operate best before you tackle your business planning. If you understand where you come from - what made you the way you are today - you can take those experiences and use them in your business planning. Oftentimes, our greatest struggles become our greatest strengths. If we understand the hardships we have been through and connect that with how it has produced certain passions in us, we can understand why we are doing what we're doing, linking it to vision, mission, and purpose. Having a clear vision not only gets you up in the morning, it drives how you'll operate your business. If you have that bigger picture goal plastered on your wall, you will make smaller, strategic decisions everyday that will get you closer to that goal. It can look like everything from knowing who you want to hire and what you want them to do, to how you want to design your product.
The ability to let others see authenticity will ultimately produce sales. People can sense when you know yourself, and when they see that you understand why you're passionate about what your doing and why you are the way you are, they will truly buy into that vision and want to be a part of it. It may become less about the product or service and more about who you are and your ability to be vulnerable through your business.
“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.” ― Brené Brown