If you’re like most business owners, you have a long to-do list that only seems to grow each day, you have new ideas to increase sales popping in from every which way…but at the end of the day…nothing really seems to be getting done.

Or maybe it’s a new week, or a new quarter and you have written out a set of new goals..but you struggle to hit them week-to-week. Sometimes you just wish you could clone yourself – maybe even two or three times – so that you could make more progress.

One thing that I want to introduce you to today is the idea of getting an Accountability Partner. This is someone you can trust that has the ability to challenge you, expand your thinking and your abilities each day, week, or month.

Here’s how it works: You and your partner (see qualifications and suggestions below) set up a quick scheduled call or meeting once a week, or bi-weekly. Note: If you do one longer meeting once a month, it will not be as effective as shorter bi-weekly meetings/calls. The whole point of doing this in the first place is to keep each other on track – and a monthly meeting will be spent getting back “into it” instead of evaluating each others progress and creating new plans of action to get you closer to hitting your goals.

To prepare for the meeting, you’ll both want to:

• Write out a list of goals for the upcoming week(s) (maybe you want to add a custom background to your Twitter account, or learn about Social Networking and set up 5 accounts to get you started),
• Pinpoint the things that would get in your way of achieving those goals (laziness, too much on your plate, poor time management, lack of organization, etc.), and
• Address your strengths that will help you get these goals accomplished.

This way, you are both ready to maximize your time together. During the meeting or call, you’ll first want to review progress made from the previous meeting. This is the tough part – you’ll need to hold your partner accountable for the goals on their list they did not achieve. You can do this by asking questions such as:

• What held you back from achieving X goal?
• If you were to do it all over again, what would you have done differently?
• How can you take this experience, and apply it to the upcoming week(s) so you hit your goals?

You will also want to praise your partner for their success. You could even ask questions such as:

• What attributed to your successes last week?
• Do you feel you can achieve this week’s goals by using the same strategies?

Next, it’s time to review what you each prepared for the upcoming week(s), strategize how to overcome weaknesses, and motivate each other to move forward and get stuff done!

Now, how do you pick your Accountability Partner? Caution: Do *not* pick someone who will be easy on you, who will accept even your best excuses, or someone who isn’t as motivated to get stuff done as you are. This is the hardest part. You want to approach someone who will really push you to hit your goals and achieve a higher level of success. Otherwise, it will just be another “chat session” that you could have had with your best friend.

Now what? Today’s task is to pick your Accountability Partner. Then, set up your first meeting. Then, write out your goals and prepare for your time together. Then, you take action and tackle that task list to get your business on track to the next level. Happy partner hunting!