Taking Stock of Your BiggerVision!

Small business America must STOP right now! Stop complaining, stop whining, stop playing this low-stakes game that seems to have been shoved down our throats from a dizzying number of directions.

In my last post, I challenged you to Take Back Your Power and promised to write more about how it can be accomplished. This post we’ll unpack the first insight, Taking Stock Where You are in Goal Attainment --regardless if the goal is getting back to operational break-even or some version of your bigger vision.

Typically, during a Business Development project, I help my clients establish a very basic three-tiered set of performance objectives.The purpose of the exercise is often to help get the level of effort required into perspective. It’s not just about income numbers. Sometimes I’m trying to help them see the synergy that exists among multiple objectives. Other times, they may need a new view of lead generating activities vs direct income producing activities. Small business owners get so overwhelmed with the pressures of the day–to-day that they often lose perspective of their bigger vision.

Loss of perspective can be expensive.

This exercise will remind hard working people that there is more synergy and leverage to be had with a slight tweak in mindset and strategy and that it can be accomplished without piling on MORE hard work. It’s that work smarter, not harder message we hear so much about but don’t really believe is for us!

Every business has a unique set of key considerations, so there is not a one-size-fits-all set of elements that I can recommend here. For those who appreciate a sample worksheet to get you started, go over to my Resources page on the website and you can download the Worksheet: BiggerVision! Quick View. It models the simple, one-page approach I recommend for this purpose. Remember, the primary purpose is re-gaining perspective on just how achievable YOUR goals are with a bit of focused energy.

Level One Goals & Considerations are often driven by some current state of affairs. Perhaps the business is not operating profitably at present so Level One is geared around what it will take to get to operational break-even.  The fact that you are also going to be setting Level Two and Level Three should take the sting out of putting such a low-performing goal (break-even) on paper.

Establishing this tiered set of key considerations will allow you to see just how small of a jump it really is to get to that “next better place”. For example:

• You might see how a slight change in “mix of business” will deliver a big change in income or profits.
• Maybe you want to compare how many leads you need (based upon current conversion rate) to reach each level.

Be sure that Level Three Goals and Considerations are truly meaningful and inspiring to you. Having a bigger vision that makes sense to you --for your specific business, will keep you focused on your desired future. Not some watered down “New Normal” offered up by the universe at large.

Take Back Your Power starting TODAY! Declare your bigger vision

I would love to hear if this has been helpful for you in gaining some new perspective.

In future posts we'll discuss the benefits of getting re-focused on core offerings.