You cannot manage the future by looking forward. Businesses have to believe that they can manage the future by understanding the past. Most, if not all of our management reports, report the past; financials, sales, and market research. Businesses use this information to anticipate, forecast, and make decisions about future results. Running a small business requires an amount of experience, gut intuition, and a belief that they can do something different; something better.
Businesses will have some ups and some downs. Anyone can feel good about running a business when the company is doing well. It is easier to have a larger vision under these circumstances. The real challenge comes when we acknowledge we want to grow and scale the business and need to implement. It takes courage to act and implement based on the future goals and visions.
This challenge can destroy future goals and visions. It takes discipline, awareness, and ability to implement and take action. It is not easy to take the risks. If it was, everyone would be a business owner. But business owners take risks to achieve results.
This year we can make our business goals a reality. This year we can achieve the results that are set out.
How many of us know that if we had 2014 to live over again we could have done more than what we accomplished? What we do and what we accomplish is only the tip of the iceberg of what’s possible. We are often unconscious of using our resources and abilities to our fullest. Small businesses choose to seek opportunity not the safety. They want to take calculated risks to build and achieve something great.
This is not about where you started from or what you have accomplished. It’s not about the amount of talent or the greatness of the product. We all know stories about great products that have failed or the less talented that have succeeded. It is about gaining an awareness of where you are, a vision of the future, and putting the effort into achieving the results that we want to achieve.
Where focus goes, success will follow. It is time to look at the business with the effort to achieve. Make your 2015 goals a reality.
