Making what you want is not luck, it’s science

Today I’m going to talk about one of the fundamental principles for leveraging your business: reaching new income goals every year doesn’t happen by chance. It is actually a science. 

It is proven. It is predictable…if you follow the methodology I’d like to share with you.

Before we get there, I want to share what the business owners I’ve worked with have affectionately called the “Fabienne Stretcher”, and it refers to setting goals. People so often do an exercise on setting goals, then come back with a nice respectable goal. And while I appreciate a 5% increase, I believe that if you’re going to increase your revenues, increase your reach, maybe even increase your downtime, you might as well go bigger. 

Most people set goals to not lose – they think “Well, I’ll set a small goal so that I have less of a chance of not making it.” Instead, I invite you to stretch. 

If you’re going to do this, you might as well play big.

You are actually capable of achieving much more each year than you currently believe, it just takes a mindset shift to change what you think you’re capable of. You might be thinking, “Oh, well, I can only increase 5% each year.” That’s not true. 

There are people who have naturally increased by 30, 40, 50, even 100% each year, because they’re in a different mindset, following a different process.

So let’s set some goals over the next 12 to 18 months. Start thinking about a goal that is a little bit of a stretch, but reachable. Here’s what I mean: sometimes, especially in personal growth circles, people say, “Okay, well, I’m going to make a million, even though I’m only making 20,000 right now.”

While I believe all things are possible, usually that’s too big of a gap for you to believe is truly attainable. So what we’re looking for is something in the middle, a little bit of a stretch, but also reachable knowing that you would have to show up differently to reach it. 

The idea is to create an educated goal based on data, not a financial goal out of thin air, simply because a goal without data is harder to reach. 

Why? A plan to reach your goal without data will mean you will have no belief or expectation that you will actually reach it. And that belief and expectation are the fuel that helps you actually reach it. If you believe (and expect) that, even though you are going to have to dig deep, you can reach that goal, you are more likely to reach it.

Without data, there are no accountability measures in place to know where you stand at any given time. This is why some people slap a goal on the wall and wake up in November, wondering why they aren’t closer to it. So even though you might not be the kind of person who really embraces data, hopefully you will be by the time you try setting goals in this new way. 

Creating your educated goal

Take a moment now to work on a revenue target. Perhaps it’s an income goal, but it could also be an impact target; whatever ‘playing bigger’ means for you. Being specific and keeping it time-based (let’s start with 12 months), is it one of these? Write it down.

I want to make X amount of money at the end of these 12 months.
I want to increase this profit by X amount.
I want to increase our impact with our social media by X engagements and/or X followers.
I want to increase the number of people that we work with by X amount.
 
What would be a reasonable increase for this coming year? And I don’t just mean, you know, 5%, could you stretch by 20%? Could you stretch by 40% without it being unreasonable?

Next, ask yourself these questions and write down your answers: 

1. What were your gross business revenues last year?
2. What gross business revenues are you on track to make this year?
3. What would you like your gross revenues to be next year?
4. What is your monthly goal? (Divide your yearly gross revenue goal by 12 to determine what your monthly goal will be next year, on average.)

Now you have some data you can use to scientifically track your goals, and you can even break them down into smaller increments to stay on top of them and plan accordingly. If you would like some help with stretching to meet these goals and shifting your mindset around what you’re capable of and growing your revenues by 20, 30, 50% or more, we’re here for you. We’ve helped thousands of business owners leverage their businesses with our proven recipe and would love to help you too.

We’re coming up on the last stretch of this year, so it’s the perfect time to set new goals for the next 12 months. There’s no reason to wait. Request a free chat with one of my heart-centered strategy coaches to help you map out a plan, and we’ll see if we are a good fit. They’re here, waiting to meet you. Just fill out the boxes below: