This is Why Entrepreneurs Struggle With Follow-Through

As an entrepreneur, you can spend thousands on productivity tools and still struggle to hit your business goals. At this point, you don’t need another mastermind. You know what to do. You need accountability.

Entrepreneurs love being their own boss. In a lot of ways, you’re probably a lot harder on yourself than a boss would be. You have high expectations. You ask for a lot of hours. You’re stingy with PTO.

But one place you are almost definitely letting yourself off the hook: follow-through. When you’re the one setting the goal and following the plan, it’s really easy to talk yourself out of the things you don’t want to do.

Accountability Is The Secret to Consistently Achieving Goals

Accountability is an effective and low-cost way for business owners to reach their goals, especially for solopreneurs who don’t have built-in decision support.

To see how well it works, Dr. Gail Matthews split people into 5 groups. Over 4 weeks, groups who thought about or wrote down their goals and action plans made some progress.

People made more progress when they told a supportive friend about their goal and action plan. The most successful group by far not only told their friend their plans, they sent their friend a weekly progress report.

It’s easy to say, “I don’t have time to write that chapter,” or “I’m not ready to make that call” when you’re the only one who knows you’re supposed to.

If you have an accountability partner, you’re forced to decide which is harder: following through on your own commitment or making excuses for why you didn’t.

Source: Dr. Gail Matthews, Dominican University of California

How to Stay Accountable as An Entrepreneur

A couple of important things I want to note about that study. First, the most successful group wasn’t reporting to an authority figure. Second, they weren’t reporting to a neutral observer like a researcher.

They were told to report to “a supportive friend.” That’s someone who cares about you and will tell you the hard things even when you don’t want to hear them.

I said at the beginning it can be hard for entrepreneurs to do the things we don’t want to because we don’t have a boss making us do it. But this shows you don’t actually need a boss. 

All you need is a person interested in seeing you succeed. What overrides your procrastination on Tuesday is knowing that on Friday someone will ask you if you did the thing. And if you say no, they’re going to ask you why not.

This is what that kind of accountability looks like in real life. There are 3 other founders — Janice, Sandra, and Kim — I meet up with from time to time to have coffee and talk business. 

And, when the situation calls for it, to kick each other in the butt.

A few months ago, the situation called for it. I told them I’d been thinking about hosting an in-person event but I kept talking myself out of getting started.

I worried about the guest list. About the timing. About what it would cost to rent the room.

Janice stopped me cold.

“Just take the damn risk,” she said. “Get it done.”

All three of them committed on the spot to buying tickets, and wouldn’t move on until I’d set a date and a ticket price. Then they gave me 24 hours to book a room and text them the location.

I want to emphasize that accountability isn’t about making someone feel bad for missing their goals. It’s about helping them understand why they missed the goal and getting them past that hurdle.

I wasn’t following through on my goal to host an event because I was afraid I’d fail. When my friends smashed through the barriers I’d put up for myself, they did more than push me. They took away all my excuses not to act.

If you give an entrepreneur enough time, we will come up with an excuse to not do something that scares us. By creating immediate stakes and a deadline, they didn’t give me time to overthink.

That’s how good accountability works. It’s a two-way relationship, not a transaction. It focuses on clear, specific goals and actions. It uses regular check-ins to keep projects moving. And the pressure it exerts is honest and supportive, never based on fear or shame.

The Difference Between Having People and Having Accountability

Accountability partners are not cheerleaders who clap for you. They’re not coaches yelling from the sidelines.

They are people who have volunteered to be structural support to your goals. And in exchange, they ask the same support from you.

The last time we met, one of them said she’d been asked to do something she really didn’t want to do, but she felt bad saying no.

“You’re people pleasing,” I told her. “Tell them you’re not going to do it.”

“You’re right,” she said, “I will.”

Later I texted her.

“Did you tell them you’re not doing it?” She confirmed she had.

“Good,” I wrote. “Because I was just going to keep asking until you did.”

I’m not her coach. She’s not my client. Our relationship is not transactional.

When I’m feeling low, those friends lift me up. And when I’m strong, I do the same for them.

Relationships are the most important investment you can make in your business. When you’re in the trenches, the people you’re in relationships with have your back. Depending on what you need, they will hold your hand, cheer you up, or tell you to get off your ass and take a risk.

The Time to Start Is Now

It’s summer, and most of us are at least a little checked out. But fall is coming, and that is the season that makes or breaks a B2B service business.

When the December slowdown hits, you will either be grateful you got in a room (real or virtual) with people who held you accountable, or you’ll be wishing you had.

I’m building something to make accountability consistent, especially for entrepreneurs who don’t have this kind of support built into their businesses. I’ll share more soon.

For now, take a look at the action plan for your goals. Who is going to ask you next Friday if you did the thing you said you would? If that person doesn’t exist yet, what would it mean to have them?