Why Your Business Efforts Will Fail Unless…
Peter Knight
Motivation, Mindset and Wellness
Is the trajectory of your home based business set for failure? And what can you do to prevent the cause of this, a common mental mistake you are probably making without even realizing it?
There are a lot of reasons why people start a home based business, become entrepreneurs or venture into self employment. Let’s review some of the most frequent reasons:
- You hate being an employee, because you’re at the whim of the company, your boss, the economy, policies, a 9-5 work schedule or the traveling. Your salary has a definite ceiling. If for some reason you become disabled you’re life as an employee and the income it earns is gone.
- You’re only able to work at home because of a personal situation. Maybe you’re a stay at home parent who is not able to work outside the house.
- You’re tired of making money for others while you’re earning very little in return.
- Your jobs haven’t been satisfying, rewarding or beneficial to your personal development
- You have trouble excelling in an environment where you have to draw within the lines, follow procedures and adhere to rules and commands.
- You have dreams of making a lot of money and you realize employment is not going to do it for you.
- You’ve become fed up of climbing up the corporate ladder
- Your old job was dangerous or detrimental to your health
- You have an idea you want to bring into the world
- You have a message you want to spread throughout the world
- You want to prove other people wrong and succeed at a business
- You’ve read rich dad poor dad and now you want to hop out of your current quadrant
- You find the prospect of succeeding at entrepreneurship/self-employment exhilarating and life-giving
- You’re a creative person who excels in an environment where that creativity can blossom
- You want to make a million dollars and then some and think this is the route to go
- You love being a teacher, a consultant or an entertainer
- You want to work on your own terms
- You want more freedom
- You’ve read the 4 hour workweek and you are drooling at the possibility of being able to unload work
While there are many more other possible reasons, it is clear that there’s plenty to go around. Thousands upon thousands of people take the decision to go on their own, become an entrepreneur or start a home based business every week…
But do they get what they want?
It is said anywhere up to 80-95% of new businesses fail within the first 5 years and those that succeed end up doing wildly different things than they set out to do. Some look at this phenomenon and come to the conclusion that a lot of businesses fail because they aren’t flexible enough. I think there’s something more going on than that.
In fact I think there’s one crucial flaw just about all of us make.
Being flexible about what you do with your business and services is just a teaser. If you are flexible with your business it will lead your business to succeed, because you’ll make decisions based on economic opportunities, your bottom line and achievability. You won’t sink your business into the ground because you’re unwilling to budge what might not be working in the marketplace.
In essence what happens to people that aren’t flexible is that they forget the real reason they are working. And most business consultants and financial advisors would say that is to make money. That is literally the bottom line,…
Or is it?
I think there is something even more glaring that runs missing. It’s not just about the money. It’s not just about succeeding with your idea, your business, your services. It’s not because of the reasons you left your job. It’s not even about how many people you are able to help.
Ultimately it’s about the experience you want.
Yet few people flap down their laptops and put down their pens, wondering what experience they really want. What do they really realistically think they can have in terms of experience? What kind of day to day experience would they really want?
You’ve heard the phrase ’start with the end in mind’ before. This is important, but it’s not just about having a clear end-goal to work toward. In fact this can throw you off track if your goal is something concrete like ‘earn 5 million dollars a year’. How will you be earning it? By working 60 hours a week and carrying major responsibilities that wear on you mentally, physically and spiritually?
If your goal is to earn 5 million, this is just a target. What you really want is the experience you are associating with having 5 million dollars a year. If you want your business to do 5 million in revenue, what you really may want is your business to touch and improve the life experience of x amount of people and the appreciation and feelings of satisfaction that go along with it. You might want to experience all the perks of being able to afford a luxurious lifestyle or to know you are supporting your family. Or you may simply want to be on the leading edge, because it is downright fun.
There is one way to avoid the pitfall and succeed with your business.
This is an exercise you should do today. It’s a compulsory exercise for my clients.
Write down exactly what your ideal day looks like in terms of experience. Do it both from a personal life perspective as well as for your business. Write it as if you had absolutely no limitations. No restraints. All is taken care for and anything is possible. If things were absolutely ideal…what would you want your day to be like?
What are your first thoughts when you wake up? Are they filled with stress because you know there are a 100 emails to be answered waiting for you in your office, or are your thoughts those of a person that is relaxed and excited? What would you be doing in the mornings? What kind of lunch would you have? What foods would you be eating? With what people? What are you talking about during your lunch? How much time are you spending with your family? What are your last thoughts before going to bed?
What clients do you want to deal with? Do you feel gratitude for receiving many emails and testimonials every single day? Do you service people you truly like? Do you connect well with your clients and what are the interactions like? What are you work activities? How is your business/service regarded by the public? How many people do you touch? What kind of work activities would you love doing? What kind of work activities would you prefer not to do at all? How many phone calls do you answer ever day? What kind of work related activities you think you need to do, but you could have others do much better? How does your relationship to money feel? Do you feel like you could buy anything you’d like? Would you still be screwing around with activities you’re not good at and don’t like doing?
This exercise goes beyond traditional goal setting and is many times more powerful. The key is to think in terms of experience rather than outcomes and in feelings rather than intellectual facts. You’ll find that both consciously and subconsciously you start arranging a life just the way you want it. You won’t find yourself holding a million dollars at the cost of being burnt out, emotionally deprived and deeply unsatisfied like some of the business owners that ’succeed’.
Having both an economically pleasing and viscerally stimulating life means that you need to succeed as well as your business.
If you do not have a clear idea of what types of day-to-day experiences you want, what are the chances of you getting a lifestyle that is rewarding and life giving?
Have fun writing down your ‘ideal day’ and be as detailed as you can be! This is an exercise that can change both your business and your personal life.
To recap:
One of the major reasons why businesses fail is because most people forget the reason they are in business, which leads to inflexibility. A big additional reason why business owners, entrepreneurs & those that are self employed rarely get the life they want is because they focus on concrete, lifeless outcomes while forgetting the real reason they set those goals in the first place. The way to overcome this is to clarify and regularly remind yourself of the type of experience you are aiming for. A powerful exercise is to describe the absolute ideal day in terms of the experiences, activities and feelings that would occur. Not only does this bring lucid clarity about what you are doing with your business in the present, it sets the trajectory of your life to arrange exactly the type of experience you are wanting. It could be the difference from waking up one day, finding that that the business runs your life and you’re continually working for money as opposed to waking up and finding that the business invigorates your life and that money is working for you. Which would you choose?
About the Author Peter Knight
Peter Knight is lead consultant at The Website Audit, a consultancy service that provides transformative web presence assessments. He is also the author behind 11strategies.com, a blog that blends spirituality, psychology and productivity.
Peter Knight @ September 23, 2008
Peter Knight