Congratulations! You just started your dream business. Things have started out amazingly well–heck, your product is infomercial worthy. As you set up your new business sign, you say to yourself, “Next step: financial success!”
However, starting a new business is a drastic lifestyle change. You are your own boss, and you manage your own taxes. You work when you want to work. While liberating, it’s enough to disorient anyone from a nine to five job.
Business comes with many challenges, but the greatest challenge is simply staying motivated. How do you stay motivated? It is all about mindset.
Make Your Passion a Necessity
Maybe you do not need the income from your new small business. Instead, it is your passion, a great idea with great potential. You have the ambition, the gumption to start the next American franchise.
Even with the greatest amount of passion, it’s easy to skip a night of phone calls, planning, or knocking on doors. Enthusiasm can fizzle, and your business could become stagnant. How do you prevent this?
Make your passion a necessity.
A Small Business Tale
Let me illustrate with a little family history. Meet my father, an ordinary man who is a small-business genius.
When my family lived in Denver, my dad went out of his way to ensure that we had enough. Alongside his day job, he started a window washing business.
He gave himself no excuses. He left the house with just enough gas to get into town. He didn’t pack a lunch, nor did he bring any money he made the day before. Each day, out of forced necessity, he had to make enough to pay for his lunch and for the trip home. Any extra he made was never used for the next day. This is how he paid the bills.
While you don’t have to go to these extremes, gaining the mindset of “have to” will help you achieve more than you thought possible for your business. Just like that impossible-to-finish-on-time paper (the one you wrote all night), necessity makes things happen.
In other words, don’t treat your business like a hobby. It’s life or death for your dream, for your financial success. So kick it into gear and do what’s
necessary to be successful.
Moral Of the Story: Have Short-Term Goals
What I learned from my dad’s account is that staying motivated is all about the short-term goals. He would start each day with the simple goal to pay for his lunch. He forgot about the day before because it didn’t matter, and tomorrow would take care of itself. So what are your goals for today?
Long-term goals should always have short-term goals within them. Each time you reach a goal, it keeps you excited. You will feel accomplished. When you finally reach that grand pinnacle of financial success, you would have already had several successes under your belt.
You will stay motivated because there is always something immediate you need to accomplish. Short-term goals help you focus on what needs to be done now; you won’t be discouraged by the distance of your long-term goal.
Be The Next Great Business
You, as a business owner, have to make several leaps of faith for the next product idea, or the next marketing strategy. Business is challenging, and staying motivated will always be a battle for you.
Pull out your best tools for success. Make your business a necessity by achieving small goals every day. Most importantly, don’t lose your passion. Get excited. Have fun. Do this and your business will thrive.
What are some of your current short term goals?
