Simple Steps To Make 2017 Your
Best Year Yet
As hard as it is to believe, it’s almost 2017!
Though you may be winding down for the holiday season (or maybe you’re still going strong bringing in that year-end income boost), you’ve likely begun to think about next year. And that’s a good thing!
As entrepreneurs, we are always looking ahead and setting plans for what’s next.
What programs we’ll offer, what partnerships we’ll focus on, and what new marketing methods we’ll try…
The new year is full of opportunities to grow your business and serve more people, but it can also be a bit overwhelming! Where should you begin?
Follow my year-end process so that you can make 2017 the best year yet!
Take Time To Reflect
What worked well for you in 2016?
No need to reinvent the wheel. The simplest way to achieve success is to do MORE of what’s already working well for you.
To do that, examine these areas of your business:
- Your offerings – Did you have a particular program, challenge, or offering that was popular?
- Your marketing – What were the strategies or actions you took that brought in clients?
- Your list building – What worked in terms of getting people on your list this year?
- Your schedule – Were there times when you felt completely ‘in the flow’ of things and in charge of your schedule?
- Your clients – Is there a particular type of client you really enjoyed working with this year? What about the way you are offering or delivering your services?
What didn’t work well for you in 2016?
What didn’t work for you this year? What would you like to do differently? It’s easy to get in a rut and think you NEED to keep doing things the way you always have. But you’re in charge!
Again, examine all the areas of your business and identify things that didn’t bring in the results you were hoping for.
Once you’ve identified what’s working and what’s not, you can start to create a plan for next year that incorporates MORE of what’s working and LESS of what isn’t. You can even rate items from best to last in each category so you can easily see what to keep and what you might want to cut.
Cutting tasks that don’t get results is going to free up time to focus on those things that WORK. Focusing on offerings and clients you love is also going to help you not only see more success in your business, but also enjoy your work more .
Look Forward
Once you’ve reflected on your year, it’s time to start creating a plan for next year.
Set a big picture goal
Spend time thinking about what you want 2017 to look AND feel like.
This is also a great time to set a revenue goal.You might have avoided setting a revenue goal in the past – for fear of not reaching your goal. I totally get it and sometimes feel the same way. But here’s the thing – you don’t know if you’re on track if you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve.
I approach setting revenue goals by setting 3 targets – good, better and best. My “good” goal is the minimum I want to achieve, with my “better” goal exceeding that, and my “best” goal is what would feel like I hit it out of the park.
Decide on what programs you’ll offer
When deciding what to offer in the new year you should look at a few things:
- The programs that were most popular (and that you enjoyed delivering) this year that you want to repeat
- How do you want to offer your services and programs this year? What do you want to focus on? For example, do you only want to offer group programs? Do you want to offer in-person workshops? Do you want more high-end one-on-one clients?
- Your revenue goals. How many of each offering do you need to sell to reach your goals?
- Your ideal schedule. Think about HOW you want to work. What structure works best for you in terms of when you work? How many days or hours you want to work each week and what vacations would you like to take? This will allow you to be more “in the flow” – so you can be more productive and creative when you are working – while enjoying your life outside of work.
Determine where you need support
If your 2017 goals are much more ambitious than this year, you may need to enlist some help to get there. This could mean hiring a VA to handle some administrative tasks, hiring launch or marketing help, or taking a course to learn new skills. Consider what you need to learn, purchase, or delegate in order to get where you want to go.
With a clear picture of where you’re going next year you can head into the holidays with a plan. You can have peace of mind, knowing that you’ve got a roadmap waiting for you when you return to work.
Now I’d love to hear from you!
What worked really well for you this year? What didn’t work well and what do you want to do differently in 2017?
