Small Business: Clearly Seeing Your Path to Success
By Ingrid Vaughan
Management guru Brian Tracy says “the three keys to high achievement are, clarity, clarity, and clarity.” He goes on to say “your success in life will be largely determined by how clear you are about what it is you really, really want.” When you first start up a business, it’s easy to have clarity. Most of us get busy writing a business plan, forecasting sales and revenue, planning marketing and sales strategies. We feel we know exactly where we’re going and how we’ll get there. Once you’ve achieved those initial goals, set up your business and have been working in it for a few years, it’s easy to get more caught up in the day-to-day than in evaluating whether you’re still on track with your original plan. You may still be on exactly the same path you set out in your business plan. But you may have also taken a few forks in the road or taken advantage of some opportunities you couldn’t have anticipated, and find yourself on a completely different path. Regardless, you need to ask yourself whether you have clarity today about the future of your business.
If you’ve just been waking up every morning and seeing where the day takes you, it’s critical that you take a step back and evaluate where it is you want to go, and whether the path you’re on will take you there. Although we may have occasional “aha” moments where we gain a new insight into some issue or problem, generally, clarity is not something that just happens, in the same way that leadership generally is not something that just happens. We need to be conscious of choosing to achieve and foster both clarity and leadership if we want to succeed. If you’ve been somewhat unconscious about where you’re going, here are some ideas you might try that may result in greater clarity for yourself and your business.
Take Uninterrupted Time To Reflect And Evaluate
I know, time is the one thing you don’t have to spare, but the truth is, clarity is most often found when all other distractions are set aside. Take a weekend away from the business – find a place where you aren’t tempted to be busy – a lakeside cabin, a quiet bed & breakfast, or even a visit to an understanding friend or family member who will allow you the space that you need to reflect. Then think about your responses to these questions:
- What did you want to accomplish when you started your business?
- Are you there or has your path changed?
- If it’s changed, are you where you want to be? If not, where do you want to be? Financially? With your relationships? With your business? With your personal and recreational life?
- Are the same things important to you now that were important when you started your business? Has anything shifted? Why?
- What hasn’t been working in your life or your business lately? Why hasn’t it been working? Where do you need to make changes?
- Where do you see yourself and your business in 3 years? 5 years? 10 years?
- What barriers do you see that may get in the way of being where you want to be? How can you address those barriers?
- What do you want to be remembered for? What do you want your small business to be known for? Are you actively working toward accomplishing those things?
- Where do you need to refocus, prioritize, change directions?
The answers to these questions will bring you closer to clarity. They’ll also probably create even more questions for reflection. Journal your answers, or at least jot down some notes. Writing down your answers is as important as answering the questions. It gives you a record of your thoughts (you may want to come back to them at a later time), and there’s something about the act of writing things down that increases your commitment to the process.
Seek The Counsel Of Wise And Truthful Friends
Notice I said wise “and truthful” friends. Seek out those you know will not sugarcoat the truth or tell you just what you want to hear. Find people you trust, and who know you well and ask them what they see in your life. Based on what they know of you, do they feel you’re on the right track with your life and your business? Can they see areas that aren’t working or are out of balance? Do they have visions for you that you may not have considered? What do they see as your strengths and weaknesses? The perspectives of others can help you find clarity in ways that you can’t see yourself. Listen and weigh their answers with your own; their insights may open doorways you’d not noticed were there.
Set New Goals
Once you’ve answered these questions, give yourself some time to let them distill. Go for a long walk, watch a game or a movie, or have a nap. Once the fog in your head has cleared, reread your journal or the notes you took and decide exactly which direction you want to travel. Based on new priorities, a new vision of your future, or anything else your internal quest has revealed, how are you going to get where you want to go? It’s time to set some goals. Make sure they are SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timeoriented). Are they specific enough to guide you day by day? Can you measure them – how will you know when you’ve achieved them? Are they attainable – do they stretch you beyond your comfort zone while still being reachable? Are they relevant to your values and priorities in life? If not, you’re not likely to follow through. And, are they attached to a timeline? Do you know when you want to have achieved those goals?
Invest the time and energy to gain clarity on where you want to go and you’ll be able to develop a new and clear roadmap for your journey. You, and your business, will achieve greater success.
Ingrid lives and works in Victoria BC as a Human Resource Generalist. She is the author of I’m A Circle, You’re a Square, a book about increasing the effectiveness of workplace communication. In addition to her HR generalist skills, Ingrid has experience as a small business coach, employment counsellor, business writer and corporate trainer. She is currently the Human Resource Specialist for the BC Construction Association, Skilled Trades Employment Program.
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