Before the introduction of sat nav it was necessary to plan your journey in detail. Firstly, you would take out a map and identify exactly where your destination was. Next, you looked at the shortest distance from your starting point, then you identified the towns you needed to pass through to get there. You made sure that the car had enough petrol, water, oil and anything else it needed and then set off on your journey.

With your list of towns you followed the road signs, stopped off to re-fuel or have a snack and if you missed a turn you re-evaluated your situation and made course adjustments as necessary.

Those who made the same journey without a detailed map would more than likely get there eventually but it was a much longer journey as they found themselves getting lost along the way and it was certainly more expensive in terms of time and money.

Question – have you a plan in place to get you to next December or will you be driving blind and hoping for the best? My 5 step programme to destination ‘Success’ starts with where are you going, where are you coming from, what resources do you need, what resources do you have, now let’s go and benchmark our progress.

January is a great time to set your course for the rest of the year and then benchmark your progress every month, but you cannot do that unless you have a route map. Unfortunately, many business owners have plans that are inaccurate, incomplete or both and so find themselves frustrated as they struggle to achieve the results they hoped for. Even worse is the cost in terms of time and money which could have been avoided. How do I know? I was that soldier in my early days of business until I met an experienced guide who showed me the correct path. This mentor was not an academic but someone who had traveled the path before, someone that had been at the coalface and who knew the highs and lows of running a small business. As someone who has more than 40 years of business experience I reflect on those early days and realise how easily the frustration and disappointment could have been avoided had I taken the time to speak to an experienced guide.

If this is something that you are experiencing, why not have a chat in confidence and without any obligation whatsoever. Today I take a small number of people on a journey to their destination ‘Success’ whatever that looks like for them. Each individual has their own expectations, priorities and time line to get there so it is important that their individual plan reflects that.

Why not schedule a call and take the first step to putting a ‘P’ in your January.