Curtis, author of Vision to Reality, has helped dozens of small businesses accomplish their vision. | cljassoc.com | Jenkins & Associates.

Here we are embarking on a new year with new hopes, possibilities, dreams and the desire to level up our bodies, minds and businesses. While speaking with many of my clients about their new year plans, they seem to take on the same patterns: “I will lose weight or work out more. I will read more books. I will grow my business...” I am no different. I too am excited to get that feeling of starting another year full of possibilities. I look forward to taking the lessons learned to grow myself and my business to another level.

Instead of creating new goals each year, start with an ultimate goal. What do you really want to achieve? For example, "I want to sell my business for $30 million in five years" versus "I want to make $5 million this year." They sound different but could ultimately mean the same if your milestone target is $5 million. The reason for the ultimate goal is if you don’t make the first year at $5 million, you can evaluate your progress and make an adjustment to your systems, habits and targets for next year.

Ultimate goals also tend to have a hockey-stick effect, where you aren’t meeting your targeted goals initially, but you are building the momentum of compounded actions that can show up in later years and may surprise you in surpassing the ultimate goals.

You can also change how you look at the ultimate goal. Instead of saying that you need to meet an ultimate goal of $30 million in five years, you could arrange the goal to be, “I won’t sell my company until I generate an average of $2.5 million in revenue per month, or $7.5 million per quarter, consistently for two years.” You may hit the goal in three years or you may hit the goal in seven years. But either way, you aren’t resetting the goals each year. You’re changing the tactics, habits or systems to create the building blocks for the ultimate goal.

“You can’t fix what you don’t measure.” I have heard this mantra for over 30 years and have been successful with it both personally and with my clients. Most people understand you have to write down your goals and you may have planned the tasks that support your goals. But how do you know if you are making progress?

When driving, you can see mile markers on the highway toward your destination. The GPS tells you how much time and how many miles you are from your destination. If there is traffic, the GPS adjusts the time, but the miles don’t change—unless, of course, it reroutes you. Either way, you understand how far you are from your target and inherently you don’t stop! You keep following the GPS until you reach your destination. Key measures for your goals can do the same for you. If you create good mile markers, you can track your progress. I like to have four major measures that I believe all small businesses should employ:

1. Financial: EBITDA, working capital, gross margin, net operating income

2. Sales: Total revenue, year-over-year growth, average revenue per customer

3. Customers: Net promoter score, new prospects, win rate

4. Employees: Attrition, management by objectives, absenteeism rate

Develop the measures above with targets and regular reviews such as weekly operational meetings, monthly review meetings, quarterly town halls, advisory board meetings and annual strategy meetings. You can also include celebrations to announce how well the company performed and what adjustments should be made to meet the objectives in the new period.

Most small business owners or solo entrepreneurs do not have accountability systems in place. Startup companies may get their first taste of accountability when they reach the Series A stage and possibly have investors change the leadership or have measures and mentoring in place to get the leaders of the company to reach certain milestones to improve the probability of hitting their return-on-investment goals. If you want to be successful with your goals, you should allow yourself the opportunity and vulnerability that an accountability system provides. Like I tell my personal trainer—you have two jobs! Get me out of the bed at 5:30 a.m. and do not allow me to quit when you know I can get more reps. I use these same tactics whether I am coaching or being coached. We all need support. Here are three accountability systems you can use to meet your goals:

• Advisory Board: Big companies have boards of directors. Having a group of advisors from various business disciplines can help you with growing a complete business with experts who are willing and able to support you.

• Mastermind Group: Whenever I want to learn something new, embark on a new set of skills needed to meet my goals or just want to have a high-level network of like-minded individuals, I join or create a mastermind group. Meet on a regular basis to discuss key topics that may be helpful for reaching your goals. You can learn and teach in this environment, and it can certainly be beneficial to your business.

• Business Coach: A business coach can serve you well with one-on-one guidance to help you meet your goals, be a better leader and provide confidence to employ the right behaviors and tactics to be successful.

In each of these, you must take great care to choose the right people. Leverage your current network to help with finding prospective coaches, advisory board members and mastermind/peer groups.

Take action on these three items and you could exceed your own expectations. They can help you strengthen your relationships with everyone in your business ecosystem. After these become your new operating model, the anxiety of the new year with new goals can melt away and you can be comforted that all you must do is make small adjustments and work to finalize the tactics, measures and accountability plans.

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