SPOTLIGHT BUSINESS Priorities and Balance for the New Year Katelyn Radtke discusses the importance of not only making goals, but also chang- ing operations so you can meet them. I 14 recently attended a business training session, and the host asked a room of 200 business leaders from all different industries, “Who in this room has a vision for their business?” Every hand in the room flew into the air. Then they asked, “Who in this room has that vision written down?” and more than half of the hands in the room dropped. Next, the host asked, “Now, those of you who have this vision written down, how many of you read it on a monthly ba- sis?” At this point, there were only a dozen people leſt with their hands raised. The final question asked was, “Of those remaining, who reads their business vision on a daily basis?” There were only two people leſt out of 200 or so attendees with their hands raised. Both are top performers and credited their success in the past year to their consistency and commitment to their vision. On the surface, locksmith companies can appear quite different from one another. For some, the business revolves around their own single truck and their individual KEYNOTES JANUARY 2017 bitions. For others, the business en- mpasses a mobile fleet, an office staff, refront(s) and more — and there are nty of folks who land somewhere in ween these two extremes. For any all business owner, it’s expected for u to wear many different “hats” and o what it takes to make your business cessful, especially at the beginning r during difficult times. Running any iness comes with its challenges, but ndustries that center around skilled des, the day-to-day challenges are of- compounded by a different, constant ancing act. e Big Challenge r locksmiths, this balancing act includes iness-owner responsibilities on one hand and a passion and vast knowledge of the trade in the other. This means that our budget makers, business leaders and goal setters may easily be caught spending more time writing invoices than draſting business plans. It can be very difficult — and seemingly impossible at times — to focus on the operations of your business when you fit very well into one partic- ular aspect of the business as a securi- ty specialist. Balance may not be easily achieved, and it looks different for each business owner, but there are few things more motivating than setting goals and moving through your routines with confi- dence in your and your team’s daily efforts. Time moves quickly when your schedule is packed every day with appointments and, before you know it, six months or even a few years can pass when you realize that you haven’t made any progress in man- aging the business itself. When goals are set in motion, time can fly by in a positive way, and efforts become second nature. Whether yours is a company of one or a company of 20-plus, there is much to be gained by working on your business and not just inside of it. When this time WWW.ALOA.ORG
