When I was getting my first online business up and running I was very giddy. I was excited and talked about how successful I was going to be incessantly. One night at dinner when I was in the middle of another gleeful rant about the new business my wife asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks. She asked me how I would know when I was successful.
I hadn’t thought about that before. How did I view success and what did being successful mean to me. Did being successful mean I could work from home? Did being successful mean having a million dollars in the bank? Did being successful mean owning a mansion on the beach? I had to think about what I wanted to achieve. Unless you have a clear vision of what success is to you, you cannot work towards it.
Ever since then any time I’ve started a new business I’ve gone through the same process. I’ve mentally tabulated when I would consider the new business a success. It’s an important step. Before you start your own business you need to define what success means to you so you’ll recognize it when you reach that level.
Every motivational speaker worth his salt will tell you that goal setting is an integral part of running a business. It provides a clear starting point, benchmarks along the way and an end goal. Working towards a goal, like being successful, is a powerful motivating force.
Having a successful business means different things to different people. Some define success as having enough money to provide for their family. Others define it in much more grandiose terms like being able to afford to send their kids to private school, drive a Lamborghini or wearing designer clothes.
Some think defining success limits achievement. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s not as if you’ll stop running your business once you reach your level of desired success.
If you started a business and told yourself you wanted to make $100,000 one year and then you achieved that after only three years, would you all of a sudden quit the business? No, of course not.
Your definition of success would evolve. Perhaps your next goal would be to continue to net $100,000 a year for the next three years. Or perhaps your new vision of success would be to make $150,000 a year. Definitions of success are not concrete. They change and evolve as we go throughout our lives.
I certainly don’t have the same wants and goals today at age 32 than I did when I was 15. And I won’t view success the same way I do today when I am 50.
Just like you would map out how you want to run your business before you get started, you should also map out what you want to accomplish with your business. Decide for yourself when you will consider your business a success. That way you will know it when you get there.
To define what success means to you, take a step back and look at the big picture. Think about your current job situation and list the things you don’t like about it. Is it the hours? The pay? The having to answer to someone? The commute?
Figure out what are the “must haves” in your ideal situation. Working backwards like this will make it easy for you to define your priorities. It’s also easier to make a plan going forward this way. Lay out your plan to attain your business goals. Once you know where you want to go, it’s easy to map out a way to get there.
After you lay out the plan in your mind the next step is to act upon it. Don’t forget about this step! Taking the leap is one of the hardest parts of this whole process. You’ll likely feel scared and unsure, but don’t let those emotions overcome the work you’ve done so far. Just follow your roadmap to success and you’ll get there!
Good luck!
Ethan Warrick
