The new year is upon us. It’s always a great time to assess where you are and where you want to be. Glance around the internet and you’ll see all kinds of challenges, vision board events, and people facilitating the planning process. For us at Virtual Bookkeeping, it boils down to a few salient questions.
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What do you want your business to achieve most this year?
Are you looking at increasing sales or decreasing expenses? There are a variety of ways that you can increase sales, and not all have a dollar figure attached to them. What if you simply asked each of your current clients who they know who could use your services? What if you simply asked each of your clients for a Google, YouTube, or LinkedIn review?
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Can you realistically accomplish this goal?
When thinking about connecting with your clients, does the task seem overwhelming? In my business, we typically speak with our clients on a monthly, if not weekly business. HOWEVER, a Real Estate Coach I once knew, Marguerite Crespillo, taught me this. There are 52 weeks in a year and 26 letters in the alphabet. If I called one letter a week, I could touch my current and past clients twice in a year.
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Do you have a clear path towards your goals?
The phone seems like the heaviest of all tools when you have to make a call, doesn’t it? Well, that’s because we hate to ask for things. So what if… you approached the call as a “Just checking in with you?” Really look to be of service to your client. Find out what their goals are for the new year and if they see any obstacles. If they have an obstacle that you can solve, ask if they are open to a suggestion before just giving it. Don’t worry, it’ll come back around to your turn. But if you can be the solution for them, then, you’ve already succeeded.
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Where can you trim the fat?
When looking to increase sales, we tend to spend money on ads, on paid ads on social media, on posting to social media. Be very clear on 1. where your potential clients are hanging out 2. what the lifetime value of the client is to you and 3. what ROI (return on investment) is acceptable to you. Anyone who is running your ads, should be accountable based on these things. Set your parameters, and if you’re NOT getting a return on your investment, you need to adjust what you’re doing.
When all else fails, I love to pull out a template based on the SMART goal-setting technique. The goals have to pass the Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely tests.
In deciding what you want to achieve this year, be Specific. This means set real numbers with real deadlines. While we’re at it, you have figure out HOW you’re going to measure your progress. Attainable doesn’t mean lowering your standards, it means eating the elephant one bite at a time. If your goal is to dominate your market, are you in a position to do that THIS year, or could it take two or three? If it takes longer, set yourself some milestones on the way. Be Realistic. Do you have the tools & team that you need to succeed? If not, what’s your next logical step? In regards to being timely, give yourself a deadline. Some of us are planners and work towards goals a little at a time, some of us require the deadline to get anything done, otherwise we have an endless open loop.
Don’t know where you stand right now? Let us help you. We can support you in assessing where you can trim some of the fat. We love numbers, so we can also give you some feedback on HOW to create measurable goals.
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