What is your definition of success in your business?

When people talk about success in business (or lack thereof), far too often we assume they’re talking about the financial status of their company. 

To be fair, profitability is often what they’re referencing. 

Financial performance has been ingrained in our culture as a key marker of success, often used as the standard for measuring or comparing our own business achievements. 

And while the bottom line in your business is important to some extent (unless you’re solely running a hobby business you do need to be profitable in order to protect your long-term sustainability, pay the bills, and maintain your lifestyle) – it’s not everything. 

This narrow focus on the bottom line overlooks some of the more unique, individualistic, and non-monetary elements of business that can define success for you.  

Let’s explore some alternative success metrics that might inspire you and influence how you craft and grow your business moving forward.  

Innovation, creativity and vision

Starting a business involves the exploration and development of new skill sets. It means embracing your creativity, being an innovator in your industry, and bringing your vision to life. 

Maybe success to you simply looks like building a business that allows you to utilize new parts of your brain. 

Maybe it means continuously expanding on your ideas without the same limitations you had in your previous corporate job. 

Maybe success simply looks like having fun, pursuing a passion, or proving to yourself that you are capable of taking on new challenges. 

The beauty of entrepreneurship is having the freedom to shape your journey and define your success in whichever ways are meaningful and fulfilling to you. 

Client wins and realizations

You likely created your business to support people in a specific area, or to mitigate pain points your ideal clients are experiencing. 

Quite often, your service offering or product is linked to a problem you experienced and worked through in your own life. 

This personal attachment to your work and services means that there is often an enhanced sense of satisfaction and accomplishment when you’re able to make a difference in a client’s life or business. 

Take some time to consider how you feel about the work you’re doing and the value you’re providing to your industry. 

Maybe you find success when a client experiences a win, or has a realization that changes the way they look at life or the way they do business. These moments are powerful reminders of your impact!

To expand on this success, ask your clients for regular feedback. Stay curious and remain open to change, knowing that continuous improvement will support you in delivering the most value possible. 

Use this information to further develop your offerings and maximize your impact, recognizing that when your clients thrive, so do you.

Feeling confident in how you’ve set up your business structure & workflows 

Do you have dreams of selling your business one day? Or expanding your team so you can reclaim more of your time or have a bigger impact on your industry?

If this resonates, maybe an important metric of success for you looks like feeling confident in your standard operating procedures (SOPs), your network, your team, the funnels you’ve crafted, the tools and tech you’ve implemented, your internal systems and processes, and/or your company databases. 

Together, these create a solid business infrastructure that can be shared and passed along. They give you confidence in knowing that you have a fully functioning business that has value beyond you. 

With the appropriate workflows and structures in place, you have the freedom to outsource your daily tasks, or to hand off your clients or entire business to take time off, reduce your workload, or retire completely. 

Your hours, schedule, and location flexibility

Does the standard 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday, schedule work for you? Do you enjoy working from the same location day in and day out? 

When you own your own business, you have the freedom to design it to fit within your lifestyle, not the other way around.

Maybe success to you looks like the ability to be mindful of how you plan your schedule and allocate your time: 

☐ Scheduling rest, relaxation, and vacation periods into your calendar in advance. 

☐ Saying no to opportunities that aren’t aligned with your vision, values, and/or schedule.

☐ Working with your energy levels throughout the day and week, crafting your schedule to fit appropriately within those energy peaks and valleys (where you can) for greater productivity and focus.  

☐ Being curious. Experimenting with your work environment and hours to find what brings you the most joy and allows you to be most productive. 

☐ Time blocking your days to minimize distractions and provide greater structure. 

☐ Setting limits on the number of calls you have each day or the number of clients you work with each month to effectively manage your energy levels and resources. 

☐ Setting boundaries around email, social media, and other tools so they work for you, not against you. 

☐ Batching your tasks to avoid constant context switching.  

☐ Aligning your product or service launches with your own energy peaks, internal clock, and calendar so you can follow through with greater ease. 

Ultimately, this metric of success comes down to making sure your business serves you and the lifestyle you desire. 

Quick note. Of course, you also need to consider your clients here. What do their schedules look like? How often do they need support? There’s always a balance to be found here between designing your dream life and schedule, while still showing up appropriately for your customers. However, I will say that whenever I’ve taken the time to rest or when I’ve revised my schedule due to my personal bandwidth, it hasn’t just been me that’s benefitted, my clients have too.

Knowing you’re operating within your values 

What values and beliefs are important to you? How do you demonstrate these within your business? What are you proud of that you are doing to make the world a better place?

Maybe success to you looks like giving back to your community with each sale. Maybe it means providing payment plans or accessible pricing to support those who otherwise couldn’t afford your services. Maybe success looks like committing to amplifying marginalized voices within your content or collaborations. Maybe it means hiring team members and actually paying them appropriately for what they do. Maybe it means committing to ethical marketing. 

Making the decision to align your values with your business isn’t always easy. Sometimes it means walking away from lucrative opportunities or having uncomfortable conversations. 

But this is your business. You get to decide how you show up and the difference you want to make. 

And when you build a business focused on creating positive change, you’ll experience a feeling of success that’s hard to match elsewhere.  

Your mental and physical wellbeing

Mental and physical well-being is an area of success that’s often overlooked but cannot be overstated. 

You simply cannot sustain a thriving business if you’re not prioritizing your own health and happiness as well. 

Here are some ways to maintain an appropriate work-life balance: 

☐ Audit your relationships – your friendships, your local community, and your business networks to ensure you’re surrounded by a strong support system who you can connect with and reach out to when needed.

☐ Invest time into your self-care. Utilize tools like meditation, deep breathing, and/ or journaling to calm your nervous system and reduce stress or anxiety. 

☐ Avoid overextending yourself. Schedule rest and relaxation proactively into your calendar.

☐ Set boundaries where necessary and supportive. 

☐ Recognize the signs of burnout and exhaustion and adjust accordingly. 

☐ Don’t overlook the basics – moving your body daily, eating whole foods, and staying hydrated.

☐ Learn to say no when opportunities, clients, or projects are not aligned. 

Which of these are important to you? Implementing any or all of these and sticking to them consistently could be an important measure of success for you and your business. 

Your journey, your success

All of these examples can be considered “a” definition of success, but at the same time, none of them are “required” for success.

Take some time to reflect on each of these areas and ask yourself if they’re important to you. 

For those that resonate, consider how “successful” you’d consider your business to be currently, based on these metrics. Adjust accordingly so you can move forward with more intention. 

And if you’re looking for more growth-focused success metrics, my blog post, “Business growth beyond the bottom line,” may provide some additional insights for building a well-rounded and sustainable business.