Who is holding you accountable to reach your business goals?
To build a great business, it is important to have a plan in place, and to set achievable and ambitious goals. When you’ve completed these steps, how are you going to ensure you stick to the plan and achieve these goals? Well, the likelihood is that you won’t unless you have someone to hold you accountable.
There are different people who you could choose to hold you accountable to help you hit your targets; however, some are better at the job than others.
Partner/close family members
Close family members are generally not the best option. Of course, it works for some people and that’s great, but from experience working with different business owners, asking your partner to hold you accountable usually goes one of two ways – 1. They’ll be too soft on you and wont push you to work harder, and you will probably be able to convince each other that its ok if you haven’t met a target, or you might come up with excuses. 2 – It could end up in an argument and affect your home life, and no one wants that!
Business partner
You and a business partner could set goals together and hold each other accountable. However, for the overall growth of the business, it is helpful to have someone who is less invested in the business. Again, it depends on the relationship, but it is definitely useful to have someone objective. Also, similar to with a partner, you may accept excuses from each other and/or end up in a disagreement.
Other business owners
Having someone, or group of people, with similar goals to support you can help you reach your goals. Just as some people go to the gym with a friend to help keep them on track and to motivate each other, working alongside other ambitious business owners may help you move forward in the right direction. Of course, most business owners are probably not experts in business coaching, however it may be helpful to form a group with a handful of business owners from different backgrounds to share knowledge, vent frustrations, and hold each other to account.
Business coach
When you really want to take your fitness further, you might start paying a personal trainer and have regular sessions to keep you on track to reach your goals. This is similar to seeing a business coach. A business coach or mentor is a good option to hold you accountable to reach your business goals. They should be trained in ways to help you understand what it is that you want from your business. They are an objective party and they should be able to keep you on track. Coaches should have the interpersonal skills to really listen and help you understand what it is you want, where you are, where you want to be, and what is stopping you getting there. However, when it comes to business coaching, many coaches aren’t experts in finance, a huge aspect to business growth.
Accountant
Your accountant knows your business’s financials inside out (or they should!) and they can understand which elements of your business are going well, those that are not, and the areas in your business that you could save money on or invest in. They understand how a business works and can help you grow your business and make money. But what many accountants lack is the skills of a business coach mentioned above. Many accountants don’t ask the right questions and give blanket advice to clients based on historical figures, or just do what they always do without being creative and proactive.
What if your accountant is your business coach?
What if your accountant and your business coach are the same person? Then they are probably the best equipped to help hold you accountable. Of course, that’s not the only person who can keep you on track, and anyone who you feel has enough knowledge, will push you, and won’t accept excuses should work. However, someone who knows and understands the numbers, can produce forecasts and help you with your cashflow, and also has interpersonal and coaching skills, will really grow and bring value to your business. The numbers don’t lie. Ultimately you need someone who can guide you both financially and personally.
How Rosslyn Associates can help you
Rosslyn Associates provide both monthly and quarterly coaching to business owners looking to grow their business and stay on track to reaching their goals. We spend time getting to know both your business and personal goals and help you by holding you accountable and supporting you to achieve your desired results. If you want to grow your business but need help, get in touch. Call us on 0131 445 1825 or email info@rosslynassociates.co.uk.
Let us know what you’re looking for and if we seem like the right fit for each other, we can have a complimentary one-hour meeting to discuss your goals and how we could work together to achieve them.
Join us for our next free webinar!
Having the right person to hold you accountable is just one of the important steps to building a better business. If you would like to learn more, come along to our next free educational webinar: Build a Better Business in 10 Steps.
You’ll learn the ten most important ways to make your business more successful and you’ll leave with practical strategies which you can implement so your business reaches its true potential.
The webinar will take place on Friday 30th October at 10am.
It will last around one hour, with a chance to ask any questions at the end.
The webinar is free and open to anyone to join, so feel free to pass these details on to anyone who might be interested!
We hope you can make it!
