Today, I am sharing with you my best kept secret. If you’ve listened to past episodes I’ve shared with you that there were some discoveries I made a few years into my business that came as good news and really changed my whole way of thinking. One of them specifically was the idea that I could build and craft my own ideal business, and reverse engineer the steps to help me generate enough income to support my goals and dreams. When it comes to crafting your ideal business and life, I really believe that the steps I'm going to share with you are the foundational building blocks for getting you from point A to point B (without getting sucked into a chaotic whirlwind!) As a business owner, you should be in the driver's seat! I will start off by saying that success looks different for everyone. What does success look like to you right now, today, as you imagine your business and your lifestyle several years from now? Take note of that. Okay, here come the steps.Step one - Imagine the life you dream of for yourself. Whether you’re starting a new business or you have a business that you would like to hone and refine to really start working for you, it’s important to spend some time dreaming and really thinking about the life that you want in the future, so that you can allow these goals to be the foundation that support your business decisions and actions, while guiding you towards your destination. As a part of this visualization of your dream life, include the salary you would like to have that will support your goals and ideal lifestyle. Consider what your monthly expenses will look like in the future (5 to 10 years from now) including how much you would like to save monthly or annually towards vacations,  investments, or other endeavors you noted on your wish list.Step two - Determine your business revenue goalRemember that your personal income and your business income are separate, and your personal income will be a salary that you pay yourself as a portion of your business net profit. So you will want to figure out the salary that you would like to pay yourself, and from that, figure out the gross income that your business must bring in in order to pay yourself that salary.Download my free resource: How to Set a Salary & Revenue Goal for Your Business  Use the resource above to calculate your ideal salary & revenue goal for your business based on your personal goals and dreams you wrote down in the first exercise. You can use this equation to test different scenarios and decide on a set of figures that you feel comfortable with as a goal. This is meant to provide you with a business revenue goal to reach so that you can keep your eyes fixed on your ideal future and making it a reality in a reasonable number of years. You can inch closer to your goal by making profit-focused choices for your business that steer you towards growth.Step three - Choose your business model (or income plan).Did you know there were many different business models for your specific niche , or different ways you could structure and design your business offerings? I certainly did not know this when I was starting out! But as it turns out, no two businesses in any given niche are exactly alike. YOU get to decide how to structure your business, what services or products you want to offer, how you want to price your services, and every other detail of your business. Take the opportunity to structure your business in a strategic way so that it is designed to allow you the income you need as well as support the lifestyle you want, the types of work you enjoy, and the kind of schedule you would like to have.  Step four - Maintain the course (Stay in the driver seat! That means o