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Determine Where You Want to Go Next
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That’s it! Every December, I camp out in front of my computer and pull up my current five-year plan (I’m in year two right now) to tally up the number of goals I hit and missed in the previous 11 months. When I find a miss, I’m brutally honest with myself about why I didn’t achieve the milestone. It’s tempting, but I don’t blame anyone else — I just ask, “What did I do to hold myself back from achieving this? What could I have done better, and what should I have done differently?” If you actually follow the five steps I laid out — if you set your broad goals, find your why, break your goals into two-week sprints and daily tasks, and push forward relentlessly all year — your five-year goals will move closer and closer. You’ll ramp up your success, and your dreams will start to come true. One More Important Note There’s nothing magical about the date Jan. 1. You’re probably reading this newsletter in December, and if you feel hyped up and ready to start these steps today, don’t wait! It doesn’t matter when you set your goals. It only matters what those goals are and how hard you work to achieve them. With enough time, effort, and focus, we can achieve anything we put our minds to. The secret is figuring out exactly what you want, knowing why you want it, and making a plan to get there. If I can do it, so can you. –Shaun
current position so you can make an accurate plan for the future. 3. Find your ‘why.’ This is another critical step before you set your goals. Look at your “ideal life” and ask yourself, “Why do I want this so badly?” This is an important question because pushing toward those goals will be crazy hard. You’ll have days when you feel unmotivated and want to give up! But you can get through them if you know exactly what’s getting you out of bed in the morning. Try to really dig deep here. Yes, your family is important to you, but does their quality of life really change if you go from $10 million in profit to $100 million? Probably not! Something else is pushing you. Maybe it’s fame, leaving a legacy, or the money itself. Be honest about what drives you, then write it down. You don’t have to show it to anybody. You just need to know so you can go back to your why when you’re stuck. 4. Organize your ‘broad strokes’ goals. Once you’ve scribbled down your five-year milestones, break them into more manageable, bite-size chunks. I call these “broad strokes” goals. Then, split up all the broad strokes goals that make up your five-year plan by year. If you want to be a millionaire in 2028, how much revenue do you need to make this year, next year, and the year after? Remember that success compounds: Don’t go crazy with your year-one goal, but make sure your target revenue gains jump significantly every year. 5. Reverse-engineer your ‘broad strokes’ goals to find daily tasks. Look at the broad strokes goals you’ve set for next year. What do you need to accomplish between today and the end of 2023 to hit those goals? Create five milestones for each goal, then break those into smaller tasks. How many two-week periods (I call these “sprints”) will it take to accomplish each milestone? Schedule those sprints throughout the year, then distill them even further into daily activities. Aim to take at least three steps toward your goals every day, seven days a week.
By Developing a Strong Business Strategy
Opportunities Opportunities are external factors in your business environment that likely contribute to your success. Since there are multiple ways to come up with opportunities, consider these questions before getting started: • What resources can we use to improve weaknesses? • Are there market gaps in our services? • What are our business goals for the year? • What do our competitors offer? Spotting and exploiting opportunities can make a massive difference to your business’s ability to compete and take the lead in your market. Threats These are the areas with the potential to cause problems and external factors you don’t have much control over. They can include anything from a global pandemic to a change in the competitive landscape. Here are a few questions to ask yourself to identify external threats: • What changes in the industry are cause for concern? • What are new market trends on the horizon? • Where are our competitors outperforming us? It’s vital to anticipate threats and take action against them so your growth continues. A SWOT analysis is only sometimes necessary but is most beneficial when you implement significant changes, launch new company initiatives, or identify opportunities for growth and improvement. It is also helpful if you need an overview of your business performance or to identify performances from different perspectives. While a SWOT analysis is similar to a competitive analysis, it differs because it evaluates both internal and external factors. If you use it carefully and collaboratively, it can deliver new insights into where your business is and help you develop the right strategy for any situation!
Have you been searching for a way to separate your business from the competition? A SWOT analysis may be just what you need! SWOT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and they are used to develop a strategic plan for your business. This technique is widely used by small businesses, nonprofits, and large enterprises and can even be used for personal purposes! It is a powerful tool to help identify competitive opportunities for improvement for your team and business while staying ahead of market trends. Strengths Strengths are the internal, positive attributes of your business. These things are within your control and can be used in other areas that need additional support. When looking into the strengths of your organization, ask yourself the following questions: • What do we do well? Even better: What do we do best? • What makes our business stand out against the rest? • What does our target audience like about our business? • What advantages do we have over our competition? When you understand what areas are helping your business, you can see what is already working! Weaknesses Weaknesses refer to underperforming internal initiatives, such as competitors, prices of raw materials, and customer shopping trends. To create the baseline of success and failure, consider evaluating the strengths before the weaknesses! The starting point of where to improve any projects will be more obvious.
You can identify the business weaknesses by asking:
• Which initiatives are underperforming and why? • What business processes need improvement? • What resources could improve our performance? • How do we rank against our competitors?
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” –ISAIAH 43:18-19
You should examine these things to help improve your position in the competition.
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