Do you know what success for your small business looks like for you? Have you taken the time to sit down and think about it?

Or is your version of ‘success’ the same as those around you? Planted in your mind by your peers or the media?

Clickbait articles on social media with titles such as: ‘Learn how to make 6 figures within a month’, and ‘Boost your followers to 100K in 20 days’ are busy promoting an ideal. These messages, images and ideas that we see in our world tell us what success is and should look like.

We may even believe it, to the point that we don’t feel successful unless we are hyper-busy and making more than six figures. All while spamming our 10M + followers with photos of our coffee, breakfast and all else.

You may forget, that one of the biggest perks of running your own business – is that you, yes YOU, get to decide what success looks like, and the best news is that you can have success be WHATEVER you want it to be.

In this blog, I am going to help you define what success can look like for you, and see if we can squash any lingering comparisonitis along the way.

Perks of having your own small business: Your Business ‘Your Way’

While the world may try to dictate what success looks like. When we go into business for ourselves it helps to remember that each one of us is completely unique.

While some may dream of a six-figure income, someone else has their family as a priority and would prefer a flexible schedule. A few may be single, and others have partnered with a steady income which takes off any financial pressure. Some want to create a community, while others want the freedom to live anywhere or work from home.

There are endless options. Anytime is a good time to reflect on what version of success is right for you.

Don’t waste time playing the numbers game

We all like to see what others in our industry are doing on social media. The people we admire may often colour our idea of what success is.

There are claims of earning six figures while being a digital nomad while having contracts with big brands, and millions of followers on social. At the same time as being an exceptionally super human fit and juggling family life with a 5-star lifestyle.

Is this all true?

Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. The fact is that we can’t know someone else’s behind the scene story. Did they spend 10 years building the business, inherit the funds from a rich uncle, or is it all an empty façade? Worse, does it even matter…

Personally, if I was all of that, I am not sure I’d be trying to sell you a course for £9.99 to get you to believe it too.

Social media for some is simply the art of deception – lists of followers can be easily bought. Yes, in Asia there is a whole industry around ‘Click Farms’. If you’ve ever had a Facebook ad, you may notice a high amount of clicks coming from the Philippines. These are often coming from click-farms, that are paid to do just that.

For Instagram, there are also a variety of places you can buy a list of followers. It is rare that busy successful people can spare hours a day to build an organic list of followers. So hey, wave a wand and outsource it to an agency to buy a list and the problem is solved.

There is no point in chasing the numbers. Yes, it’s good to have people interact with your content, photos, and channels. So long as they are real people. It is better to have only 10 connections who leave comments, who engage with you and who do or may buy from you at some point than it is to have 10K followers in an invisible click farm offshore.

Focus on the quality, rather than the quantity. It’s not worth making it a numbers game or comparing yourself with others.

Social networks have also spent a lot on psychological research to get you hooked on success being in the numbers. While it suits their advertising revenue – don’t let them hook your ego or push your emotional buttons. Use them as you would any other tool in your toolbox. Plan it in once a week, and connect with real people where you want to. Then get on with the serious work of running your business.

Getting clear on why you need to define your own version of success

Everyone starts their business for different reasons. Whether you are escaping the corporate job, finding yourself out of work in tough times, planning a family or are simply in a different season of your life.

Whatever your reason, its fabulous and there is nothing quite like heading into the wide blue yonder and experiencing the adventure of having your own business.

While we start that adventure with bucket loads of enthusiasm, energy and motivation. It can turn sour quickly if we are hit with the reality of not being able to pay the rent or put food on the table.

Having your own business is tough, you need to wear a lot of different hats. It makes a huge difference if you know what you are working for and what you want to achieve for yourself in the future, and the lifestyle you’d like to enjoy in-between.

If you know you are looking for a flexible schedule you are less likely to be disappointed if you haven’t made six figures.  Hopefully, you have managed to create a flexible schedule for yourself instead.

One of the things that you can do, for your own business, is to be prepared.

Knowing what success looks like for your small business

Whether you use a notebook/sticky notes/ mind-mapping – do make a list of what is important to you.

One way to evaluate what is important to you is by creating a priority list.  Look at the list below and give each item a number between 1-10, and then order them in priority. Add anything else that you see as important to your list:

• Time
• Flexibility
• Freedom
• Family / Friends
• Learning
• Service to others
• Money
• Financial independence
• Ability to work from home
• Work with colleagues/ community/ people

Sit and sketch out, daydream or write down what would your ideal working day looks like.

Do you work in the morning or evening, do you have time to go to the gym, or have you planned time with family and friends? Or is it a steady eight hours a day?

Now, sit and think and write down what you would like to achieve in the next few years. Do you see yourself travelling, work/life balance, aiming to buy a house or being completely financially independent? What would a realistic time frame for these goals be?

Do give yourself the time to achieve any goals that you list. Miracles and magic don’t happen overnight (no matter how much we all wish them to).

It’s also wise to understand what level of financial independence you need or want.

What does financial independence mean to you?

When defining what your success looks like, the most important thing to be clear on is how much you need to earn to pay the rent/mortgage and your living costs.  When starting out, you may need to invest in your business rather than a luxury holiday or upgrading your car.

Being financially independent is about being smart with the money you have and being clear on what is going out and coming in. Know the difference between what you need, and what you want.

Come up with a plan around that and clearly map it out, so that you aren’t reliant on others, your credit card, loans or spending all of your savings.

If you don’t have enough savings to carry you through the first year or a partner that can support you. Ask yourself if can you start your business as a side hustle to your current job. At least until it brings in enough money to cover your cost of living.

A few organisations may be able to give you a loan if you’re starting a new business. This is an ideal scenario if you are starting a business with a lot of up-front costs, such as a restaurant or café. However, if you are service-based, having to pay back a loan will end up being more stressful than it’s worth and it would be wiser to just keep the costs down.

Being financially independent is different for everyone, for me it is paying off my debts yet living simply, comfortably and self-sustainably. It’s knowing that your business can support you in good and bad times. While having a nest egg for a rainy day is important, not all of us aspire to be a millionaire.

Money is not the only thing in the world that has value

Society often makes us believe that success equals the amount of money that we earn, the size of our house and car or our job title. Yet, as we grow up we start to realise that this comes at a price. We pay with it in responsibility, hours worked, stress, wrinkles and sleepless nights.

Life is also about quality as it is quantity. Do we enjoy what we do? are we content? happy,  fulfilled and feel like we are adding value to our day, life or the world at large?  Or are we stressed to the max, burnt out and completely exhausted?

We’ve all come across successful high-flyer who left their job to follow their dream. Who at some stage woke up to the realisation that money itself isn’t everything.

Life is about living, and living is knowing what brings us joy and fulfilment. That we spend time doing things that we love, with the people that we enjoy being with. It means taking time off and savouring the flavour of life, as well as growing and evolving as human beings.

At heart, many of us want to live meaningful lives. On your death bed, the only difference money will make is the quality of your coffin. Which, obviously after death isn’t going to matter too much.

So as you map out what success looks like in both your life and business, including whether that means you’ll be working fewer days? Taking longer holidays? Spending more time with your children or friends, hobbies, studies or in the garden??

As you evaluate what success means to you, ask yourself: ‘Is having an extra day off a week more or less valuable than a few hundred dollars in your pocket?’

Write it down, map it out

It’s good to define what success means to you. You can run your business your way, and plan it out in whatever way you please.

I love to write my future goals down and love it, even more, when I come across them in an old notebook. I can see how some dreams I had came to life, as well as those that were waylaid and replaced by growing importance in quality and balance.

Whatever tool you use, noting it down will help you to gather your thoughts. Visualising it can also help you break it down from a bigger goal to smaller more manageable goals.

I love mind mapping for this. It helps me break down what I need to do within a certain time frame and reminds me of what I need to do on a day-to-day basis.

Otherwise, I am likely to get distracted…

You can also create a dream board, or pin up your ideas on a post-it or use inspirational pictures around your work area.

Whatever way you choose to define the success of your small business and your ideal life, the more you visualise it, the more you can start to transform that dream into a reality.

Not by comparing yourself to others, but by being clear on what success and your version of it means to you.  One of the biggest perks of running your own business is that you make, change or bend the rules of what success looks like all the time.

As ever it’s:  Your business – Your Success – Your Way.

Need more inspiration, Jen Carrington covers the subject in a brilliant podcast Staying connected to your version of success

Thanking those for the lovely photos:
Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash
Photo by Ruslan Zh on Unsplash
Photo by Fuu J on Unsplash