We all go into business for different reasons, some will do it because they have an Entrepreneurial vein running through their body, others will do it because they don’t want to have a boss any more. What was your reason you went into business?
Have you ever sat down and thought about why you went into business? Did you just ‘fall’ into it? Or did you plan it and coordinate it so that everything went smoothly? Have you ever sat down and done an assessment on your business to see if it was meeting all your dreams that you had before going into business?
It is always a good idea to sit down every now and again and look at your business and do a mini assessment on it. Let’s start by looking at what you wanted things to be like before you started your business.
Before Starting your business
No one ever goes into business with out putting some thought or plans in place around doing so. Or they have spent months/years complaining about their job and so they decide to stop complaining and do something about it. Like go into business for themselves.
What did you want to create as a result of starting your business?
Before you went into business you would have had thoughts around what you wanted to achieve by going into business. This could be things like financial freedom, to spend more time with your family, to never have a boss again, to do a better job than your current place of employment.
There are many reasons why we go into business. Don’t judge your answers just write them down.
What were the core problems or gaps that you wanted to change by starting your business?
We all have things we want to change in our lives, either personally, financially or workwise. Before you started your business what was the things that you believed would change for you when you started your business? Once again, write these down and don’t judge your answers.
What did you feel would improve the most in your education or skill set by starting a business?
A lot of people go into business to change something about themselves, to learn a different skill set or to just become more educated in an area. We often would like to do something in our current career that is not available to us while we are working for an employer. So it makes more sense to use to just start our own business so that we can learn those new things.
What was your Vision for yourself and your business before you started your business?
When thinking about this, there are a few key areas to look at. To get a good picture of what your thoughts were before going into business try and find one or two words on the following areas.
- Career & Business
- Finance & Investments
- Home
- Health & Fitness
- Mindset and New Skills
- Recreation & Community
- Partner & Children
- Family & Friends
For this question some things could be:
- You want to spend more time with your family and friends
- You want to drop your children off to school every day
- You want to make sure you have date night with your partner once a week
- You want to be able to play a sport or train your children in their chosen sport
Now you have been operating your business for a while
Now that we have looked at things and how you wanted them to be, lets look at how they actually are now, it doesn’t matter if you have only been trading a few months/years or for quite some time, it is always a good idea to do an assessment and to make sure your business is meeting all your dreams and goals from before you started it.
What have you created as a result of starting your business?
Have a good look around you, what is it that you have created? Are you ‘fixing’ that problem that made you go into business in the first place? Have you already achieved it and moved onto the next thing that you want to do with your business? Don’t judge your answers, just write them down. They could me good or bad, it doesn’t matter at this stage.
What are the core problems or gaps that you have changed by starting your business?
Do you still have the same core problems and gaps that you had when you started the business? Or have new ones appeared? How does this make you feel to consider this? Are you happy with your progress? Or are you disappointed?
What has improved the most in your education and skill set by starting your business?
Where is your knowledge at? Have you learnt anything new? Have you undertaken some courses or challenged your knowledge in anyway? Learning is an integral part of business development. The more you learn, the more you understand and the better you are able to make informed decisions around your business.
Have you achieved your Vision that you had when starting your business?
What are the key areas you wanted to change? Have they changed? How have they changed? Look at our categories again, and list down what has changed and did you achieve they change in the areas you wanted to?
- Career & Business
- Finance & Investments
- Home
- Health & Fitness
- Mindset and New Skills
- Recreation & Community
- Partner & Children
- Family & Friends
What does the future hold for you and your business?
Now that we have looked at what or original dream was and looked at what we have achieved in our business since we started that, we need to now look into the future. Look at these four main areas and plan what we want out of our business.
What do you want to create as a result of being in business?
You’ve been operating your business for a while now. You have a fair idea about what is happening in it and what you want to get out of it. So now is the time to sit down and write out new ideas around what you want to create as a result of being in business.
This could be, that you want to create a good team of people around you. That you want to help people achieve their dreams. It can be anything. Once again, don’t judge, just write it down.
What are the core problems or gaps that you want to change by continuing to run your business?
This could be anything, you may not necessarily have the same problems or gaps that you had originally before starting your business, but there may be some that are presenting themselves to you at this time. List them down and track them to see if you can over come them in time.
What do you feel you want to improve the most in your education or skill set by being in business?
Your business has been running for a while, you will know what skills you need to improve or what education you have to partake in to move forward in your business. Write it all down, find out where you can get this education or these new skills and start learning.
Has your Vision changed? What is your new Vision?
Look at your business closely, is it that you want to achieve in your business? What is your dream, your vision? Look at the areas listed below and write your vision around these points.
- Career & Business
- Finance & Investments
- Home
- Health & Fitness
- Mindset and New Skills
- Recreation & Community
- Partner & Children
- Family & Friends
Now that you have looked at the past, the current and the future for your business it is now time to move into the future. Go back to the blogs from earlier this year and read about goal setting and achieving your ideal work week. These will help you immensely achieve the vision you have for your business.
You can also download the Business Assessment Tool by clicking on the link below. This will help you run through the questions above.
Click Here to Download your Business Assessment Tool
