The List To Finish (and Start) Your Year with Success
December 9th, 2021 // 11:37 am @ Scott Manning
The reality, as we know, is that everything you do through the end of the year will determine how fast you start in 2022. Whether you are chasing your tail or out ahead of the calendar when the page turns is all about what you focus on to close out your year.
It is a balancing act but it beats the alternative of waking up in the New Year and only then begin to think about what you want for 2022.
The question is (as it should be all year long): What are you doing right now in your business? Seriously, what does the list of things you are working on (your projects, your marketing initiatives, your plans to grow your business), look like?
What you are “working on” and have in development, in motion, in implementation mode are what will drive your results whether it’s the status quo of getting by or creating opportunity for you to capitalize on.
For today, in December, what are you working on to finish up, have in place, prioritize, organize, and get started for the New Year? Obviously, it’s right around the corner and there are still many productive days remaining in this month. While you should be focusing on what you are doing now to make the most of the rest of this one – if you don’t have your big plans laid out already and prepared to be put into motion for 2022 – what are you waiting for?
Of course, the obvious point is do you have any plans, projects, ideas, big things ahead of you?
How do you spend your days and how do those actions match up with the list you have. Most people never think of this; they just waste away their days “playing business” not actively working, growing, or doing anything for their business with real deliberate thought and strategic effort focused on the highest value objectives.
Regardless of whether you are or not, it doesn’t matter, it only matters what you do today, from this point forward. You should know that no one is going to work on your business for you. No one is going to determine how successful you will be other than you. No one is going to care, take things seriously, or have the ambition to achieve your dreams other than you.
That’s why the ultimate responsibility of daily action, strategic planning, and focused disciplined work on your business falls in your lap.
I’d like to give you some key points and things that I believe should be on your list.
To start with, you should have some fairly global plans at least overall objectives for the upcoming year. Then broken down quarterly by the things you want to accomplish that support these objectives. Always, there should be some specific tangible hard money goal or number that you are committed to depositing into your bank account. At the end of the day, the money number is the way you keep score; it’s the focus of your actions and the purpose of your business endeavors.
Now about your list.
Considering any development of new income streams, products and services, and/or expansion of experiences that increase your average customer/patient/client value. This is critical and that is something that you should always be working on because this is where the profit is at.
Next, you should have on your list all of the marketing campaigns, patient reactivation efforts, and promotional strategies that are in motion and at the very least a game plan for the first quarter of 2022. You should be tracking their results and working to make them more effective while removing wasteful or low performing ones and reinvesting more in better returning higher performing ones.
I always tell my clients that you should be trying one new thing every month. It might be a lead generation strategy, a new education campaign, a new referral partner, or even some other bigger opportunity. Now, I said at least one NEW thing that doesn’t take away all the other things that should already be compounding every single month.
On your list you should have reviewing and staying in touch with customers, patients and clients. This includes in-person, emails, mail, videos, and possibly even engagement style surveys. You should also work on your team with some celebration for the year but also setting clearly focused goals for the year ahead.
You want to make sure you have adequate sources, strategies, and actions to generate your desired number of new customers, clients, or patients. You need things in place to have a deliberate plan to nurture and cultivate your referral relationships and alliances.
The bottom line is the more time you are dedicating to these items, the more productive and profitable you will be. So many people get caught up in the process of ideas, even creating things, but you don’t get to deposit ideas only results from implementing your ideas.
Don’t fall victim to mistaking activity for results. Check on yourself daily and put structure in place that will help ensure you are working on the right things.
This could be an accountability partner, time blocking, putting yourself in an environment that will facilitate your progress and productivity, setting hard deadlines, and having rewards to look forward to after you accomplish your goals.
I hope this provided some reminder of the critical parts to your business. It’s easy to go through the days just getting by… but, the money will catch up to your illusion and you’ll be faced with the reality of your priorities and own personal discipline. Stay focused, take responsibility, execute the actions, and implement your way to results day-by-day.
Next week, I’ll be sharing with you my exact reverse engineering approach and our core foundational philosophy around being future focused and creation minded to ensure it happens by orchestrating the results you want before the day has even arrived. Let’s commit now to making 2022 your best year ever.
Category : Blog