How do you feel about the results you achieved in your business last year?
For many businesses last year was quite a challenging year. Perhaps you kicked some of your goals but didn’t quite get everything that you wanted to done? Or maybe last year is a year you would rather forget.
Having a successful small business needs to happen by design and not by accident.
And in our experience, there are three things that hold a business owner back and stop them from achieving their goals. By knowing what these are and tackling these head on, means you can enter the year with the clarity and focus to set the year up to be a really, successful year.
So what are those three?
1) No or unclear goals
The first one that can stop a business is having no goals or unclear goals. If you just drift into the year or just show up in the year, chances are you are just going to end up with a photocopy of last year. You’ll do things the same. You’ll repeat the same mistakes. Your business will just be about the same, maybe a little bit better, maybe a little bit worse, but generally not moving forward.
So, you need to have clear goals. Super clear, crystal clear… the clearer the better.
This is extra important if you have other people in your business so you can make sure you are all heading in the same direction.
The key here is to only have a few key goals. At Biznostics we have this rule of thumb: Usually one, sometimes two, but rarely three. One key goal is ideal and definitely no more than three. By keeping this focus chances are you are going to hit them because you’ve got that focus.
2) No plan
The second thing that can stop you from achieving your goals is not having a plan. You may come having set some New Year’s resolutions or even have really clear goals. Even with this focus, with no plan to back it, then it is unlikely happen. You’ll just have a goal that is one day, some day in the future. Your next step is wo work out, what are the steps to make it a reality?
This also includes identifying the things that are going to stop you from hitting your goals. Each roadblock that is holding your business back needs to be identified and demolished.
A real clear plan will help give you the momentum you need.
3) Lack of Skills or Knowledge
And finally, the last thing that can really hold you back in achieving your goals is lack of knowledge. You see you can only do what you know. So what areas in your business do you need to learn more about? What do you need to grow in? For many small business owners, they were never actually taught how to run a business. So there might be some gaps in their knowledge in terms of how the numbers work in their business or their business model or their marketing or whatever it is for you. Work out what you need to learn to achieve your goals and deliver against your plan. What are those key skills that you need to learn this year, or get better at so that you can ensure that part of your business is working? Once you have worked this out, identify the best place to get this knowledge and education.
So just to recap, to increase your chances of success:
- Have very clear goals (and no more than 3)
- Have a step-by-step plan
- Work on the skills and knowledge you need to make this year super successful
That way you can enter the year full of confidence, full of focus, and ultimately full of results.
