When it comes to New Years resolutions most people think of promises easily made and just as easily broken.
Building your business means that it is important to not only set goals but to make calculated choices that will move you towards your goal. Here are some ways to help you make and keep the changes that you need for 2013
- Choose goals that are based on the needs you see in your business
- Look at your 2012 accomplishments and then look forward to December 31st 2013.
- Where would you like to be?
- How many people’s lives would you like to change by assisting them with your product or service
- Set your sights high
- Set smaller goals that will lead you towards the bigger goal
- Take those big goals and break them down into manageable bites
- Set mini goals small enough to keep you energized while completing them
- Set dates for completion of each mini goal
- If you can’t figure out all of the mini goals that you need to accomplish to get you to the final goal, start by setting the first steps, then as you accomplish those goals the next ones will show themselves
- Include financial goals as well
- This is important to mention because many small business owners are afraid to set financial goals
- Choose your financial goals the same way you would any other business goal and break it down into manageable bites
- Celebrate each milestone
- I know this sounds silly, but it doesn’t have to be much
- Smaller goals deserve celebrating too, if you work from home perhaps a bath in the middle of the afternoon is incentive enough to get your work accomplished
- Once you have completed a larger goal you might take yourself out for dinner and a movie (and you might enjoy taking your family with you too)
- Listen to your gut
- Many of us are uncomfortable listening to our gut and we second guess it
- Take the time this year to begin understanding what it is telling you
- Get comfortable being uncomfortable
- Revisit your goal often to make sure you are on track and make adjustments
- This is crucial, because this is the only way I know of to stay on track
- Depending on who you are as a person you may need to revisit weekly, monthly or even quarterly
- What ever works for you make sure that you are checking to see if you are on target and adjust your goals if needed
- All too often we miss a goal and then try to pile it on top of the next goal and so on, this is a recipe for failure. If you miss your target, don’t fret about it just readjust your goal, and try again
- The key to success is to get up more times then you fall down
- Find someone you can trust (such as a mentor)
- Having someone you trust to bounce ideas and even time frames off of is very important
- The key to a good mentor is to make sure that they have more experience than you do at what ever it is that you need mentoring with
- Choose your mentor well, then stick with them for a while. It is certainly okay to change mentors if you grow past them, or you need help with something different than your current mentor can’t help you with, but be careful not to jump ship too fast that you don’t end up getting the results you could have if you had stayed (again trust your gut)
- Listen to your mentor
- Once you have selected a mentor and you begin working with them, you then have to turn your believed trust into actual trust, and that requires you to take their advice.
- Even if it makes you uncomfortable, chances are good that you need someone to “push” you into the uncomfortable zone in order for you to reach new summits in your business
- Pay more attention to what your customers are saying
- Your customers are telling you all the time what they need from you, you just have to figure out how to listen to them.
- Regardless of if your customers are speaking directly to you or they are posting online about thier likes and dislikes (it doesn’t even have to be about you) they are speaking and you need to hear them
- Deliver what your customers want
- By hearing what your customers need (in person or online) then acting on their needs, you will create an amazing culture where your customers start to refer their friends to you
I would love to hear from you about your goals, and how this has helped you to build a strong plan for accomplishing them in the next year.
