
I'll leave it to the psychologists to discuss the many reasons why people fail to keep their resolutions, but I have four observations that I believe contribute to this:
- The strategies and/or the tactics to implement the goals are too abstract.
- People set too many goals and because of this their energy, time, and focus becomes dissipated.
- The perceived outcomes are not valuable enough to the goal setter.
- Too often people do not have others who are impacted by the outcome holding them accountable, assisting, and providing encouragement.
I'd like to suggest a New Year's Resolution that every business owner would benefit from: building a more marketable and valuable business. For most business owners their company is their largest asset, and making a change that increases the value by just 10% would have a large impact on their personal net worth. However, an effort to simply increase a business' value and marketability is not really all that concrete, is it? How do you know how valuable and marketable the business is to begin with? How do you measure progress and know if you have attained the goal?
Codiligent has a system to help with this goal - it's called Always Ready To Sell (A.R.T.S.). If you participate in A.R.T.S. the first step is for Codiligent to complete a comprehensive evaluation of your business. This evaluation is then used to provide you with an estimate of business value based on solid principles of corporate finance, and a strategic planning session to determine changes to consider for improving your business' marketability and value. If you would like assistance making changes, Codiligent can suggest experts to help you. After establishing a strategic plan, A.R.T.S. participants provide Codiligent with their monthly financial statements, and complete a short 10 minute worksheet. In exchange, Codiligent provides monthly updates of value to help track progress against your goal. At the end of each year, Codiiligent will meet with you to assess the prior twelve months progress and help you determine areas to focus on in the coming year.
Happy New Year!