I follow a business coach named Gillian Perkins, and not too long ago she made a video talking about how there's no one size fits all recipe for success in business, but that doesn't mean that there isn't universal steps that every business should still undergo if it wants to succeed.

It reminded me a bit of how I used to just throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks when it came to growing my bridal business.  Trying to figure it out on your own is a good strategy if you want to have fun.  But if you care about getting guaranteed results in a predictable amount of time, you really need a strategy!

When you follow a strategy and take actionable steps towards your goal with intention, that's where you start to see results, improvement, and transformations.

If you want an effective strategy, first you need to decide what the GOAL of that strategy is.  You can't get to where you're going if you don't know where that is.  Your strategy is your roadmap from where you are now to where you want to be.

What Kind Of Goal?

What kind of goal do you want to focus on?  Don't be generic and just say I want to be more successful, or I want to book more weddings.  First, identify one specific area: income, the number of weddings you book in a month/year, the quality of your brides, or your work/life balance.  You need to know exactly what you're going to target with your strategy and set a measurable goal.

Notice I said measurable.  It needs to be quantifiable.  Meaning, you need to be able to have a clear cut before and after to measure how much you've improved or whether you've improved at all!

Once you have a goal, then you can figure out what you need to do to get there.

Visualize Your Goal

Now that you have an idea of what your goal is, it's time to dig in deep on what that goal encompasses.  If it's a higher income- Why do you want the higher income?  What effect will that have on you? On your family?  What will you do with the extra money?  What portion of it are you going to reinvest into your business to grow it and how?

It's nice to just think "I want more money," but if you don't even understand why you're doing all this extra work for the money, it will be harder to motivate you to follow through on your strategies.

Asking yourself these questions will help you to understand your relationship with your goals and what your true motivations are!  There may be things you discover about yourself that you didn't realize before.  Not everyone is motivated by the same things.  It's like the "love languages" concept.  To see satisfaction, you need to understand first what satisfies you, and goal setting is really about introspection.

Now that you've asked yourself the hard questions, it's time to put it down on paper.  Write it out and then circle the words that stand out to you.  Are you looking for more time?  If so, how do you plan to spend that time?  Reading?  Traveling?  Being with family?  Circle those words that represent how you will celebrate your goals.

Use those words you circled to create a Vision Board to motivate you.  Seeing what you're working towards will go a long way to reinforcing good habits.  You can either make it a collage you store on your phone, something you print out and put on your wall by your computer, or even set as a screensaver- whatever works for you!

Looking for more information on vision board planning?  Check out this book by Sarah Centrella called #FutureBoards.  It's a great way to learn more about how to visualize your goals.  I heard her speak at the Thriver's Live event in January 2020, and she has a really inspiring story.

Success Strategies

The final step is figuring out the how.  Break down your goal into smaller manageable chunks and create stepping stones to get there.  These stones will string together and create the path to success you follow throughout the year.

Short term success strategies will lead to specific transformations, so be clear about the mini goals along the way.  As you hit each mini goal, be sure to reward yourself!  When you were a baby learning to crawl, chances are you saw something across the room you wanted to get your hands on.  Go back a few steps to your introspection:  what were your motivations?  Do you have any smaller rewards along the same path that you can use to keep you going?

Methods Of Progress

If you're unsure of how to reach your goals, you may need to do some research to give you the tools you need to move forward.  Here's some methods of finding the information you need:

• Mentors (like me!)
• Books & Guides (check out my library of helpful tools here)
• Podcasts
• Online Mini Courses dedicated to the stepping stones you are struggling with
• Google
• Blogs (like this one!)

Each Stepping Stone

For each stepping stone in your path, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What needs to be fixed or transformed before I can move forward?
2. What do I have to do to make this change?
3. How do I make this change happen?

Then do the damn thing and move on.  Later on you can evaluate how effective your changes were and use them to make your path smoother and easier next time.  The more times you follow the path, the better your results will be each time.  You will not walk this path once and be done with it.  If 2020 has shown us anything, it's that this industry is going to be constantly evolving, and our business needs to be able to pivot and change easily to accommodate it.  What worked one year may not work the next, so the more you can evaluate your results and tweak them, the healthier your business will be in long term success.

Tips For Success

• Give yourself Grace.  Change doesn't come overnight.  You will fail.  And then you will fly.
• Have patience.
• Get HELP!  Do not let your ego hold you back from reaching for your dreams.  It's ok to need help finding the right solutions!  Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness.

Need help with knowing where to start?  Sign up for a one on one coaching session with me!  We will analyze your numbers, identify areas for improvement, and set up your stepping stones for the next quarter.  You can book a one time coaching session here or add yourself to the waitlist for my next enrollment in Next Level Bridal Business here.