How many times have you sat down over the Christmas and New Year’s period and set your one big New Year’s Resolution?… “I’m going to get fitter or go running, join the gym, lose weight etc etc.”
Well, it would seem that you’re not alone. Gym membership soars and they make a killing selling yearly subscriptions!
For the first 2 weeks, the gyms are full to bursting, and then the rot sets in.
My guess, is that for most, they are not setting a goal that they even want to achieve. So what’s the point? In their minds, because they have a membership they are going to gym!
But when it comes to the actual doing…..
Well that’s a different story……
Setting a goal for your business is no different.
So many set completely unachievable goals, that as soon as they start to falter in an area, it just all goes to rat doha’s.
I would like to suggest that you go about this differently:
Instead of setting a goal for the year for your business…
Set yourself a theme for the year:
A theme is something that is going to help all aspects of your organisation, and everything you do in that year should be driving towards the overriding theme.
Let’s say you decide that your theme for the year is going to be Customer Reactivation, well then, all your marketing should be focused on building the strategies to enable you to reactivate a customer. You should build your campaigns in such a way that you have a sequence towards recalibration.
As another example, let’s say that you decide that your theme for the year is going to be Systemisation and Documentation, then everything you do should be focused on driving that core yearly theme.
And any gaps in the systems and sequences can be filled.
Now, instead of setting a New Year resolution for your business, you can set an achievable goal for the year based on the theme you have chosen.
Set yourself some monthly KPI’s…
Key Performance Indicators – This game would help you stay on track with mini bonuses along the way, leading to the ultimate goal at the end of the year. Which when achieved, leads to your prize for achieving what you set out to do. Here’s the kicker – By investing in this and rewarding yourself for the small achievements, the big achievement of getting it all done will be so much sweeter, and the outcome will be better productivity. Leading to better performance and then proceeding to increased sales.
Over the last couple of years I have set myself themes. It’s amazing how much you actually get done in driving towards “the goal”.
When something comes up, you evaluate it against the yearly theme and allocate time to get as close to the right result as you can.
As an example, again you say the theme is Documentation. You develop a new product. Well instead of just putting it out there, you document the process, all the steps from procurement to delivery. This gets filed in hard and digital copy.
At least you have a process now, because if you ever want to extract yourself from the business it’ll be the documentation which has the value… Not you and your personality.
For all too long, I ran my business reactively without planning for self removal. As a result the empire in my mind had no commercial value as it was only in my head.
So drive forward…
Set a theme for the year and evaluate all you do towards fulfilling it.
And when it’s all gone, you will have 2 huge benefits.
An increase in sales which will:
In return allow you to spoil yourself and a business that is better structured.
Have a great New Year!
PS. As a side note. I never watch the news or read the newspapers. Simply because I do not believe that what these two media say is a true reflection on anything. Sensationalism is designed to subjugate the masses and drive fear into the working classes!
Well, none of that affects our businesses or how we run business. And if it does then I urge you to make your theme – improving your strategies for selling to the affluent!
This way you’ll never have to marginalise your business based on what is happening in the news.
Examples for themes:
This year will be the year of system implementation
This year will be the year of building effective sales funnels
This year will be the year of personal education
Tis year will be the year of systemisation and documentation
This year will be the year of self-extraction
I’m sure that you can think of a theme that will suit your business.
Once you have decided what your theme is, print it big and put it on a wall where you can see it every day to help focus your thoughts!
This was mine last year… This year will be the year of de clutter, organisation, systemisation and documentation.
