WHO ARE YOU ACCOUNTABLE TO?

One of the primary reasons entrepreneurs and independent business owners will fail is that

they are not accountable to anyone! This is also one of the most overlooked reasons when

they’re looking for someone or something to blame.

Many entrepreneurs and business owners come from the ranks of corporate and at some point,

decide that they don’t want to “work for the man” anymore so decide they will go it on their

own. They believe that they will have the freedom to do anything they want when they want.

They believe that all they have to do is to raise some money, build their idea, work 15 hours a

week and live the good life. But, rarely do they consider what being an entrepreneur or

business owner really entails. Now I’ve written quite a lot about the necessary mindset of an

entrepreneur/business owner, but we almost never talk about the differences in what you have

with one and not with the other. As we all know; most corporate jobs have layer upon layer of

accountability. Top down or bottom up there are layers of built in accountability. Even the CEO

has a board of directors to be accountable to. But when you move from an intense

accountability environment to owning your own business and having a low or no accountability

environment, then bad things can happen. Many will think that one of the perks of business

ownership is that you don’t have to be accountable to anyone, but only a fool would believe

they can build a successful business with that attitude. I guarantee that it will soon bite you in

the butt.

Every successful business owner has created an accountability structure for themselves as part

of their strategic success plan. They know it’s imperative that they have someone who will

honestly hold them accountable for their decisions and actions or in many cases, lack of action.

This could be a business partner; a fellow business owner; a business coach or a spouse. It can

be a very formal process or in my case, life just dictated accountability. Early on in my

entrepreneurial journey I was a straight commission sales person. For those unfamiliar with the

term, it just means that if you didn’t sell something you didn’t get paid and if you don’t get paid

you don’t eat. So, my accountability system was my wife meeting me at the front door, with

two babies in tow, asking me if I sold anything that day because we needed diapers and

groceries. That my friends is accountability in its most basic form.

Sometimes, in my job as a business coach, my #1 coaching challenge is in holding clients

accountable to creating and following a business plan or acting on strategies and tactics that

we’ve agreed upon. Honestly, sometimes we all just need a good kick in the pants or someone

to look you straight in the eye and ask why you didn’t do what you said you would do.

It’s easy to get lazy when no one is holding you accountable. It’s easy not to do a priority work

plan for tomorrow. It’s easy not to read your goals every day. It’s easy to procrastinate writing

that proposal that’s due in a couple of days.

It’s simply easy to fail and it’s hard to succeed!

Your first and most important step toward business success just might be establishing an

accountability process for yourself, your team and your business. And then having the guts to

deal with it, learn from it and reduce your mistakes and grow.

You just might be surprised at how much more you can succeed and how fast you can do it! Would love to connect at [email protected]. Visit my website at Real World Business Coach