Time waits for no man or woman and the swift journey from January 2014 to December 2014 is proof in the pudding. Many of us embarked on 2014 with a vision of who we wanted to be this year and what we wanted to achieve.
Work/life balance was on the top of the list…again and we promised ourselves we’d take all our vacation days. Not like last year. But it didn’t happen…again. We said this year we would be happier and some days it felt like we would live up to that resolution but others it felt like an impossible item to measure.
As we enter the possibilities that come with 2015, I want to leave you with six measurable and customizable resolutions you can make for your business. I want to do this because goals and resolutions play such a huge part in monitoring the growth we’re making both as an individual and as a brand/business. I want you to blow these resolutions up and turn them into a huge colorful checklist so that this time next year, when you’re reflecting on your resolutions you can see how successful you were in 2015 and why measurable goals make all the difference.
- Acquire ___ new clients.
I left this blank because only you can know what a good number of new clients for your business is and depending on your pricing and services you may just need one more new client to hit it big.
You can easily measure this by taking the time to write out and number your current clients, do it again this time next year and highlight any clients you didn’t have in 2014.
2. Hire ___ new employees.
I’m putting this one in because I know you’re the type of person who tries to do everything but delegation, my friend, will help you get that mysterious concept of work/life balance that we mentioned earlier.
I was talking to a client the other day and she shared a thought she heard with me, she said “If it’s not your genius, it’s not your job.”… Let that sink in for a second. “If it’s not your genius, it’s not your job.”
There is at least one thing in 2014 that you wish you did better in your business and I’m here to tell you that you may not have reached maximum efficiency in this area because it’s not what you’re good at and that’s okay. In 2015, however, I want to challenge you to hire someone who is good at that one thing.
3. Start offering ____.
If you’ve got a bowtie line maybe you’ve been giving some thought to adding pocket squares or maybe you want to add wax melters to your candle collection. Do it. There’s no time like the present and if you’re waiting until everything is perfect you may never make a move. More products and/or services could mean a huge leap in revenue.
4. Get a new logo
Are you still holding onto that logo you hired someone to do but never really suited you? If so, chances are you made enough money to get a new one made and that’s easy to do. There are a number of companies that do logo design and the investment is far worth it when you think of the buy-in this can bring for your business.
5. Launch a new website
Purchasing a domain for a year can cost as little as $1/month on sites like GoDaddy.com and there are a number of hosting possibilities. As far as the design goes you can hire someone like me, outsource the work to a company or maybe this can be a job specific task for one of the new employees you hired like our second resolution suggested.
6. Develop a web presence
This particular resolution is very easy to measure with the help of a little thing I like to call insights. On Facebook, you can check and see how many likes, shares and comments you have gotten in a week, in a month, in a year. On Twitter you can get a synopsis of how many retweets, new followers and mentions you get each week.
So if you have no online presence, even one new follower or like on Facebook is an instant measure of growth in the online sphere.
And there your are, six measurable resolutions for your new year. Don’t forget about blowing up and making a colorful checklist to keep track of your success with each. Be sure to do it before next week.
Know someone who is lagging on the New Year’s resolutions train? Be sure to share this blog post with them. Looking for an accountability partner in the new year? Email me at brie@brandsbybrie.com and we’ll find some ways to work together. I’d love to stay informed on the progress you and your business are making.
