3 ways to determine if you're successful

Picture this… You stare longingly at your competitors’ social media feeds; they are content machines – pumping out near-viral reels in an endless stream… Or maybe they have hundreds of thousands of followers on social… Or it seems like they announce a new HUGE client every week… Or a HUGE client win a few times a week… Or their Founder has speaking engagements lined up for at LEAST the next year… And you think…

WHY CAN’T THAT BE ME???

First, while we love a good shade of Disney villain green, it’s not a good colour on anyone when it is fueled by jealousy. Nor will that help you to build and sustain a growing business.

Second, what would happen if you got those things? When would it be enough for you to be content that you have “made it” and you can just focus on enjoying and building your business instead of worrying about “keeping up with the Kardashians”… I mean “Joneses”.

So, if you find yourself struggling to keep up with those around you. Stop and take a step back and re-evaluate things. The answer may be in front of you. Here are a few things to consider when it comes to your own success.

Forget about your competitors

Whew… that felt weird to say! It is a widely known fact that you NEED to know what your competitors are up to. However, it’s not because you should compare yourself. It’s so you can find your place in the market. Remember that your success isn’t dependent on anyone around you. You set your own path and your end destination. Your competitors have different history, strengths, weaknesses, they have had different opportunities as they were growing their business, and, in many cases, they may have been doing it a lot longer than you have. They may have a team of people creating content for social, dedicated sales reps, or maybe they even BOUGHT those followers!  

You can’t expect to start out and then arrive immediately. Success takes time.

Set goals and stick to them

I’ve talked about this before (a lot), but you absolutely need to outline what success looks like to you. Every business has a different idea of success. Sure, everyone wants to make money, it will be hard to grow your business otherwise, but how much money do you want to make? And how long do you want to take to get there? A million in 3 years? $100K in 2 years? $20K in your first year? How many customers/clients do you want to have within the first 6 months? How many sales transactions within your first year in business?

These are just a few of the types of questions you should ask yourself. It’s important to not only set a goal, but make sure you can track your success. So that means it has to be measurable and it absolutely needs to have a timeframe attached to it. Once you have those goals WRITTEN DOWN (you know you won’t remember them with everything going on!) you can revisit them at certain points in your journey to make sure you are on track to reach those goals. And if you’re not, it’s no need to panic, it just means you may have to alter your approach or set goals that are more manageable.

Identify your milestones

Sure, it’s great to have overall goals, but what about everything that happens between your first move and reaching that end goal? You need to set milestones to help you stay on track. It’s like having mini celebrations before you reach the big gala event. If you have a goal of $100K in sales in your first year, you should set quarterly targets. Then each quarter you can revisit to make sure you’re on track. It takes the pressure off that big annual number because it breaks it down into manageable bites. Milestones can work for long-term goal planning, and they can work for short-term planning as well. I tend to set milestones for myself for every project so I know what I will be working on each week. Then I can celebrate by crossing things off a list (so satisfying…) or even a little mini celebration if it’s a bigger win milestone!

Success looks different for every business owner because each business (even direct competitors) has unique selling points and unique challenges. If you’re finding yourself getting sucked into the green monster of jealousy (or despair…), it’s not too late to snap out of it and reset. And if you need someone to help, book a free 20-minute consultation with me and I’ll help you figure out what your next move should be!