We are t-minus 32 days and counting to the end of the year. It’s a natural time for business owners and people in general to take stock of what has transpired over the last year and prepare for the next one ahead.
Sometimes we allow the holidays to take up so much of our time that we get knocked off the path towards the end of the year. We skip the part where we take stock and review the previous year and go straight to planning for next year. Setting goals and planning for each new year is important but equally as important is reviewing and measuring the previous year’s goals.
Imagine the game of football. To get ready for each week’s game football players review video of the last time they played against their opponent. They discuss and point of what they did right and what they did wrong during the game. They use this reflection to come up with a winning plan for next week’s game. It’s the same idea in business. You must review and take stock of what you’ve accomplished in the last year to gauge how you are going to act in the future.
You might feel like this step is unnecessary since you are sure of what happened over the last year. Review of the events isn’t the main focus of this exercise. The important thing is to review why you accomplished what you did and why you fell short in other areas. For example if a goal was to create six new products this year and you only created four ask yourself why. Did you get behind on one new product and that threw off your schedule for the rest? Whatever the reason behind not accomplishing your goal is the important thing to identify. The same is true for things you did accomplish the previous year. Figure out why you were able to accomplish that goal. If your goal was to make $25,000 more than last year and you accomplished that, analyze how you were able to do that. Was it due to one really good promotion or a new product? Review all of the reasons behind what occurred.
You may be asking why is it important to know why you did or did not accomplish a goal? Two reasons. The first being so you can get a better handle on your business. Cold hard facts like the ones you’ll learn during your year-end review will provide the best insight into your business. So crunch the numbers and run your marketing reports to provide yourself will all relevant information for your review.
The second reason being so you can use this information to set next year’s goals. How do you know where you want to go if you don’t look back on where you’ve been? Use the information you learn during your review to decide what you want to accomplish next year. If your 2010 goal was to make $25,000 more than you did in 2009 and you figure out you’ve accomplished that goal, then use the same tactics in 2011 to make yourself $50,000 more than you did in 2010. Figuring out why things work will lead you to become a better marketer and a better businessman/woman. I promise you Donald Trump uses these same tactics and measures, so don’t skip it!
This week I’ll be practicing what I preach. I’ll pull out my notebook containing my 2010 goals and begin my review. For example I know that one of the things I wanted to accomplish this year was increasing the average dollar amount I made per sale. I was able to meet this goal by offering cross-sells, bundling multiple products together and adding up-sells to many of my advertisements and promotions. I also know that I am going to find that I did not meet my goal in the area of new product development. I allowed myself to get too caught up in the day to day management of my business and did not set aside a set amount of time each week to work on developing new products. One of my goals for 2011 will be to rectify this and improve upon it.
I wish you much luck in your review and goal setting process.
Until next week…
Ethan Warrick
Editor & CEO
