“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill
Pre-Covid, success may have meant something very different to you. But, given the change that covid has brought, some have fallen into the trap of working harder and burning themselves out in this pursuit, when in reality, there are other ways to potentially have you cake and eat it to.
For the purposes of this blog, we’re going to refer to an example business – a gym called The Rock, which is owned by a fictitious husband and wife, Dwayne and Jayne. The principles will be equally relevant for your business.
In our example, Dwayne and Jayne originally wanted to achieve £50k profit but were working long hours to get there. Now they’re thinking that more time with family is more important and are wonder if they can achieve that success with a lower level of profit, say £40k.
But, by redefining what success means to you personally, it’s possible to build a plan around how your business delivers that.
And we mustn’t stop there; we also need to define what success looks like for our team. A happy and engaged team is not only good for them; it’s great for business too.
Your definition of success
So, let’s start with your definition of success. In other words, what you want your business to deliver to you personally.
We refer to your definition of success in a section of your Business Plan called ‘What we want to achieve.’
We refer to four things here:
- Your hours of work: do you really need to work such long hours? Can you spend more time with the family and still get by financially?
- Your role in the business: are there things you do at work that could be done by others to free up your time?
- The cash you take from your business each week or month: if you reduce your cash demands, your business will be able to survive on lower turnover or alternatively you can employ or contract other people to do tasks you’ve done yourself up until now.
- The holidays you want to take: where, when and how long for.
What do you need to be happy? Maybe you can get by on less cash from the business, and in so doing, take some work pressure off yourself.
Your personal budget
A personal budget helps us understand whether or not you can get by on less cash from the business. If you can make personal savings, you’ll reduce the cashflow strain on the business.
No doubt you’ve made savings during the various lockdowns. Or, you’ve changed your spending priorities – can these savings continue? Hopefully you haven’t increased spending online too much, especially if your business is under pressure.
We have a complimentary personal budget template you can use to ensure you don’t miss any expenses. Simply look at your bank statements online to see what you typically spend in a month. Go back 3-4 months to review your expenses and ensure your budget is realistic.
Success for your business
Once we are clear on what success looks like for us as owners of the business, it’s time to translate that into business success.
For example, Dwayne and Jayne wanted the business to deliver £50k to them each year. Having done their personal budget, they’ve identified that they can make things work for their family at £40k.
Alternatively, they could reinvest those savings into the business on things such as more support in marketing, finance or administration to free up their time to work fewer hours.
Developing a SMART business plan
To achieve your business’ desired goals and meet your numbers, we suggest developing your own SMART business plan.
So, what does SMART stand for:
- S: Specific – describe exactly what needs to be achieved
- M: Measurable – include a metric with a target that indicates success
- A: Achievable – set a challenging but realistic target
- R: Relevant – the goal must align with the overarching plan and vision
- T: Time – set a deadline for achieving the goal
Dwayne and Jayne need to set some SMART goals about how to achieve their goal sales number of £4,700 per week. An example might be to attract 10 new customers per month.
We can then create specific actions to achieve that goal, remembering that each goal and action needs to fit into this SMART format. This forms the basis of your wider plan.
Now, we have shared just the first steps to take in your journey of redefining success for your business.
To discover the next ones, sign up to our free live webinar: ‘Redefining Success Steps to help your business grow and flourish’ here.