Ending the Year on a Good Note

It’s that time of year when we frantically search for business and marketing goals to set into place for the new year. Maybe you’d like to promote key people on your team, donate a portion of your sales to a nonprofit, or reach $25,000 in sales by the end of the first quarter. But what about right now? How about setting a Year’s End resolution to set the tone and help prepare your business for a successful year in 2020? Below, we will be sharing 5 tips to help your business end the year on a good note.

Reflect on the Past Year

Reflecting is one of the best ways to get a true understanding of where your business is at now and how you got here. To get started, sit in a quiet place and ask yourself a few questions. What are some big projects your team accomplished over the past year? How did you feel when you finished these projects? When were you at your best? In which ways could your business improve? You can answer these questions in your head or by writing them down. Doing this exercise gives you a great perspective on where you’ve been focusing your energy over the past year and also allows you to refocus your energy on where you’d like to be at this time next year. Be sure to give yourself credit where credit is due. This will make you feel energized and excited to get started on setting your business and marketing goals for the upcoming year!

Set a Year’s End Resolution

What better way to prepare for the new year ahead than to set a year’s end resolution that your team can get started on now? Going off of your reflections from the past year, are there any loose ends that you’d like to tie up before moving into the new year? Maybe there were one or two clients or sales that fell through the cracks that you can now give your attention to. Keep in mind that there are only 4 weeks until the year is over so keep it realistic and try not to bite off more than you can chew. If you feel like your team doesn’t have the time or energy to complete these tasks, just think about how proud you will feel once you’ve gotten these projects checked off your list. By the time the ball drops on the new year, you will have already accomplished something that you can look back at and be proud of!

Set a New Year’s Resolution

Now that you have reflected on the past year and set a small goal to have accomplished by the end of the year, it’s time to set your new year’s resolution. To set this up, you’ll have to shift your thinking from the past to the future. When you picture your business one year from now, what do you see? Perhaps, higher sales, a more specialized team, or a new office space. Maybe you’ll have just opened your second location or maybe you’ve scaled back operations to focus on improving other parts of your business. For this part, I highly suggest utilizing a planner with a goal setting section. Some of our favorites include the Panda Planner, Dragontree Rituals for Living Planner, Passion Planner, and Dailygreatness Business Planner. By visualizing what your business will have accomplished a year from now and writing down your goals and setting a date to them in a planner, achieving your new year’s resolutions will be fun, exciting and attainable!

Share your Goals

Once you have set your resolutions for the new year, be sure to share these goals with your team. Sometimes we are inclined to keep our goals private as to avoid shame or embarrassment in the case of failure. However, sharing your goals with your business team comes with many great advantages. In doing so, your goals will become more realistic and more likely to be accomplished. Hand in hand with that is accountability. Ask one of your trustworthy team members to check in with you periodically to discuss the organization’s progress. According to The American Society of Training and Development, people are 65% more likely to meet a goal after making a public commitment to that goal. Their chances of success increase to 95% when they schedule meetings with an accountability partner to check in on their progress. Yes, you read that correctly, 95 percent! That’s almost 100%! Simply by asking a trusted partner to check in with you periodically, you’re almost assured to reach your goals.

Celebrate Milestones

So you’ve done all this hard work- now what? It’s just as important to celebrate your accomplishments as it is to set your goals. Set aside some time to reflect on your progress and celebrate how far your business has come. Check in at the end of each quarter or after you’ve finished a big project that’s directly tied to accomplishing one of your goals. Be sure to include your team and support network who have helped you along the way. It feels good to get stuff done so let’s celebrate all of your hard work!

Are you working on meeting your end of year goals but instead are finding yourself feeling stuck or unmotivated? JanMar Agency has a team of specialized experts who have a proven track record of helping our clients meet their business and marketing goals. Call or stop by today!