The New Year - Reevaluate, Recalculate & Revitalize
Anything But Business as Usual Yes.
It's only another calendar day.
But, for some reason, January 1 inspires us to reevaluate, recalculate, and revitalize our businesses.
To help you close out the old year and start the New Year, here are suggestions to get you started.
Goals for this year: Personally, for annual goal-setting, I set aside a half-day in December and another session in January.
I leave the office and go somewhere quiet to reflect and write my goals and plans to make my business a success for the year.
What does it take to get you in the flow - one long session or several shorter ones? If you don't have goals, how will you redirect during the year? How will you know you're maintaining life balance? How will you decide on whether to go with a new marketing program, or a new product idea, or hire assistance? Make a commitment to written goals.
And create a mastermind group for accountability.
Mine is very helpful! Finance--review your numbers -- way before tax time: Book time to review the year financially (and set up a monthly reminder while you're at for 2009).
What worked? What didn't work.
Are there any projects to kill? Enough billable time? Do you need to spend less or spend more in certain areas? Advertising and marketing: Review what you spent and how well it worked.
What worked in 2008? Which efforts did not give you the return on investment you needed? How well did each lead or referral source perform? What type of client is your ideal? How will you attract more? Where would you find them? How are you exceeding client expectations? Technology: How well did your software, hardware and other technologies support you this year? What are you paying? How much time does the technology save you? Is it worth the price, both in dollars and in time? Which will make you more productive or help you provide better service to clients? What are your clients doing and are you keeping up? What will you upgrade or buy in 2009 so you keep up to date? Review your systems (efficiency and effectiveness): As simple as they can be, systems allow us to work the big picture of our businesses.
The details are boxed up in a system which make things faster, better and easier to hire assistance for.
What systems are you using for client intake, financial tracking, and keeping track of things? How well did they work for you in 2008? What's a goal for 2009? Resolve to change one habit.
In 2008, my one habit to change was to do less multi-tasking.
Every change in focus due to distraction or interruptions decreases your productivity greatly (roughly 20 minutes to get back to where you were, per interruption!).
So I decided to do one thing at a time.
It takes self-talk and reminders, but I'm definitely getting more done.
I know the quality is better.
And I feel more in control of my days and projects.
What's one habit you'd like to change, to be more productive this year?
It's only another calendar day.
But, for some reason, January 1 inspires us to reevaluate, recalculate, and revitalize our businesses.
To help you close out the old year and start the New Year, here are suggestions to get you started.
Goals for this year: Personally, for annual goal-setting, I set aside a half-day in December and another session in January.
I leave the office and go somewhere quiet to reflect and write my goals and plans to make my business a success for the year.
What does it take to get you in the flow - one long session or several shorter ones? If you don't have goals, how will you redirect during the year? How will you know you're maintaining life balance? How will you decide on whether to go with a new marketing program, or a new product idea, or hire assistance? Make a commitment to written goals.
And create a mastermind group for accountability.
Mine is very helpful! Finance--review your numbers -- way before tax time: Book time to review the year financially (and set up a monthly reminder while you're at for 2009).
What worked? What didn't work.
Are there any projects to kill? Enough billable time? Do you need to spend less or spend more in certain areas? Advertising and marketing: Review what you spent and how well it worked.
What worked in 2008? Which efforts did not give you the return on investment you needed? How well did each lead or referral source perform? What type of client is your ideal? How will you attract more? Where would you find them? How are you exceeding client expectations? Technology: How well did your software, hardware and other technologies support you this year? What are you paying? How much time does the technology save you? Is it worth the price, both in dollars and in time? Which will make you more productive or help you provide better service to clients? What are your clients doing and are you keeping up? What will you upgrade or buy in 2009 so you keep up to date? Review your systems (efficiency and effectiveness): As simple as they can be, systems allow us to work the big picture of our businesses.
The details are boxed up in a system which make things faster, better and easier to hire assistance for.
What systems are you using for client intake, financial tracking, and keeping track of things? How well did they work for you in 2008? What's a goal for 2009? Resolve to change one habit.
In 2008, my one habit to change was to do less multi-tasking.
Every change in focus due to distraction or interruptions decreases your productivity greatly (roughly 20 minutes to get back to where you were, per interruption!).
So I decided to do one thing at a time.
It takes self-talk and reminders, but I'm definitely getting more done.
I know the quality is better.
And I feel more in control of my days and projects.
What's one habit you'd like to change, to be more productive this year?
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