How can a great idea be doomed for utter failure? Even worse, how can the owner of a successful new business, making tons of money be so unhappy and hate their job? Sounds impossible to many, but it is an all to common occurrence that can be easily prevented by following a set of sound and proven principles when starting any new business.
To often I hear stories from entrepreneur’s that talk about a great idea, a unique product or innovative service that they started a new company around, but the venture ended in failure. The shame was that failure was not because they did not have a great idea or product, it was because they were not prepared to start and run the new company successfully. It may have been due to under funding, lack of an engineering expertise, no plan to handle growth, ineffective management or a variety of other issues. The one common theme that most will agree upon is that if they had only planned better, they could have succeeded.
I have created the Seven Essential Secrets for the New Entrepreneur as a guide to assist anyone looking to start a new business to effectively plan and implement a strategy for both personal and business success. It does not matter the size or scope of the organization, these same principles hold true for all ventures.
The first essential secret is Vision and Support and it is made up of three elemental visions and a support plan. The focus of this first principle is on you, the entrepreneur and your personal goals, aspirations, needs and ultimate vision. A successful entrepreneur should be happy and enjoying what they are doing everyday. That enjoyment comes from an effective work/life balance. To get anywhere near balance and happiness, the first thing you need to get firmly in your mind is that you are not your business, and your business is not you…
A creative or innovative business idea and the resulting business is something that can give you more life; more time, more money, more enjoyment. The trouble is, often it can be all-consuming. It can take over your life, changes your personality, and even destroys relationships with the ones that you love. Creating, planning and executing a new business idea is a powerful and exciting experience, but it does need to be effectively managed and balanced.
Your Personal Vision
A successful new entrepreneur starts their planning with themselves and not their new business idea. This
may seem odd to many, but to invest your time and money into creating a successful business only to find out that you either hate what you are doing or it does not meet your personal needs or goals sure seems like an exercise in futility.
There are so many exciting opportunities in the world today and new ideas, businesses and whole markets are created daily. If you really want to change your life and control your future as an entrepreneur….take the time to establish a vision and a plan that will guide you towards ultimate success and happiness.
You need to develop an effective Personal Success Plan before you develop a Successful Business Plan. The key to success in small business is knowing what you want to accomplish and what will it take to reach your goal. Before you jump in head first, you need to begin by asking yourself three simple by life defining questions…..
- What is my Ultimate Personal Vison “UPV” and desired lifestyle?
- What do I need to do to achieve it?
- What is my timetable for achieving my UPV?
Ultimate Personal Vision “UPV”
Your Ultimate Personal Vision “UPV” is all about setting your personal goals and vision for your future.
- What do you want from my life?
- What do I want from my business?
- What is the lifestyle that you wish to live?
These can be difficult questions for some and for others it seems simple , but this exercise is important as there is no reason to work to create a business that will not satisfy what you want out of your life. Your UPV may evolve and expand over time, so do not feel that you set it once and not want more out of life, but at the same time do not set your expectations so low that you will not feel a level of satisfaction and accomplishment when you achieve it.
You are creating the personal side of a three dimensional vision that will impact how you live and how you work in the future.
Your Personal Success Plan To Achieve UPV
To establish a UPV you need to develop and define your Personal Success Plan. This Personal Success Plan establishes the specifics (income, lifestyle, travel, family) that need to be defined by you.
- How much do I want to earn?
- How long do I keep my existing job?
- How much money do I want put away and when?
- Where do I want to live?
- How do I want to live?
- Where do I want to work from ( home or office)?
- Family life?
- Work life?
Using the “Your Personal Success Plan Worksheet” (you can print off or download below), do the following:
- Create a goal for each question on the worksheet.
- Identify a key strategic element or benchmark for each goal.
- Rate your goals 1-5 on their level of personal importance to you and your life. (you can have more than one goal with the same rating, but you must have at least one goal for each value 1- 5)
The more detail that you put into this the clearer your UPV and what it will take to achieve. If you identify other strategic goals that are important to you then add them (there are blank forms available below).
Defining Your Ultimate Personal Vision
After you have completed the Personal Success Plan Worksheet you should have identified a number of strategic goals, wants and desires that you have for yourself.
Using your completed worksheet rank the questions and goals that are most important to you in your quest for personal happiness and quality of life. You may have goals with equal rating from your sheet so you will need to prioritize. What you want to end up with are the top 5 items that are most important to you and the personal goal associated with it.
Now using the Ultimate Personal goal Matrix (download or print from below),
- Write down in order of importance the top 5 personal goals that you want to create/achieve/manifest into your life.
- Why it is important to you – (1 short sentence)
- When do you want to achieve it by (weeks, months, years) – give this some realistic thought
You have now defined the top five items and goals that are most important to you personally. As we move forward to create your vision for a new business a key component of the plan will be meeting these needs and achieving these goals.
Your UPV Timetable
A plan without a time line is rarely accomplished. Establish goals and objectives for yourself based on time increments that you are comfortable with. If you are a 55 year-old establishing your UPV time table your objectives may be based on the next 2-10 years, where a 21 year old might be looking out over the next 25-30 years.
- 1yr Plan - Objectives and Mini goals towards UPV
- 5yr Plan – Objectives and Mini goals towards UPV
- 10yr Plan – Objectives and Mini goals towards UPV
- Beyond Plan – Objectives and Mini goals towards UPV
You can go out in 1, 2, 5 or 10 year increments as far as you like towards achieving your Ultimate Personal Vision.
Using the UPV Timetable Worksheet you can download from below, take your Ultimate Five UPV Goals and list them in order of importance to you. Then consider what your short term objective is for that time frame you are measuring towards that goal. An example of this may be that you have a UPV Goal of earning $500,000 a year from your new business within 5 years and that your year 1 goal is $100,000. Complete the worksheet and put into your binder as you will want to review and record your achievements towards your goals. Never be discouraged if you do not achieve a goal as you project. Re-focus your energy and press forward.
Summary
Effective action is a function of efficient planning. Take the time to develop your own Personal Success Plan and Ultimate Personal Vision. It is from this personal vision that we can then build your entrepreneurial vision and ultimately your business vision for the future.
The next section will be the development of your entrepreneurial vision.
Register for free as a New Entrepreneurial Essentials Member to receive our free newsletter and be notified when the next section is soon released.
Action Items
I suggest that you get a 1.5″ – 2″ 3 ring binder that we will be using to build your business vision and plan. Get a 10 divider package to set up 10 section within binder.
Download or print off and utilize the following tools as suggested in this blog.
- Vision and Support Matrix
- Personal Success Plan Worksheet 1
- Personal Success Plan Worksheet 2 (Blank)
- Ultimate Personal Vision Matrix
- Ultimate Personal Vision Timetable 1
- Ultimate Personal Vision Timetable 2 (Blank)
- Zip folder with all worksheets
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Bill Sifflard - With over thirty years experience as an entrepreneur, an executive, an author and as a business consultant, Bill Sifflard has a long history of experience bringing innovation, efficiency and success to large and small businesses adapting to evolving markets.
As a premiere Sales and Marketing Innovator, Bill is changing how business integrates traditional marketing strategy with the power and potential of the internet utilizing his "Velocity for Success" matrix.
To learn more about Bill and Bssential Small Business Solutions you can visit http://www.bssentials.com and register for his Free eNewsletter or follow all of his blog posts by clicking on the RSS feed button above. 
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