Last week I reconnected with a client after four years. The client was keen to have a conversation about the challenges the business was facing after a period of sustained growth.

I started the conversation with requesting the client review their achievements since we last met. To help this process, I provided the client with a copy of what the owners envisioned the business would look like in five years from the last conversation.

The client approached that review with trepidation as they had not looked at the vision since our last conversation. However, they were thrilled when they realised what they had created was that they had dreamed of four years ago including:

• Separate showroom and office space
• An online filing system was in place
• There was a larger team engaged in the business
• The annual turnover was greater than set out in the vision
• The owners were drawing an FTE salary

For all that success, one piece of the vision was still outstanding; being the business owners taking four weeks annual leave each year.

As a result of that exercise the conversation continued with a view to how to structure the business to run more efficiently thus allowing the owners to take a holiday each year.

The learning from this conversation was that when we write something down it improves the chance of remembering it and acting upon it. Studies show writing things down increases the chances of success by a factor of between 1.2 and 1.4!