The summer is in full swing and we officially hit the half-way point in the year. It’s the perfect time to reflect, re-focus and re-energize. If you developed an action plan earlier in the year, now is a good time to revisit and re-prioritize.
Are you on track to meet or exceed your personal and business goals? If not, what’s holding you back? Were your goals realistic or do you need to stop procrastinating? Do you need to shuffle priorities based on competition, customers, team or other issues and opportunities? Be honest.
Or maybe you didn’t bother to put your goals down and create your road map to get there? Well it’s never too late to start.
Planning is not a one and done effort. It’s an ongoing process that includes monitoring progress and making adjustments. It works best when you follow these simple steps:
- Look Back. Before you start planning the next 30-90 days and beyond, take a few minutes to look at where you are today – in your business and personally. How do your sales, profit and other key results compare to the same period last year and your current goals? Are you ahead, on track or behind? What about your personal goals – financial, family, social, community, health/fitness, etc?
- Acknowledge Accomplishments. Even if you are on track, a natural tendency at this point is to focus on what you didn’t get done or what you could have done better. It’s important to acknowledge your successes, big or small. Jot them down and pat yourself on the back.
- Learn & Adjust. No matter how much you plan or how well you execute, some things may not work out as you expected. We tend to view these as failures. If you learn from mistakes and make changes to improve it next time, you haven’t really failed. You simply delayed success! Don’t dwell on it – make adjustments and move on.
- Reset Goals. What specific goals do you want to accomplish over the next 30-90 days? Be realistic. Start with 4 to 5 (not 10 to 20). It’s difficult to stay focused if you have too many ‘critical’ goals. You will want to track progress, so make your goals measurable and consider specific outcomes you want. Here’s a few examples. Acquire 4 new customers each month or increase gross profit margins 5% by October 31st, or arrive home by 6:00 pm at least 3 nights per week.
- Identify Key Tasks. Results come from doing so for each goal you set above, list the 5-7 key tasks, activities or things you must DO in order to achieve the goal you set. For example, if you set a goal to acquire new customers or increase revenue, one of the things you may need to do is increase the number of leads you receive. What do you need to do to get more leads? Likely a combination of efforts such as — email campaigns, referral system, postcards, monthly website specials, promote via social media, targeted networking and prospecting calls. Be specific, include time frames and assign responsibility, where appropriate.
Take a glass half-full approach. You still have time to finish the year successfully. Decide what you want – and take the actions to get it.