Why I’ve Thrown Revenue Goals Out the Window

In the last three months, I’ve thrown my revenue goals out the window.  Tossed ‘em in the street for others to drive their cars over and trample across while walking their dogs.  Why?  Because working toward an always-growing-never-satisfying dollar figure is a sure-fire way to miss out on life, lose your balance and be consistently unhappy. Now, I know that some of you will shake your head and say to yourself, “What a naive approach to running a business!” but that’s okay with me.  I’m happy.  Really, really happy.  Happier than I’ve been in a long time and I’m going to share with you why that is.

Working toward a dollar figure is only good until you hit that dollar figure.  Then, you want more.  You NEED more because your lifestyle has risen up to greet your new found income.  Chances are, you’ll find yourself needing to launch more, do more, be more, have more, desire more and pretty soon, you’ll feel like you’ve run out.  You’ll sit at the newly acquired revenue goal and think to yourself, “To keep this up or to exceed it, I just need to work EVEN HARDER!”  This is where revenue goals become a bit tricky.

If you’re in a business that is scalable, fantastic.  Growing your company’s revenue may not affect you personally.  However, if your time, expertise, content creation, management, ideas, etc. are required in order to keep the business churning forward and growing, get ready to experience massive burnout.  You may hit your revenue goals but just try to keep them there for any sustainable length of time without falling flat on your face OR losing your life in the process.

About six or seven months ago, I was a disaster.  Really.  You probably didn’t know it (or maybe you did and were just too polite to say anything) but I was basing my success on how much money my business brought in.  Revenue goals ruled my life.  My husband would come home from work and I’d talk first about how much I had earned that day as though that was my sheer existence.  I wasn’t talking about the relationships I had built, the conversations I had had, the ideas that sparked my passions… nope, I was basing my self-worth on the worth of my company in any given day.  In fact, I wasn’t even asking him how HIS day was.  I was just focused on the revenue.

This worked well for awhile… until the dollar figures levelled out.  I then started to feel pretty darn crappy about what I was doing in my business.  When the revenues weren’t rising up, up, up, I fell down, down down.  Forget the fact that my business was still doing multiple six figures and I was living a comfortable lifestyle… nope, my self-worth was directly tied to whether or not I was going to reach that elusive revenue goal.  For me, the revenue goal was a million dollars before thirty (looking at this now, I think WHY?!  Why is everyone on the planet running toward a million bucks?  Is that, for some, the key number at which all things become perfect?)

So, I decided to make a change.  I hired a therapist (yep, not ashamed to admit that I spent some time in a comfy chair every Thursday from 11am – noon!) and got clear about why I was running a business and what I wanted out of life.  I realized that my scale was really full on the work side and the success side but the other side, the personal, intimate, awesome life side, it was embarrassingly empty.  I had no time for my husband, no time for friends and the choices I was making were all focused on making a million dollars.  I realized, in that chair, that I wanted to become a mom and I wanted to sleep more and I wanted to have more time for video games.  I wanted people to see me for me and not just for what I earn or what I could achieve.

Now, I’m in an amazing place.  I earn enough money to pay my bills, to afford what I want and to have a nice lifestyle.  I don’t make a bucket load of cash, I don’t have a giant mansion on tons of property and I don’t have a closet full of designer goods (just one really nice Marc Jacobs bag and some Michael Kors shoes!) You know what though?  I’m happy. The choices I make in my business are no longer revenue-driven… they are inspired.  They are chosen because of my true passions, my true ideals and led by the desire to want to help others rise up and create businesses that let them shine.  Being happy and leading my business with heart is a much better choice for me than leading my company for the $$ attached to it.

As for the businesses I run, they are doing better than ever.  However, I am measuring their success based on the EXPERIENCES people are having inside of my companies.  The value they are receiving, the options they have, etc.  Not everything is driven by the dollar and it’s changed the landscape of my business dramatically.  I realized through this process that I really can have the best of both worlds…  An incredibly happy, fulfilling life and a business that supports it.

What about you?  Are you a revenue-driven business owner or do you run a business for other reasons?

Related posts: