Happy New Year! It’s time to set our goals for the new year! By now you have made your business plan and marketing plan and are ready to implement both for business growth in this new year. If not, it’s never too late to get started! Plan your action, and work your plan!
Most people like to make resolutions about the changes they want to make during the New Year. For business, I like to make goals and commitments. One of the challenges I have is trying not to make too many goals! Think about it: many business owners have a lot of facets of their business they would like to change. If they stop to really analyze their business, they might find that by changing three critical points, some of the other facets may fall into place. Too often, however, there are so many things a business owner would like to change, it becomes an overwhelming, daunting task, with no real opportunity to follow through on those changes. Remember: A goal without a strategy is just a wish. What commitments are you making for the new year?
- In making a goal or set of goals, realize everything has its own purpose, its own goal. That being said, if you make a goal that may be unrealistic or not focused on what you want to do for your business, you likely will not follow through. Accordingly, if you set the expectation bar too low, you may not follow through because it will seem too easy, allowing procrastination to set in. You have to decide if you are looking for business growth, survival, customer retention, improving skill sets, et cetera.
- Once you set your goals, commit a time frame for completion and share with a trusted colleague, mentor or friend. This is a bit like going to the gym alone vs. going with a buddy. This creates a sense of urgency, a sense of “gotta get it done now!” in your mind. Share your ambitions with an accountability partner and stretch yourself toward success!
- Finally, as you achieve each goal, reward yourself! It doesn’t have to be a raise; it can be taking an hour in the bath, an extra Starbucks, buying yourself that new book you have been eyeing, or spending an extra hour learning about social media. Make sure your reward compensates the goal you have set. For example, say you have set a goal to make one cold call each day for three months. Your reward might be to treat yourself to Starbucks at the end of each week for completing the weekly task, thus moving yourself toward the three-month goal. The three-month reward might be picking a day to sleep in, taking a day off, having a picnic, going to a movie, et cetera — you get the idea.
Here are my 3 goals for 2015:
- Making 10 cold calls each week. I’m going to match these results to those achieved via inbound marketing and see who wins!
- Create one amazing blog article each week. This doesn’t mean I’m not blogging more than once weekly, heavens no! All this means is, of the articles I create this year, one article each week will be as remarkable as possible to help others move their business along.
- Write my book! It will be about social media and business, so stay tuned!
Also, I’m going to add a newsletter component shortly to my website. If you’d like to test-drive, please email me at lisa@visiblymedia.com and I’ll send you a link. If you enjoy it, please sign up for more!
Now it’s your turn! what three goals have you decided to make for your business? Yes, only three! You can make more goals as you move forward in the year; by keeping the initial number of goals to a low number, it’s easier to achieve and maintain, thus inspiring more goals as you move through the year.
Be strategic. Be visible. Be found.
