I'm starting a new series of 5 articles today. Designed to help you reflect and focus on what's most important to you in 2020.
That includes your life as well as your MSP. Because as the owner, the two things are inextricably linked.
A question for you: Why are you in business?
(maybe you ask yourself that every day!)
I’ve met a LOT of MSP owners over the years. And only a tiny, tiny number of them are in business just to put a £100,000 Aston Martin on a long gravel driveway.
There’s nothing wrong with that goal at all.
But most MSP owners want something more valuable from their business: Time.
The time to do, what they want to do. In the way they want to do it.
And cash. Most often, the cash is used to create the time (by paying other people), or used to ensure the time is spent in the most pleasurable way.
If I was to ask you this question…
What is your personal vision of the best possible long-term future for you and your family.
What would you say?
Mine is very simple. Let me share it with you.
My personal vision for the best long-term future for me and my family
I can look ahead a few years, and see that I’m still enjoying work. It continues to be challenging and stretching work that I adore, with MSP owners and managers I enjoy working with. I still only work 4 days a week. I still take my daughter to school most days, and enjoy plenty of quality time with her. We go away every school holiday. Maybe we’ve bought a cottage in Southwold, or a villa abroad? I also have plenty of time for me to do the stuff I love doing on my own (cinema, really long walks, photography). This is a great life/work balance. And because of this (not despite it) I’m smashing my business targets. My asset base is growing. Above all, I continue to be happy and content.My personal vision of the best long-term future for me and my family requires time and cash.
If you can find some time today to reflect on this – perhaps on a long drive, walk or run – dream ahead a few years and paint a picture of how you’d like things to be.
Here’s another question – what are your business goals over the next 3 years?
Are they SMART? An acronym for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Achievable
- Realistic, and
- Timebound
A weak goal is “I want to grow my business”. A SMART goal is “I want to grow net profit from £100,000 to £200,000 by the end of this year”.
You’ll know when you’ve achieved it because it’s very specific. And it has a deadline.
The test for any business goal is to compare it to your personal vision for the future.
Are the two congruent? If you achieve your business goals, will they feed your personal vision?
Remember: No-one gets to the end of their life and wishes they’d done more Windows 10 upgrades.
But they do miss their children’s youth, their life partner and wished they had done more of the things they really enjoyed doing.
Ask any 80 year old to reflect on this and you’ll realise how lucky you are to have time. Now. Today.
When you Fix – Grow – Exit your business you create more of the time and cash you need to live the life you most want to live.
SMART goals driven by a clear personal vision make it easy to pick the right growth strategies
And once you get the strategies right, the specific tactics needed become very easy to select.
And the small actions you must undertake every day become crystal clear.
What I adore about business is the clear link between what you choose to do every day, and creating your own lifestyle.
Personal vision
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SMART goals
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Right growth strategies
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Specific tactics
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Small daily actions
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Achievement of personal vision
In the next article, we'll look at how to get new quality clients with less stress.
