Maintaining momentum when you move on from your business

Following on from my last article on moving on from your business, this article gives tips on how to maintain momentum. When I first left Young & Connected, it was partly due to personal circumstances, and taking a break was what I felt was best for my wellbeing. After a while however, the days rolled into weeks, and then before I knew it, it had been a month. That was fine at the time, but I realised how easy it could be to slip into permanent relaxation mode and lose momentum on your goals.

Here are five ways to maintain momentum on your goals once you move on from your business.

Time to Evaluate

The worst thing to do when you leave one business is to jump to another straight away. Have an honest, focused, evaluation session, taking what went wrong and what could have been done better into consideration, evaluating yourself and the business separately. Convert each shortcoming into a lesson learnt, and document each one. Also document all of the good things you did, recognising your strengths, as well as the strengths of your past business.

Little Black Book of Ideas

As an entrepreneur, new business opportunities could come to you at any time. Start a Little Black Book of Ideas and write down each great business idea you have. Doing everything at once might not be possible, but your little black book will be a great source to re-visit anytime you need some inspiration.

Surround yourself with dynamic people

There’s nothing like surrounding yourself with achievers to gain inspiration. Hearing others’ success stories will inspire you to create your own, and keep you inspired to achieve your goals. Better still, start a circle with other dynamic people and meet up regularly to share ideas and discuss challenges.

Read up on what other entrepreneurs are doing

Staying in touch with the industry is important as it helps you to stay inspired, spot the competitors and to stay in the loop with what’s going on around you. Most importantly, it helps you stay innovative. Understanding opportunities in the market and what others are doing could spark a prospect that you may have missed otherwise.

Just do it!

It can be hard to sometimes recuperate from the disappointment of an unsuccessful venture however; the best time to start something new is when you have just left another. After you have gone through the evaluation phase, use your learnings to create the business plan for your next venture while your learning is still fresh on your mind.

Some of the best entrepreneurs didn’t get it right the first time. Moving on from your business is a great opportunity to use your learning to improve your chances of success. Relish the experience you have gained, document it, evaluate it and use it for your success without losing momentum on your goals.

By Winnie Oudemans