What Does “Enough” Look Like for You?
When someone says they want to make more money, I am not always convinced that more money is actually what they are asking for.
Sometimes what they really want is space.
They want to stop worrying every time an unexpected expense comes up. They want the freedom to make a decision without first calculating what it will cost them. They want less pressure, less anxiety, or simply a little more room between what they have and what they need.
Money just happens to be the thing we believe will create that space.
The difficult part is that most of us do not actually know what “enough” is when we first start a business. We know we want more than we have now. We may have a revenue number in our heads, but that number is often based on something we heard, something we saw someone else accomplish, or something that simply sounded like success.
Six figures.
Multiple six figures.
A million-dollar business.
Those numbers can become goals before we ever stop to ask what reaching them is supposed to change.
And I have done this too.
I would love to say that I have always had a perfectly defined financial target for my businesses, but I have not. Quite frankly, any consistent revenue would feel good because I also know that neither business has ever had all of my time and attention. There has always been something or someone else requiring a piece of me.
That matters when I evaluate what those businesses have or have not accomplished.
It would be easy to compare them to someone else's business and decide they should be further along. But I do not know everything that person had to do to reach their number. I do not know how much time they had available, what they invested, what they sacrificed, who helped them, what they earned personally, or what was happening behind the scenes while they were building.
We rarely know the entire story behind someone else's success.
Yet we will still borrow their finish line.
That is where I think we have to be careful.
Success happens in stages. Launching the business is a success. Making your first sale is a success. Breaking even is a success. Reaching the point where the business consistently covers its own expenses is a success. Paying yourself a comparable and consistent wage is a success. Hiring your first employee is a success. Building a business that gives you more control over your time is a success.
None of those milestones has to be the final destination.
But they still count.
Sometimes we become so focused on the number at the end that we dismiss everything that had to happen to get there. We treat success as though it only exists at the finish line when, in reality, most of entrepreneurship happens somewhere between where you started and where you eventually hope to be.
That is why “enough” probably should not be one number you choose once and spend the rest of your business chasing.
Enough may change.
At one stage, enough may simply mean the business can pay for itself without requiring money from your personal account. Later, enough may mean paying yourself consistently. Eventually, it could mean hiring someone so you are no longer responsible for every task. At another point, enough may mean the business gives you back something that has nothing to do with money at all: your time.
And maybe that is the better question.
Not simply, How much money do I want my business to make?
But, What do I need the money from my business to make possible?
Because if what you really want is less anxiety, more security, the ability to hire help, time with your family, freedom to travel, or the option to walk away from something that no longer serves you, then your financial goals should eventually connect to those things.
Otherwise, we can spend years chasing numbers that belong to somebody else's definition of success.
There is nothing wrong with wanting a highly profitable business. There is nothing wrong with wanting six figures, seven figures, or whatever number represents the business you hope to build. The number simply needs some meaning behind it.
What does reaching it allow you to do?
What changes when you get there?
And along the way, are you allowing yourself to recognize the milestones that tell you the business is growing, even if you have not reached the finish line yet?
Maybe we do not always need “more.”
Maybe we need to understand what enough would give us.
And then we can build toward that.
Until next time,
Crystal
OMAS Reflection Questions
When you say you want to make more money in your business, what do you actually want that money to change?
Where did your current definition of financial success come from?
What financial milestone have you already reached that you may not have given yourself enough credit for?
What does “enough” look like for the stage your business is in right now?
If your business eventually gave you more time, freedom, or security, what would you want to do with it?
