Six tips on how to set and achieve goals to make your small business a success from The Apprentice star Mark Bouris.
- Make a plan, set objectives and monitor against them. Plans can change but the end objective should still be set. It’s a good idea to set net worth targets. For example, in year one, I want to be at $X and in year five, I want to be at $Y. Every time you contemplate doing something, make sure it will achieve your net worth goal. This can rule out wasting time on trivial pursuits. Be dogmatic and single-minded in your goals.
- Plan to fail. See an adviser who will ensure you have appropriate asset quarantine and protection in place. Always make sure you know what you are risking and only risk what you wish to. This can be everything, but it may not be. Some of the best business people have a house, some assets to survive on, and the rest can be aggressively punted.
- Ensure you have sufficient capital. If you spend all of your funds and it only gets you to 80%, you will lose it all. If you need to borrow, make sure you can arrange same.
- Be tax effective. Tax can be the largest expense of any business. It can take all of the money which should be used to grow the business. Set up the appropriate structure at the start.
- Hire people who are better than you. You may have the best product in the world and be terrific at what you do, but assets require people. Everything gets down to people and you should treasure good people who make you money. If you don’t share the money, good people will leave. Mostly, you lose the good people who are the first to be offered other employment or are able to manage their own business.
- Have fun. One of the most essential ingredients in making money from functioning on a higher plane is being happy with what you do.
Mark Bouris will speak at Kochie’s Business Builders Boot Camp at the Sydney Convention Centre, 7-8 April 2011. See kbbevents.com.au for further details.
