It can be difficult to watch the lack of progress of so many promising entrepreneurs.  

Take note if your family members and friends have listened to your dream of creating a solid, sustainable business, and yet, all you have done is dream.

You attempt to create content, you follow shiny new objects, you look to perfect everything prior to hitting GO. There has been no action, very little if any, profit and a huge amount of debt and frustration.

They begin to question your actions, your commitment, and may even cut off the financial support to sustain growth. It is very hard for them to support your ‘baby’ when there has been little, to no progress to show for it nor a notable profit.  

You know what I’m talking about.

You have attended conferences, signed up for the numerous webinars, purchased countless pieces of training, and sometimes even worked with a coach or two.

And yet week after week, month after month, year after year, you have not implemented the strategies, you constantly re-work things, look to perfect your coaching business and in the end, you have made no progress toward your dreams.

Are you lazy?

No. It’s something worse.

You don’t know how to transition from a dream to financial freedom because you are stuck, you are without a plan and have no accountability partner.

Start with the Long-Term
If you’ve ever been on a job interview and were asked, “Where do you see yourself five years from now,” you might have thought it an odd question. But as a business owner, it might be the most important exercise to reflect upon.

Without knowing where you’re headed in the long term, it’s impossible to create a map to get there. You need to know what your destination is, so every day, week, month, and year you have accountability.

ACCOUNTABILITY EQUATES ACTION!

Create Milestones
Once you know your ultimate destination, it is essential you break it down, draft an action plan for getting there and create the interim goals to help you stay on track. Accountability is the key here!

For example, if in three years (or less) you want to have the financial freedom to travel for 8 weeks of the year, then you need to have a few items in place before it can happen:

• You require X amount of income to cover travel costs / other expenses
• Passive income to sustain your business while you’re not working
• A staff who can manage the business while you’re away (or run online)
• Obtain an accountability partner who can keep you on track

With this guidance, you can then work backward from your three-year goal, and create milestones along the way.

If you know you’ll need to earn $250,000 annually in order to have savings, fund your living expenses/travel plans, and right now you’re earning $80,000, then reasonable milestones might look like this:

• Year 1: $100,000 or more
• Year 2: $150,000 +
• Year 3: $250,000 +

With these milestones in place, it’s much easier to figure out exactly what you need to do to achieve them, by setting monthly, weekly, and daily goals.

Break it Down – Create Small Goals

If you say to someone, you need to move from $80,000 to $250,000 in three years, that’s an overwhelming task. After all, it’s a significant increase and most people will look at that and immediately dismiss it as impossible.

But when you break it down as noted above, and then again into smaller steps, it suddenly doesn’t appear so daunting. The key is to have an accountability partner (AP).

In the first year of the plan as outlined here, your income needs to increase by $20,000. That’s a mere $2000 per month! Surely that’s easy enough to accomplish if you are accountable, taking action, and driven to succeed!

Plan, create, act, and share!

Once you have put together your plan of action, set aside the time to review it with your AP and place timelines on your next steps. You are to actively participate consistently. Check-in with one another and share your said accomplishments or struggles.

You can break it down even further by week: $2000 per month is $500 per week. If you sell A, B, C, or five more of an X, Y, Z, you’ve already reached your milestone.

To get results it will require you to get creative. Think outside the box. Be hungry to boost your biz!

• send additional emails to your client/customer list with new content/information re a new product or service
• invest an additional X per month in social media advertising or find free methods to boost your brand like networking, promoting a video, or a speaking engagement
• work X number of hours throughout the week but work SMART. The point is, reaching this smaller goal is far easier than thinking about a three-year plan as a whole.

So, what’s your big dream? How can you deconstruct your dream life into achievable milestones, workable goals, and finally, daily and weekly tasks?

If you can do this (and you can) then you can achieve anything in business and in life.

SHE BELIEVED SHE COULD, SO SHE DID!

LT