Getting your dream business to be successful
It is that time of the year again where we as businessowners look back at the year gone by and think, what have we achieved, where was I last year and where am I this year?
Here is the million dollar question: why are you in business and what do you want to achieve from your business; in effect, what is your ultimate goal for you and your business?
Many businessowners I deal with daily have either forgotten what their big goal is, had no idea in the first place or it’s so vague and woolly that they find it hard to actually tell me, let alone write it down.
So perhaps it is no surprise then that these very same people are often going round and round in circles with their business, with sales that have not increased by more than a few per cent in the last few years, profits that are being eroded by ever-increasing costs and a team that seem to be more lost than they are.
As the saying goes, “you get what you focus on”, so if you focus on nothing then guess what? That is exactly what you get – nothing.
So what do we need to do differently next year? The answer is actually extremely simple. You got to have a dream to start off with.
So your first step to having what you want is to know what you want to have. This should be something that is potentially a long way in the future – maybe even 10 years away, and something that is big and challenging and even a bit scary too.
Now while this seems simple, for some dreaming big is extremely difficult, especially if they are over 10 years of age. Just ask an eight-year-old child what they want to be when they grow up, and see how enthusiastic his or her response is. It’s only when we get a bit older that society seems intent on limiting our ambition.
To help with identifying your big dream, just imagine that you had unlimited resources of time, money, and people, and the only criteria was to make your business the best it could possibly be.
What would your business look like; where would it be located; what clients would you have; what would your team be like; how much money would you be making; what would you be doing with that money; how many hours would you be working; what would you be doing with your spare time?
When you have that real clarity for your dream, you need to write it down in detail – the more detail the better. Then when you are done, share it with somebody.
The next step is to set goals or milestones, which will add a time frame in the journey towards your ultimate destination. Again, you need to write these down and make sure that they are smart goals.
For bigger goals you will need to break them down: ideally 12 months, 90 days, weekly and daily goals, plans and actions, all written down, referred to and updated on a regular basis.
The last step is to take action, because after all, ‘positive thought without positive action leads to positively nothing’.
So go on – dream big, aim for the stars and even if you only reach the moon, at least you will have achieved more than most people ever do.
Article by Elsa Groenewald: Business Coach for Growing SME’s and a franchisee of ActionCOACH, a business coaching firm.
Readers are invited to send any business-related questions to Elsa Groenewald at elsagroenewald@actioncoach.com for discussion in the next issue.
