Outcomes, targets, deadlines, goals, launches, sales — they aren’t going to go right every time. That doesn’t mean you’re failing as an entrepreneur.
Being an entrepreneur is not easy. Working for yourself can mean huge freedom but also means you are your own biggest critic. Setting realistic targets, intentions, and creating achievable outcomes will keep you happy in your business — everyday.
The more targets, the better.
Not only am I very target oriented, but so is my team. I’ve spent two-ish years building up a great team of about 6 to 8 people.
Together, before every launch, we set our targets. We set a break even target, a happy target, and a very, very happy target. So, three to five targets every time. Always an uneven number, making the middle one the one we really want. I also set outcome-based targets for my employees, and I make sure they are realistic. I understand what she can and can’t influence.
Don’t forget to enjoy the process.
I know that many of my episodes are about focusing on targets — this one is a little different. This one is about focusing a little less on your targets, and really celebrating the ride and enjoying the process more. Targets are important, but by setting multiple targets, and understanding that sometimes it is just as important to enjoy the moments in between, you will actually feel more successful and happy.
If you only focus on targets, then you will only be happy for a few moments of your launch, when those targets are achieved. You want to enjoy every moment of your launch.
By learning to enjoy the whole process, and not panic when you don’t make those targets, you are creating a more successful environment for you and your team.
Build realistic dashboards, create realistic intentions.
I always use a sales target dashboard — it’s easy, it’s free, and it’s motivating. I also want to help you do the same, so you can find some guides in my shop about how to set up these dashboards in Excel.
With these dashboards, you can see yourself passing milestones — even if that takes a really long time. Having that data broken down into daily, weekly, and big targets, it really helps and you can track everything all throughout your launches.
We can see what we can improve on, and we won’t want to give up once we’re tracking everything. It’s also important to evaluate what’s realistic at the start of a launch. To be realistic. That’s why it’s so valuable to have different targets — bottom expectation, middle ground, and the best outcome. So that all of your ‘success’ doesn’t depend on one target that may be too high.
In a recent launch, we didn’t reach our best case target, but we weren’t disappointed. This was because, as well as targets, we set intentions.
At the beginning of that launch, we decided our intention was to have fun while we do it! If it’s not fun, we didn’t want to do it that way. We also decided we didn’t want to leave anything on the table.
My mom used to say ‘the only thing you can do is do your best’ — turns out she was right.
Intentions, targets, outcomes.
So, the really important thing here is to do all of these things alongside doing your best. Make sure to:
- Split up your targets and make them realistic: set a bottom, middle ground, and best case target. Don’t panic if you don’t make them, learn from it and apply it to new targets.
- Set your intentions: this is how you want to feel throughout the process, the energy you want to create.
- Have multiple outcomes you want: this is the big, final result you want. The main thing you want to achieve. You can have multiple outcomes if you want.
Process-based goals and values.
As well as targets and outcome-based goals, process-based goals are a great way to make sure your happiness doesn’t always depend on ‘the next thing’. By focusing goals around processes — for example, I want to make sure I go to the gym 3 times a week (which is different to the outcome-based goal of wanting to lose 10 pounds) — you don’t depend as heavily on results. You know you are doing what you need and want to be doing to drive your business forward regardless. You’re allowed to mess up, but keep showing up and sticking to your processes and you will always feel good.
As well as that, always have values in your business. In mine, I have a value of family. A value of freedom. Most importantly, a value of fun.
Why do we become entrepreneurs?
I have a question for you — what did you wish for when you became an entrepreneur?
Was it revenue? Was it freedom? Happiness? The ability to choose time with your family?
I know that for me, money is a tool that gets me things, but it's never the goal in and of itself.
Being able to choose what you want to do, who you want to do it with, who you want to spend time with, the right to execute your passion — that’s the goal.
If I’m waking up and dreading what I’m doing everyday, then my business is a failure. If I launch and make a million, but I hate what I’m doing, that’s a failure.
Understanding what failure actually is.
As entrepreneurs, we can often feel like a failure for lots of reasons. We forget that not following your passion is the true failure.
We can get caught up in not hitting our targets on time, but deadlines are just desired timelines. Time isn’t really real. If you don’t hit a goal the first time, you can try again and hit it the next time.
Goals are there to give us direction and support the way we want to do things.
So what is your intention? Is your intention to smile every day at work? Is your intention to work with clients you love? They are my intentions, and every day I'm happy I get to work with the clients I do.
Don’t be afraid of mistakes. Wouldn't it be boring if you had nothing left to learn? Be grateful for the learnings. Be grateful for the mistakes and soak up the process because the process is the name of the game. The journey is the goal, right?
Don’t compare yourself to others. They are in a different book, a different chapter. Ask yourself, which chapter am I writing? What's the name of this chapter? Or was your intention to help people?
So, if you're struggling because you feel like the joy has been taken out of entrepreneurship, go listen to this episode. It will change the entrepreneurship game for you.
What to do now? What I recommend to my clients who are looking to really drive their business forward is to join my Launch Gamebook that's out now. If you’re an entrepreneur and you feel like you need some inspiration, or could use some extra sales, and you want to learn how to launch and triple your income by selling out your launches, you can get register for The Launch Gamebook here.
Listen to this episode via Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts, and search for episode 159 of The FastForwardAmy Show.
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