Starting your own business can be hugely rewarding, both personally and financially, if you do it well.

Part of ‘doing it well’ is  setting yourself reasonable and measurable expectations, and we don’t just mean in terms of business revenue or growth but also your personal expectations. Life happens and setbacks are normal, but we don’t always like to think about the potential lows when setting our sights on success.

We’ve seen it time and time again where our clients  set themselves big targets -sometimes unrealistic ones, and when they don’t achieve them they view their venture as a failure- which it’s NOT, they’ve just experiences a setback (or two) and need to pick themselves up, dust themselves off and get back out there- stronger for the experience. 

We’ve pulled together a few things that you can do to help yourself set achievable goals and importantly, increase the probability that you will meet them.

Business plan

First things first- Your business plan! This document is vitally important , it’s not only there to help you forecast key business activities if created properly it can help you map out realistic expectations and plan for the unexpected- illness, accidents or chain issues for example. If you need help writing,or reviewing your business plan then why not make an appointment with one of our mentors or trainers? 

Forecasting Cash Flow

This is a main part of your business plan. If you have a realistic forecast you’ll know if you have enough money to run or expand your business, warn that you’re spending more money than you’re generating or help you put in place precautionary measures or backup plans should you run into financial issues.

It’s easy to be optimistic about your cash flow and forecast big numbers, but that can be risky,  there are lots of factors outside of your control that could affect cashflow, such as late-paying customers or supply chain issues. Having a plan will help you to have ways of addressing these issues should they come up.

A word for the wise, get into the habit early on of regularly monitoring your financial position and know your outgoings and income . That way, you’ll be able to spot any cashflow gaps and take action before it becomes a major issue.

SMART objectives

Use SMART objectives to create realistic goals and targets for your business, ensuring expectations are kept grounded:

• Specific – Target a specific area for an objective, such as sales, customer service or marketing goals.
• Measurable – What are you trying to change? How will you measure it? Set a target to achieve over a set period.
• Achievable – The objective should be stretching, but possible. Avoid setting targets that are impossible to achieve.
• Relevant – Ensure the objective makes sense to the specific area it is focused on and is aligned with long term goals.
• Time-bound – Make sure the objective has a specific period or deadline, such as to achieve a target within 12 months.

Marketing expectations

There are many ways you can promote your business, such as social media advertising, public relations and email marketing.
But with most start-ups on a tight budget, you need to be realistic about the amount you can invest in marketing and the return it will generate.

Understanding your audience is vital before deciding on which channels to use.

Create customer personas to represent your audience based on demographics such as age, gender, location, income and job role.

Doing this will help you narrow down the channels to target, such as spending your money on writing content or paying for advertising on social media networks.

Once you’ve decided on your marketing channels, set SMART objectives for what you want to achieve and start with small tests to measure results before committing more money.

Small tests can help you set realistic expectations on how your marketing will perform.

One of the most important metrics is cost per acquisition (CPA). CPA measures the total cost to acquire one paying customer on a marketing campaign which shows the value you’re getting from the amount you spend and whether it’s profitable.

For example, if you invest £50 in Instagram marketing and make two sales, your cost per acquired customer is £25.

Testing will provide the information you need to decide where to invest.

If a channel works and your CPA is low and profitable, you can then invest more budget. That channel may stop working for you in the future, so you must constantly measure the results.

Work/life balance

It can be hard to separate work from your personal life as an entrepreneur, but you mustn’t let running your start-up harm your physical and mental health.

You might want to work 18 hours a day to get everything done but getting a good amount of sleep is vital.

Taking regular breaks is important too and consider relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation.

One way to ensure you have time for yourself is scheduling set times in your calendar and only having a meeting with someone else during those times if it’s absolutely essential to your business.

As your business grows and you take on staff, delegate tasks to other members of your team.

Knowing when it’s time to let go of certain activities is an important part of succeeding as an entrepreneur.

Don’t be too hard on yourself

If after a few years into running your business, you don’t have 20 staff or a fancy office, you might feel like you’ve not achieved success.

Don’t be too hard on yourself though.

Growing a business is a series of victories so celebrate your wins, however small they might seem.

Keep true to your plan but adapt it as circumstances change.

Measure your activities as much as possible and change tactics where necessary.

Success means different things to different people so stay realistic and enjoy the journey.