In 2018, I burned out because my CFO firm completely owned me.
• I was working 60+ hours a week
• I was bringing home next to no money
• I was resentful, exhausted, and ready to give up
Why?
I made a fatal error: I hadn't considered my personal goals before setting my business goals.
If you want your business to work for you, you have to first understand your personal goals.
My business wasn't serving me in any of the key areas of my personal life:
👉 Family
👉 Income
👉 Lifestyle
👉 Community
When I rebooted my business, I defined goals in each of these 4 areas first. And THEN I got to work on setting my business goals.
The result: Today I own 2 businesses that energize me, fulfill me, and provide me with the type of life that I want.
Let's break down each of these 4 goals:
Family Goals
How often have you said "family comes first"?
And then:
✅ You skip the school play
✅ You miss the soccer games
✅ You don't see your parents for a year
✅ You don't make it home for family meal time (for 2 weeks)
Because you had to finish the forecast, complete the proposal, or respond to the emails.
If family comes first, family should go on the schedule first - then the business items.
Income Goals
Income goals might seem obvious to fractional CFOs.
But where we tend to miss the mark is on cash coming out of the business and into our personal bank accounts. A lot of times, we convince ourselves that we're "reinvesting in the business".
And reinvesting in the business is great!
If it doesn't come at the expense of massive amounts of financial pressure at home.
Determine how much money you need to bring home before deciding how much to leave in the business.
ProTip: Talk this over with your spouse or partner ahead of time. Future you will thank present you for doing this.
Lifestyle Goals
Do you want to:
• Travel 4x a year
• Join a mastermind
• Never work on Fridays
• Hit the gym at 8 and get to work by 10
• Manage your firm from a boat in the Mediterranean
Those are great lifestyle goals.
And you'll never achieve them.
...If you aren't intentional about building your business in a way that allows for them.
Example:
Want to take Fridays off?
You have to consider how many client calls you can take Monday through Thursday. Will that number of calls allow you to serve enough clients to hit your income goals? If not, you might need to raise your prices.
You have too much at stake to be cavalier about these decisions.
Community Goals
This one gets neglected too often.
If you're like me, you love giving back to the community. You enjoy volunteering, donating, and serving others. Giving back fills your heart.
But business will get in the way if you aren't intentional.
I had a client who committed to donating $10,000 every month from his business to his church.
This was the foundation for every cash flow decision he made. He was unwilling to compromise on it regardless of the situation. He was even willing to shutdown his business if he couldn't do it.
He knew his goal and made sure the business was built around it.
👉 If you're not clear about your personal goals then it's time you get clear.
👉 If you're not sure how they will play out in your business, consider this quote from Alan Cohen:
"When your intention is clear, so is the way."
That's all for this Friday. 4 personal goals that will help you avoid burnout.
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Your coach,
Michael King
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