Small business owners are almost always attracted to their vocation because selected facets of it strongly appealed to them.

The restaurateur, for example, can create masterpieces in the kitchen or design an ambiance like no other. The interior designer always has a flair for colors, fabrics or space planning. And, of course, the travel professional almost always loves to travel and talk about destinations with clients. But the key to success for any small business professional is in knowing that you have to do the complete job, not just the “fun” parts.

Restaurants have the highest failure rate of any business type and, while I’ll readily admit to oversimplification here, many a gorgeous location offering some unforgettable cuisine has gone belly up. That’s often because the restaurateur forgot that he wasn’t just the chef or maître ’d but the CEO, chief marketing officer and chief financial officer as well. When you’re the boss, even in a one-person operation, you need to run all aspects of your business and not just pay attention to the handful of elements that attracted you to the profession.

Having a relatively concise business plan that clearly lays out your business’s objectives, strategies and key actions will almost always guarantee success, assuming you execute it as planned. Now I know that for most, this stuff is akin to watching paint dry, but it’s absolutely critical to your business future. Here’s how you can ensure your own success:

Set achievable goals. Okay, it’s admittedly late to be setting goals for 2014, but my experience is that most travel agents don’t have a business plan and don’t have specific objectives for the year. So better late than never!

Objectives are what you’re saying you’re going to achieve. They are quantifiable, have an end result and a completion date. For example, your goal might be: “By year end, I will increase my company’s bottom-line profit by 20 percent over the prior year.” That’s a result, not a methodology on how to get to it.

While at least one objective is usually financial results-related, they need not all be financial in nature but they must all be measurable and have a completion date. Three to five objectives are probably more than enough. As I’ll point out, each goal drives the creation of numerous action steps and it’s important that you are not unrealistic on what can be achieved.

Identify key strategies. A goal without a plan is just a wish. Strategies are how you can achieve your goals and objectives. Using my previous example of growing profits by 20 percent, my key strategies might include selling 80 percent of my business on my preferred suppliers (to increase the average commission per sale); growing my overall sales by 15 percent (for economies of scale and other benefits); increasing my luxury sales by 25 percent (to focus on more profitable sales); and/or reducing my expenses by 10 percent (expense reductions flow immediately to your bottom line). Each objective will typically have three to five key strategies.

Determine action steps for each key strategy. Actions are the specific tasks you undertake to execute your key strategies. For example, if my key strategy is increasing my luxury sales by 25 percent, then action steps might include arranging for comprehensive training from my four most important luxury brands to ensure that I am familiar with their products (completed by March 31); redirecting one-third of my marketing budget to luxury promotion (throughout the year); and/or joining a luxury-focused networking group (by March 1).

Use your newly created road map for “daily driving.” While the above exercise requires some work, you now have a road map for every working day. Using your action steps, you know exactly what you must do and when. If you devote some serious time to developing your plan, you’ll almost always end up with that all-important rounded focus on all aspects of your business and not just executing the “fun” stuff. At least once a week, review your action steps to ensure that you’ve accomplished what needed to be done. Hold yourself accountable, because even missing one weekly deadline may make the difference in achieving that year-end goal.

Your success will reflect the time and effort you invest in managing all aspects of your business, not just those that attracted you to travel in the first place. Make it happen!