Black Friday Sale! 50% Off All Access

The Four Questions Every Entrepreneur Must Ask Themselves To Achieve Success in 2017 Envision what you want the year to look like and work backwards to reach your goal.

By Carrie Green

Entrepreneur+ Black Friday Sale

Our biggest sale — Get unlimited access to Entrepreneur.com at an unbeatable price. Use code SAVE50 at checkout.*

Claim Offer

*Offer only available to new subscribers

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Shutterstock

We all want to achieve incredible things in 2017. We want to have a bigger impact, create more growth and reach new business heights.

Creating this isn't going to happen by accident, it's going to happen because you make it happen.

In order to do that, you have to show up like never before for your goals and dreams. So how are you going to do that throughout the year?

Over the years of building the Female Entrepreneur Association, I've come to realize that there are some key things we must focus on in order build the business success we desire.

Ask you work toward your goals, take these four steps to make your vision a reality.

Related: 5 Powerful Rules for Women Entrepreneurs to Live By

1. Get clarity: What does success look like for you?
You need to be clear on what it is that you want to achieve. Close your eyes and imagine it's the end of the year. You're thinking about the year that's just passed and you feel amazing, because you accomplished some wonderful things.

Think about what you made happen -- what did you achieve in 2017? Write it all down and make a plan. Break it into manageable pieces. Make it the first thing you look at before you start your work every day.

2. Get discovered: How will you get the word out about your business?
In to order create growth in 2017, you have to get your message and company out there in front of your target audience -- you have to get discovered. So what's going to be your core strategy for the year? Don't try to do everything. Instead, find where your audience is most engaged, and get committed to leveraging one or two key social strategies.

Related: 5 Unstoppable Female Entrepreneurs Making Their Dents on the World

3. Serve your customer: How will you wow your audience?
You need to make a plan for how you're going to go above and beyond to serve your audience throughout 2017. Think about what specific value your business is adding to the lives of your customers. What will you create that they will resonate with so much it makes them want to get to know your business more, and become a fan, subscriber and a customer?

4. Condition yourself for success: What is holding me back?
The entrepreneurial journey can be a crazy one. At times, things can feel very overwhelming and even hopeless. So often we end up getting in our own way and holding ourselves back, usually because of fears or doubts.

To make sure you don't hold yourself back in 2017, you need to work on conditioning yourself for success, so that you can move past any resistance that arises and keep making progress towards reaching your goal.

Start to focus on what you do want, instead of what you don't want. Begin to visualize the business and life you want to create, and build on what you have already created.

Read about the people you admire, and incorporate some of their habits into your routine. Reach out to others in your field who have made it their own. Make it your mission to do all you can to grow as a person, while you grow your business.

Success is not an accident, so go out there and create it for yourself in 2017.

Carrie Green

Founder of the Female Entrepreneur Association

Carrie Green is the founder of the Female Entrepreneur Association, a global network of over 380,000 women from around the world. She set it up after feeling isolated running her first successful online business and is now utterly passionate about helping to inspire and empower other women to succeed in business

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Business News

DOGE Leaders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy Say Mandating In-Person Work Would Make 'a Wave' of Federal Employees Quit

The two published an op-ed outlining their goals for their new department, including workforce reductions.

Business News

The Two Richest People in the World Are Fighting on Social Media Again

Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk had a new, contentious exchange on X.

Business News

Here's How Much Money You Need to Make in Order to Be 'Successful,' According to Each Generation

A new survey by Empower outlines how Americans of different ages define success.

Growing a Business

Build a Business That Will Sell: From Valuations to a Successful Exit

Join us for this free webinar and learn how to develop a business that buyers will find irresistible.

Starting a Business

Why Are So Many Course Creators Struggling if It's 'Such an Easy Business'? Here's the Truth Behind the $800 Billion Industry

Creating an online course is so easy — at least, that's what many "gurus" would like you to believe. There's a lot of potential in the $800 billion industry, but here's why so many course creators are struggling.

Real Estate

Why Real Estate Professionals Should Prioritize Social Responsibility

Integrating social responsibility into real estate can foster community change, build trust and drive long-term business success.