Why Are You In Business?

Building a successful business is one of the most challenging things you’ll ever do. The hours can be long, the pressure of the big decisions can be intense and you can go through times of real financial uncertainty when it can be difficult to believe you’re going to get through it. It’s for that reason that you absolutely have to have real clarity of why it is that you do what you do. What is the ongoing life that you want to create for you and your family? At the end of the day that’s the number one reason that any of us are in business.

There’s a reason why understanding the personal goals of business leaders is always the first stage of our Mapping process at MAP. It has to be, because together we’re looking to create a business that delivers for you personally. Here’s what that Mapping process looks like.

#1 Long Term Goals

Look forwards 10 or 20 years from now. How do you want your life to be shaping up? This can be a daunting process for some and perhaps something you haven’t thought about before now. What we’re not looking to do at this stage is go into too much detail, but it’s a valuable exercise that can influence some of the shorter term decisions being made.

Exiting the business is a regular conversation at this stage with some people already very clear on the time frame and the value they would want to sell for. That can be useful when it comes to building a strategy, but there’s no right or wrong answer. What I would say is that building a sellable business should be your intention whether you intend to sell or not. By doing so you’re derisking your own investment by making it more predictable, more profitable and more robust.

#2 Short Term Goals

Once you have a better understanding of your longer term objectives we can start to bring it all a little closer to today. To start with these could be financial and revolve around the profit available to extract from the business as your earnings month to month. You could be looking to earn enough so your partner no longer has to work, you could want to be able to send your kids to private school or you could be looking to contribute a certain amount to your personal pension for when retirement comes. At the very least, if you’re fulfilling a role in the business such as the Managing Director, you should taking drawings from the business at the commercial equivalent rate.

On the other hand, and just as importantly, what is your short term goal for how you want your role in the business to evolve? By asking this question I’m essentially asking you to think about how you want to be spending your time. Too many business owners that I speak to are working long hours with a lot of those hours spent on low value activities. How does the team around you need to be moulded to make your role one that’s going to drive the business forward and ultimately be much more rewarding? What impact are you then looking for that to have on your time away from the office? Are you looking to free up time to spend with your family and friends, or just be able to take the kids to school every day?

The outcome is that we can understand how the business needs to perform you give you all the above, and all the while keeping the long term goals in mind too.

#3 Life Events

Now that we have covered off the foundations and we have clarity on your short and long term goals, we can look at any key events in your life that we may need to plan for. Are you looking to build your dream home so we need to able extract lump sums in cash at certain points? Is your first child on the way and you’d love to take 3 months away from the office so we need to structure a senior team and accountability systems so you can keep tabs on things?

#4 Perfect Week, Month and Year

Finally, we’ll talk through what your perfect week, month and year looks like. With clarity on what your personal objectives are we can look at what needs to happen every single week to make that a reality. As a business owner it can be very difficult to prioritise when you feel as though you’re constantly fighting fires - people issues, client issues, cash flow issues - all require your attention, but alongside that are you focusing the right amount of time on YOU personally?

As with all these things, it’s a balance. You absolutely have to give your all to the business when it matters, but why are you doing what you do? I'd love to hear back from you.