Sweet Smell of Success!

How do you measure your success? This can be personal and/or business. Is it having a net profit at the end of the year? Is it the ability to purchase large ticket items such as a larger home, family car or other luxury items like a boat? Or is it reflective of the amount of time you can spend with the family?

No matter what you define as your “success” in life, an important element is realizing what inspires you to motivate you to strive for that “success”.

Gardeners may measure their success based of the health of their plants and flowers. How many buds and blooms can I get my roses to produce this year? What types of food, amounts of water, and maintenance of chemicals will I need to keep the rose bushes healthy and happy?

The gardener, year and year, through experience, can tell you what strategies he or she uses (formulas) that will produce the results they are looking for (success).

Owning a business, whether large, medium, or small, uses the same kind of mindset. Success can happen by chance now and then, but to ensure continued success, one must discover certain elements in order to reproduce their results and achieve success year after year.

Here is a brief synopsis of what elements are needed to produce a calculated “success” for a business:

1) Define what success looks like for your business.
2) Define what motivates you as the owner to work towards your success.
3) Write down the steps you believe will be necessary to achieve your success. This is an important step because you may need the advice of veteran business owners (successful ones of course!) or better yet a business coach to help you identify in detail these steps.
4) Break down your steps into realistic, achievable goals. A goal is defined as an objective one is trying to reach after a period of time. The time element can by short term (less that a year) or long term (greater than a year). It is important that the short term and even the long term goals are realistic and achievable. If they are not, then you may be setting yourself for disappointment and eventually failure. Again, a coach can help you put things into perspective.
5) Determine how you are going to keep yourself accountable for working on your goals. You need to keep reminding yourself that your goals exist for a reason and that they are an important part for you achieving your success.
6) Feel good about your achieving your goals. Achievement is definitely an accomplishment! Working towards your short term goals (30 – 90 days to start) and better yet being able to achieve these goals will help you gain confidence and gain more motivation to keep working toward your ultimate goal – your success!
7) When you feel you have lost track of your goals or you have gone astray, go back and review your goals you have written down. Remember what motivated you then to create these goals and relive that mindset. Put back into action what you have written down for yourself to do. Sometimes adjustments need to be made depending on the circumstances that caused you to get distracted from your goals. The gardener, for instance, may need to change his chemical formula if the roses are being affected by a disease or insect that was not yet accounted for. He may need to consult with a horticulturist (business coaches) to help him identify what he not did do in the beginning to foresee this problem. I bet he will learn to account for this problem next time as well!

Once you get to the point of getting close to achieving the success you have defined for yourself, how do you keep that success ongoing? One thing is for sure. Do not attempt to make drastic changes in your formula especially all at one time. As challenges come along, you make specific changes to accommodate those challenges. But make sure these changes are calculated and well thought out! Otherwise your rose bushes may not last through the next season!