Before you can plan for the future, it is important to take a moment to look back
It’s that time of year again.
The time where we start to go “where the hell did the year go?!”, when we look forward to some family time over Christmas, look back at the year that was, and look forward to the year ahead.
And while 2017 definitely hasn’t gone anywhere yet, I know a lot of you are starting to plan forward.
But before you do that, lets take a moment to look back…
Questions to work through:
1. What were your goals for 2017? And did you meet them?
It is hard to know how the year went if you didn’t set any clear goals to start with.
What were your goals for the year? Did you meet them?
If you didn’t have clear, written goals, think back to the beginning of the year. What did you think you would get through? Did you manage to do that?
Don’t feel disheartened if you didn’t get as far as you wanted, it’s not always about the result.
2. What DID you get done?
Whether you met your goals or not, I am sure you did a hell of a lot throughout the year. Take a moment to reflect on all the things that you did get done.
How many videos did you record? Newsletters did you send? Clients did you see? Etc.
You might be surprised just how big the list really is. You deserve a pat on the back.
3. What worked well?
What went well this year? Was there a particular ad campaign that got the best results? Or a product or service that sold better than anything else?
This is the time to get analytical and look at the facts. Look through your sales records to see what you sold the most of, look through your website traffic to see which blog posts were most popular. Check out all the numbers and make a list of what went well.
4. What didn’t work so well?
Not everything works well the first time. What didn’t go so well this year?
Was there a topic that you thought would be great that kinda flopped? Or a service that you thought would be a great fit, which just didn’t sell. While some of this could be marketing issues, it is important to look at the things which didn’t work so well for you, so you don’t spend all of the new year repeating last years errors.
5. What do you want to do next year?
It is time to set some really clear targets for next year. I find that it is important to think about both the $$ and the tasks.
How much do you want the business to make in 2018? How much do you want to take as a wage?
What do you want to achieve? Is it writing a book? A course? Launching a new website?
Write it all down.
6. How does that fit in?
You can’t do it all at the same time, trust me, I’ve tried.
Look back at your goals and break them down over the year. If you set an annual $ target, break it down by the month. Don’t assume that every month will be equal.
Think about where you have quiet months and busy months, and break down the $ over the year.
Take all the tasks and launches you wanted to achieve as well, and allocate them to a month. They can’t all happen in January, so think about where they will fit during the year.
I’d love to hear from you.
How did 2017 go for you?
What are your big plans for 2018?