Happy New Year's Eve!

A quick one today with a little advice I've been building into the new yearly planning sheet within GM+ (you can join us in planning your year here).

When it comes to making plans that will actually help you grow your business, there's a step most people overlook.

A step that, when overlooked, leads to crappy goals that detract from your life instead of adding to it.

The step is simple.

You just have to ask WHY a goal is important.

Here's what I mean.

A few years back I started a business and poured about $25k into it.

The goal was to get it to a state where I could raise funding to grow it to the next level.

I did all the things you're supposed to...

• Validated offer
• LOIs and good initial client onboarding
• Hired a small team of contractors to help me build
• Started doing the rounds with VCs and networking events

And a bunch of other stuff you've probably seen bandied around in startup communities.

Wanna know something though?

I hated every second of it - especially dealing with VCs (nothing against them, it's just not for me).

I'd decided that I wanted to do this and raise money because I hadn't done it for myself before.

I've helped clients raise, and consulted at some companies that have gone through multiple rounds while I've been assisting them.

But I'd never done it for myself.

If you'd asked me why I wanted to do it, the answer would be purely ego-driven.

To prove I could do it.

Here's the thing.

If I'd stopped for even a second to think about why I was trying to raise, I'd have realised that raising VC money was not a good idea for me.

It actually goes against a lot of the things within the life I want to live.

I value freedom and ownership extremely highly. I want to be able to do what I want, when I want.

Raising money would have put shackles on me where I'm then indebted and beholden to people who see me and my business as a simple pay day.

Sure, I might be wealthier on paper, but I'd also be a lot more miserable.

Thankfully I snapped out of it before I did raise money. I ended up shutting the business down as I'd grown to hate it.

This is all a long way of saying, when you're planning your goals for 2025, make sure you're planning goals that actually build into the kind of life you want to live.

Ask WHY you think this goal needs to be achieved. And if there's no good answer, you're gonna have to rethink it.

If you want help, feedback, and then support on setting and achieving your goals, consider joining GM+ today where we're all planning out our years with the right kind of goals in 2025.

​ Check out GM+ now​

Speak soon,

Pete "I ain't raising" Boyle