Category: Blog

Managing staff is definitely not a one size fits all.  Knowing how to manage different personalities is a skill managers need to grasp if their business is to really flourish.

You may have pulled together an amazing team, recruiting individuals that suit their specific role to a tee, but unless you know how to draw the best out of each one of them, and get the different personalities working together, it can still be a recipe for disaster.

What motivates one person may have another running for the hills, and asking two clashing personalities to work together can disrupt your whole operation!

This is why it’s so important to understand what makes your staff tick, and work that to your advantage so the mix of personalities benefit, not bankrupt the company.

Take the two opposing ends of the scale, extroverts and introverts, for example.

An extrovert might be comfortable expressing their views and offering suggestions in an open forum or meeting, but an introvert certainly wouldn’t.  So, if this is the only means staff have to put forward opinions and ideas, you could be missing out on some really important input from the less outspoken members of the team.

An extrovert would probably thrive on being centre of attention if acknowledged publically for some great work, but this could negatively impact an introvert’s confidence and productivity.  They may give a little less, for fear of being embarrassed again with a public commendation.

Can you see how, on a daily basis, the way you interact with and manage staff can have a huge impact on morale and productivity?

It’s a tricky area.  People are complex beings.  Even their different moods can alter how they might react to a situation from day to day.

Whether you use formal profiling, or just pay close attention to your team members as you work together, to successfully manage you need to be aware of personalities and know how to act and react appropriately with them.

If you fail to correctly tailor your management practices with individual personalities in mind, you may find yourself struggling with a high staff turnover, or a disgruntled and under-performing team.

ETC’s business growth and mentoring programmes include expert advice and training on all aspects of leadership and management. For further advice and guidance on getting the most out of your workforce, call Doug on 01384 355444 and book a free business review.

One of the biggest business owners’ bug-bears is having to work over each night, because there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done!

Well, there are certain things in life you simply can’t be late for, like catching a plane. So how is it we can make these deadlines and not others?

The simple answer is, we plan for it. Plan effectively and you can achieve anything – including getting home on time.

What exactly do we mean when we talk about time management in business? We can’t ‘manage’ time, it keeps rolling along whether we like it or not. What we can manage, however, is how we plan our time, how we prioritise what we do and make active decisions about when we do it.

Use the example of planning for a trip abroad, and make your departure time from your working day as much a priority as catching a plane, and you might suddenly find time management is manageable after all…

It’s a simple three step process:

1 – Know your deadline

Catching a plane has a distinct date and time allocated to it, so ensure you set your departure date and time in the same way. For some, this may be already set in stone – if they have to be at the school gates to pick up children, for example – but if you don’t have this time in mind, it’s all too easy to just keep working. A deadline adds a degree of urgency, which can force us to be more productive. Rather than pushing tasks aside thinking, ‘I’ll get to that later’, the mindset becomes ‘Let’s do it now as I have to be away by…’.

2 – Set it as a priority

Everyone knows catching a plane is a priority, but we don’t always set the same importance on home time. Why not? My previous blog here explains why burning the midnight oil can be counter-productive. Time away from the workplace is essential, and looking forward to that time away can give you the incentive you need to be more focused at your desk.

3 – Plan what you need to do and when

When you plan a trip away, there are a set number of things you need to do before you go. Book flights, book accommodation, arrange travel insurance, arrange transfers or car hire, make sure your passport is in date, pack etc. You’ll probably make a list, and there’s no question as to whether you tick everything off the list – you simply have to – so you make sure you set aside time to do these things.

When you plan for home time, you need to do the same. Make a list in the morning of what has to be done before departure. Prioritise the list and be realistic about what can be achieved in the time you have. If there are a number of things that could wait until the next day, put these at the end of the list as ‘will try to dos’ rather than ‘to dos’. Allocate times to the tasks, so you know your first hour is for phone calls, for example, and your second hour is to write up that urgent report… Now, this is the important bit, no procrastinating! There simply isn’t time! Stick to your timetable and stay focused on that deadline.

Sometimes, all it needs is a change in attitude and approach and you can achieve what you thought was impossible – effective time management that allows you to jet home each evening and enjoy some much needed rest and recuperation.

For further support and advice with managing time and workload, and making your business more profitable, contact Doug and request a free business review.

School may be a distant memory to some of us, but it might be worth recalling one aspect of your school days for a moment, to see if it can help you in your business.

I’m not talking about what you studied here, but how you studied…

Have you ever considered what a momentous task it is to get thousands of children through the school system, teaching them everything they need to know on the set curriculum of the day, sticking fastidiously to the same working hours each week?

When you stop and think about it, you realise how crucial timetabling is to a school’s success – and this is where we should take a leaf from the school book!

We may call it scheduling in the workplace, rather than timetabling, but it amounts to the same thing. If you have a lot of work to get through, setting out a regimented timetable and following it to the letter really can help you manage your time effectively.

More importantly, it can give you that all important start and end time to your working day, keeping you productive when you need to be so you can stop and enjoy home time when you want to!

Here are my ideas on how you can adapt the school timetabling system to help manage your workload and time more efficiently in your business:

Physically draw out your timetable

Whether you do this on paper or online, make sure you have your working week represented in diary format, where you can mark up allocated chunks of time to specific jobs. Having something visible is essential to make this work, don’t just vaguely set times in your head. You might need to work a timetable over a fortnight, or month, to fit everything in. Think about how this can work best for your workload.

List the different aspects of your work

I don’t mean the smaller daily and weekly tasks here. Think about this like writing a job description for everything you have to cover in your working month. It may include things like administration, accounts, operational duties, client meetings, sales activity, marketing etc. Try and keep it as generic as possible, so you can work your timetable into a recurring pattern.

Allocate times to your listed jobs

As accurately as you can, allocate time-spans to this list of jobs. You may know, for example, that you are currently spending your first hour every day on administration – checking and responding to emails, tying up paperwork etc. – so, allocate 5 hours per week to administration. You may set yourself the target of spending two hours per week on sales calls – so write this down under sales activity. This is a fantastic way to also see if your job list is achievable! If your tasks add up to a 60 hour working week, for example, more needs addressing than scheduling your time.

Think about working productively and efficiently

Before you start marking up your timetable, look at the list you’ve made and evaluate the time you’re currently spending on certain activities. See if you can streamline any of your tasks. The idea of this exercise is not to document how you do things now, but to work it to your advantage so you can be more productive and effective. Perhaps, for example, you might get more done in a day if you didn’t spend your first hour on administration. Setting aside a 3-hour block at the beginning or end of the week to focus on administrative tasks, so that the remainder of your week can be free for other work activity, might be more advantageous.

Chunk your time

After evaluating and amending your job list, start to fill in your timetable by chunking time slots for specific tasks. Start with repeating tasks that you know have to be completed by a specific time – like month end accounts. Block out the time on your schedule when this needs to be done. Work your way down your list. If you know you always have a certain amount of client meetings each week, set aside Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for meetings etc.

Don’t let others dictate your timetable!

Once you’ve drawn up your timetable – stick to it! One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is, they let others dictate their timetable. Change your mindset! Don’t ask what availability your client has for a meeting, tell them ‘I’m available Tuesday afternoon or Thursday afternoon for a meeting’. Next time a client calls to ask for a job to be completed, tell them ‘I can set aside Wednesday morning to complete this for you’. Time management is often about managing expectations, so you’re not setting yourself unrealistic deadlines then burning the midnight oil trying to reach them.

It may seem simplistic, but it’s a proven, successful model. Schools offer us the perfect operational example! Try it for a month and see if the timetable can work for you.

Timetabling is one of the exercises I often do with my clients to help them define their working week, allocate time to jobs and schedule their workload more effectively. If you would like advice or support on helping you manage time within your business, give ETC a call on 01384 355 444.

I recently discussed the importance of delegation in my blog post “Why do we find delegating so difficult?” – but I thought it was important to expand on that by outlining what I feel the secrets are to successful delegation.

The biggest stumbling block, I find, to effective delegation is – you have to place your trust in someone else to complete work to your standard.

But the solution really is simple – put steps in place to ensure employees or agencies can do the job the way you want it done!

Here’s my easy three-step guide to successful delegation:

Explain the task thoroughly

No-one can undertake an assignment without a proper brief. Often, managers assume they are the only one who can undertake certain tasks because all the knowledge about how to complete it is in their head. I don’t mean to over-simplify here, but get those details out of your head and structure them on paper into a ‘how to’ guide. Go through this with the individual you are delegating to and make sure they understand what is expected of them.

Ensure robust systems and procedures are in place

To complete any task satisfactorily, you need the right tools for the job. With many administrative tasks, the right tools are the systems and procedures that underpin what you do. Make sure documents you need are easily accessible, anything that needs to be recorded has a file ready and waiting and there is an easy-to-follow process to complete the task.

Deliver tailored in-house training

Never assume a person should know how things are done in your organisation. Even if they have extensive industry knowledge and have undertaken similar tasks for other companies, you will have your own way of doing things – and this needs explaining. Even when outsourcing to an agency or service supplier, delivering job-specific training to show them how you want things done is imperative.

Follow these three steps and you are setting employees up for success. Have confidence in them and let them try.

For more business insights and top tips, sign up to receive Doug’s monthly email newsletter on his website.

Some people appear to be masters of delegation – handing out tasks left, right and centre – but generally, in the companies I’ve worked with, I find managers can be hesitant to delegate.

Why is this such an important issue to raise? Put simply, failure to delegate is a recipe for chaos.

Tasks pile up and things start to get missed. This not only creates issues with clients, if deadlines are not met or communication channels fail, but it creates a stressful environment and puts unnecessary pressure on you as a manager.

There comes a point in a business where the number of tasks on a manager’s plate outweighs the number of hours in a day! Holding on to tasks that could be passed to another member of staff, or outsourced to a specialist agency, is one of the biggest barriers to company growth and success.

There can be a number of reasons why we find delegating so difficult, but the most common I’ve found in my experiences as a business mentor and consultant are these:

“I can’t afford to employ more staff”

In smaller firms, it’s often the case that the business owner does everything. This is often a necessity when first starting out, but as the business starts to grow, the to-do list does as well and owners get stuck in that mindset that it all has to remain with them.

As more work comes in, however, there should be increased income to match. Whilst there may not be enough just yet to take on another member of staff, there are cost-effective ways of outsourcing certain tasks that help free up your time to focus on what’s important (like getting client work completed, or sales activity to bring in even more!).

If you find yourself in this situation, think about the work you do that isn’t your forte, and cost out how much it would be to outsource to an expert. Examples might be book-keeping or marketing. These are tasks that can easily be passed to an outside agency, who will charge you an hourly rate for the work they do. Chances are, they’ll also do it much quicker than you because it’s what they’re trained in, and it may cost less than you think.

This doesn’t just free up time, it helps you play to your strengths, which will make you much happier in your job! There are always tasks we put off because we don’t enjoy them. It’s these you should consider delegating.

“No-one else can do this – I’m the only one that knows how”

Of course there may be aspects of a business that only you can do. If you’re a photographer, for example, clients are paying for you, your name, your portfolio, your proven expertise behind the camera – and it would weaken your brand to delegate or outsource to another photographer. But does that mean you can’t outsource the photo editing process, or find someone who can make sales calls on your behalf, or get a virtual PA to handle your calls and diary?

There are always tasks on your to do list that (and here’s the key), with the correct training and information, someone else could do. Not only could they do it, but they could do it very well!

Equally as well as you, in fact. I know for many this can be a difficult concept to grasp, but at some point you have to let go!

Investing a little time in training someone to fulfil a role to your specifications, ensuring consistency in the standard of work produced, will pay dividends in the long run. You can learn to place your trust in the competency of others and re-focus on what you need to do to make your business bigger, better and more profitable.

So, next time you find yourself stressing over your workload, don’t dither. Delegate!

For more practical, straight-forward advice on growing your business and becoming more profitable, take a look at Doug’s book “Getting Down to Business”.

It can be difficult to recognise when you have job fatigue, because you’re working so hard trying to get through your daily tasks that it simply doesn’t register that things aren’t right.

But take a moment now and ask yourself these questions:

• Does work seem like a hard slog at the moment, like you’re on a treadmill repeating actions day after day without really getting anywhere?
• Do you feel physically and mentally exhausted at the end of your working day?
• Do you feel you’re seeing no rewards for your hard work, in financial terms or through job satisfaction?

If you’ve answered yes to any of these, I can pretty much guarantee you’re suffering from job fatigue.

Unfortunately, this can be a downward spiral that leads to stress, anxiety, and even depression. But, although it may seem like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel at the moment, there is a way to get yourself out of this rut – and it might be simpler than you think.

SET YOURSELF GOALS!

One of the biggest issues I face as a business mentor is getting people to recognise the benefits of setting big goals for themselves – but it is actually a great way of combating job fatigue.

Think about it – if you have nothing to strive for, no direction or aim, wouldn’t you feel like a hamster on a wheel, running but at the same time standing still?

If you can’t say to yourself at the end of the day, I’ve achieved this and I’m now closer to my goal – wouldn’t you feel drained and despondent?

If you don’t feel you’re working to a bigger plan that will bring amazing rewards, there’s nothing to motivate you each day. Wouldn’t that be soul destroying, if the hours you’re putting in feel worthless?

Yet so many people in business still go through the motions without setting goals.

I’ve written at length on how to set goals, and how to work towards achieving them, so I’m not going to expand on that here. What I want to point out is that you need to recognise the importance of having a vision, of dreaming a little of what the future could hold.

Having something to work towards, and a plan of action in place to make it happen, is a hugely constructive thing to do. It will give you a framework for your working day and keep everyone in the office upbeat, knowing that all of their hard work is leading somewhere.

Ticking things off an action plan each day as you work towards a big goal will promote optimism and positivity. No room for job fatigue there! You will be amazed at how differently you can feel about your business and the work you do within it.

So, jump off the treadmill! Get out of the hamster wheel! Set yourself something to strive for and go get ‘em!

For more guidance on how to set goals – and work towards achieving them, here’s some further reading:

Do you know what your goal is?
Targets & Goals: Can You Spot the Difference?
Setting your Goal: The Know How
Goals set, but how can I achieve them effectively?
Help yourself to achieve your goals – Masterminding
Short term goals and long term goals
Business goals and personal goals

This may sound strange to all you workaholics out there, beavering away ‘til the early hours to get a project completed or write up that important report, but you’re not doing you or your business any favours putting in all those extra hours!

We can soon get into the pattern of starting that extra hour earlier, taking work home to finish in the evening, coming in to the office at the weekend. I know, I’ve been there and done that! At the time, it seems like the only way of fitting everything in and getting the job done, there are never enough hours in the normal working day, but this is the road to ruin!

You are damaging your body, your personal life, and your business by not allowing yourself down time.

Working 24/7 is the fastest way to feeling jaded and fatigued in your job – and far from increasing productivity, it will leave you tired, distracted and demoralised.

If you work on getting the balance right, however, you will suddenly find that eight hours in a day is enough to get everything done – because you’re rested, fresh and focused – and you’ll be a happier, more positive employee/employer by enjoying life outside of work!

Here’s my checklist to combating midnight oil syndrome, to redress the balance and ensure your working days are productive, not prolonged!

Stop

Set yourself a cut-off point for finishing your working day – and stick to it! This isn’t a deadline to complete your work, it’s a time when you stop working, regardless of whether a task is completely finished. Whether it’s 5pm, 6pm or 7pm – set a definite time when the working day will end and your personal time will start. Having this end-time in mind has two main benefits.

It helps you stay focused and can stop you procrastinating over tasks and just get stuck in! If you’re always thinking to yourself ‘I can finish it at home later’, or ‘I’ll stay an extra hour to finish it’, it gives you an excuse to drag your feet or put things off. Second, it gives you something to look forward to. If all you can see ahead of you is more work, work, work – you’ll feel disheartened and de-motivated. This is why taking your weekends and holidays off are important too!

Sleep

Your body needs sleep – and it probably needs more than you’re giving it at the moment! How much better would you feel if you allowed yourself the luxury of a good, eight hours sleep before the next working day? Starting the day tired is not a great recipe for success. Sleep deprivation crushes creativity, and positivity.

You’ll feel sapped of energy before you even start, meaning you won’t operate effectively, mentally or physically. It can also heighten anxiety and stress. Small issues that would, under normal circumstances, be dealt with quickly and without fuss, suddenly become mountainous, insurmountable problems. It’s impossible to think clearly with a fuzzy head. Get sleep, and get enough to feel refreshed and ready for anything!

Live!

Remember the old adage – do we live to work, or work to live? It’s essential to have interests, and a life, outside of work! You need something that will distract you and take your mind off of work. Something that you enjoy and makes all that hard work worthwhile! Whether it’s spending time with the family, or finding a hobby you love, make the most of your free time.

Whatever it is you decide to do, immerse yourself in it completely. Don’t allow yourself to think about work. You will find that clearing your mind will give you new energy and focus on returning to a task. It may even open up new avenues of thought that, had you not spent time away, just wouldn’t have occurred to you. Re-invigorate your passion for life because if you lose that, you’ll very quickly lose passion for everything else – including your job.

I cover time management and work/life balance in my free advice sheets. Sign up here to receive more helpful information and support that will help you, and your business, grow and succeed.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a tick list you could follow that would ensure you win every public sector tender you go for?

Unfortunately, there are no guarantees and it would be remiss of me to suggest otherwise. There will always be variables beyond your control that can tip the balance – sometimes it may tip in your favour, other times those variables will work against you.

What I can offer, however, is advice on how to ensure your tender is at least in the running and has the best chance possible. So, from my experience, here are my tips on tendering success.

Be choosy

The art of successfully winning public contracts is being ruthless on which opportunities you pursue. Read notes thoroughly, and make sure you fully appreciate the requirements of the work before even thinking about submitting anything.

All contracts worth over a certain amount have to be published OJEC and OJEU which means they will be seen by lots of businesses, and you’ll probably face stiff competition from quite a variety of companies.

Don’t be unambitious, but do be realistic about your capabilities and resources to do the job. The financial rewards can often tempt companies to apply for contracts they cannot really win, and which therefore, waste everyone’s time and money.

Ensure your figures add up

Your finances are important as they are often used in the process to judge your capabilities, and determine whether you can really carry out the job successfully. It’s worth a sit down with your accountant to go through your figures, and ensure everything is clear and well-documented.

Quote realistically

Remember that the tendering process won’t allow you to negotiate on price, something you’ve probably grown accustomed to doing working in the private sector. If you’re used to inflating prices, ready to reduce them after some bargaining – think again when it comes to the public sector! You really do need to submit your best and last price. Don’t go so low that you can’t make money from it, but cutting your profit margin a little in order to win a prestigious contract could make great business sense in the long run.

Use your strengths to stand-out

How do you make yourself appear so much better than the competition on a piece of paper? You may have relied on your charm and sales skills in the private sector, along with word of mouth recommendations, but this doesn’t really fly in the tendering process.

The main thing that will shout out loud about your potential is any relevant industry standards and accreditations you have. Gaining these kinds of accolades can be time-consuming and costly, but ultimately, they will show you have the credentials to do what you say you are able to do. Where public money is being spent, it is very important to have credible companies working on a contract, so accreditations will be a huge help.

You can include a cover letter with your submission, however, so use this wisely. If there is anything you particularly want to draw attention to, this is the place to do some extra selling.

Offer added value

What you can do to help separate you from the crowd is offer added value. This may take some creative thought, but can often be all it takes to turn a no or a maybe into a definite yes!

Think about what else you can do, other than the job requirements detailed in the tender document, that will be of use to the client without it costing you anything to provide. For example, as part of a quote for security guards to patrol offices, you could offer to collect all confidential waste throughout the night.

This won’t incur additional costs for you as the security guard is already on site and being paid to walk around the building. It does show your willingness to go over and above in the service you provide, however, and gives added value to the client.

The chance to tender

Once all the companies meeting the necessary specifications have been identified, they’ll be sent an Invitation to Tender (ITT). Remember all the work that has helped you reach this point, and ensure you put together a tender which helps you stand out for all the right reasons. Being confident you can do something is not good enough now – you have to prove it and show that you have the experience. You need to offer firm assurances that you can deliver what you’re promising.
Is it worth it?

It’s not for everyone, obviously, but if your company has reached the right size and stature – absolutely it can be worth it. If you are at the start of your journey and want some guidance, or perhaps you’ve already begun, but faltered, I can help set you on the right road. It can be hugely rewarding, and offer your company the kind of financial stability you’d only dreamt of in the past. Be bold!

Although there have been sweeping cuts across the board within the public sector, their operational model is still largely based on outsourcing project work to experts in their field and contracts can still provide a lucrative revenue stream for businesses who are equipped and able to do the work.

Before you start searching for available opportunities and launching headlong into the tendering process, however, you do need to weigh up the pros and cons of whether this will be worth it for you.

Public sector contracts can sound like the golden egg you’ve been waiting for, holding many advantages over work within the private sector. They invariably offer longer term contracts, usually of three years and often with the potential to extend that to five, and once that contract is in place, it is pretty secure. Together with the reliability of pre-determined payment terms, this can provide a business with much sought-after financial stability.

But this security does come at a cost. Here are some of the main issues you need to consider before starting the process.

The Pre-Qualification process

The biggest difference between the public and private sector is the tender process. Unlike commercial organisations who have more freedom to choose their suppliers based on a company’s USPs, ethos and whether they establish a rapport, if you’re looking to win public sector contracts worth over £100,000, you first have to go through a pre-qualification process.
The Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) is a lengthy document in which you have to prove you have the capabilities to meet the contract’s specifications. You will need to demonstrate everything from your financial stability, to environmental and CSR accreditations and standards.

This can be restrictive, particularly for smaller companies.

Investment

Ensuring you comply with the PQQ can be a costly affair. Having all the correct policies and standards developed and in situ can mean a large initial outlay. Attaining ISO 9000 standards alone can cost upwards of £5,000, for example, which is a considerable investment for a smaller firm. But there’s no denying either that this kind of investment will benefit your company, and stand you in good stead not just to win these contracts but to deliver work for both the public and private sector.

Time and man-power

Believe it or not, there is often little difference in the time it takes to pursue a private sector sale and complete a public sector tender, but the way in which you allocate time and man-power to each is quite different.

The sales process in the private sector can be spread across weeks or months with the prospecting, the meetings, the sales pitch, the proposals, the negotiations etc. A sales team can spend considerable time attempting to convert leads, without any guarantees of success.

Whilst the public sector tendering process may appear complex at first, the time-frame is condensed and the process is actually quite transparent. There is a routine which you will become used to, the more tenders you do and providing you meet the pre-qualification criteria and submit a quality proposal, you have as much chance of winning a tender as you do a private sector client.

It’s important to note, however, that much of the tendering process is actually an administrative rather than sales-led task. It is imperative that you follow detailed guidelines on how your proposal is presented, ensuring all i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed. Collation of information to provide evidence of your suitability is as important as ‘pitching’ why you are the best company for the job.

Some thought does, therefore, need to go into how you allocate the tasks amongst your team.

Changing contracts

I stated that one of the biggest advantages of winning public sector tenders is the stability this affords, but it is important to note that big government contracts can change with political power. You may win a four-year contract but often these are subject to political changes which means they can still end, or alter, without a great deal of notice.

Whether you deal with public or private sector contracts, every business needs to be prepared for change. This means doing everything you can to expect it before it comes, and reacting in a strategic and intelligent way when you’re faced with it.

So, in conclusion, is it worth it? As long as you are fully prepared for the process, understand that you won’t win them all and don’t hinge your business on one big contract, public sector tendering can bring real rewards and benefit your business.

If you want to discuss how you can develop your business to enable you to pursue public sector contracts, get in touch.

Our short term goals should be chunks of our long term goals. But we need to know our starting point first when setting these goals.

Ironically, this starting point is our finishing point; by this I mean it is where we want to be in 5, 10, 20 years time. If you cannot envisage where you want to be in 20 years time, then start a little closer to the present.

As I mentioned in the last article, knowing what you are aiming at is the first and most important step, and your personal goals are the ones that you need to put out there in front of you to aim at. Then you set your business goals to facilitate these personal goals.

So, start from the end. What motivates you? What inspires you on a personal level? If the Swiss chalet and the time to ski for six months of the year while your business takes care of itself is your dream, then start from there. Work backwards, deciding what you need to do to get there. Work out how much this will cost, how long it will take, work out all the smaller steps that you need to achieve to reach this goal. These are your medium term goals. Then break these goals down even further to arrive at your short term goals. These need to be very short term; even to the point of being daily achievements. They are your stepping stones. If you don’t set these short term goals it is unlikely that you will reach your long term goals.

The key here is to have goals! Sounds obvious, but think about it. If you don’t have a destination, how are you going to get there? It’s a bit like getting in to your car, getting to the end of your driveway, but not knowing which way you need to turn. And even if you made the decision to turn left or to turn right, if you haven’t got a final destination in mind, and a planned route by which to get there, then it is highly likely that you will be driving round in circles only to end up back in your driveway again!

If you have a destination (your long term goals), you can plan (your short term goals). You can plot out the stages of your journey. Turn left out of your driveway, drive to the airport, get on the plane, fly to the Swiss chalet, and chill! Without knowing where we are going, we will never get there.

Once you have decided on your goals, and your key objectives, write them down. Have them visible so that they are constantly in your mind. Get yourself into a Mastermind group and become accountable to others in achieving those goals.

As business owners we tend to be optimists. We set up our business with a vision of it providing us with the beautiful lifestyle of our dreams. That is what we are working towards. And we work damned hard at it. But this optimism can cloud our factual judgement sometimes.

Setting goals – short term and long term – can be a very sobering process. It may mean us having to refocus on our business in a way that we have not done before. But without that focus, how are we ever going to move forward?