It got me thinking about how often as adults – especially as solo entrepreneurs – that we feel like we’re just running round and round in circles. The problem for us is that it certainly isn’t fun. When we feel like our businesses have stopped growing and like all our hard work is no longer moving us forward, it’s easy to get exhausted and discouraged.

Over the years, I’ve found 3 places I look first when trying to pull myself and my business out of a “rut.”

1. Business plan

Traditional business plans generally include things like an executive summary, mission statement, description of products & services, company vision, goals & objectives, and an overall financial plan. All of these things are important, and if you don’t have them on paper – you should. However, what I’m talking about here is a detailed model that lays out clearly how you intend to achieve your target revenue goals.

Each January, you should decide how much you would like your business to earn for the year. Then, map out precisely what it will take to reach that number. Itemize the different products and services you currently offer as well as those you will be introducing. What are the prices of each product and service? How many of each will have to be sold for you to earn the amount you want?

This process will firmly direct the daily, weekly and monthly tasks and activities you will have to implement to achieve your revenue targets. Each month, you will want to evaluate your progress to determine if you are on track or if changes need to be made for you to reach your goals. Achieving this clarity of purpose goes a long way towards staying on the path of progress.

2. Marketing, marketing, marketing!

Show me a company that isn’t marketing their business in multiple ways and constantly introducing new and fresh marketing ideas – and I’ll show you a business that is stuck.

Draw a circle on a piece of paper and divide it into 8 slices like a pie. Now fill in each slice with a different way you are currently marketing your business. Some examples might include: advertising, articles, joint ventures, networking groups, etc. Many of us will find we can only fill in a few slices. To achieve constant and lasting growth we need to be able to fill in the entire pie – and that’s at a minimum! Adding additional marketing sources that you use on a regular, consistent basis will help your business take a leap forward.

3. Delegating

Let’s face it – there’s a lot that needs to get done to run a small business. Success comes faster to those of us solo entrepreneurs who realize that we simply cannot do all of it ourselves. My virtual assistant is one of the best additions I made to my company 6 years ago and now I cannot imagine life without her. Assess the work you have to do and figure out what other people can help you with. Find individuals you trust who understand the message of the company.  Delegating can be one of the hardest things to do for a small business owner who is used to running the show.  Being able to hand over the reigns and trust that things will get done the right way, is a big accomplishment.

Consider developing an operations manual and task descriptions to create a smooth transition.  Knowing what you want people to do and having them understand their responsibilities as it pertains to the job, makes for a much better run business.

The next time you find yourself running in circles it should be because – like my son – you really want to! At Abundance Bound, we teach small business owners and solo entrepreneurs how to effectively focus on the areas that will give your business the healthy kick start it needs to get you moving in the right direction. Visit http://www.AbundanceBoundSystem.com for the support that will put you on the path to success with your small business.

The next critical step to creating success as a small business owner, is figuring out exactly where you would like to end up.  Where you are going is almost as important as your starting point.  It gives you a destination, a target, a place on which to set your sights.Think about an entrepreneur that you really admire – whose business has the size, scope and profits that you imagine for yourself. You can be very sure that behind the scenes there is a business plan, one that was put in place when the organization was born and one that is centered on a Vision.  In this business plan, the entrepreneur will have laid out where they want to be in 1 year, 3 years, and 5 years.  They will know what their ultimate goal is in very specific terms.

But for many small business owners, our Vision doesn’t extend that far beyond just wanting more money.  We know we are tired of struggling to pay the bills.  We hate the fact that we’re buried under debt.  But because our financial vision is not SPECIFIC, our plans tend to be equally vague – leaving little mystery around why they are often never actually implemented.

Think of your financial life as a road trip.  You know where you are starting – New York.  How many of us would actually get in our cars and start driving, without having actually decided where we want to go?  Now let’s say that you choose Miami.  Well, because you have your starting point AND your destination, you can plan exactly how you’ll get there.  You may plan it in stages.  You may stop to see some of the sights along the way.  You may even take a wrong turn now and again, but because you know where you’re headed, you’ll quickly be able to make corrections that will put you back on track.

Continuing this analogy, let’s say that you had indeed made a wrong turn on your way to Miami, and ended up in New Orleans. You might like it there, maybe even enough that you consider staying, and giving up on ever getting to Miami at all. You have a nice place, are happy with the climate, and have made a few friends. If your concept of Miami is simply “somewhere nice”, then you may be content to stay where you ended up, because it is simply too much effort to move on. What does it matter if the weather isn’t exactly what you wanted, or your house is not quite what you had imagined? Where you are is an improvement over where you were, so you give up your travel plans, and settle in.

How different would it be if your general dream of “Miami” became an actual vision of what your life would be when you got there? What if you had researched and found the exact condo you wanted on South Beach? You knew the purchase price, the mortgage payments, what your view would be, what the good local restaurants are. You knew what friends you had down there, what car you would drive, what you would wear on the beach, and where to find the best snorkeling. Your vision of your life in Florida encompasses everything, from lifestyle to partner, business success to financial abundance. How content would you now be to settle in New Orleans? Chances are, not very. And yet that is what we all do. Repeatedly. Because where we are is better than where we were, and the immediate discomfort it might take to move on overshadows the pain of staying.

At Abundance Bound, we take entrepreneurs through an exercise of creating a “3-Year Vision.” This involves writing down a detailed vision of where we want to be in 3 years time, and being as specific as possible about it. It is not enough to say “I will be rich”: you need to know what that means. To some that may be a passive income of $8,000 per month, living in a condo in a respectable part of town, and driving a new Jetta. For others, making $20,000 per month, and living in a house in Beverly Hills with a Porsche in the driveway would only be halfway there.  When you read your Vision you should feel happy – you should feel a sense of excitement and joy as you paint a vivid picture of where you want your life to be. And you should use that excitement to fuel you as you move forward.

Writing down your Vision will play a huge role in whether or not you reach your destination. From this will develop your action plan, which is your journey broken down into manageable pieces, and the specific, measurable goals that will comprise each step of that plan. It is absolutely critical that you fully visualize the end result and know clearly and vividly where you want to go.

Come to http://www.AbundanceBoundSystem.com for all the help you need drawing your personal entrepreneur’s  road map from point A to point B. We’ll support you along the journey and make sure you reap the benefits of careful planning and hard work.