Look around your business. You have reached a certain level at this exact moment in time (whether you’re at the point in your business where you want to be or even if you have fallen short of your goals).
Has it been challenging? Probably. Was it rewarding? Maybe.
But now we’re at the time of year when we consider what’s next. Where do we want to go from here? What level do we want to work toward next? What do we want to achieve in the next year? And the next decade?
Unfortunately, what most people don’t realize about setting these kinds of goals is that what got you here won’t get you to where you want or need to be.
You’re at a specific level right now. It took a certain combination of effort, time, financial investment, stamina, mindset, daily action, and other resources to get you to this level. If you want to get to the next level, you need to gather and expend even more resources to get to that next level.
Let’s consider the growth of an athlete from neighborhood games to All-Star.
Consider someone with athletic goals, in any sport. As a child, they played in their driveway with hand-me-down equipment. Then they levelled up and played with a more skilled group, perhaps in high school. Then they levelled up further and played at a college level, earning a scholarship for it. Then they levelled up even further and played at a local or regional professional level. Then they levelled up even further and played at a national level. Then they levelled up even further and won a national championship.
It doesn’t matter what sport you’re interested in — basketball, baseball, hockey, football, you name it — that is generally the typical path of elite players as they rise through the ranks.
More of everything
The skills required to play as a child in the driveway with hand-me-down equipment would not win national championships. Each level up requires more of everything: more skills and more knowledge and more practice and more time and effort and more stamina. Not everyone understands this or desires to dig deeper to extract more of the personal resources and qualities required to advance, which is why some people max out in grade school or college or at a regional level.
It isn’t any different for your contracting business.
The higher you go, the more resources and skills and knowledge and confidence you need.
When you first started, it took just a few basic skills to do the basic work that you did. Perhaps it was just you in one truck serving a few customers in the neighborhood, which might be the contracting business version of the kid in the driveway with hand-me-down equipment.
But as you grew, you dug deeper and stretched further to acquire and expend the resources necessary to get to the next level — more time, more effort, more investment, more resolve, more problem-solving skills, more leadership, more stamina, more energy, etc.
Soon you were running a couple of trucks with even more customers and more skills needed, just like the athlete who goes from playing the driveway to playing at the high school level.
The higher you go, the more resources and skills and knowledge and confidence you need.
Look in the mirror
It’s that time of year again when we consider where we want to go in the coming months. To be truly successful in this quest for growth, you need to explore the following:
Where are you today? You are at a certain level and the resources and qualities that you have available to you now are what got you here.
Where do you want to go from here? What’s the next level? The same resources that got you where you are today are not enough to get you to grow.
The secret to growing a successful contracting business and getting it to the next level is not just creating a goal that you want to work toward – that’s part of it but there’s something else too. The secret is creating a goal and then amassing the resources required to fuel that growth.
What resources do I need?
What resources do I need to get to the next level? That is probably the most important question you can ask yourself right now.
For more contracting businesses, the resources needed to ascend from one level to the next include:
· A better plan
· More time
· More capital
· More effort
· More focus
· More stamina
· Stronger leadership
· Clearer focus
· Better communication skills
· … and so much more
What do you need to get “there?” First, you must define “there.” Only those who can clearly identify what there is for the coming year, and then can figure out what they need to make there happen, are the ones who will achieve and surpass their goals.
Once you know what you need, then you need to start building it in your life: perhaps increasing or upgrading your leadership team will help you get more time to pursue growth. Maybe you need more capital so you should bring on partners. Maybe you need to simply get more courageous and focused so you can spend more of your time working on growing your business.
Summary
What do you want in this coming year? Whatever you answered, that’s a higher level than where you’re at now. And what got you here won’t get you to where you want to be.
So, if you really want to achieve that goal, the only way you’re going to do it is by determining what you need to make it happen and getting more of that in your life. Figure that out and you’ve got a clear action plan to help you achieve any level in your contracting business.
Mike Agugliaro is the “Business Warrior” and founder of CEO Warrior, a business consulting, training and mentoring firm, providing tested and proven methods to defeat the roadblocks that prevent small to mid-sized businesses from achieving their ultimate success. He has played a key role in building and selling Gold Medal Service, New Jersey’s largest and most respected home service company. For more information about CEO Warrior, visit www.CEOWARRIOR.com.