At the end of a year it is normal to look back over our accomplishments and to engage in success planning for the coming year. Small business growth and small business success are not accidents. They are the result of success planning and executing the plan.
As a personal business coach I have had the privilege to see and experience the success of others. Recently, I was with a client that has experienced a great deal of small business success this year. It was time to sit down and go over our success planning for 2011.
Success Planning: Take A Look Back
But before we got into his success planning for 2011 we took a look back at 2010. It’s important to reflect and evaluate on what you did and how you did it. Small business growth is not an accident. Especially growth of the more permanent and lasting type which my client has experienced.
You may ask what is the more permanent type of small business growth? It is growth based on establishing processes where results may be measured. It is about creating a positive work atmosphere. It is about a process to make every customer feel like a first class passenger on your airline.
It is not growth based on one-time special circumstances or that once in a while large sale. Good and more lasting small business growth is based on doing the ordinary things extraordinarily well and having a process that insures that this continues to happen.
Success Planning: Making Good Choices
Whether you are an entrepreneur, solo professional you understand that successfully starting your own business or running a small business is a choice. Success planning reflects good choices.
As a self-employed business owner you can look at many ways to improve. Possibilities include, but are not limited to, creating a better small business marketing strategy, taking a small business course online to improve your skills, improving your processes, methods to reduce employee turnover, coming up with a new sales strategy, additional training or hiring a business coach.
Interestingly, none of these will work in the long-term for the self-employed business owner unless he does one thing. This one thing is the cornerstone to any success planning. He or she must commit to improving themselves. As the title of this post says, Success Planning And Winning: It’s All About You.
Think about it. If you don’t plan to grow in your thinking then not much is going to change. Everything starts with the thoughts of the self-employed business owner. His business and his life will get no bigger than his thinking.
Success Planning: It Gets No Bigger Than Your Thinking
One of the keys to success for the self-employed business owner, or for any one for that matter is to understand that your small business growth, your small business success, your happiness, your satisfaction and your life will get no bigger than your thinking.
Coaching success is about many things. But the most important one is to have a change in your thinking. Without a change in thinking, success planning is a meaningless exercise because nothing will change.
As the business owner and I sat down and collaborated on his success plan for 2011 it became obvious to him what he would do. His success planning for 2011 is centered around this. He is committing to be the best he can be as a person. When he is the best for himself, only then can he be best for others and his business.
Too often entrepreneurs and solo professionals miss this. They spend years taking care of the business. They may have financial success for a while. But they burn out because they do not take care of themselves.
Commit in 2011 to this. “I will be the best me in order to be the best for you.” Take care of yourself. Why? The key to great success planning is to take care of your most important asset, you.
