Focusing On Your Goals Can Keep You Moving Forward

One of Nu Skin’s strengths over the years has been the ability to focus on specific aspects of the company that differentiate it from competitors. What the company founders initially lacked in start-up business skills, they more than made up for with their passion to provide products and an opportunity that had the potential to greatly benefit people’s lives. Supporting this vision was a razor-sharp focus on clear goals about what it would take to make this new venture successful.

Steve Lund, Executive Chairman of the Board, remembers that the original business plan was a work in progress from the first hour. “We didn’t have a fully developed business plan when we started the business,” he says. “The business started with cool products—products for which there was a demand. That was the first part of the business plan.”

Next, the young entrepreneurs focused on how to sell these products. They put together a rewarding compensation plan that would attract a motivated sales force.

The third question they had to answer was how to create an actual business plan to introduce the product line and business model into the marketplace. “Once questions A and B were answered—the products and how to market them—the horse was out of the gate and we had to backfill the business plan,” Steve remembers.

One important lesson the founders learned was that their business strategy really came down to understanding and providing solutions to real problems. They focused on each problem that arose and found ways to overcome them.

“Focus is necessary to be successful in anything. When we decide on a horse that we’re going to ride, we need to give that horse the attention it needs to get to the end of the journey. If we’re constantly getting off and trying out other horses, we find ourselves at the end of the day having worked real hard, but we’re still in the corral.”
                              —Steve Lund, Executive Chairman of the Board