As a business owner, you want and need your business to run well. You obviously want your business to be successful. But have you stopped to think about why? 

We all have immediate reasons we want to be successful, and this is where a majority of business owners spend all their focus and energy. Everyone keeps score in one way or another, but remember you can have a bad day and still win the week. We can experience success in the short term, but we should also seek it out for the long term. 

We need to look at the bigger picture and begin to think about the legacy we want to leave behind.  

Your Legacy Begins Now

When most business owners talk about their legacy, they immediately think of their exit strategy. They start to plan for how to sell their business. Unfortunately, this view is incomplete. Your legacy is about more than just having a good exit strategy. 

As we get older, we naturally begin to reflect back on our career. We reflect on why we worked so hard over the years. And we feel a certain sense of urgency to make sure the business we worked so hard to build will continue to be successful for the ones we leave it to. 

This mindset is rare earlier into our career. The concept of a legacy may not be high on your priority list, but it should be a priority — at every stage — because starting with the end in mind allows you to achieve success both now and in the future. 

The Three Essential Facets of Success for Your Legacy

To leave behind a successful legacy you’re proud of that can be enjoyed by you, your family, and the future stakeholders of your business, we have to start by defining what success actually means for you. 

Here are the three fundamental facets of success, and how they relate to your legacy: 

1. Money 

The first facet of success is also the most obvious. Feed yourself and your family. We work because we want to earn money. We start our own business because we want to earn more money. 

If your business doesn’t generate enough money to sustain itself or to pay you a decent wage, then it’s not successful. Beyond basic survival, though, how much money a business needs to generate to be “successful” is subjective. In other words, it’s up to you as the owner. 

Do you want to enjoy the finer things in life now as well as later? Or, do you want to keep more earnings in your business to enjoy a potentially higher return later? 

You need this clarity, so you can start to measure your success now and take actions to get on the right path. 

Money also plays a big role in your legacy. The old days of working the same job over an entire career that culminates in a fat, guaranteed retirement account are, for the most part, over. That news is deflating to some, but for a small-to-medium-sized business owner, it’s a major opportunity.  

Why? Because you’re in control; you can decide how you want to retire, and you can use your business to help you get there.

Do you want to have a business that pays you continual income long after you’ve retired? Or would you rather take a large lump sum? These questions about your legacy depend on your individual desires and definitions of success. 

2. Satisfaction

Money may be the most obvious facet of success, but it’s not the only one. Satisfaction with your life and business is another facet. For most owners, this is directly correlated to the amount of autonomy and control they have over their own destiny. 

When we can make decisions that are based on our own priorities and not someone else’s, we tend to have a higher level of satisfaction. When we have the power to choose the exact type of clients we want to serve and employees we want to hire, we’re more likely to be satisfied. And the more satisfied we are, the more successful we consider ourselves. 

Satisfaction and control also play a big part in your legacy. When thinking about your exit strategy, you get to decide what happens to your business when you step away. Will you sell the business, or will you hand it over to future generations of your family, employees, or colleagues to continue growing what you’ve built?  

No matter what you choose, as long as it’s your choice and brings you the most satisfaction, it’s a successful aspect of your legacy. 

3. Time 

Time is the third facet of success, and while it’s often the most underrated, I believe it’s the most valuable of the three. 

To be truly successful, you must have the time to focus on what’s important to you. This applies to both your personal and professional life. 

Do you want to make more money? Time gives you the ability to find more profitable ways to generate income. Do you want more control over your destiny? You need time to plan and time to act. 

Time is the one thing you cannot buy. And when it’s gone, you can’t get it back.

In regard to your own legacy, one day you’ll look back and reflect on how you spent your time. And for many of us, the legacy of our businesses will be what it allowed us to do outside our business. Did you enjoy traveling with your spouse or loved ones? Did you impact society around you for good? Did you fulfill your charitable obligations?

What other wonderful things were you able to do with your life because your business gave you the time (and money, and control) to do it?

Defining Personal & Business Goals 

The best part of these three facets is that you get to define what each of them means to you. The amount of money, types of satisfaction and control, or quantity of time you need to consider your legacy successful will be unique to your experience. There is no magic number or perfect score. How you define success is up to you. 

While defining success for yourself is empowering to some, it’s an obstacle to others.

The number one reason most owners don’t spend the time thinking through their business legacy is that they focus too much on the business and not enough on themselves. It feels selfish to ask themselves what they really want. 

But is striving to fulfill your personal desires a bad thing?  That’s not selfish, that’s prioritizing.

Of course, there are exceptions to this, like when your personal desires cause harm to other people or to your business. But as owners, we often forget that we’re allowed to have personal goals and desires. We’re not forced to live a life of complete self-sacrifice and deprivation. 

If we’re not being personally fulfilled, how could we ever expect to perform at our highest level?

I would argue that not considering or pursuing our personal goals actually holds our business back from experiencing true success. 

Personal Goals

What do you want out of your life?  

You are the only one who can answer this question, and you’re free to change your answer whenever you wish. It’s not about getting it “right” — it’s about getting it out of your head and into your strategy.

Your personal goals should be reflected in each of the three essential facets of success. You can find these by asking the following questions: 

• What are my personal goals around money? 
• What are my personal goals around satisfaction?
• What are my personal goals around how I spend my time?

Business Goals 

Once, when I was talking to a business owner about his own goals and legacy, he said, “I plan on working until I die.” 

After some more digging I discovered that he’d abandoned any sense of an exit strategy. He’d let go of any plan he’d had of eventually leaving a business legacy behind. He simply didn’t think it was possible.  

As I walked him through this process, we were able to rediscover his personal goals and use them to construct a new exit strategy that was both practical and successful. 

Your personal goals inform your business goals, which ensures that you’re setting up your legacy for success. Now that you have clarity on your personal goals around money, satisfaction and time, how are you going to approach your business? 

Remember that most business owners only consider an exit strategy as they get closer to the end of their career. Even when some younger owners start to consider an exit strategy, they primarily focus on their goals around money. They don’t consider time or satisfaction.  

Honing your personal and business goals in the three facets of success sets you apart from every other business owner. It also ensures that you’re giving yourself a guideline for how to run your business today.

4 Discovery Questions to Get Started 

To put this into practice, start by asking yourself these four discovery questions. One major caveat to consider as you begin to think them through is that the answers can change. This is not about perfection — it’s about progress.  

1. Why are you building your business?
2. How do you make money?
3. Who are your customers?
4. What are your values? 

Remember that this is not an inherently self-serving process. This practice is about building your business legacy. It’s about looking within yourself first, so the success of your business reflects your personal definition of success.

Next, you need to share your goals with the people who can help you achieve them. This will help get everyone on your team on the same page and pointed in the same direction.

Expressing your vision to your team now is how you will achieve your lasting business legacy down the road. It ensures that when you look back in reflection, you look back in satisfaction at the business and life you dreamed of creating.