Prepare for the new year with realistic business resolutions
published: Sunday | December 28, 2003
Jenny C. McCune, Contributor
NEW YEARS' resolutions are a time-honoured tradition. They also can be useful business tools. The key, say business consultants, is to make your goals realistic and then stick to them.
"Taking stock of where a company is and where it's headed is always good to do a couple of times a year," says Marcia Layton Turner, author of The Unofficial Guide to Starting a Small Business. "The start of the new year and the start of the school year are the two most popular times because there's a sense of a fresh slate there to build on."
Of course, drawing up a list of business resolutions is the easy part.
"The problem that most people get into is the same for all New Year's resolutions," says Gene Fairbrother, president of MBA Consulting Inc. in Coppell, Texas. "It's hard to follow through with them."
BUSINESS GOALS
Fairbrother suggests several "tricks" to help you spell out your business goals for the coming year. These strategies also can help ensure you achieve your resolutions:
Put it in writing: Make your goals concrete by putting them on paper.Set achievable goals: Fairbrother calls them short bites. He's found that people who say in January, "I want to double my business volume this year," will probably discover that they haven't achieved it when December arrives. Then they'll let that same resolution roll over to the next year. Instead of setting lofty, vague goals you have no chance of achieving, Fairbrother suggests concentrating on smaller, more attainable ones. For example, set a goal of making one new business contract each week. Regularly review your goals: Fairbrother recommends weekly or monthly reassessments. If you stow them in your desk drawer, they may be quickly forgotten. The more you look at your goals, the more likely you will try to do something about them. Mark LeBlanc, president of Small Business Success in La Jolla, California, recommends a monthly review. "The secret to your success is every 30 days," LeBlanc says. "Then, every 30 days, reset your counters to zero. Why not renew yourself monthly instead of once a year?"Find ways to increase the odds of keeping your resolutions: If, for example, you want to write a new marketing plan, take a course at a local college that includes such a project as part of the class assignment. "You'll learn how to do it and since it's part of your homework, chances are you'll do it and do a good job," Fairbrother says. Look back as you look ahead:At the same time that you set goals for the future, use your goal-making time to look back at what your business did in 2003. "You may discover that you're making more money doing something that's ancillary to what you thought was your core business," says Turner.
"In that case, you may want to reposition your company to leverage that new direction. Or you may want to get things back on track."Either way, you need to study what you've been doing and where you've succeeded and failed in order to know where to set your sights for the future."
When you do look at your company's future, Jenna Caplette suggests taking a cue from a creative writing exercise. "Write a letter to yourself as if it was three years later," says Caplette, principal of In Good Company Coaching, a personal and business coaching firm based in Bozeman, Mont. Ask yourself, "What are you doing now? How successful are you?" Such an exercise can give you insight and can help you set better priorities.
But whether short term or long range, the key to setting successful business goals is for business owners to find ones they can stick to.
"New Year's resolutions should be achievable and momentum-building," LeBlanc says. "Stay with what you can do and what you will do. Focus on what you can do and you will create a foundation for success that is strong and your momentum will be unstoppable."
Jenny C. McCune is a contributing editor based in Montana. Taken from Bankrate.com
