This time of year is always full of promise. But for many, the momentum of New Year’s resolutions and goals-getting goes by the wayside in a few weeks, or worse still doesn’t even get started because the tasks feels overwhelming.
The key to keeping momentum and motivation high is to connect your business goals with your personal goals.
Growing turnover might feel very exciting, but growing turnover so that you can generate an extra £10k in profit in order to book the family holiday of your dreams is a LOT more exciting. Your business should be there to serve you, not the other way around. Revisit your life goals around where you want to live, the lifestyle you want to lead, even plans for when and how you want to retire and discuss over a glass of wine with your partner. Make sure you’re on the same page and clearly define what a successful life looks like for you.
With your life goals defined, decide which of those goals you need to work on in the next five years. Speak to your accountant about the level of profit you need to generate and how that might translate into turnover and business goals. If your accountant isn’t helpful with this kind of goal-setting, it might be a good goal to find a new accountant!
Some of those five-year goals will need to be worked on this year – some won’t be relevant until later down the line. Make a list of all those that need working on this year and map your progress across the next four quarters.
Some goals will be set as ‘straight line’ progress – for example if you had a goal to read 52 books this year, you can map out the reading of one book per week in a straight line. Some goals are ‘back-end’ goals which means progress initially is slow, but builds momentum – for example turnover goals might be limited until you have new team members on board and earning. Some goals are ‘front-end’ goals which have a lot of progress early on, but then the rate of progress slows; anyone who has drastically changed their diet will know that the first few weeks see the biggest weight-loss before the rate slows.
Since we are an industry that is very used to setting appointments, take the first quarter of your map and schedule time with yourself to work on these projects.
Guard this time – these are the things you have defined that will move your business forward in a meaningful way in order for you to achieve your life goals. Project time has to be non-negotiable!
Be brave this year with your goals and find yourself a group that can hold you accountable to your progress. Some peer support makes all the difference when your motivation starts to wane.
For more information go to www.buildyoursalon.com
