Make Sure Your Entrepreneurial Goals Are The Right Ones

By David Eedle |  Email This Post

For a long time I’ve been opposed to mission statements, all too often I see them quoted as goals, when they are generally motherhood statements like “we’re going to be the best widget company in the world”. That’s not a goal, it’s a philosophical statement, a conceptual abstract to highlight prominently on your website, marketing materials and business plan.

I’m probably more a fan of Guy Kawasaki’s idea of a Mantra rather than a Mission Statement:

I give up trying to get people to create short, different, and meaningful mission statements, so go ahead and spend the $25,000 for the offsite, facilitator, and consultants to create one. However, you should also create a mantra for your organization. A mantra is three or four words long. Tops. Its purpose is to help employees truly understand why the organization exists.

Recently I’ve been giving more thought to what actual constitutes a ‘goal’ for an entrepreneur. When it comes to building and developing businesses we’ve always embraced specific business-like goals – that we’ll be profitable by x date, that we’ll sell y widgets in Q1 and z widgets in Q2. Fiona likes to tell people that I write a mean business plan. The reality is I now would rather stick a fork in my eye. Out of all the business plans I’ve written or seen I can’t think of one that, after the business had been trundling along for a few years, accurately predicted, other than in generalities, where the business subsequently was placed.

Your business goals will probably affect your family - make your goals consistent with family life.

As I get older (although hopefully wiser), I’ve started to question some of the wisdom surrounding the goals we set. My analysis is based on the following truths:

1. Whilst we sometimes achieve our business goals, sometimes we don’t. This doesn’t mean we’ve failed, rather it evidences how a business, particularly a new one, evolves over time. The goals we set become moveable goal posts because the rules we create in the business are developing over time. Anyone who starts a business and categorically states where the business will be in three years time either has Nostradamus as a relative, or is naive.
2. When an entrepreneur is, like us and so many others, a family person, with dependents, obligations and all the other commitments that make up a modern nuclear household, it’s difficult to separate personal and professional goals. We’re not entrepreneurs from 9am to 5pm. The decisions we make affect those around us, both at work and at home.

All this has been brought home to me because of a recent major discussion in our household, where we’ve been presented with potentially a really fantastic business opportunity. It would be a three year commitment, involve a great deal of hard work, and have significant impact on the family as a whole. What was very interesting was how the discussions were not about the business goals, but rather turned quickly to ‘family goals’.

I’m 43 years old. Fiona is (I hope she doesn’t mind me saying) 44 years young. We have three children. We enjoy a fantastic lifestyle here in Melbourne, including travel opportunities, both personal and professional. Fiona even scooted over to San Francisco the other week to come and spend a long weekend with me. Our three children are settled into great schools and childcare centres, we have a good circle of friends. From time to time the family faces challenges created by our business activities, but each time we work through the issues and emerge hopefully a stronger family unit.

Other than winning the lottery, there is no short term path to riches. The road to entrepreneurial success takes time and energy – a little like pop bands that become overnight successes after 15 years of grinding away on the touring circuit before the confluence of fan base and record company A&R coalesce into a tipping point.

Fiona and I have redefined how we set goals because it’s paramount our primary goal is the health, happiness and financial security of our family.

In six years our eldest daughter will go to university. In nine years our son will follow. We intend to be financially placed to ensure they can embark on any course they choose. And if they choose not to go on to tertiary education then that’s fine as well, but we’ll support them in whatever endeavour they might embrace. We want our support to extend to building a property portfolio in their name so that when time comes for them to leave home and buy their own place, they have a kick start to utilise. Our youngest child is disabled, and will require support in some measure for the rest of her life – even after Fiona and I depart this mortal coil.

Our goals thus become well defined when we think about them in the family context. We can put dollar amounts on the timeline over the next five or ten years. We know roughly how much these goals will cost. And now every decision we make is framed by considering how the opportunity at hand will contribute to those goals.

Some might say we’re wrong to mix family and business goals. But we see them as one and the same thing. To think otherwise would be to assert that our family is separate and remote from our business life. When reality says they are analogous. What is good for our business is good for our family, and vice versa.

Photo: Flickr tboard

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