Where is your business going? What is the destination?

If you do not know where the destination is, then guess what? That is where you are going to end up.

I am not talking about putting a 27- page business plan in the bottom drawer…What I am talking about is setting yourself up to win, to be successful, to support your clients, to support your staff, and to grow yourself and your business.

Start with thinking about where you want to be maybe in a couple of years. Think about all the right stuff, how much time you want to spend on the business, the money you want to be getting out of the business, what your family and you want to be doing in two years etc. If you are early on in your business, then you might be still happy to do 50,60, 80 hours a week. But think about that, then come back to 12 months and think, okay – to get to here in two years, where must I be in 12 months? What must I do? What steps must I take? What must I learn to be better? Who must I surround myself with, so that they take me to this point? Then go back again, go back to six months, and go, okay, we are starting here. We want to be here in 12 months, where do I have to be in six months? What changes do I have to make? What do I have to do with my clients? What do I have to do with my systems? What do I have to do with my business to get to here in six months? Think of the milestones that you must do. Remember, perfection is the enemy of progress.

Do not muck around thinking, “I’ve got to get a perfect start”. Start today. Dive in – the water is warm. Get stuck in and do it. Remember the adage, if it’s broke, if it’s not working – add energy.  Only one of two things will happen: It will work (outstanding), or it will break. Then you can fix it. Add energy to what you are doing. Do more to start with.

Set up the benchmarks you want to have for the first six months. Aim for the first year – don’t go any further than two years (who knows what is going to be happening in 2 years.) Go out that far and think, what do I have to do? How many clients? How many dollars, how much time? Be really, really focused on yourself and what you are going to deliver in your business. If you do not know where you are going and where your business is going, that is exactly where you are going to go – to that place.

Plan it. Not in a big way into the bottom drawer, but just think about the milestones you must have and what you must do. It is a great thing to do and it is really liberating to know exactly what you must do to get there.

Kerry