End-of-the-year. We can hardly believe it either. But here you are, having completed another successful run for your business. That’s incredible! Time to take that success into the new year, and start prepping your business for 2024. Where to begin? We’re so glad you asked.
Recognize What Worked
This first step is our favorite as it’s all about celebrating your successes this past year! Yep, take stock of what went well and worked. This could be anything from a video campaign that got a lot of attention, a sales tactic that proved successful, or having streamlined your hiring process and acquired some fantastic team members. The list goes on. The important part is taking note of what succeeded, so you can continue to implement that in your marketing strategy for 2024.
Where Could You Improve?
We get it. It’s never easy to review what didn’t work. But, as Denis Waitley quoted,
“There are no mistakes or failures, only lessons.”
See the past year’s frustrations as guides on where you actually want to go. Maybe you had to cut your video budget. Use this as inspiration to grow that budget again and/or be creative in filming your projects on a smaller one! Or perhaps you struggled communicating effectively with your team? Maybe schedule some one-on-one’s with your team members to get their feedback, and improve that.
The main point is to not get discouraged but try and welcome challenges as opportunities for growth.
Set Realistic Goals
Do you know what one of the top reasons is for why people don’t keep their New Years’ resolutions? They’re thinking way too big. It’s easy to come up with goals you’d like to attain. Where the hard part comes in is setting realistic ones. Or, at the very least, realistic steps to achieving them. Yes, we are all about accomplishing great things at Waves, but it’s imperative to review some factors before doing so. These include:
- Why do you want to achieve this goal? What’s your motivational source?
- Do you have the budget?
- Do you have the team power?
- Is the timeline realistic?
By asking yourself these questions, you’ll start to see if you have the adequate resources to meet those goal’s needs. For example, maybe you have the team power but, upon reflection, the goal’s timeline is too high, and would disrupt team morale. This is where our next point can help. Breaking it into steps.
Step-by-Step
Being a dreamer is a beautiful and essential element of any creative life. But being a doer is where the dreams come true. There is where planning a realistic goals calendar comes into play.
Think of it like a recipe. Each ingredient plays an integral part to the whole, but you must add them one-by-one. The same goes for your business goals. By breaking them up into a step-by-step plan, you not only can see fulfillment faster, but you’ll also avoid the overwhelm of biting off more than you can chew.
Maybe you want to film a certain amount of videos for your social media channels, but need some time to build your budget beforehand? Plan out the future date of when the budget will be met, and, in the meantime, write a new script each week to have ready and prepped for shoot day. With this work in progress, you’ll be chipping away at your video goal, while not being stagnant in your work flow.
SWOT Analysis
Whether you’re new or been in the business world awhile, you’ll probably have heard (and perhaps used) SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, and is a system used to help evaluate those elements for your brand in order to grow.
While sounding a bit intimidating, SWOT uses a super simple 4-quadrant format where you create a list pertaining to each category. It’s great for visual learners (which most people are), while creating a written record for your business to reference in the future.
For how to get started on your SWOT analysis, click here.
So, there’s your start! Give your goals the time and attention they (and you) deserve. By implementing these steps in your planning, it will help ease the start for you and (we’re sure) a very successful business year ahead.