golden time...

[greenoak]

this time of year is golden to me....the numbers come in, i can look at the shelves and see what happened with my product picks.., its year end!!!! i do a lot of the yearly plan at this time....when all the parts of last years plan come to light....what worked and what didnt..what we have too much of what we didnt get enough of...... what the state of the store is...how bad last year really was....what saved us...dh says we cut our spending to adjust to the horrible reality this last year....
and what my goals should be for the coming year with all that in mind....
we have new issues this coming year....good ones....my health insurance is off the table....turned 65...thats about 800 a month..
we are trying for almost a month off in january...im dreading it... im not good at vacations....but we have a great crew, not really worried there....
and budgeting....i have never used one...and need to get some basic idea of one to put into the store.... my way of buying has worked but i think its time to figure out an equation..

so basically im having fun right now trying to sift thru everything and come up with a great recipe for 2010...and im bugging everybody here at the store for their opinions on everything... im asking them hard questions....like what worked best this year? etc etc...

[Spider]

That's wonderful, Ann! I'm so pleased that you go through this subjective analysis. Good for you! I get the impression that most small businesses just sigh a sigh of relief that the year is over, then take a break before starting on their tax preparation for April. That's how to carry last year's problems into the future.

I like your way best. I wish you "good decisions" and a prosperous 2010.

[KristineS]

I think this sort of thing is fun too, Ann. Looking at what worked and what didn't and figuring out where to go next is like drawing a map. I'm a big believer in goals, although I need to get better on following through on some of mine.

[Spider]

I've been thinking a lot about goals this past year, Kristine. This is what I have come up with --

1. Goals are important for giving our lives direction. If we don't have goals, we wake every morning and have to recalibrate - Why am I doing this? Why am I going to work? Why this job? Why this business? What am I trying to achieve? What shall I do next? If we have goals, we don't have to keep asking those same questions. We know from our goals what we have to do.

2. The value of goals is not what we get from accomplishing them, it's what we become by making the effort. When all is said and done, the big house, fancy cars and diamond rings count for nothing: even the friends and family gathered around our deathbed don't add up to much at this point - all we have is the person we have become.

3. Goals are not as motivating as we would like. We need to have a good reason for accomplishing them. But even a strong "Why" isn't as motivating as we would hope. The acts of achieving our goals - the journey - must be enjoyable. Because, if the work is not enjoyable, we will be inclined to not do it. When we relax, we will relax by not persuing our goals. Procrastination only kicks in when not doing something is more enjoyable than doing it.

And, finally...

4. Goals and Success are not the same thing. Goals are achieving something. Success is how you feel about it. Donald Trump said, "Success is being pleased with your efforts." He didn't say, "being pleased with your results" — he said, "being pleased with your efforts." These are the words of a very successful man who seems to be driven by results. Yet, results clearly have little to do with success, as far as Donald Trump is concerned.

Success is about making an effort and being pleased with the effort you make. The effort leads to achieving goals you set but it is the pleasure in doing the work that motivates you to keep on making the effort. It's a great combination.

[cvsols]

Hi - I really enjoyed this post, very informative, thank you!
Susan

[greenoak]

i hope thinking about goals at this time of year will help me focus on and work on the right things....we work so hard....it might as well be on the best places....
i have a millionaire buddy who kind of laughs at what i work on..im trying to keep his view in mind....mainly he has a lot higher bar than i do...i will work for lots less or lots less profit than he does.....my field is different...but i wish i knew w hat he would do in it....
hes very creative and opportunistic .

[Spider]

Ann, Have you asked him?

Wealthy people are often very willing to offer advice and guidance. Tell him you want to hire him for a weekly meeting - perhaps lunch every Friday - you'll pay for the lunch and what would he charge to come and eat it and talk about your business?

He might suggest another time, or a monthly meeting - he might want too high a fee but he might come for free. You'll never know untill you ask. Whatever he wants, I'm sure he will be worth 10 x that to your bottomn line.

I had three mentors in my engineering business - paid them $100 each for each meeting. It resulted in my business turning over millions.

Ask! The worst that can happen is he tells you, No!

[greenoak]

you are so right spider...and i do ....but pretty casually..... mainly he just rolls his eyes that i dont use the highway property i have...... but our building would cost over 200k to build out there.....and he thinks i should triple my investments in inventory....but its not possible...
. hes in cars, as in buying them as junk and selling the parts.... and big time real estate...my dad was in that m category too, but he could never put it into words for me... and didnt realize until i was 45 or 50 that a woman could actually be running a good business......lol....
i did have a wonderful mentor...and old guy who was a great antique dealer the biggest and best in the area......i mainly adopted about all his policies.....and they have served us pretty well...until we built a big new building and went into debt... but that helped us grow into what we are now ...he was out there competing with me at auctions in his 80s....and lasting all day as always...

[Spider]

Just talking is such a benefit, if you can get him for lunch regularly, Ann. If he's not into coaching or mentoring, all you want to do is tell him what you plan to do for the coming period and have him ask you questions about it.

In the process,

a) you are forced to think clearly about what you plan to do to explain it in the firt place,

b) his questions will have you digging deeper and planning better.

I always tell my clients that a coach's best service is simply to ask questions that broaden their thinking - that has them thinking beyond what they would have done. Even if they disagree (and most of my clients disagree more than they agree with me) they have to think about why they disagree and then formulate thouse thoughts into concrete answers. That is so beneficial, it's difficult to explain why.

Like I said, I benefitted greatly when I did that for my businesses in the past.

[KristineS]

Frederick,

I like #4 in your post "Goals and Success are not the same thing". That's something I need to learn. I tend to be really a really Type A, head of the class, got to do it better than anyone else kind of person. I think I need to learn to enjoy the journey more and to be satisfied with the fact that I made an effort, even if things didn't turn out exactly as I wished. If I put a little less pressure on myself, and become more accepting of the results, I'd guess I'd be more likely to set goals and follow through on them.