What Do You Really Want?

This is part stream of consciousness and part strategy.

Here’s a business idea that’s worth adopting. You don’t have to wait until the beginning of the year or quarter.  Just start. What do you really want?

The idea is the belief that heart-centered goals are more important than number centered goals. Yes, you read that right. 

There are always multiple ways your CPG business can go: white label, building a production facility, co-packer, and so forth.

Success can come in different ways. Doesn’t matter what your goals are and how you measure success. What matters is that at least one of your goals is feasible.

To begin with, in thinking about setting goals, how do you set a benchmark for how many accounts to open?  Is it a good strategy to go all-in on Amazon sales or landing that one, big retail account? Not to mention, how do you forecast sales when, given your current cash flow, you don’t know if you should go all in this quarter or ease up?

It’s hard to put numbers on goals when it feels like there are so many possibilities that would also work.

What do you do? Set Heart-based goals.

(Eye roll)

Heart based goals chase the intangible. A state of being. A gut check. On paper, it doesn’t fit in a framework in a “smart goal” strategy. In a word, that’s ok.

Business-minded folks (and your financial advisor) wouldn’t advise this. 

If we don’t set heart-based goal, why are we choosing this path of entrepreneurship? I started Crafted Kitchen to break down barriers and provide access and opportunities to small food businesses. The goal was (and still is) a desire to create a feeling rather than a specific metric.

In summary, I’m not saying ditch numbers-based strategies. We need them and, as can be seen, we can lead our businesses with both a numbers-based strategy and a heart-based strategy.

What’s a heart-based goal? It can be around spaciousness or rest or self-care. 

I think it’s time for businesses to be run differently. To do something different. To consider various ways of measuring success. There are people behind the business, and people aren’t numbers. 

Here’s a prompt for you:

Stop what you’re doing for 30 seconds and listen to the thought in your head. The first thought, because it’s generally the right thought.

How do you want to feel this quarter. 

When you have the answer, make the commitment.

So, what do you really want? We’d love to hear about your small food business. Schedule a call! Or maybe you want to soak up some more knowledge. In fact, besides renting flexible commercial kitchen space in Los Angeles, we’ve got tons of free resources to help you turn your side hustle into a success story.

Crafted Kitchen offers flexible kitchen rentals. Rent a kitchen today!