Is your business plan aligned to your personal plan? What does success look like to you? For your business and for you personally. How will you know when you have achieved success?

Success can take many forms. The media and marketing worlds would have us believe it is wealth. Dragon’s Den, The Apprentice, the movie Wolf Of Wall Street – all create the impression that we should be striving to become rich.

Wealth, however, isn’t always what it is cracked up to be. Just ask EuroMillions winner Gillian Bayford, who won £148m in 2012 and is now divorced and doesn’t speak to her brother, father or mother.

The importance of objectives

Having clear objectives is key for a business. It is key for the owners of the business. It is also important for the objectives of the owners to be aligned with the business objectives.

A great question for a coach to ask a management team or a Board is: “What is the objective of this company?” I recall asking this of two directors. One answered that he envisaged a job for life, working in the business for the next twenty years. The other director looked on, horrified. He thought they were planning on selling in five years’ time.

Having clear objectives is also a key benefit of coaching. Generally, this will focus on the running of the company but, for business owners, understanding personal motivations is inextricably entwined. What would I like my future to look like? And what will this lifestyle cost?

Understanding what the future might look like is key for business owners, and in particular what it will cost. What do you need the business to be sold for, not just what it might be worth.

How much is enough?

My newly-published book The Financial Wellbeing Book was written to help individuals answer the key question: “How much is enough?” It is a short, practical book which helps the reader create their own financial plan – one that is based around getting happier not just wealthier.

One of the five key areas of improving financial wellbeing is to ‘Create a path to identifiable objectives’. The book guides the reader as to how to create this path, but it also encourages seeking the help of others – friends, family, and for business owners, a coach – in identifying the objectives to which the plan will point.

Only once the business owner has clarity of their own future requirements can they begin on the plan for the business.

All proceeds from The Financial Wellbeing Book go to the Penny Brohn UK cancer centre, and is available from their shop http://www.shopatpennybrohn.com/collections/books-1/products/the-financial-wellbeing-book

For more information on financial wellbeing visit http://www.financialwell-being.co.uk/ and follow @FinWellbeing on Twitter. Podcasts are also available on the website to play or download.

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