5 Ways to Predict the Future Success of your Business

Paula Shepherd Author

How to take the temperature of your business. I'm not psychic but I can predict the future success of your business...and so can YOU! Today I'm sharin

You're scrolling social media and you keep seeing content and images that make you think you're nowhere near successful...

You keep comparing yourself to other people while being barraged with messages about hitting $10K in 10 days.

But you have to walk before you run.

There are 5 easy ways you can take the temperature of your business now that will predict your future success.

I'll be sharing the 5 ways with you, so you can do a happy dance that you're on your way to your version of success or reset your business now!

I think it's really, really important for us to have some conversations that don't involve money. I've noticed that when I post about income, when I post about revenue, when I post about sales, that a lot of ears perk up. I want you to know that when you are working in your business, that there are some telltale signs of whether or not you are going to be successful. Making money is not the end all and be all of success.

Unfortunately, there are so many things online that make us feel like the illustrious, and elusive 10k months are the measurement of success.

So let's talk about how you can take the temperature of your business.

We'll also kind of talk about when the right time is for you to be hiring someone, and how to know that you're hiring the right person during this conversation.

So this isn't about money. I want to make sure that when we're talking about your business, that you first and foremost need to know what success looks like to you. I want you to know and feel it. 

I have a lot of clients that come to me and they'll say, "I just want to consistently be making $5,000 a month in my business." And yet, as we move forward, they start to see and are clouded by all of the 10k months or 20k months, and they start to think that maybe their goals aren't good enough.

The reality is the reason why setting your version of success is so important when you first get started is so that you can anchor back to those things.

First and foremost, the single most important thing is defining your success.

If you've never done that before, define your success.

Figure out what it is.

Know exactly what it looks like. Keep it close to you at all times. So that when your brain starts to flutter, and you decide that 10k months are where it's at. You can remind yourself that that wasn't where you were going to start with. You can always modify your version of success, your definition, but you have to know where you're starting.

So outside of the version of success, let's pretend for a moment that you have set that up.

#1: Do You Have A Long Term Vision for Your Business?

So if you're going to act, and if you're going to behave like a CEO, the first thing that you need to do is you need to be thinking long term.

What we tend to do is decide, "Okay, I want to make this much money this month." But instead I challenge you to look at whether or not you have not just a goal, but a long term vision for your business.

A long term vision for your business can look like, "I want to have a team."

It can look like "I want to work every day from the beach. "

It can be "I only want to be a one man show and I want to have a VA that does this thing for me. And I am happy if I make this much in my business."

It could be "I want to be a coach, but I also want to have a product line and I want to have an app and I want to do this thing and I want to eventually have this big team that can help me articulate carry out my values."

So that's the first thing. I'm not talking about simple goal setting here or setting any kind of even SMART goals.

What I am asking you to do is decide what your long term vision is.

So if you don't have one of those right now, it's not too late for you to decide what you see your business looking like 12 months from now, and do not look at how much money you're making right now, to create this vision that's really elevated.

I want you to think really big. I want you to dream really big. 

I want you to look at your version of success, and I want you to create a vision that's in alignment. That's the first way to take the temperature of your business to determine your future success, after you create your definition of success.

#2: Are Your Client's Getting Results?

The second way to take the temperature of you business, is to ask yourself, and look for evidence that your clients are getting results.

Because if you have an offer that you're selling consistently. It could be that you are an amazing salesperson.

You could be fantastic at selling, but when it comes to executing your offer, you're burning yourself out.

You're getting overwhelmed, and your clients are overwhelmed, because you're overgiving. And they're in a place where they are actually not completing everything, which means that you're not getting results at the back end.

This is your opportunity to take a look, and make sure that your offer is actually achievable.

Are you giving people checkpoints?

Are you allowing them not just access to you, but are you allowing them opportunities to be able to complete the activities, the assignments to be able to show up?

Or are they so overwhelmed that they check out?

I do this in my own business too, because we tend to over give we think if we charge high ticket, the more we charge, the more we have to give of ourselves. And that's actually not true, because you need to fit this stuff into your personal day, and so do your clients. So we need to make this digestible and easy for them.

So long term version of success. Are your clients getting results? Really? Look at that long and hard.

Are they getting results?

What can you tweak? What can you change?

Because if your clients aren't getting results, and they're not making it to the end, it doesn't matter if you sold $20,000,

If your clients aren't making it to the end, are they recommending other people work with you?

#3: Do You Have An Offer Scalable to Your Definition of Success?

The next way to take the temperature of you business is to ask if you have a scalable offer.

By scalable offer, I mean, scalable to meet your definition of success.

If you have a scalable offer, that is reaching your definition of success, it's going to mean that your clients are getting amazing results and you're not feeling burnt out.

The scalable offer is going to allow you, if your vision up here is to have a team to step back, and give ownership to the team and allow those people to take over where they can. So that you can get out of the day to day and really be the visionary in your business.

This is a really hard place to come from when you're used to being an employee, and then you're stepping into this role of being the CEO.

Being a CEO isn't just owning your business, it's a whole thought process.

It's how you're behaving and where you're thinking. Because when you're thinking up here, the how you get there isn't necessarily your job. Right?

Your job is to create the vision, and then you implement. You bring in people who can help you achieve your greater vision.

#4: Do You Know Your Values?

The next way to take the temperature of your business is you have to know your values, and I don't just mean in terms of words.

I want you to look at your values. I want you to define them, and I want you to understand what they are and be able to articulate them in such a way that when you hire people that they become an extension of who you are.

They are going to be an extension of your values. They're going to be an extension of your purpose and extension of your mission. These people are going to be an extension and a representation of your reputation.

So it's incredibly important that you don't just hire Sally to come show up in your social media feed and behave as you just because that helps you feel less burnt out. If Sally doesn't understand that your values are really important and that you believe in people over profit. Then everything Sally talks about when she's engaging with people is all about money, money, money, money, money, then she's not actually representing you well.

So it's more than just purchasing hours from a virtual assistant, or hiring on an OBM.

It is about hiring the right person into your business that can actually help you get to this vision up here.

#5: Are You Ready to Hire & Outsource?

The last way to take the temperature of you business is to ask yourself if you're hiring people with the intention for you to get out of the way.

What I see happen all the time, is that people get to a point in their business where they think I need to outsource in order to scale.

Here's the reality.

You cannot outsource until in and out, you know your vision, your purpose, your mission, your values.

You can articulate them, and you spend time onboarding people, making sure that they are in complete alignment with that.

Moreover, that you can step the hell out of the way, because being a leader means giving people ownership.

It means giving them the opportunity to do the work, and come back to you and tell you a better way and more efficient way to do it.

What happens is, and I've done this before myself, is hiring someone who then has to keep coming to me and asking me questions, and then I get really frustrated because they're asking me a bunch of questions. And I want them to ask me questions. But I also do not want to be in a position where I am constantly having to stop what I do and tell people what to do.

The solution to this for me was one of my strongest values is that I believe that all people and voices need to be heard. Everyone's voice is important, and it needs to be heard.

So what I wasn't doing was embodying that message when I'm working with my teammates.

What I needed to do is tell them, 'I do not expect you to come ask me for approval. I want you to use your voice. I think that what you say is important. I value your expertise.'

And just by saying that I gave them enough ownership that they could go and run with it.

So now my team works seamlessly together, and I don't have to be in the midst of it making decisions. If someone needs something, they know who to go ask for it, and they're no longer asking me to then go ask someone else.

So that takes a little bit of finesse as you're working through it, because you also have to bring an awareness to who you are.

So now I want you to really take the temperature of your business...

Know if you have a long term vision.

Define your version of success.

Figure out if your clients are getting results, and if they're not decide why?

Are you including too much? Is it overwhelming? Sometimes it's not that it's not enough it's that it's way too much.

Is your offer scalable to your definition of success? Is it creating option if you want it to scale really big for you to get out of the way?

Do you know your values and do the people that you work with know your values?

Additionally, when you're hiring, knowing first your values and then making sure that they can be an extension of that.

Also, that you're willing to get the hell out of the way and let them do their job and operate in their zone of genius and get the work done without any contingencies.

Now that you know the 5 ways to predict the future success of your business, I wanted to share a resource that I created called Elevated Voices Academy™.  

I want you to know that we work really hard on the foundational piece of your business. We talk a lot about our values and building a business based on you. This is not a cookie cutter program, you may think you've done this before, but you haven't. This is the program where you learn how to stand out online and use the power of your voice to attract ideal clients and build a sustainable business. I would love to have you be a part of that! Even if you're just curious, let's have the conversation. That's the first step. Take the first step. I'm here to support you!

If you have any questions, Jump on a call with me, for a no pressure chat.

And if you want to join a free community of amazing entrepreneurs who are figuring out this whole digital business thing just like you, I’ve created a Facebook community to help support your journey and connect you with likeminded people. My Facebook community, I Am Becoming..., is all about community and collaboration. I want you to be successful! That's the intent here.

Continue the conversation by joining my private Facebook community “I am Becoming…” 

Lastly, if this blog was just what you needed in your online business, please let me know by sharing it with your entrepreneur and coach friends!

Cheering you on! 

XO Paula