Motivation matters in business!

If you want to keep your motivation high as you build your business, remember why you went into business for yourself in the first place. Consider what you want your business to do for you! Too often we become slaves to our businesses and lose touch with our key values and reasons for being our own bosses. It pays to step off the treadmill now and then to reconsider why you decided to run your own business. People go into business for themselves for all sorts of reasons - negative as well as positive. Perhaps you decided to turn your hobby into a paying concern. Perhaps you did it to avoid a long commute, a boring, repetitive job or even a bullying boss!

You could be one of those lucky people who are so passionate about their line of work they would do it even if they weren't being paid! But, hey - you need to cover the mortgage too! Maybe you wanted to spend more time with your family, or find the time to finish writing your novel. Maybe the idea was to travel more and only work a four day week. Whatever the positive reasons were, try getting back in touch with what motivated you and use this to revitalise your long term vision for your business and how it will support your life.

Do you want your business to grow into a larger enterprise or do you want to keep it smaller and more manageable, still working from a home based office? Do you envisage larger premises and more staff? Is your longer term goal to make the business work without you and perhaps build a business that you can ultimately sell? It pays to think about the very long term.

Try writing down your ideas - don't just think about them. It's amazing how much clearer your ideas become when you write them down. Rather than working from month to month or even year to year, look at the really big picture. When do you want to retire? Do you even want to retire? This exercise will pay enormous dividends and may even prevent you taking a wrong turn with your business. You don't have to grow your business beyond a certain size if you believe this could have a detrimental impact on your quality of life. Remember, it's your life and your business so make the most of it!