We had a goal, not a plan

Sounds counter-intuitive...

...but sometimes that’s all you really need to get started. Knowing where you’re headed matters more than having every step mapped out.

Many times in my life I’ve had a goal, sometimes a crazy dream like opening an Aussie Pub in Sweden, sometimes just having some home-grown veggies! Regularly, I had no idea how I was going to make it happen or even if it was possible, but the goal was always clearly in focus.

Last weekend my husband and I completed our veggie patch! Not quite the big hairy arsed goal of starting a business in a foreign country, but we’d been talking about this year’s planting for ages. So, on Saturday we made a spontaneous trip to Bunnings and came home with an array of tomato plants, a punnet of capsicum plants and randomly some watermelon plants! We also picked up some basil that I’m determined to keep alive for once!

On Sunday, we got to work! My hubby had put up the frame for the shade house weeks ago, so we started on the shade cloth. Then it rained, it wasn’t cold so we kept going, which our dachshund took as a personal insult. He’d loved all the activity right up until the rain arrived, then retreated undercover like most dachshunds do.

We made it in the end, shade house complete, plants planted, us drenched and satisfied.

We didn't have a detailed plan for creating our veggie patch. We knew what we wanted, we had started with the frame, but how we were going to make that happen was a little fuzzy. The next step was easy, road trip to Bunnings!

Forget the how for a moment

Right now, there is a lot going on in the world and our industry along with most small businesses is facing rising costs, your business might not be quite what you had in mind when you first started. Somewhere between staff rosters, supplier invoices, those rising costs and trying to get more bums on seats, those dreams got buried under the daily grind.

What if you had a tribe of loyal customers who love coming back and help you build your business by telling everyone how much they love you? Sounds fabulous, but how?

If you could wave a magic wand and your business looked exactly how you wanted it to 12 months from now, what would that look like? Sometimes you just need to know the end game, not exactly how you’ll get there. A clear goal matters more than a finished plan, because the plan shows itself once you’re moving. What you need first is one piece standing, like a frame, so the next step has something to attach to.

A frame standing alone is still progress

Just like our veggie patch, it doesn't have to happen all at once. A frame on its own doesn’t look like much, it certainly wasn’t a shade house, but when our free Saturday turned up we didn’t have to decide where it was going, all we had to do was the next thing.

You start with one step, adjust when things don't go to plan and keep moving towards the bigger picture and sometimes you end up with a few unexpected watermelons along the way!

Clarity isn’t knowing every step

Waiting feels responsible. It feels like the sensible thing to do before you spend the money or tell the team or announce anything, but a plan that never reaches the end stays a conversation. Conversations don’t grow tomatoes. Meanwhile the goal sits there, a little older every month, waiting for a plan it never needed.

It’s different in a business, I know. There’s real money, customers watching and a team who’ll want answers. Your team needs to know where you’re headed and what happens next, not every step between here and there.

If you have a goal you keep circling, what’s your frame? Is there one piece already standing? Or are you waiting for the whole shade house to appear? It doesn’t have to be perfect, it can definitely evolve as you go. Dress for the rain, the dachie can supervise from under cover!