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Why is it that goal-setting and planning rarely seem to work in the long term?  How many times have you lost the same five or six kilos? Why is it that despite committing to regular ‘date nights’ with your spouse, it’s been months since your last one? We speak to a lot of people as business mentors and out of the many we have encountered, very few have accomplished what they set out to achieve.

Despite the glaring ineffectiveness, year after year, we reset our goals and promise ourselves that this time, it’s going to be different.

As Kaibizzen’s clarity mentor, I’m passionate that business owners are rewarded for their effort by living the lifestyle they choose and experiencing the marriage they want, so it frustrates me to see the avalanche of misinformation around goal setting and planning.

Over the next series of posts, I’m going to dive deep into the specifics on what stops us from achieving the life we really want, and what you need to do to have the business, life and marriage of your dreams. 

Why Do Most Plans Fail?

1. Most people give little thought to how they want their life, marriage and business to ultimately look like. Even fewer still have that picture documented. 
   Are you making daily deliberate choices about where you’re driving your business and your life? Most business owners are so busy doing “what needs to be done” that they’re reacting to life and making decisions based on what’s in front of them. This is exactly why so many business owners experience Ground Hog Day. You get up, go to the same business, do the same things, come home, go to bed, rinse and repeat, day in, day out and feel like you’re not really getting any further ahead.
2. Most people are chasing somebody else’s dream, not their own.  
   With the relentless rise of social media, it’s easier than ever to decide you’ll ‘have what she’s having’. A big house, a new car, a luxury holiday, more time with the kids, and rock-hard abs. So much of what we want are the things in life we think we should want.  People rarely take the time to work out what it is they truly want.
3. Their business plan is set by increasing last year’s figures by 10%.  
   Why 10%? Why not 12.8% or 57%? The answer is because when you don’t know what your vehicle needs to look like to achieve the life you want to live, any number will do. 
4. Their business plan is not used as a living breathing document that guides their daily, weekly and monthly decisions.
   Why do so many people go to the extent of writing a business plan, only to have it sit in a drawer for the next 12 months? The answer is because either they don’t really want what’s in the plan, or they don’t believe they’re good enough to get it.
5. Most business plans focus on the results that need to be achieved (revenue/profit etc), rather than the activity that drives these results.
   Just like an NRL team, your plan is to win the game. How you win the game is not by focusing on winning, but by focusing on doing the right activity at the right time. If you do the right activity at the right time, most of the time, you’ll generally get the right result. 

If these are the challenges that we as business owners face, what is a different way that we can plan for our life, business and marriage?

1. Begin with the end in mind.  Why do you want more from your business?  What’s in it for you as the business owner? What’s in it for your market?  The clearer our answer to these two questions, the more drive we have to achieve whatever it is our business needs to achieve for these stakeholders (you and your market).
2. Reverse engineer from these two drivers back to the revenue (not the other way around).  In my experience, most people set income targets and hope for the best from a net profit perspective.
3. When you know your revenue target, reverse engineer back to a number of quotes, leads etc. that you need to achieve.
4. Focus on this activity only.  Your income and profit are the results of what action you take in getting leads, converting those leads to quotes, meetings and ultimately sales.  

With more than 18 years’ experience helping business owners across South East Queensland build business that works for them, we at Kaibizzen know a thing or two about developing a business plan and we would love to help you build a plan that won’t fail this year! Get in contact with us today to finally get the business and the life you deserve.