Why do so many entrepreneurs drag out their goals over 52 weeks instead of aiming to achieve them in 12? Is it fear of failure, fear of success, or just a lack of action?

This is a candid, motivating conversation that will help you move from talking about your goals to actually achieving them!

Welcome to another episode of Empowering Entrepreneurs! Today, Glenn Harper and Julie Smith pull back the curtain to talk about the real conversations that happen behind the scenes about goal-setting and timelines.

Glenn Harper and Julie Smith tackle these questions with honest debate, sharing insights on overcoming procrastination, setting actionable steps, and why respecting your own ideas is crucial for growth.

If you’ve ever found yourself pushing off your goals or forgetting about your plans by the end of the year, this episode will give you the tough love and practical tips you need to start taking meaningful steps—no matter how small.

PureTax, LLC

Key takeaways from our conversation:

1. Action beats intention: Without taking consistent steps (even small ones), goals remain nothing but words.
2. Compress your timeline: Don’t default to “someday.” Set shorter, focused periods to accelerate results, learn faster, and make success a habit.
3. Prioritize your vision: Add your goals to your calendar, give them your best energy, and put yourself at the top of your to-do list.

Running a business doesn’t have to run your life.

Without a business partner who holds you accountable, it’s easy to be so busy ‘doing’ business that you don’t have the right strategy to grow your business.

Stop letting your business run you. At Harper & Co CPA Plus, we know that you want to be empowered to build the lifestyle you envision. In order to do that you need a clear path to follow for success

Our clients enjoy a proactive partnership with us. Schedule a consultation with us today.

Download our free guide - Entrepreneurial Success Formula: How to Avoid Managing Your Business From Your Bank Account.

Glenn Harper, CPA, is the Owner and Managing Partner of Harper & Company CPAs Plus, a top 10 Managing Partner in the country (Accounting Today's 2022 MP Elite). His firm won the 2021 Luca Award for Firm of the Year. 

An entrepreneur and speaker, Glenn transformed his firm into an advisory-focused practice, doubling revenue and profit in two years. He teaches entrepreneurs to build financial and operational excellence, speaks nationwide to CPA firm owners about running their businesses like entrepreneurs, and consults with firms across the country. Glenn enjoys golfing, fishing, hiking, cooking, and spending time with his family.

Julie Smith, MBA, is a serial entrepreneur in the public accounting space. She is the Founder of EmpowerCPA™, Founder of PureTax, LLC, COO for Harper & Company CPAs Plus, and Co-host of the Empowering Entrepreneurs podcast. 

Named CPA.com's 2021 Innovative Practitioner of Year, Julie led Harper & Company's transition to an advisory-focused firm, doubling revenue and profit in two years. She now empowers other CPA firm owners nationwide through consulting and speaking, teaching them how to run their businesses like entrepreneurs. Julie lives in Columbus, OH with her family and enjoys travel, coaching basketball, sporting events, and the occasional shopping spree.

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/

Copyright 2026 Glenn Harper

So we just had this great conversation, Julie, about why can't you do something?

This is a peek behind the curtain of the debate. After the camera shuts off debate, we.

Know who's right here.

Good conversation.

The question came up of if you're going to put a goal in, in this 12 week plan versus a 52 week plan, why do people drag it out and do it for 52 weeks versus just doing it in 12? And I have a hypothesis on this and I think sometimes it's either there's a fear of failure, but there's also a fear of success.

Like, well, I want to chase after this goal and I'm going to get this 20% growth or 40% growth, but what happens when I get it? What does that mean? How's that going to change my business and what I do and the money and the tax?

Like sometimes the thought of the fear of success will paralyze somebody that they're like, well, I'll just drag it out and go into this really slow. Where a typical entrepreneur, how great is it when we usually start, we jump off the high dive and just jump right in.

But I don't think that, I think what we're talking about though is the person that's just jumping right in, they have no guidelines, right? Like they're just going to do whatever it takes to make it work.

I think what you're referring to is maybe someone who has taken the leap off of the diving board and is swimming or has their head above water and is kind of thinking like, well, my head's above water, what's next? And then saying like, well, what do you mean? I could stand on water and having that fear of, well, once I stand on water, well, what's next?

Well, then we run on water. No, I'm just kidding, right?

Well, of course that's. And again, you're not wrong on that because again, it's always about what's next for entrepreneurs. Like we did, we did 20% this year.

Next year we can do 25. Next year we're going to do this. So defining those goals. But it's, it's.

Instead of trying to do the goal and stretch it out maybe for a long period of time, maybe try to figure out how to get that compressed a little bit and still be successful at it.

Because if you're going to get the reward for the success from the hard work and commitment, if you do it a little faster, you're going to get that taste of that a little quicker. I've got a 10 year plan and I'm going to do one thing one once a year and I'll get there.

Well, why can't you do one thing a quarter and you're going to be.

There one thing in a month?

Well, fast movers were like that.

But I think that's an interesting take to that is how quickly should you expect or what you should be put on your calendar to achieve that goal or whatever that thing is you're trying to do, should you do it faster or drag it on?

I just think when you set a goal, when we talk about these, you know, it's not even New Year's resolutions. I think a prudent entrepreneur is sitting down and hopefully having some type of goals for their business. I think it's about what is achievable.

Because what I, what I have seen, what I'm sure you've seen, is we get to October, November, and I'm just making up something someone said, oh, I'm going to grow by 20%. They're just now sitting down to take a look at where do they stand in regards to. I forgot I wrote that goal down. What have we done right?

Oh, well, we haven't achieved it. I'm just going to do that for next year. And I don't know how many owners, entrepreneurs, humans that I've heard that same thing from.

Well, it's too late. Well, I didn't do it. I didn't take action.

And so I think the impetus of that, that episode that we just did was why not take small actions to get to where you need to be so that come November, December, even next January, you're like, man, what was my goal last year? And you don't even remember it because there was no action taken. And as we know, like a plan without action is. I don't even know what they call that.

Words.

Words. Well, you know, it's tough because, you know, as much as we love post its, we wrote the little goal on the post it note.

Sometimes it gets lost and it doesn't get in there.

So if you have a goal or you have an action plan, put it on your calendar, put it on your daily wake up call, whatever that is, to make sure that you give it the attention it deserves. Because if it came out of your subconscious or your conscious to say, this is what I want to do, it must be important.

So give it the respect and at least give it the commitment and give it your best shot to try to make that happen. Why would you, if something happens, it.

Doesn'T mean that you have to achieve it tomorrow. It just means like give it a shot. If that's the goal.

Can you back into what that looks like for the next 12 months, three months, 30 days, two weeks, whatever it is and do one thing to achieve that so at least you're on the path. If you can't even get on the path, you're never even going to get to the finish line.

Respect yourself. That's all we can ask for. Respect your ideas and make that a priority instead of everybody else's. Put your name at the top for once.

So you'll read the book.

I'm reading the book. I'm committed to reading the book and once we get past the quit date, I'm on it.

We're there.

Well, hopefully that was helpful but behind the scenes. We went off on a little tangent there but I hopefully enjoyed that Empowering Entrepreneurs podcast. I'm Glenn Harper.

Julie Smith.