What makes up success is something we’ve had to think a lot about.
At Maisey Harris & Co, helping businesses become successful is what drives us in what we do. But we’ve learned that success isn’t as easy to define as simply having a profitable, growing company.
If you ask what success means to people, you are likely to get a wide range of answers. Or you’ll find out that they’re not actually sure, that they haven’t thought about it.
It is important to know what success means to you. If you don’t understand what drives you, you will pour time and energy into things that give you no return. You need to know what will leave you feeling like you’ve accomplished something at the end of the day, not leave you frustrated and dissatisfied.
Luckily, it isn’t so hard to find out what success means to you. Because, though the question may bring a myriad of responses, in the end, we’ve found that it generally boils down into three concepts:
Freedom of Mind.
Freedom of Time.
Freedom of Money.
For some people, it is simply achieving a well-oiled machine that defines success for them. It is being able to go to bed each night and not be kept up by stress.
For them achieving freedom of mind is what makes them feel successful. Where they no longer have to constantly be worrying about the next bill payment, or the next issue that may arise. They want to know their business is running smoothly.
For others it is being able to walk away from work and spend their time doing other things. They want to have a shorter work week, and see more of friends and family without being called away by their business. Success would be having freedom of time.
And then, for the rest, it is seeing their business become profitable that drives them. Watching their bank balances rise, and seeing the cash come in from their hard work. It is knowing they have enough money to pay off all their bills. That they don’t have to worry about an emergency happening, or stress about how tight their cash flow might be. Reaching freedom of money is what leaves them feeling successful at the end of the day.
Make sure you identify which freedom calls to you.
Knowing what it is will help you guide your business’s direction. It will allow you to set and achieve goals that leave you feeling good, rather than ones that leave you dissatisfied.
We’ve learned that, when helping clients create business plans, or set quarterly goals, we need to figure out what success means to them first. Because there is no point working harder to create more cash flow when it is having the ability to step away from your business, and spend more time with your family, that actually means something to you.
So take a moment and consider what you think success looks like.
And if you want help reaching that, feel free to reach out! We are always here to help, whether it’s numbers that you’d like taken care of, or business advice that you need.
Thanks, the MHCO team.