5 Ways To Remain Accountable as a Business Owner

Do you have one of those notebooks filled with ideas and goals on your desk? When is the last time you flipped back through it? When is the last time you attempted to put any of those ideas into motion or worked toward those goals? Are there ideas you’ve forgotten about completely?

Taking accountability and setting higher standards for your business is one of the most important things you can do. With this mindset, you will be able to grow your company exponentially.

Accountability may seem like a simple concept, but in practice, it involves considerable work – both personally and professionally.

(See Firing Your Accountability Partner in the New Year)

Start by Working on Yourself

If you ask Andy Frisella, creator of the mental toughness challenge 75 Hard, business accountability begins with personal accountability: “Think about your biggest goals. If you are going to learn how to have personal accountability, you have to reverse engineer these goals into small, actionable steps. Take 5 of these actionable steps that will help you reach your goals, and make a plan to execute on these tasks every day. Write them down, these are your critical tasks. If you complete all 5 tasks, you win the day. If you do not complete all 5 tasks, you lose the day.” 

It seems simple enough, but executing those 5 critical tasks takes dedication, discipline, and grit.

Andy will tell you himself that he is nobody special. Before he started his first business, he was 330 pounds and broke. While he worked on his business daily, he also worked on himself daily and developed the 75 Hard and Live Hard programs, which have gone viral over the pandemic as people complete the challenges. Andy owns various successful businesses now, including 1st Phorm International and Supplement Superstores. Frisella offers free business and fitness advice on his weekly podcast because he is motivated to help others. To this day, he continues to work on his program every day, including those 5 critical tasks.

Keep Promises You’ve Made to Yourself

Do what you say you’re going to do. It’s as simple as that. If you worked for someone else and they asked you to take out the trash, you would take out the trash. If they told you you had to start work at 8 a.m., you would be there at 8 a.m. no questions asked. So if you’re working for yourself, make sure you set goals and promises that you intend to keep.

Consider why you may be breaking promises you’ve made to yourself. Be honest. Are you afraid of failure, or perhaps you’re fearful of success? In his book The Big Leap, author Gay Hendricks examines four ways entrepreneurs limit themselves due to barriers they are not even aware of. 

Hendricks explains, “one of the limiting beliefs is I’m fundamentally unprepared for what’s going on right now, or I’m fundamentally flawed in some way. I don’t have what it takes. That’s just a fear and can be dissolved by putting in a much more contributive belief in there.

“Like I do have skills that will serve this current environment, let me go deep and find out what my true genius is. And that’s really what I’m trying to do in The Big Leap is help people get beyond all of those fears. Not by being a Pollyanna positive thinker and trying to wish them away, but by acknowledging them, and then using the energy of those for that space of constant reinvention and renewal.”

Examining the ways you put up barriers to growth and success may reveal some obstacles you are placing on yourself and your team. By working through these obstacles, you can achieve the success you never dreamt was possible.

Set Goals and Keep Track of Them

Think of the big picture but check off the little things. Let’s say you are looking to grow your customer base. Breaking it down, you may decide that landing one customer a day for the next year will elevate your business to a specific goal.

If you say you’re going to focus on getting one customer a day starting Monday, don’t let 52 Mondays go by without making changes because you “got busy.”

Getting one new customer a day is something you and your team can focus on together. It’s a tangible goal, and even if you are your own team, then go after that one customer every day. 

By focusing on each customer’s needs and keeping them happy, your business will grow. A good reputation will lead to more business.

Goals become more attainable if they are broken down further. Let’s say for every 20 doors you knock on, you gain one new customer. It’s a numbers game, as most things in business are: so you know what you and your team need to do to gain that one new customer a day: knock on 20 doors each!

Tracking your goals can be a piece of the puzzle that many business owners miss. Go back to your notebooks and look at all the brainstorming and goals you wrote down. How many of these things did you break into S.M.A.R.T. goals, and how many of these things did you think to track?

Unless you track your goals, you’ll find it difficult to measure your success and ultimately celebrate it. Conversely, you’ll have a hard time fully learning from mistakes. According to Boardview, “More than 80% of small business owners don’t keep track of business goals.” 

Dedicate time each week to revisit or revise goals, or pivot altogether to move forward productively with your team. Collaborating on goals with your team will keep them focused and engaged.

Celebrate Your Victories

People who are successful ensure they take time away from work for vacations and nights out to celebrate their wins so they can refuel and recharge. This keeps your team motivated too. We cultivate and experience happiness in our everyday lives by sharing wins and cheering one another on.

Take your team out for a dinner or invest in a night they would all enjoy, like ax-throwing or an evening at a theme park with their families.

Entrepreneurs and business owners can benefit immensely from celebrating their wins because it boosts their motivation and ignites their inspiration. Celebration doesn’t have to be limited to just the big wins either: there are no trophies in entrepreneurship. It’s okay to celebrate the little wins too. Treating yourself to a special coffee or something small to celebrate a small win is enough to perk you up.

Join a Mastermind for Accountability

As an entrepreneur, joining a mastermind group allows you to develop an accountability team. It is an incredibly inspiring, eye-opening, and beneficial experience to be in a mastermind group as a business owner or entrepreneur.

Sharon explains why she decided to check out the Bay Area Mastermind and what she thought: “I came to the event to network and meet more people and it was just so exciting to hear your success stories and know that people are really making connections here.”

Or Ryan Crownholm who shared how “Joining the Bay Area Mastermind is one of the best things I have done for myself and for my business. The one day a month completely recharges my entrepreneurial juices and I have a virtual advisory board available by email for the in between time. I take away so much actionable information that I regularly apply to my business. As a result my business has grown by 60% and profits have grown by 400% since I joined.”

When we spend time with other business owners, entrepreneurs, and working professionals, we can develop new ways to succeed, find new ways to increase our business visibility and presence, and find new ways to hold ourselves accountable in the process.

Mastermind groups provide you with opportunities to network with others in the business world, exchange ideas, clarify your goals (and get solid advice on how to get there), and so much more. You’ll be more likely to act on your goals if you make your plans known to your group members.