5. Expect setbacks to happen | 10 tips to take care of your future, while you’re taking care of business

Your business is valuable, but your life is valuable too. And just as you would build in contingency to your business, so you should for your own plans.

“The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” – Robert Burns

To this day, we’ve yet to see a concrete example of a mouse that planned anything, with far less research into whether or not its plans went awry, but here’s the kicker… your plan will.

The best laid plans

That’s not to be flippant or downbeat, it’s just a fact. A huge part of planning is planning for the unexpected and that’s not as counterintuitive as it may sound. Of course we can’t plan for specific occurrences months or years into the future, but to make sure we’re not blindsided we can build in contingency and flexibility.

Again, it’s something that’s probably second nature to you in the context of your work. While you’re finessing Plan A for expansion, you’re also building in Plan B, just in case Plan A comes up short. You make sure the business can continue to function in the face of projects that fall through or take longer than expected. You measure twice, cut once.

Biting the bullet

We all know that drawing up a business plan that assumes the right result 100% of the time would be a foolhardy thing to do. But we need to be able to apply the same logic when we plan our own future. It’s not easy because while the things that go wrong in business are things like disappointing results, lengthening deadlines, contracts we don’t win, the things that go wrong in life include illness, relationship problems and of course, people pass away.

But it’s important to plan for the worst for two reasons – so you’re prepared for it, and so that it’s done, out of the way and you can get on with enjoying your life. You know the old phrase, “Cheer up it may never happen”? It’s true, it might not, but it’s much better to have a response ready to roll.

Let us guide you

Over the coming weeks we’ll be sharing ten tips to taking care of your future, so that you can focus on taking care of your business safe in the knowledge that it’s all under control.

If you can’t wait and want to get your hands on the guide in full now, you can download it for free here.

But let’s talk about you

We’d love to start that conversation with you, so why not set up a face-to-face meeting today?

There’s no commitment, it doesn’t cost anything to talk through your plans with us and we’ll always be honest – we’ll only get involved if you and Metis Ireland are a clear match, and where we all agree we can add real value to your life.