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Plant your goal posts!

Plant your goal posts!

This past week I was reflecting on 26 years of owning Able Cresting Ltd. It is interesting to look back at the successes, failures, trails, and fun times. We learned so many lessons along the way.

In the early years, we did not have a plan for how the business would grow. If there was a 10-point plan on how to start and run a business, we obviously did not know about it! Point #1 for us…make a living, pay the bills and work hard. Point #2, hmmm, I guess we never got there during those years.

I would listen to industry speakers, take seminars on what we should do, all of which sounded very good. But when it came time to put it into practice, we could not find the time. Running a business is a full-time job and does not leave much time for thinking to the future. But not thinking about the future is a big mistake! If you want to grow a business it is necessary to take the time to dream, plan and develop basic goal posts for your business

Along the way we started to think about what Able Cresting was all about. We could see that to grow the business we needed some guiding principles put into place. What really was Able Cresting?  How did our faith fit into the equation? How did our family fit into the equation? All good questions, but so little time to get it done.

Ten years after starting the business it was time to put pen to paper, think deeply and figure out our goal post (Core Values.)

It has taken several years, but we now have the guiding principles to show us the way.   A mission statement that broadly states what we do and why. 5 simple points that govern how we operate, conduct ourselves, and provide direction for the future. 

You might ask, why did it take so long? Frankly, because I thought I was not literate enough to put these ideas down in a way that provide insightful ways to communicate the principles.

You might feel that way too, but it is not true. Who better to tell the story and develop the guiding principles other than the owners?  Be brave, bold and reach for the moon. Once you develop your goal posts, then stick to them, be brave and strong to live by them and do business by them. I have heard it said that you need to keep business, personal, and religious beliefs separate from each other, but that is not true. Your goal posts reflect who you are as a person, business owner and corporate citizen. You likely can’t separate them if you tried.

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