Tag: business success

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Redefining Success: What Does It Really Mean to You?

Post author By Debbie Bailey
Post date 01/03/2025

Have you ever found yourself chasing someone else’s definition of success? Perhaps you’re measuring your achievements against arbitrary financial milestones, or feeling like you’re constantly running on a treadmill of “what’s next?” without ever feeling satisfied?

You’re not alone.

Recently, I shared a LinkedIn post about my dream life costing less than £10K per month after tax. The response was overwhelming – it seems many of us are questioning traditional definitions of success and wondering if there’s a better way to define what truly matters.

The Problem with Traditional Success Metrics

We’ve all heard them:

“You need to hit 10K months”

“Aim for six-figure years”

“Your first million by 40”

But what do these numbers actually mean? Are we talking profit before tax? After tax? Revenue? Cash in the bank?

More importantly, what do we actually achieve when we reach these dizzy heights of success? Does hitting an arbitrary number suddenly transform our lives into exactly what we want them to be?

The truth is, we’ve become caught up in measuring success by wealth, status, and possessions. But what if success isn’t about the numbers at all? What if it’s about something far more meaningful?

What Does Success Mean to You?

Take a moment to pause and reflect. What does success actually mean to you?

Is it:

Financial stability?
Personal growth?
Strong relationships?
Freedom to choose how you spend your time?
Making a positive impact?

For me, success is about having the freedom to choose how I spend my time. It’s about pursuing my passions, picking my son up from school, giving him opportunities to try clubs and learn what he enjoys, being able to say yes to attending the school play, and going on adventures to explore the world together.

It’s about living in alignment with my values – like sustainability. My son knows I don’t like plastic, and that’s my value shining through to the next generation. That feels like success to me.

Values: The Foundation of Authentic Success

Our values play a crucial role in defining what success looks like. Without understanding your core values, you risk chasing a version of success that will never truly satisfy you.

What are your core values? Here are some to consider:

Fairness
Leisure
Responsibility
Respect
Fun
Joy
Trust
Vulnerability
Family

Use your own words to identify what matters most to you. Then ask yourself:

Do I currently live in line with these values?
When was I fully living these values, and how did it feel?
What did I see, hear, and experience during those moments?

These reflections help reveal what you truly want your life to be.

Creating Your Dream Life Plan

Once you have clarity on your values, you can create a meaningful dream life plan. This isn’t about setting arbitrary financial goals but designing a life that brings you genuine fulfilment.

Your dream life plan might include:

Holidays that allow true relaxation
Owning your own home
Having more time and choice
Not stressing about business finances
Supporting charities you care about
Accessing private healthcare
Having time or money to support your family

The specifics are deeply personal, which is why it’s so important for you to explore what you genuinely want. I encourage doing this exercise with your partner and children – it often leads to fascinating conversations and shared visions.

I did this with my family at the beginning of the year. This weekend, we’re attending a concert my partner mentioned back then as something he’d love to do. Because we wrote it down, we made it happen.

Real-Life Examples of Living Your Values

Finding True Relaxation

For years, I’ve taken school half-terms off, but I never truly relaxed. This summer was different because I started working with a VA last year. It took time to work out what to delegate and how to collaborate effectively, but this summer, it all came together.

I had an important all-day speaking engagement and simply didn’t have time to get everything prepared. My wonderful VA Gemma produced a professional brochure that was better than anything I could have created myself, and she did it while I was on holiday. When I returned, everything was ready for my event.

Having that support is now my reality, and perhaps it could be part of your dream life vision too.

Patience in Property Dreams

One of my clients wanted to purchase a property, which we started discussing in 2020 when I asked about his big life goals. At that point, he had the desire but no plan, no numbers, and no idea how his business would help achieve this goal.

Now, he’s had an offer accepted and is just waiting for the keys. We’ve transformed a concept from early 2020 into reality – his dream life playing out in real time.

I share this story because redefining success doesn’t mean everything happens overnight. It took four and a half years for this particular dream to materialise, but he consistently took steps toward it. The journey matters as much as the destination.

Taking Steps Toward Your Definition of Success

Redefining success is a process that begins with questioning societal norms and understanding what truly matters to you. It continues with aligning your actions with your values and creating a vision for your life that excites and fulfils you.

Remember:

Identify your core values
Create a dream life vision based on those values
Break down that vision into actionable steps
Track your progress not just in numbers but in alignment and fulfilment
Celebrate the journey, not just the destination

Ready to Redefine Success on Your Terms?

If you’re tired of chasing someone else’s definition of success and want to create a vision that truly aligns with your values, I invite you to take my free “Get Financially Fit” quiz. This will help you identify your relationship with money and success, and provide personalised recommendations for creating a life that’s meaningful to you.

Take the Get Financially Fit Quiz Now >>

Ready for more hands-on support in redefining success? Consider booking a 90-minute Financial Fit Booster session or a series of four Financial Strategy Sessions to create your personalised roadmap to success on your terms.

What does success mean to you? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

Tags business success, dream life vision, financial freedom, life planning, personal definition of success, personal finance, success definition, values-based success, work-life balance

Business tips Finance Function

Successfully grow you business

Post author By Debbie Bailey
Post date 12/08/2020

Successfully grow your business

Looking to scale your business? Many leaders rightly focus on improving their systems and teams, but you must also scale yourself to meet the new demands on your time and attention.

There are three fundamentals to successfully growing your business: having a clear organisation structure, having comprehensive systems, and developing great leadership.

Many leaders focus on their systems and teams when looking to scale, which is important, but they must also focus on growing themselves.

This article focuses on growing great leadership skills:

Most reasons why businesses fail, directly and indirectly, point to leadership failure.

From poor planning to poor hiring, poor delegation, poor communication to poor process, poor capacity to poor execution – most things can be fixed with great leadership.

Scaling the business will make new demands on a leader’s time and attention and it’s critical that these are both focused on the right things:

1. Planning.
Setting a clear vision and relevant business goals, regularly reviewing progress, and resetting goals to drive performance improvement.

2. Inspiring.
Motivating others to achieve more than before; showing them their potential to make an impact.

3. Empowering.
Enabling your team to find their own solutions by guiding them with your support, trust and encouragement.

4. Culture.
Demonstrating allegiance to the team and standing for the business’s core values.

5. Innovating.
Continuous improvement in people, product, and process.

6. Personal growth.
Developing and supporting your future leaders with mentoring and guidance.

Great leadership is about influencing others in the direction of a common goal.

While there can only be one leader of a business, there are several departments that need individual leaders. People can lead multiple departments initially but, as the business grows, should look to empower others and delegate the leadership of some departments.

In the book “The Emyth revisited” by Michael E.Gerber he talks about creating an organisational chart and giving each job a job title and a job description. Your name may be at the top of these at the beginning but as you scale these are the roles you will need to recruit for. It is important that you understand your strengths and grow as a person, so you can delegate effectively.

On a scale from 1 to 10, how well do you rate your performance on the above six categories? Where can you scale your leadership? Need help? Get in touch.

1. Book a call with me: https://debbiebaileymoney.co.uk//contact-us/

2. Download our free guide on “7 mistakes to avoid – to stop your fitness business running out of cash” https://debbiebaileymoney.co.uk//fitness-ebook/

3. Download our free Coronavirus support guide: https://debbiebaileymoney.co.uk//coronavirussupport/

4. Connect with me on social media:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/southbourneaccountancy/

https://www.facebook.com/debbie.hancockSA

Tags business growth, business success, fitness industry, leadership, planning, scale

Business tips Finance Function

Why businesses fail without good bookkeeping

Post author By Debbie Bailey
Post date 08/06/2020

Why businesses fail without good bookkeeping

Don’t drive your business blindly – ensure your business is viable.

Bookkeeping is the recording and classifying all the financial transactions in your business. It’s keeping track of what your business spends and what your business receives

Excellent bookkeeping is essential to any business and contributes to one of the top reason’s businesses fail. Yes, Cash is King but without good bookkeeping how can you possibly know how much cash is going in or out of your business? A cash forecast is a complete waste of time if the data you are putting into it is nonsense.

Stop blinding driving your business and take action now, ensure you have good financial records. Not only is this key to having a good business, it is also a legal requirement to maintain accurate records!

Still not convinced then keep reading:

Tax – will be a nightmare

It is a requirement of HMRC that you file a tax return each year, yet every year business owners across the UK are scrambling to get their paperwork together. Is this you?

If you do not keep accurate records it is likely that you will miss key business expenses and therefore pay MORE tax. Good records enables good tax planning.

The tax payment happens every year, so wouldn’t it be nice to know before the deadline how much you need to pay? Excellent bookkeeping will bring you one very important step close to this. You can even start to forecast what the payment might be and start to put aside an amount every month.

Imagine having all your financial information ready for tax time and instead of looking in your email inbox, various cloud accounts and folders in your office, it could be all in one central place (yes, I mean accounting software with invoices and bills stored in the software).

Peace of mind – Don’t let your health be impacted

Not knowing if your business is profitable, if you can afford to withdraw dividends and if all your hard work is paying off can play heavily on a business owner. They can feel like they have the weight of the world on their shoulders. Do you ever wonder if it is all worth it?

As a business owner you have so many things to organise, surely worry about bookkeeping is not top of your list?

Having your financial records organised will allow you to sleep peacefully at night, you will not have to feel anxious when it comes to year end. This will allow you to have the head space to work ON the business and focus on whats important to you.

So take back control – get on top of your bookkeeping.

Cash in your bank – don’t hit a cash crisis.

Organised financial records will enable you to understand the cash flowing in and out of your business. You will be able to see exactly what you spend on (is it worth it?) and where you earn money. With a clear picture of how you spend you can really begin to take control and grow your business.

Do you pay your suppliers on time? Could you have a better working relationship with those suppliers, maybe secure a discount if you paid earlier. If you pay your suppliers on time they may be more willing to help you with quick turnarounds on stock.

Have you been paying for services even after you have stopped using them? Maybe you have been doing this for month. Yes I have seen this, the business is completely unaware of the fact that they have been paying out thousands unnecessarily.

Do you receive payment from customers on time? By having accurate up-to-date records you will know who owes you money and how much. This will put you back in control and ensure the cash is sat in your bank and not theirs! You will understand who are the serial late payers. What can you do to get them to pay on time?

Cash is king and good bookkeeping ensures you can successfully track it.

Do not wait until the business is unable to pay for something critical, take action now!

Budget

A budget is a financial road map for your business, it helps you to plan for future expenses and understand when you can afford to invest in some of those larger purchases. When your accounts are correct it makes it easier to review your income and expenses. This in turn will make it easier to create a useful budget.

Organisation – reduce anxiety

Bookkeeping is the organisation of financial information which is very important if HMRC decide to select your business for an audit. It is much less stressful if you can simply show HMRC your cloud accounting software, with all your records nicely organised. This will give them confidence in the numbers you have filed.

It is not only HMRC who will be keen to see tidy accounts, if you are looking for investment or a loan, these stakeholders will also expect you to be able to present financial accounts, forecasts and budgets. All of which you need accurate data to be able to produce.

Business Analysis – make good decisions

Do you know which product or service is your highest performing or do you simply guess?

Excellent bookkeeping will enable you to analyse the business. You will be able to see which product/service is bringing in the most revenue, which is contributing to the overhead costs (such as rent) and which product/service is costing you money.

In order to make the best decisions possible, you need to have access to all available information. Bookkeeping provides this information.

With better information you can make better decisions.

Profit and Growth – in business to make a profit

Is your business profitable or not? The income statement is a key document for understanding if you are making a profit. Bookkeeping is important as it feeds the income statement. Without good bookkeeping it will be impossible to know how well (or not) you are doing.

By having accurate monthly accounts you will be able to track your income and expenses overtime. This will enable you to identify trends. Which month was your most profitable? Why was it more profitable? What did you do that month that was different to previous months?

By understanding the trends you can start to compound the positive actions and reduce the negative actions.

Investors – don’t let them run for the hills

If you are looking for investment then it is key to be able to quantify the value of your business, financial statements will do that. Investors will want confidence in their investment and the balance sheet, income statement and cash flow statement all present the value of your business.

The key to accurate and reliable financial statements is excellent bookkeeping.

If you were a potential investor, would you have more confidence in the business that had an organised system for financial records or the business that took a month give provide the information due to poor bookkeeping?

Fraud – don’t let fraudsters raid your bank

Keep accurate records will help to combat fraud, if someone hacked your business bank account, would you know? It is your responsibility to check transactions and report fraudulent activity.

Legal requirement!

It is a legal requirement as a director to ensure that accurate financial records are kept for the business. Failure to comply can result in a fine and disqualification as a director. You must be able to provide information on all money that was received and spent, debts the company owes, stock the company owns etc.

Do you believe me now?

As you can see, bookkeeping is the foundation to many other important aspects of your business. Make sure your foundations are right and you will have a better chance of having a study business.

If you need to implement a bookkeeping process, consider hiring a professional to help. Bookkeeping can be complicated, even classifying a single transaction can be unclear and this could be a costly mistake.

Consider trying the bookkeeping services Southbourne Accountancy offers. No longer would you have to worry yourself about your company’s books. Leave it to the experts! Contact us today and ask yourself: How will I use bookkeeping to benefit my business?