Tamara Goddard
TACC Business Services Officer

Of all people, entrepreneurs are probably the worst at taking the time to acknowledge their success, let alone celebrate it! Successful entrepreneurs tend to have insatiable appetites for achieving goals.  Upon reaching their goals, they quickly form new goals, bigger goals, and are off again enroute to the next check stop where they will sit for just long enough to dream up the next impossible challenge. 

At TACC we have the great opportunity to work with many successful entrepreneurs.  From this birds eye view, we are able to see some common symptoms of the overachiever. One of the most common is burn-out. It can happen to even the best of us. Juggling life, family and business is no easy task and often leaves you feeling it’s impossible to accomplish everything in one day, or in one life-time for that matter.   When you own your own business, having invested so much money and time into it, the business can quickly monopolize your attention and time, effectively draining your emotional and physical resources.

Often self care, family time and quality of life are quietly put away with a promise that they will be taken out of hiding in six months, or a year, or just when the business gets over this stubborn hump. But what so often happens is that time slips by and the humps are climbed only to find that the goal will take more time and beyond that hump are larger hills. 

With all the busyness and ever rising challenges, the business owner rarely takes time to celebrate the obstacles they have overcome or the goals they have met.  When we don’t take the time to acknowledge and celebrate our successes, life begins to feels like a constant hike up a very steep and rocky mountain.  An experienced outdoorsman would advise you to plan your rest stops and make sure your body is cared for so as to remain strong for the challenges ahead less you burn-out and require rescue!

This December remember to take time to celebrate more than just the holidays, take time to celebrate your success!  Get some rest; take some time with family and friends. Try a dose of C.P.R this Christmas:

Celebrate & Create

Create some space for yourself this holiday season. Being a business owner can be stressful enough without the added pressure of shopping, gift wrapping and attending multiple events.  Instead consider the following options:

•  Shop with family or friends…. If you’re going to take the time to do the mall anyways, add in lunch with a sister or brother or better yet go shopping with that niece, nephew, grandma or aunty you’ve been neglecting to spend time with this year.
• Shop on-line…..Virtually any store you can go to in the mall is also on-line.  Sit yourself down with a cup of tea and shop on-line!
•  Plan to attend family events before business networking events. 

Prioritize & Prepare

Give your business the gift of a solid foundation by prioritizing your goals for 2007 and preparing activities and time-lines to successfully move you towards these goals. 

To start, sit yourself down with a cup of tea and take some time to think of the following questions:

1.  When working in your business, which aspect did you enjoy the most?  Was it the sales, networking, bookkeeping, crafting of your product?
2.  Which aspect of your business did you dread? 

Use your answers here to help you form new goals for the coming year.  Allow yourself & your company to move in a direction whereby you are able to delegate those tasks you are not enjoying. 

Now that you have clarified the aspects of your business you would like to work on yourself and those you wish to begin delegating, set some goals.

1. What is your revenue goal for the year?  Remember to factor in that your business will need to earn enough revenue to pay for additional employees.
2. What marketing activities worked well for you in the past year?  What activities did not work well?
3.  How will you improve your marketing activities to achieve your revenue goal?
4. List 4 marketing activities that you will execute monthly to increase your revenues.
5.  How much will these activities cost you to prepare and execute?  Remember to factor in printing costs, web-hosting and design.

There are other aspects of your business you may want to write some goals for such as your operations.  Of course, bringing in more revenue means that production and operation will need to be addressed.  Once you are done, you will find yourself faced with quite a long list of to do’s.  Remember, these goals you are setting are for the next year and do not all need to happen within one week.  Put your goals in a time-line; then relax knowing that if you just hold to the goals as they come up on the time-line, your yearly goals are being worked toward! For examples of time-lines or objectives and tasks, please give us a call.  We’d be happy to send you some examples.

Reflect & Rest

As the year comes to an end take some time to pamper yourself.  Much of the time of a business owner, especially first and second year, is spent in chaos as you embark on a learning curve the size of Mount Everest .  Often, when you are extremely wrapped up in this chaos of learning and busy work, everything seems like an emergency and rest seems like a luxury you can not afford to take.  But remember, often if you don’t take a break, your body will take it for you in the form of a flue, cold or just plain burn-out. 

Write down your 2007 business goals, then set a start time for after Christmas.  Schedule at least one day for your companies most important asset, you!  Often, just taking one day for your self can bring things back into perspective, problems don’t seem so large and solutions present themselves.  You are most valuable to your organization when you are healthy and creative.  All year you nurture your clients, your business, your equipment… This time of year remember to nurture yourself.  Your company will thank you for it!