Scaling up for your best year ever

19 Jan 2018

The New Year's Resolution is dead. Setting goals is what the beginning of a new year is all about. But after a break that often feels too short for the amount of recovery that last year warrants, gearing up for the new year's hustle will require a process. Scaling your company will take intense focus and deep wells of passion all year round. Setting and emotionalising clear goals in January is the best way to make sure that your tank is full for the drive ahead.

In his piece Skip the resolutions and set goals, Cape Crossfit co-founder and head coach Chris Oman lays out his secret to success. In about two paragraphs, Chris writes down a detailed description of the person that he wants to be this year. He goes into personal traits, family matters and business goals, summarising the best version of himself in 2018. “Once you really know, it's easy to commit every single part of your being to becoming that person.”

A process we have very successfully followed in Outsourced CFO is one of ’90 Day Planning’. It follows a process of setting out three to five ambitious but achievable goals per leader in the company for the next 90 days. This breaks down a full year into four 90 Day Plans, which are easier to take action with. At the end of our 90 days, we’ll review how well each person has done and look back on all of the collective hurdles that have been jumped.

Louw Barnardt

Few people probably know more about smashing goals than Tim Ferris. Successful entrepreneur, author of multiple bestsellers and investor into companies like Uber, Facebook, Shopify and others, his approach is surely one to study. Ferris’ approach is to ‘Rig the game so that you can win it’. It follows the concept of setting very simple, attainable goals that you know you can achieve. This process forces you to be clear and specific and to make sure that you are setting down the right goals. Having targets that seem achievable will help you avoid the performance anxiety caused by a blank canvas and ensures that you effectively take action. His advice: “Ask yourself if you are making this harder than it needs to be.”

Some other great approaches to goal setting are listed on Cape Town entrepreneur Sheraan Amod’s blog and in Michael Hyatt’s best-selling book, Your Best Year Ever. Hyatt’s book lays out a five step system for setting effective motivating goals.

Is this the year you want to scale up your company to the next level?
Is this the year that you fully automate your business and free up some time?
Perhaps it’s the year that you can own cash flow and financial freedom?
Set smart goals now and keep yourself accountable. Now go out there and smash your goals!

About Louw Barnardt

Louw Barnardt CA(SA) is the founder of Outsourced CFO, a financial management company that renders CFO and Cloud Accounting Services to emerging tech and innovation companies.