Wow, was that just Christmas. I don’t know about you but it seems to have just flown by. I hope you had a lovely and relaxing time with your family and friends.
Now I hate to be the bearer of bad news but if you haven’t started your planning for 2017 the next three days are critical. This is a great time of year to reflect on what happened during 2016 – both the successes and the failures. I encourage you to really spend some time on this.
Here are some questions to get you going:
- What were your biz accomplishments from the past year?
- What were some of the lessons you learned from the past year?
- What were your weak points? What do you think needs to improve?
- Were there any missed opportunities in the past year?
- Were there any ways to improve customer service in the past year?
- Were there any areas that felt out of alignment?
- What marketing worked the past year? What created wins?
- If there was one word that described your past year, what would that be?
Only by reflecting on these answers can you get some real insight into where your business is and what is working and what is not working. Then based on your findings you can then set some goals for 2017 based on solid facts.
I’ve been doing this exact process over the last few days and it has been so helpful. Usually I set goals with no reference to where I am and what has happened and when you set goals without this data you are ineffectively stabbing in the dark.
Measuring your business and tracking your performance is paramount if you are to succeed. Just think about it. An athlete measures and keeps track of their performance on every run and then uses this information to motivate themselves to do better the next time. Footballers review their matches to see how to improve their performance. They then focus on the small nuances and improve these. And incredibly a small improvement in just one area makes a massive impact on overall performance.
And it’s the same in your business too. Knowing where you have been and what worked and what didn’t means that you can more effectively plan for next year. I suggest you dream about what you would like 2017 to look like, what you would like to accomplish and then create a roadmap of the key milestones that you need to achieve in order to get you from point A to point B. These milestones will become your 2017 goals.
Next prioritize the order you need to complete the goals in and then create a detailed plan for the next 90 days of what you need to accomplish to in order to move forward. Break the plan down into bite sized projects and then commit to working on one of these projects every day until it is complete. Focus is the key here. It is amazing what happens when you stay focused on one project until it is completed. The level of satisfaction and accomplishment then motivates you to complete the next project. And then before you know it you have achieved that first milestone. Celebrate and then move on. Before you know it all the milestones will have been achieved and you will be witnessing the business success that you so deserve.
Now I have just three spaces available to work with me privately next year to really get your business strategy planned out and then to ensure you take massive action to achieve all your goals. As I know from personal experience running a business is not for the faint hearted and having a coach on your team can really help you see the blind-spots in your business and so avoid wasting valuable time, energy and resources on activities that are not going to help you really reach your goals.
So if you’d like me on your team to ensure your success in 2017 then let’s schedule a call to explore what’s possible. And rest assured that if I don’t think I’m the right coach for you I’ll let you know, and whatever you decide I promise you will walk away from the call with a clear plan of the next steps to take. Simply complete this short application form so I know a bit about you before the call and we’ll take it from there.
Happy planning for 2017.
Julia Felton (aka The Business Wrangler) is the founder of Business HorsePower. Business leaders, entrepreneurs and executives hire her to accelerate their business performance by harnessing the energy of their people to work more collaboratively together. By aligning purpose with actions the team achieves exponential results as everyone starts pulling in the same direction.
Julia believes that business is a force for good and through designing purpose-driven businesses that leverage the laws of nature, and the herd, you can create businesses founded on the principles of connection, collaboration and community that make a significant impact in the world.
