Episode 411: Do you really know your big vision for your small business?
In this episode, Fiona discusses the importance of having a big-picture vision for your business. She emphasizes the need to look beyond the immediate details and consider the long-term trajectory of your business. Tune in!
You'll Learn How To:
Importance of having a big-picture vision for your business
Parallels between planning for childbirth, and entrepreneurship
Reflections on personal experiences and lessons learned
Considering long-term goals
Strategies for mapping out the future
Balancing work and personal life priorities
Evaluating financial goals and implications for business growth
Adapting business plans based on life stages and changing circumstances
Encouragement to reflect on the purpose and direction of your business
Practical tips for creating a long-term vision and strategic plan
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Welcome to episode 411 of the My Daily Business podcast. Today you're reading a quick tip episode and that's where I share a tip tool or tactic that could be implemented immediately and help your business in less than 10 minutes. Let's see how we go today. I'll put the timer on Before we get stuck into that, I want to of course acknowledge where I'm coming from and acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of these lands, which are the Wang and ri people of the Kulin nations, and pay my respects to their elders, past, and present and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. Let's get into today's quick tip episode.
Years ago when I was pregnant with my first child in London, I remember talking to my sister and we had, I mean, I talk to her all the time, I still talk to her all the time. But I remember this one conversation because I was telling her about my birth plan. I had written a two-page birth plan, which I then did get down, I think to one full page. I had a Spotify playlist. I had bought a new bathers for the birthing pool. I was super excited. The hospital that I was going to have him at had like a $4 million refurbishment and I was going to have this incredible, very natural drug-free, beautiful birth. I was doing hypnobirthing classes. I had also paid to be part of this double weekend national childbirth trust, which was amazing and I recommend it to anyone in the UK because I'm still friends with those people 11 years later.
But I'd been doing all these things, I was reading all the books, I was so prepared for birth. I remember telling my sister, who is a regional GP who has delivered hundreds of babies and has worked in that space for a long time, I remember, and also has three kids of her own that she had in three and a half years, I think. She said to me, “Fiona, the birth is day one of the rest of your life.” You are going to be a parent for the rest of your life. Don't get so fixated on this birth because yes, the birth, the baby will come out and hopefully they come out healthy and you are healthy and everything else. What ended up happening was that I had a crash and one emergency cesarean, which meant I would die or the baby would die.
Thank goodness for the incredible medical staff. But it was not how I'd planned it, but because I'd put so much focus on just the birth, I had not given any attention to how to bring up that child or things like looking after myself in the first year or going on and on. I've since read some books. But when you are preparing for that, you read all the books and then when you have a child, realistically, how many books do you read on how to be a parent? You're like, this just comes naturally, does it, does it not? The same is also for weddings where you spend so much time and money on the wedding. Again, if we looked at how many people get married and how many people what percentage of them have done any work on relationship counselling before getting married or financial discussions before getting married, or even seeing a psychologist themselves, two separate people, seeing a psychologist to figure out their stuff before they get married, it would be pretty low.
I would say the same goes for business. Often I will meet people who are super excited about their logo design the visual branding or a website or maybe an influencer that they're going to work with when they launch X, Y, Z. And they can be years in, it's not like just people getting started. But what they don't have an answer to is where are you going with this business? Like where is the business going? What does it look like in the next 10 years? Will you sell it? Will you have brought on a business partner? Maybe you've got a child that is at a point, maybe their teenager or in their early twenties and you're like, they're going to come on and I'm going to train them up in the next 10 years. And then their goal is that they will take this over.
Is it that you are building up a great profit margin and incredible revenue and expanding into all sorts of categories so then you can sell the business and make a whole bunch of money in your exit and then do something else with your life? Where are you going? What is your big-picture vision? Often when we think about big picture vision, people can be like, that's my goal. I'm going to change the world or I'm going to do this, and that's fantastic to have that. But from a practical standpoint, have you thought about how old you're going to be in 10 years or 20 years? How old if you have children, how old those children are going to be and what financial needs they will have? It might be that they're going through school or college or that they'll need a bit of extra money from you at that time.
Is it that your partner has always wanted to go back and do a PhD and therefore you'll need to be the breadwinner, or your business or company will need to be bringing that in? Is it like that you would like to retire your partner and either they come into the business or you have enough going on that they don't have to work necessarily? Is it that in 10 years you would like to have bought three investment properties with the company? All sorts of things. But like what does it look like? What is the big picture vision in 10 or 20 years and is it something that you're excited about or is it something that makes you feel exhausted and overwhelmed? And often we can get caught up in the details of the day-to-day and the monotony of doing the same thing.
Forget that we started this with all this passion and excitement and drive, and then where is it going and are we on track for where it is going? I know in my business when I started this business, I had a 2-year-old who was almost three. I'd told myself that I wanted to get to a point that when he started school, primary school here in Australia, I would be able to make enough from the business working three days a week and that I would be able to pick him up from school. I would be able to drop him to school. I would not have to always be going in and outta the city, which is about a 45-minute drive from where I live. In that bit of time between me quitting my executive job and him starting school, I had a couple of years to try to get the business to a point where it would work and I would also be able to do all the other things that I Want to do in my life.
We also had planned to have another child. When I started, I had a very clear idea of what the business needed to look like, at least from, what I think I started at the very end of 2015. Let's say from 2016 to 2026 when he started high school, I had, this is how the business will operate. At that time, I also had another child, which very lucky to have, he wouldn't start school until next year, but he would then start school. That brings on another idea of like, with that extra time back, which is not that extra time because anyone who has kids in primary school knows that that day goes very quickly. But with that extra day or two back, because I only work three days a week at the moment, what would I like to do in the business?
Because there will be a little bit of time, or is it not about the business? Is it about doing something else in that time that I have available? And then from 2030, I don't know when my youngest is starting high school, but again, once they go to high school, my eldest will be in university or doing whatever he chooses to do after high school. My youngest will be at that point of potentially catching public transport to school, not needing me so much in the way that young children need their parents. I have been thinking about, what this business look like for the next five years. What does it look like for the next 10 years? What does it mean for me? What does it mean for the people who work in this business with me?
That is it for today. It's thinking about do you have a big-picture vision. Are you just looking a year ahead, two years ahead, or are you thinking about where this is going and what am I trying to do? Also, how old will I be when you know it's 10 years? Or how old will my children be if you have children, or maybe you are younger, a lot younger than me, and you're in that starting point and you're like, maybe you don't want children, but you'd like to travel or you'd like to get your business to a point where you can work. I have a client who I've worked on and off with for years, and he has an incredible setup. I remember when he first talked to me, and it was very early on when I just started my business and I went to his house for a workshop with some staff that he had.
I just thought you had the best life. You have figured out how to make this business work for the life that you want, as opposed to what most people do, which is trying to figure out how your life is going to support your business. I think this is the question today what are you trying to do? Why did you get into business? And then what's the big-picture vision? Where are you going? And it doesn't have to take that long. I've worked with numerous clients on this and we just draw up either an Excel Sheet and we have like year 1, 2, 3, 4, all the way down to year 10. And then we have things like what are their financial goals, how old they'll be, how old their children will be if they've got children, any repayment stuff on mortgages like when you think the mortgage will come down or mortgages if you have different investment properties.
Because all that impacts things a lot of us are working in a chunk of what we bring in as a company will go to other things in our lives, whether that's investments or education or something else. You've got to think about that. I had another client recently who was just amazing and is coming to a point in her life where her children have grown up and don't need her as much. She was talking about part of her income from the company that she's run successfully for decades. It supports those children, but those children are getting to an age where they will move out and they finished uni and they, and that brings up a bunch of other questions as to, maybe I can reduce the time that I'm working. Maybe I don't have to bring so much in from the business, what else would I like to do?
These are the questions that we probably don't stop and ask ourselves enough like, what is this for? And where am I going? That is it for today. Just over 10 minutes. But hopefully, this helps still a short quick tip episode and if it has helped, please hit subscribe or take a second and or take a second to leave us a review. It just helps us get found by other small business owners. And maybe there's somebody out here right now who needs to hear what I'm saying today. If you want to look at this in text format, you can find it at mydailybusiness.com/podcast/411. You can also just go to mydailybusiness.com/podcast and you'll always find all of our episodes in audio and text format. Thanks so much for reading and see you next time. Bye.
