Episode 406: How To Set Your Business Targets For 2025
An essential consideration in building a successful business strategy is answering, “Where are you now?” As Adam Stott emphasizes, recognizing your current business state is fundamental before setting new targets or goals.
In this episode, Adam reveals his proven $10 million framework designed to help business owners achieve their 2025 business targets with precision and effectiveness. Beginning with his striking success story, Adam divulges the systematic approach that has consistently guided him to surpass annual goals.
Adam emphasizes the importance of strategic planning, transparency in assessing current positions, and setting attainable, exciting visions for the future.
Show Highlights:
- Three Rocks Strategy: Identify your current position, define where you want to be, and understand what is preventing you from getting there.
- Vision and Detail: Craft a visionary statement of where you want your business to be, with vivid detail and realism.
- Obstacle Analysis: List reasons you’re not where you want to be and turn major obstacles into focus areas or ‘rocks’ to smash.
- Action Plan: Develop a detailed month-by-month action plan to tackle these rocks, delegating tasks if you have a team.
- Consistent Review: Regular assessments and strategic adjustments are critical to maintaining momentum and achieving desired outcomes.
Links Mentioned:
Get your Business Growth Secrets SUCCESS PLANNER for FREE and profit like a pro: https://adamstottplanner.com/free-book47315172
Adam’s website: https://adamstott.com/?el=Pod
Watch the Episode on Adam’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/adamstottcoach?el=Pod
Connect with Adam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamstottcoach/?el=Pod
Join Adam’s network on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-stott-coach/?el=Pod
Coaches, consultants, and business owners – lower your marketing costs, increase ticket prices, and get more high-ticket clients: https://3daybrandbuilderworkshop.com/start-here?el=Pod
Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
[00:00:00] Adam Stott: How you can achieve any business target you want in 2025 using my proven 10 million dollar framework that I have been using for years and years and years and years and we’re about to reveal exactly the steps that you need to build out your targets. and see them through to completion every single time.
[00:00:19] Let’s jump in.
[00:00:24] Well, if you’re a business owner and you’re watching this, my name is Adam Starr. I’ve been running businesses now since 2008. My first business, I’ve got to over 40 million pound in revenue. I’ve had multiple businesses since that I’ve driven past eight figures in sales. And I’m going to show you in this video, how you can make sure that your 2025 goals and targets.
[00:00:49] Come to completion. It’s a framework that I’ve been using for many, many years, taught to me by one of my mentors that allows me just before the start of each year, I go really, really deep into building out what I want to achieve for the next year. And this has worked so effectively that pretty much without fail, every single year, every target that I want to achieve comes true.
[00:01:13] There’s a bit of strategic thought in this. So you might want to save this video, make sure you’ve got the link to hand, because this video is going to be one that you want to rewatch, revisit, because it’s very in depth, very in detail, and it’s really going to allow you to strategize out and create some killer plans for your business where you can really see yourself grow and monetize.
[00:01:33] So when setting your business targets for 2025 and making sure you hit the target every single time. This is how we start. So we’re going to look at the three rocks strategy, which is exactly how we build out our targets and see them through to completion. So it is a very step by step. So the first step that we need to take you from where you currently are to where you want to be is we need to know.
[00:02:02] Where are you really? So the first step is we’ve got to figure out where am I now? So if you’re taking notes, you want to write that down. Where are you currently in your business journey in order for us to create change and get to where you want to be, we’ve got to be really transparent about where we are.
[00:02:22] What are the challenges we’re facing? What have we done today? What have we accomplished and get very, very clear on that. Now the second question becomes really, really simple. Hey, look, if this is where I am now, where do I want to be? Where is my goal? When you look forward into the future and I say, Hey, this is where I am now in 12 months time from now, because we want to set our goals on a yearly basis.
[00:02:48] So we’re looking at 2025. We said, right, this is 2025. Where do I want to be by the end of 2025? And the way we do that is, where are you now? Where do you want to be? This allows you, and why does this matter? Because some of you are like, oh, okay, yeah, you know, well, I get some idea of where I want to be and I’ll work towards it.
[00:03:05] This is the thing. Most business owners don’t take enough time to be strategic when it comes to planning their objectives. And a little bit of time out. To work on where you want to be and to tap into the vision can really allow you to stay laser focus. So if you’ve ever suffered from distractions, you ever suffered from overwhelm, confusion, it’s probably because you haven’t done this exercise that we’re about to talk about.
[00:03:30] This is an overwhelmed buster, right? This is a confusion buster that just gets you faster results. So the first step is where are you? So how you do this on the first step, step one, is you write a synopsis of where you really are. You’re like, Hey, this is where I’m at in my business. This is how much revenue I’m doing.
[00:03:48] This is how many clients I’ve got. This is what I’m experienced on a day to day basis. And you really get this down on paper and you’d be really transparent with yourself. Don’t tell it better than it is. Don’t tell it worse than it is. Just tell it how it is. Is this is also awesome because in a year’s time, when you look back on it, you go, well, that’s where I was.
[00:04:09] I’ve come so far, which is pretty incredible. So you write a synopsis of where you are. Hey everyone. Hope you’re enjoying the podcast. We’ve got a free training that I’m doing right now online from the comfort of your own home called stand out brand. What this does is it shows business owners how to get noticed on social media, stand out, Get more leads and get more sales.
[00:04:31] So if you want to make more money in your business, head over to adamstop. com forward slash SOB. That’s adamstop. com forward slash SOB and join us on the free three day workshop, stand out brand. The next part is we tap into the vision and we say, okay, well, we know where we are. Where do I want to be in 12 months time from now?
[00:04:56] If you were to wake up, let In 12 months time from the moment that we’re currently at now and you were to wake up and you were to open your eyes and you were to get up a bed and you were to look at where your business was at in a year’s time, what would put a big smile on your face? What would you say?
[00:05:12] Wow. Yeah, I smashed it. I did a really, really good job. You know, I made so much progress. What would be the thing that That would allow you to say that to yourself and really see improvements in your life. That’d be really, really cool. So this is where you get into the visionary. Now, what happens when people, especially if you’ve had a tough time, so if you’ve had a tough time this year, and this year has not been great, and at times you felt like it’s been tough and you said to myself, Oh, you know, it’s been really, really difficult.
[00:05:42] What that does is that takes away the creative brain space to be able to look into the future because we’re so caught up into the day to day. We’re chained to the addictions of the business and it can feel tough to get into that visionary state. So I suggest that when you do this part, this is pretty easy.
[00:06:00] You know where you are, but when you do the visionary part, you want to take. a little break. You want to take a little bit of time out. You want to get into a place where you can sit in your thoughts, really, really look at where do you want to be and be quite strategic about that. And I want you to describe that in vivid detail.
[00:06:20] So same as we did here, we described it, we put it down on paper. I want you to describe the vision of where you want to be In really vivid detail, what will you be doing with your time? How much money will you have made? You know, what is the position of the business? What progress have you made over the course of a year?
[00:06:40] And you’re literally like writing it down, writing it down, writing it down. You get really, really clear on where you’re going. Now, what a lot of people do, and you don’t want to do this. It’s a lot of people like, well, you know, I want to be a billionaire in 12 months. And the reality is. You know, you haven’t made your first 100, 000 pounds.
[00:07:00] So the likelihood of you going from 100, 000 pounds to a billion pounds in 12 months is just like, unless you win the treble rollover lottery, you know, which is the billion pound prize, it ain’t going to happen. So what you don’t want to do, and obviously I appreciate, there’ll be many of you that are doing millions a year that are watching this as well, but what you don’t want to do in this context is set the vision so far away That you become despondent the minute you start.
[00:07:29] Because some people are like, well, if I can’t get there, I don’t know why I’m even bothering. Right. And they switch off instead. The strategy we want to use is we want to say fast forward 12 months. What would I be happy with? What is progress? Because if we were to do that every year, and this is what I said, I’ve been doing this every single year, every single year, you’ll just keep getting better every single year.
[00:07:49] You keep getting better. Imagine where you’re going to be in a decade. You’re going to change everything in your life over the course of 10 years because you just keep growing, keep growing, keep growing. But a lot of people don’t start because the goal seems too big. So what you want to do is you want to make the vision.
[00:08:04] a vision that excites you. You want to make the vision a vision that inspires you. You want to make the vision something that you’re like, yeah, you know, that would be awesome. I’d love to be there. But you also want to make it attainable if you work really hard, because what that will do is once you’ve got it written down on paper and you’ve described it all, it will get really, really clear.
[00:08:26] And then we’re going to work on it. Work out the how and how we get there, right? Which is very, very simple. So you got your first two steps. Your first step is write down where you currently are. Get that vividly. Secondly, write down where you want to be. Where are you traveling towards? So we’ve got that here too.
[00:08:46] And then the third step, which everybody presumes. If I was to say to you, what’s the third step? Everyone would go, well, how do you get there? And that’s what people would say. But I don’t want to ask you that question. I want to ask you a different question, and a different question which is an important question because it’s really going to identify and open up what you need to do to get there eventually is, why are you not there already?
[00:09:12] If that’s where you’re at and that’s where you want to be, why are you not already there? What is it that’s missing that means you’ve not been able to travel to that destination? Something’s missing because otherwise you’d be there already. Now it could be, and your response might be, well, it’s just time.
[00:09:36] And at the time we’ve all had the same 24 hours in the day. So I haven’t had the money. We can all find the money. I was like, I don’t know how to get there. That’s fine. So we can do a bit more with that. And we want to understand. Now on that third question, the question I’ve asked you, you know that you want to write down one, you want to write down two.
[00:09:54] You also want to write down number three. Why?
[00:10:00] Now the more transparent you are with yourself on number three, easier it’s going to be to get you everything you want in the next year. That sounded incredible. Okay, so no softness here. We just want to be really, really clear on why it is that you’re not there. And this is you writing down all the reasons.
[00:10:26] So maybe it’s like, you know what, truthfully, I haven’t worked enough. My work ethic’s been lower than what I expected. I watch Netflix every night. So I’ve not been working on the business. I knew I needed to hire people, I didn’t hire the people. I didn’t take the risk. I didn’t find a coach. Whatever it is that you feel has been the thing, you want to write it all down and get as much out.
[00:10:48] You’re trying to really get everything out of your head onto a piece of paper. And when you’ve done that and you just like literally got it all out of your head, everything you can think, you know, maybe it was some stuff to do with money. I had this bad thing come up with money and that stopped me. He’s like, write it down, get it there, you know, and really look at it.
[00:11:05] It’s like, oh, okay, well, I haven’t got the people and I don’t know what people I need. And, you know, maybe it’s like, well, my brand isn’t known yet. Well, why is it not known? And you’re getting everything out of your head, get it all down on a piece of paper. And then what we’re going to do, we’re going to circle the three or four things.
[00:11:22] that are really holding you back. The three or four things that are really holding you back. And this is the ideation process to actually get to the core of what’s been stopping you from achieving everything you want. And we’re going to jump into that in a moment, but, but literally, if you do, What I am telling you to do and you you download this video and if you’re on Premium and you can download it or you you save this video whatever it is, or you know, you give yourself The right time to do this properly.
[00:12:00] This can see you achieving everything and anything that you want in your life. It really can this process, because it’s happened to me, you know, every single year I do the same process. And, and every single year I’m able to be really transparent and honest with myself when, and now I do this with my team and I have a board meeting where we do this, uh, which is incredible.
[00:12:19] And we, we work this out. So, so it’s really, really important that you give this the time and you do it in the right way. So now that you’ve done that. And you’re, you’re starting to get that all out of your head and you’re writing it down, you pause, come back, whatever it is, and you get it all written down, what we do is we circle those important things, and these become what we call our rocks.
[00:12:38] So our rocks, and these are some typical ones, right? Our rocks are the things that we need to do and we need to smash. We need to smash our rocks because our question number four is of course, how do we get there? So we now want to know how do we get there? So if we’re going to go from where you currently are and we’re going to go to where you want to be, there is going to be a journey over the course of these next 12 months.
[00:13:12] So we’re going to go on this journey and we’re going to end up in the place that you want to be. Now all the things that you’ve just wrote down, the reasons you’re not there. Three of those reasons, or four of these reasons, are going to represent real big roadblocks. that are reasons as to why you are not currently where you want to be.
[00:13:32] These are the danger roadblocks. Now what’s very important if you’re doing this process properly, and I’ve coached many, many, many people to do this process properly, where we get right into it, but on the fact that you’re watching this as video, we want to make sure you do it properly. So you’ve got major roadblocks, they’re rocks, and then you’ve also got pebbles.
[00:13:55] The pebbles are little things. The pebbles are the day to day. They’re like, well, you know, I’ve got this going on, that going on. All these little things, the rocks are the major things. So let’s just, uh, let’s, let’s look at a scenario. Let’s say that your business is turning over a hundred thousand pound a year and you know, your vision is that you want to be.
[00:14:20] a million pound business in in 12 months and we’re very clear. This is where we’re currently at. This is where we want to be. We say, why are you not there? And you’re going to come up with loads of reasons as to why you’re not there. You go, well, you know, um, uh, I’ve only just started, you know, I haven’t had the money.
[00:14:38] I haven’t had the time. I’m not sure how to do it. I, you know, all these different aspects that you’ll come up with. But fundamentally, there are three big reasons that you’re not there. So for example, if we were really to break this down in this scenario, one of the reasons that you’re a hundred thousand pounds rather than a million pounds is you don’t have the people.
[00:15:02] Because you know, you build a hundred thousand pound business with very few people, right? You can even build a hundred thousand pound business. You work on your own, right? You can do that. Done it right. Many, many times. But if you want to build a million pound business, it just can’t be you on your own anymore.
[00:15:19] And until you invest in the people, you’re not going to be able to move from your a hundred thousand to your million, because it’s a critical investment. Element is that making sense? Hopefully that does make sense You realize that’s a rock and once we understand that we’ve got a rock there The next question would be well, you know the other reason so if we were to get the people Will that take you from a hundred thousand to a million so we’ve identified one rock If I went and got the people, would I go from 100, 000 to 1 million?
[00:15:56] Well, more than likely not, because you’re going to have to spend some time with those people. You’re going to have to train those people. We’re going to have to get those people selling. We’re going to have to get those people understanding your offers. We’re going to have to, you know, we’re going to have to manage and lead those people.
[00:16:15] And we need to figure out what are the elements that You haven’t got right now and we’re going to need to potentially if you’ve got one product now that’s making 100, 000 and you’ve been doing that on your own and you start to bring, you know, you bring a few more people into your business, maybe another big rock is we need to expand the product range.
[00:16:36] That could be a big work. And you were like, okay, well, if we got the people and we expanded the product range, would we be at the million pound? Well, then you have to say, well, if you carry on getting the customers that you you’ve got, and you do a little bit more, is it gonna make a difference? Well, probably you’re not going to 10x the business.
[00:16:57] So we’re probably going to have to do a lot more marketing because you’re looking to do 10 times more business and you only went and got three more people and added two more products. So now actually we need more eyeballs. We need people to see. So we’ve got to start marketing, investing ads and driving more traffic.
[00:17:13] So now the question would be, okay. We’re 100, 000 pounds. We go and we expand the team. We expand the product range and we expand the amount of people, the amount of eyeballs coming into the business. Will that get us to the million pound? Well, now we’re starting to devise the plan to take you from where you are to where you want to be.
[00:17:31] And hopefully you’re getting this now in your mind. In your situation, as you’re sitting there listening to the sound of my voice and watching and hearing what I’m saying and you’re seeing the board, understand your rocks are going to be different and every single person’s rocks are different. Often, having done this exercise with many, many, many, many of my clients, often there’s a rock where the business owner is a rock themselves and the rock ends up being you.
[00:18:02] Imagine this. Imagine you’ve got the people, you’ve got the product, you’ve got the marketing, uh, you’re a hundred thousand pound, you’re driving the business, driving the business, and you’re like, oh yeah, but you know, I don’t believe I can do it. I’m not going to hire the people. I don’t believe I’m going to make money.
[00:18:18] I don’t believe people want my product. Well, actually, your mindset is stopping us. From going on that journey, your understanding of investment, or maybe it’s like, oh yeah, but I can’t afford the people. Well, then we was like, okay, well, the capital in the business is the rock. Whatever the rock is. Our job, which is the next step, is to smash that rock to smithereens and clear the path from where you are to where you want to be.
[00:18:47] So we establish that. Now, in order to help you, because I’m not sitting next to you, it’d be easy if we were sitting together and I’m working with you on this and building it up. But in order to help you to understand how to do this, as you’re sitting there and you’re listening and watching, What you want to look at is, these are typically, these could be rocks.
[00:19:07] So money is often a rock. You know, that can be a rock. And if money is a rock, you haven’t got the capital, and then we know it’s a rock, we’ve got two choices. We can sit behind the rock, and stay where we are, or we can smash the rock to smithereens and move forward. So how would you smash the money rock?
[00:19:27] Well you’d find the money, whether you borrow the money, whether you raise the money, but your efforts, if you can’t move forward because you haven’t got the money, we’ve got to smash that rock before anything else. So that’s our mentality. And that’s the way we look at it. We look at it very, very easy.
[00:19:42] It’s like, this is where I am. This is where I want to be. There’s a few reasons I’m not there already. Which one’s the most important? Well, money’s the most important. Okay. Well, first things first, we better go and find the money so we can move past stage one. Now what’s the next important thing? Well, I ain’t got the people.
[00:19:57] Now I’ve got the people move through stage three. Now I need the market. And right. Well, I don’t know how to market. So I’ll get the training. I’ll become better at marketing. Bang. I’ll move towards where I want. Very simple. So money can be one. Often. People, customers, maybe you haven’t got enough customers, maybe you haven’t got enough clients, maybe you haven’t got enough people, we’ve already mentioned people.
[00:20:18] Could be it. Could be brand. Maybe your brand doesn’t stand out, not enough people know who you are, you’re really good at what you do but no one knows it, you’re the world’s best kept secret, well if that’s the case we need to work on our branding. You know, maybe it is, you know, your own personal development.
[00:20:35] Maybe it is, you know, your mindset, your beliefs about how far you can go. Uh, maybe it is the vision in itself is an issue. You can’t actually visualize where you’re going that climb up the mountain that we’re going on. Maybe it’s a skills issue. Maybe you know that you want to be able to drive the business, move the business forward, but you really hate selling.
[00:20:57] Well, if you hate selling, it’s always going to hold you back. So we’ve got to get that skill. So one of these might be, well, I need to improve my skill. I need to improve my team skills. Okay. Maybe it is time. Maybe it’s like, Oh, I just don’t have the time. You know, I’ve got 13 dogs. You know, I’ve got my wife, I’ve got my husband or whatever it is.
[00:21:16] I’ve got four kids and I just, I haven’t got the time. So he’s like, well, unless we smash that time rock, we’re not going to be able to get you towards the vision. So we’ve got to look at what these big issues are. And this is how you can absolutely smash any rock and get your goal. So what do we do next?
[00:21:34] We smash the rock. Really simple. So this is my, uh, four like hammer, all right, that we are going to use to smash the rock in your life. So this is the way that we smash the rock and get you moving towards your goals and get you everything you want out of your business. The way we smash that rock is simple.
[00:21:55] First of all, we identify Well, what is the rock?
[00:22:05] So we need to know what the rock is and then we need to say to ourself Well, if we smashed this rock and this rock smashed apart What would that look like to where would we end up? Okay, also nice to say well How would you feel if you finally got that skill? So because it gets you more emotionally attached to, to the outcome of, of smashing that rock.
[00:22:33] And now you’ve got a clear vision of, okay, well, that was my rock. That was the rock. What will it look like when it’s completed? I’ve smashed this rock apart. And what will it feel like? So this is one, two. So in those simple steps, okay, now you’ve got a clear vision of, of smashing the rock to pieces. So what this allows us to do, it allows us to look at the end.
[00:22:58] So this is the end result.
[00:23:05] As we know, smashing this rock up, you can see from the diagram, We’re not going to hit it once and it’s going to break apart. You know, if you, for a decade of not hired the right people into your business, just because I told you on a YouTube video, go and hire the right people doesn’t mean the problem’s solved.
[00:23:23] It means that we’re going to have to do some more work on it, which is why this is going to help you to achieve any business goal you want, because we’re going to be really realistic about it. We’re going to look at the end result of what that actually looks like, which takes us to month 12. And then we’re going to say, okay, this is where I want to be.
[00:23:42] This is what I’m gonna do month one, and you break it down. You smash a rock into 12 pieces. I’m gonna hit this rock 12 times. I’m going to smash it to pieces. I’m going to achieve what I want to achieve. And I’m gonna do this in Jan. I’m gonna do this in Feb. I’m gonna do this in March. I’m gonna do this in April.
[00:24:03] I’m gonna do this in May, June, July, August. August, September, October, November, December, this is where I’m going to end up being. And what that’s going to do, is that’s going to help you to smash apart that rock. And this works no matter what you said it was. It’s like, okay, skills. You said you don’t know how to market your business.
[00:24:23] Alright, well, straight away, I’m going to spend two hours a night watching Uh, YouTube videos on marketing, uh, and then going to read three books on marketing. I’m going to attend a training course on marketing. I’m going to get a marketing coach, wherever it is. Your actions are what take you towards the completion of the goal.
[00:24:44] So in 12 months time, this is completely. Completed it is out of your life. You’re you’re moving forward and you can see I’ve got some W’s up here So what do the W’s mean? Well, some of you that watching this are one man and one woman armies If you are one man or one woman army, tell me in the comments It’ll be great to hear about your business here How you’re going to be implementing this and some of you will will be you’ll have a team you’ll have other people that will be that you’re working with.
[00:25:15] And again, be really awesome to hear about your teams, hear about your challenges and how you’re using what we’ve discussed in this video. Right. And for those of you that have got a team, we we’ve got a treble W here, and this simply stands for who, when, what, so this gets your plan and allows you to delegate the plan.
[00:25:42] So literally who is the person that is going to take care of, um, This, who’s going to smash my rock month one, okay, when are they going to smash it by, when’s that smash going to take place and what is it they’re going to smash it with to get rid of that, that chip and get that problem going. Now if you do that month after month after month after month after month after month after month, that’s what allows you to drive your problems away and get you in the place where you can start moving forward.
[00:26:13] And this results
[00:26:19] in you smashing these rocks out of the way to clear your path to going towards where you want to be. I have been using this process for many, many, many years now. It works. It’s proven. All you’ve got to do now is take the time to strategize out what we’ve discussed, put the plan down on paper, take massive action and you will see yourself move towards any goal you want.
[00:26:52] This can help you achieve anything and everything you want in your business. You might be watching this in 2025, 20, so whenever you’re watching this, It doesn’t matter. The principle applies. I’ve used it year in year out to do millions of millions of millions of millions of dollars to create amazing results.
[00:27:08] I hope you’ve enjoyed the video. And if you have enjoyed this video, maybe, you know, a business owner that could also benefit from there. So go and hit the share button, share this out with somebody else so they can go. and plan their goals. You know, that’s how this YouTube channel grows. And I would appreciate your assistance if you found value in today’s video.
[00:27:31] And I’d love to hear everything that you saw in the comments. And if there’s any extra areas that you would like clarification on, you want to know, yeah, but how do I do this bit? And what would you do about this? Ask away in the comments and I look forward to helping you. Thanks again. See you very soon.
[00:27:47] Hey everybody, Adam here and I hope you loved today’s episode. Hope you thought it was fabulous and if you did, I’d like to ask you a small favor. Could you jump over and go and give the podcast a review? Of course, I’ll be super grateful if that is a five star review. We’re putting our all into this podcast for you.
[00:28:05] Delivering you the content, giving you the secrets. And if you’ve enjoyed it, please go and give us a review and talk about what your favorite episode is. Perhaps every single month I select someone from that review list to come to one of my exclusive Academy days and have lunch with me on the day meeting hundreds of my clients.
[00:28:24] So if you want that to be you, then you’re going to be in with a shout. If you go and give us a review on iTunes, please of course, do remember to subscribe so you can get all the up to date episodes. Peace and love and I’ll see you very very soon. Thank you.