KEY TO SUCCESS: Streamlining will provide you more time to put into growing your business. You may be able to reduce costs, both in inventory and marketing. And an added benefit is you may be able to specialize in areas where you have the greatest passion.

Women business owners differ from most of their male counterparts when it comes to the way they measure their success. Women in business often have a more personal view.

They measure success by how it makes them and the people around them feel. Does it bring happiness and satisfaction? Does she have a feeling of accomplishment and pride? Rather than judging her business in terms of market share, innovation and operational performance, a woman in business will often measure how her business challenges her intellectually, fulfills her spiritually, contributes to community or provides her with autonomy.

If that’s how you are measuring your progress, don’t fret because it’s a natural part of your emotional makeup. On the contrary, if you aren’t enjoying those feelings now it may mean it’s time to revisit your original motivations. Perhaps you’ve wandered away from the passionate desire to provide a product or a service you had when you started. Or maybe you’ve discovered a new outlet for that passion through your business.

Over time in your business’s evolution, the initial services or products you offer may have been joined by others you had not first considered. Has it changed the “heart" of your business?

That happened to Judith Attfield. At 43, Judith quit her job and went back to school to earn a degree in nutrition. She then applied her new knowledge in her own business.

When Judith opened Hearthstone Holistic Health Corporation, she started out counselling people with serious health or emotional problems. Then she began to manufacture her own line of natural body products and started to write books that her clients could use to help themselves.

She was staying on track with her original motivation to help others and her business grew. But one summer she realized the demand for her services was outstripping her time and she felt less personally satisfied than she had when she began. Judith’s business had evolved from “survival" to "growth" and she knew she’d reached a point where her objectives had to be re-examined. She needed to return to her motivational touchstone.

As a result of the assessment, she was able to narrow her focus to the elements of her practices that brought her the most joy. She dropped her manufacturing and “the things I don’t like” in order to do the things that made her feel successful. With her examination, Judith found the heart of her business.

In Judith’s case, the changes came down to streamlining her business. Streamlining will provide you more time to put into growing your business. You may be able to reduce costs, both in inventory and marketing. And an added benefit is you may be able to specialize in areas where you have the greatest passion.

You can do this by performing a SWOT analysis on your business.

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. With a SWOT analysis you ask hard questions about your business and determine where your business’s greatest value lies. You zero in on those factors that will make your business successful with questions like:

Who are your best customers? There is an axiom that says 80 per cent of your business comes from 20 per cent of your customers, but sometimes income is not all that matters. Your biggest customers may not be your best ones.

What are your best business lines? Examine what you offer and determine what parts of your business offer the most potential. There may be parts of your business that do not merit the time and energy you are giving them as was the case with Judith’s manufacturing efforts.

What are you known for? What do your customers believe that you do especially well relative to your competitors? Remember that business success can be as simple as giving your customers more of what they want as opposed to what you think they should want.

What are your strengths and weaknesses? Examine your skills, ability, knowledge, experience, technology or processes that enable your company to provide its unique set of products or services. What works and doesn’t? How do your competitors compare with each?

What are the market trends? Look at the changes happening in your marketplace. Identify areas of opportunity and potential market hazards you need to prepare your business to handle. How can you match your business with the opportunities?

What focus takes the business where you want to grow? Which products and services offer a high percentage of sales and profit margins? Where do you have competitive advantage and real growth potential?

What do you love to do? So often it is the passion that provides the spark that will attract people to you and your business.