Are you achieving sustainable success?
If you ever work with me, you know this is a topic I am super passionate about and talk about a lot, because it is ALL ABOUT sustainability in business.
Anyone can have one-off successes, or can achieve success in their business at the expense of their personal life or healthy habits.
But when you truly want to be able to scale your business, to stop having to work so much all the damn time, and to significantly reduce the stress of not knowing if your next month or year will bring in enough revenue, you need to be focused on sustainability.
Before I dive into what it means to have sustainable success, here are some anti-sustainability patterns I see:
- Trying something, and then moving onto something newer just as quick, even if you got great results from what you did.
- Following a process or system step-by-step (and it works - at first) but not taking the time to really understand why you are doing the things you are doing... So when things get stressful or change (which they always do), you don't know how to adapt the system and instead abandon it in search of something new.
- Not taking the time to measure what is actually working or quantifying your results. No dashboards, no analytics, no data.
- And possibly the most important, not knowing where you are going. Not having a clear long-term or at least next-level vision for your business and your life.
Can you relate to any of these? I did all of these when I started my 1st business and I see others do them often.
So, how do you set yourself up for sustainable success?
- Know what success looks like. Make sure you define what would make you feel like things were successful - whether it is the launch of a new product / program, your whole business, or even just your day. Ensure it is realistic and on your own terms. In the words of Stephen Covey "begin with the end in mind."
- Quantify your success. While I believe it is so important to trust your intuition and pay attention to your gut, you also need real data. Data that can tell you if the things you are doing are taking you closer to, or further from, what you define as success. Put the necessary analytics in place so you can make informed decisions in your business.
- Make sure your success 𝗶s multi-dimensional: Find a way to balance your business with the rest of your life (yes, it is possible). Anyone can achieve success in the short term by sacrificing their personal life or healthy habits (I know I have definitely done both more times than I can count), but the only way for success to be sustainable is to span all important facets of your life. Leverage our proprietary "time pie" to define what this looks like for you. You can catch it inside our free Level Up Your Business Masterclass.
- Have a system for success: When you first start a business, you are in the "spaghetti stage" - throwing a bunch of things against the wall to see what sticks. But once you start to figure out what IS working, it's time to approach your business systematically and consistently stick with your system.
Helping entrepreneurs achieve true sustainable success is one of the core reasons I created the Lean Out Method and the 90 day Lean Out Planner and it's a big piece of my mission. I have seen way too many businesses go out of business by not focusing on sustainability and instead burning themselves out. As much as we all love our businesses, there is more to life than just business, and we should be able to enjoy and have success with it all!
How do you ensure the success you are building is sustainable for your business?
by Crista Grasso
Crista Grasso is the go-to strategic planning expert for leading global businesses and online entrepreneurs when they want to scale. Known as the "Business Optimizer", Crista has the ability to quickly cut through noise and focus on optimizing the core things that will make the biggest impact to scale a business simply and sustainably. She specializes in helping businesses gain clarity on the most important things that will drive maximum value for their clients and maximum profits for their business. She is the creator of the Lean Out Method, 90 Day Lean Out Planner, and host of the Lean Out Your Business Podcast.
