The Two Questions You Need To Answer

As a business owner you’re 100% responsible for where your business – and your life – end up.

And as a business owner, we know you’re busy working IN your business, keeping the ship steady (maybe even afloat at times), trying to keep everyone happy, playing many roles from CEO, HR and Finance, through to Operations and Delivery.  

We also know you’re great at Executing to get more leads, convert into more sales and deliver your promise...

But we know this is where most business owners are STUCK.

And the main reason that they get stuck here is because they don’t have a clear understanding of what they’re looking to achieve and how. This causes the business to typically rely on YOU for everything: WHAT to do, HOW to do it, WHEN to do it.

Whatever stage you are in your business journey, and whether you’ve been in business for one year, five years or ten+ years, you MUST be able to answer these two questions:

1. What do you want from your business? 

(Which comes from the even bigger question of) ...

2. What do you want from your life?

We refer to these as your T.E.R.M.S. 

And once you’ve defined your T.E.R.M.S properly, you’ll wake up every morning with absolute clarity as to the things that have to happen that day, what you should be doing and focusing on, and what you should NOT be doing.

You’ll know the exact numbers your business needs to deliver, not just today, but tomorrow, and next week, and next month, in order to get you to where you want to be.

I talk about T.E.R.M.S a lot (it’s the Foundation in our 9 Step Blueprint), here is a reminder to help you:

T – Time:

How much time are you going to invest in running your business?  Think about your other commitments. What needs to give?

I don’t work Fridays or Wednesday afternoons (sports afternoon for my kid’s schools).  That’s my choice.  Part of my T.E.R.M.S.

E – Effort, Energy & Enjoyment:

Life isn't great if you’re at the helm of a business that you don’t enjoy.  This is all about getting rid of the things (even people) that you’re better off having done by somebody else.

As business owners, we all get more of what we tolerate. So, stop doing the things that sap your energy.

R – Resources:

What resources are you prepared to put into your business to make it a success?

I want to work at home. I don’t want any staff. Jacki and I want to be the only employees in our business.

We all have different perspectives and need different resources – and as business owners, we get to choose.

M – Money:

How much money does your business need to generate to fund the lifestyle you want?

There should be two types of money in your T.E.R.M.S:

• Money Now - what you want to take out of the business this year to fund your desired lifestyle.

• Money Future - is about putting money away, preparing and equipping yourself for the future where you get enough Money Now from your Money Future investments.

S – Sanity:

How much hassle and grief are you prepared to take to get where you want to be?

How much of your heart and soul will you put into this business?

What are you prepared to do to make this thing work?

Two good questions to help you here:

• Where is your love for your business on a 1 to 10 scale right now?

• And what would make it 10?

It’s tempting to think this is all too fluffy, and you’re too busy doing stuff, but this is a big deal because it enables you to effectively take control of your life.

And it then means that on a day-to-day basis you get to wake up every morning knowing exactly what your business needs to do today from a numbers perspective to deliver not just for today, but to move you to where you want to be in the next 5 or 10 years.

Anyone can set-up a business - but it’s how you THINK and what you DO that will determine your success.

BW,

Martin

Martin Norbury

Investor | Business Mentor at Advocate | Author of I don’t work Fridays