what does success look like to you?

the favourable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavours; the accomplishment of one's goals.

the attainment of wealth, position, honours, or the like.

a performance or achievement that is marked by success, as by the attainment of honours.

a person or thing that has had success, as measured by attainment of goals, wealth, etc.


Success and business are two words that are inextricably linked. Very few people set up their own business and don’t set out with the goal of being “successful”. The problem is that many of us don’t have a clear understanding of what success looks like.

‍You’ve just hired your 10th employee, is this success? You’ve seen year-on-year revenue increases for the past 3 years, is your business successful now? A client has written a review talking about how much your business has helped their wellbeing, can you now say your business is a success?

‍This is where marketing plans fall apart and why businesses can often get stuck in a cycle of moving from one client to another, always looking to push forwards, without really assessing if the company is moving in the right direction to begin with.

First you need to understand what success looks like to you and your business. This is a place and time somewhere in the future, in which you can state that a number of things, that have value and meaning to you, are true about your business.

What’s important is to clearly define this vision of success and most importantly write it down. Writing down your goals and objectives is scientifically proven to help increase the likelihood of you achieving them.

It is important that you regularly review this company vision and assess if this is still relevant. For a startup business hiring your first employee might represent a  success, but once that’s been achieved it’s important you don’t rest on your laurels. Reassess and create your new vision for success that will help your business take the next step.

Once you’ve found your (relative) endpoint, you can now work backwards and identify all the small steps which you need to take along the way. These should be a series of short term, achievable and controllable goals. Like climbing a set of stairs it’s impossible to reach the top without working your way up step by step.

By tracking these short term successes you help create a positive feedback loop which will increase overall confidence, and therefore your belief, in your ability to achieve the next goal and the one after that and the one after that.

So where does marketing fit into this? Marketing integrates with and impacts a number of these small steps, and your marketing plan is your written and clearly defined methodology for taking these small steps.

‍So ask yourself, do you currently have a plan for marketing your business? And is that plan aligned with your overall company vision? If you answer no to either of those questions then it’s time to reassess and get your marketing back on track and working for your long term company vision.